Biking again?

Yeah again! Not too much to report on that front however, - haven't fallen (much), am not bleeding, am making it up Cardiac Hill OK and without incident. So what's there to report. Well...

I riding with the group about twice a week. The rides are mostly similar in that they're about 22 miles in length, in fairly hilly terain (as in Cardiac Hill which is well named) causing a bit of huffin' and puffin' but that's what I'm doing it for - the exercise. The riding is on a variety of surfaces. Some paved road, Most on bumpy single lane farm or fire roads, and quite a bit on single track which is like a foot path. The rides last anywhere from 3.5 to 5 hours, are sometimes in the hot sun (unless riding through shaded mountain like trails) or sometimes in the pouring rain (fortunately not very often but have done that a couple of times). We do a couple of 30-45 minute rests along the way. Usually the Buko Haus (coconut drink stop) and at Aling Pinas for an early lunch of rice soup with a hard boiled egg in it and a plate of lumpia. Aling's place is at the farthest point from there we head back. And going back is different cuz it's mostly down hill though on some pretty bumpy tracks.

Here's some of the bikers hanging out at the Buko Stop.

And some of the bikes parked there.

A high level discussion going on out front.

The guy and his assistants preparing a coconut so you can sip the juice from a straw. Quite a pile of coconut hulls in the foreground.

Sitting around the cooler.

Getting ready to head into a single track portion of the ride.

On the road to Aling Pina's

A bunch in front of Aling's lunch stop.

Ocassionally a mishap. This one not me. Kelly had a run-in with a stone when she didn't get out of her clip-in pedals. But she's attended to by Lisa with hydrogen peroxide and Betadine. Had several stitches after arriving home so should be good as new.

Buko Haus again without stopping!

Not big news anymore but I'll have to admit I was wondering if I could actually do it twice. That is to make it up Cardiac Hill without stopping for a rest again. I wasn't even sure I'd be able to try it again so soon after my Thursday crash. But to my surprise the twisted and scraped knee and bumped tail bone were feeling pretty good so I took off for the Saturday Sabak Bike Ride.

I'll admit there was a little extra incentive to go because one of the Brent teachers wanted to go. But never again! At the top of Cardiac Hill I announced to her in front of the group that I wasn't bringing her again cuz she didn't follow the rules! Rule #1: Don't pass someone older than you, Rule #2: Especially don't make it look that easy!

And though I did make it to Buko Haus again without a rest, just as Triumphant Thursday, there was a let-down today also. Not a crash type of let-down like before but this time one of the young whipper-snappers I was talking to over sipping my fresh coconut juice through a straw, said he had just done Cardiac Hill 6 times that morning. Since it was a hot morning he hadn't done his regular 8 times. Oh well. That's his problem not mine.

Then there was a pat-on-the-back as one of the Sabak owners, Edwin, told me that I was an inspiration to them all when they see me puffing up the mountain. Actually I'm not in it to show anyone up. My ticker needs the exercise. It keeps me feeling good and attentive to the surroundings as I try to keep my front tire out of the rut. And they're a good bunch of guys and gals to be with. They watch out for each other on the trail. We stopped once when one of the experts heard an unusual noise coming from Jeannie's bike. Found her rear wheel was loose and her rear derailer mis-adjusted so fixed it on the spot. Later when another rider's chain broke there was Edwin sitting in the middle of the road with his chain tool putting it back together. They also noticed Kelly's front tire was pretty hard and so reduced it to about 30 PSI so she would have more traction for the type of trail we were on. When one rider got way behind and didn't show up for one 'stop to re-gather', they blew their whistles and contacted him on his cell and directed him on in. Like I say, a good group to bike with. Come and join us. That's an invite.

Milestone Bike Ride Today!

I met one of my riding goals this morning. I went on a ride on the Santa Rosa trails pretty much as usual and with a group of 5 or so. The Ride was a total of 25 miles - not astounding in its own right. The milestone ocurred in the first 4.5 miles, which is what it takes to get to the Buko Haus where we usually stop to get refreshed by sipping the juice from a fresh green coconut. The milestone was that I made it all of the way up Cardiac Hill without stopping and in fact all the way to Buko Haus. Up to this point I've either pedaled as far as I could go and walked the bike the rest of the way up, or more lately, pedaled as far as I could go, rested a few minutes then pedaled the rest of the way.

Today I pedaled all the way without stopping!


Here's the Buko Haus Rest Stop (N14 13.874 E121 00.939)

View looking back down Cardiac Hill from the tower. Looks much bigger and steeper when pedaling up.

Here's my GPS track (in yellow) of the days ride with the first 4.5 miles highlighted in light blue. That is the "Triumph" part. The other dotted tracks are some of my previous rides.

I do have one more goal. Don't know when I'll make that one. It is to make it all of the way up to The Palace in The Sky without being assisted. I have ridden that trail and the key part is steeper than Cardiac Hill and the ride is longer with more total elevation change. On that ride I was assisted by another in the group much stronger and more capable than I, who during the steep portion of the assent literally pushed me by putting his hand in the middle of my back and pedaling for both of us thereby boosting me to the peak. Wow! And Thanks.

So stay tuned. I'll keep you posted. The Palace is mentioned in the following link (http://www.tagaytay.com/what2do.htm).

I didn't strike out like Casey taking the joy out of Mudville, but after the triumphant 4.5 miles I did get dumped while on the Liliput Tail portion of the ride resulting in a bloody knee (again), twisting my knee (the bloody one) so it's double sore, and landing hard on my back. But thanks to my Camelbak Lobo hydration pack and helmet only minor discomfort resulted.

I do not claim fame nor any notoriety but....

Well I can toot my own horn if I want. And guess I'm going to but only a little cuz there is, in reality, precious little notoriety involved and what little there is none-the-less a bit flattering to this humble blogger.

On 'My Other Blog' I address mostly health and diet issues that are important to me. Those having to do with cholesterol and heart disease. In the course of researching for my own interest and then posting my findings on the blog I have on several occasions received comments. Two of those comments have come from a medical doctor - Jeffrey Dach MD. WOW! Was I surprised.

The adrenaline rush (or what ever it was) came when I was reading some good articles on his web site and I noticed in the left pane way down (and I mean way way down) under "Blog Roll" where he lists other peoples blogs that for whatever reason he has chosen to provide a link to, there was mine listed. WOW Again! Somewhere around 70 places down in the list is mine - Pi-Bill Blog. And also on that list are some of the hero's I've quoted in my blog - Duane Graveline MD, Malcolm McKendrick MD, THINCS, and Weston Price not to mention a couple of medical journals I've used for research JAMA, and NEJM.

Well my arm is broke now from trying to pat my own back when I should be out riding my bike instead.

Buko Stop

Here's some cyclers coming up the trail to the Buko Stop Saturday. I made my second ride with a group who met at Sabak's in Santa Rosa. What's a Buko Stop you ask? Well it will be clear after you look at the picture below (I hope!)

Well if it's not clear, I'll explain. Buko is Coconut. And the 'Buko Stop' (see the sign) is a place along the trail to stop and get a refreshing drink from a freshly cut green coconut. It's quite good! Especially after the long climb to get there. And it's a busy place.

Here's a view looking up the trail showing some of the patrons' bikes. I counted about 30 but they were coming and going during our 45 minute rest there.

Here's the group I rode with. I left the house at about 7AM and rode the 4 1/5 miles to Sabak's Bike Store where I met a group to ride with. The group part of the ride was a little over 14 miles through beautiful back country here in the Philippines. Some on one or two-track trails amoung the coconut and pineapple farms, some on narrow roads. One section was called the Coffee Trail because of the coffee farms we passed. On one narrow single-track I tensed up a bit and my wheel left the trail dumping me hard on my left shoulder. Feels a bit like I cracked a rib. No hiccuping or sneezing or deep breaths for a while.

All-in-all a good ride and pleasant way to get excercise in the great outdoors. Planning on going more or less on a regular basis and get some of these trails logged in my GPS.

View from just below Tagaytay Highlands.

Bill on cycle ride with group from Sabak Sports. This was taken about 12.5 miles into the ride and about 0.7 below the peak. The 0.7 to the peak was very steep riding. I'd like to say I made it on my own but... that's another story. At this point I look somewhat fresh and clean but that's deceiving cuz just had a rest. The view looks mainly east toward Laguna de Bay. My Brentville home is just behind the tree and Mt Makiling is just out of site on the right.

We stopped for some porridge and spicy tofu at ALING PINA's - a bikers rest stop along the way.

Here's what my bike looked like at the end of the ride. I looked about the same. That was yesterday. Today I'm somewhat sore but feeling good overall and anxious to try this ride again, maybe over and over until I can do it unassisted.

Leases, Visas, Bikes and the Likes.

No I haven't abandoned my blog. I am lax indeed, I'll admit. Guilty by self incrimination. But please don't think for a moment that I've been doing nothing. I'll try to explain somewhat of the happenings since my last post nearly a month ago. It will not necessarily be in chronoligical order, rather however it comes into my mind and flows out my fingertips.

Leases

Just this rainy Monday morning I have received, re-read, and made a few what I hope are the final revisions to a "Contract of Lease" on a condo unit down the street from us here in Brentville (or more completely - Brentville International Village Barangay Mamplasan, Binan, Laguna, Philippines - but I prefer simply Brentville). 'Not happy with the one you're in?' you might ask. This new one is not for ourselves but for Dea's sister and brother-in-law Jeanne and Jerry who are coming this way. You see our closest family is a distant 18 miles away (Manila) so we're importing some more to live just down the street. And what I've found about dealing with brokers, leases, owners, subdivision associations, bankers and anyone else deciding to get involved, is that it's different here. I surly did not expect it to mirror previous experiences but ... well it is different. And, I have to say there are many friends who have helped a lot with advice and suggestions to help smooth the way. I think we're close, though rennovation on this place, which has been abandon for 5 years, has not yet begun. Hopefully this week. There's a whole lot more I could say about the process but this is the short version.

Here's a picture of the place.

Doesn't particularly look abandon for 5 years. That's because the Association recently repainted all of the unit exteriors.

Visas

And after having lived here over a year don't I have a visa? Well I do. And I'm glad of that. But Jeanne and Jerry will be in need of one for their stay here. They will enter the country with a standard visitors visa and then begin application for a SRRV - that is a Special Resident Retirement Visa. So I've been looking into that so they could be apprised of the necessary red tape busting documentation to bring along. Such as medical certificate showing them to be "not afflicted with any loathsome or contagious disease", a police clearance so they won't be adding to the resident criminal element, proof of at least a $1000 monthly pension, marriage certificate, and investment funds. The first four to be authenticated by the Philippine Embassy before coming.

It's all right here (at least the pretty pictures).

Might be worth looking into. Want me to send you one?

Bikes

To satiate my technical/mechanical bent and to enhance my bikeability, or just because I wanted to, I turned this pile...

... along with a few additional parts tires, handlebars, seat etc. into this....

I would have to say the most satisfying parts of the project were building and truing the wheels (my first time ever to do that), and the first ride on it. Hopefully there will be a bunch more satisfying rides.

On the first part, the wheelbuilding part, I started with two Mavic XC717 rims, 72 DT Swiss Competition spokes with nipples, and two Shimano Deore LX disc brake capable hubs, and a few pages of instructions (thank you Sheldon Brown! http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html), a cheap truing attachment for my Park repair stand, and I was off!

The Front wheel before...

The front wheel during...

The rear wheel.

The Likes

The likes will have to come later. Promise not to take a month.

A Historic Cemetary in Laguna Province.

August 18th Dea and I went with the Lamb's to see the Underground Cemetary in Nagcarlan.

You can see from the pictures that at least the grounds appear well taken care of.

I think Dea is contemplating rental of an empty crypt.

A view of the church through the front wall.

If you have an interest in diet and heart health ....

I have added some additional citations on the subjects listed in my other blog. See http://pi-bill-articles.blogspot.com/

There is a link to book reviews in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, some interesting letters in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) titled "Dietary fat and risk of coronary heart disease in men ", and an interesting question "The Food Guide Pyramid: Will the Defects Be Corrected?" dealt with in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

Hope you will find this information helpful.

Cycling into Taal Lake

Mark and I did another cycle trip last Saturday May 19th from Tagaytay down to Lake Taal. The bike site helped us redefine 'easy''. This is the beginning of the trail we took and let me tell you it was all down hill from there. The 'riding' part of this outing was riding the brakes. Remember Hot Wheels? Well on the second stop to repair Marks brakes I found out what hot wheels really are - about burned my hands on his rims. Then I checked mine and ended up burning them again. Some people never learn.

Mark's thinking that it doesn't look bad from here - in fact this is going to be easy. But between the above pic and the next one we had quite a ride. See Mark's view of the trip at http://stevenson-stevies.blogspot.com/. Of course you've got to wade through some girlie pictures to get to it. Enjoy!

This is one of the places we got to carry our bikes. And I thought they were for riding. So when Mark reads this he's going to ask 'If they're for riding why did you fly over the handle bars? Huh Bill, How come?" Well I ain't a going there. You'd have to see the skinned forehead, black eyes, and crumpled glasses to appreciate that man can fly but only for a short while. Actually the takeoff and flight aren't bad - it's the other part that I need to work on (avoiding).

There's Taal Volcano - the beauty of that site kind of eases the pain.
We rode about 10 1/2 miles along the lake before catching a jeepney ride up. (What kind of a whimp are you - taking a jeepney up?)

Here's a little about the place. Since 1572, Taal has erupted at least 34 times. Most recent large eruption was September 1965. The volcano has been restless since early 1991, with earthquakes, new steaming areas, ground fracturing, and increases in water temperature of the lake. It is being monitored to understand if the current activity may foretell an eruption.

Map of our Baguio Trip except for....

My GPS says it was about a 180 mile trip. (except for the 50 mile 2.5 hour shortcut I took at Capas. But the way I see it is we saw some country we never would have seen otherwise.) We drove from our place near Brent South to Barry & Michelle's in Manila where we left our car and borrowed their Isuzu Trooper and finished the remaining 160 mi (or 210 - depends on how you count).

Mile High City of Baguio

First thing we had to do upon arriving was to check out the accommodations and get checked in so we'd have a place to hang our hats. Here's Dea poking her head in to check our ours....

And Patricia looking into their room.

Actually the Pine View Hotel where we stayed was more like this.

With a view out the front over looking the city.

We did some shopping...

And Eating ... like at Cafe by the Ruins

That wall just behind Dea's back is the ruins of something. I think maybe something that was bombed during WW II or maybe destroyed in the 1990 Earthquake, but not sure which.

And... did I mention that we did some shopping then after that we shopped a bit before doing some other shopping? Well after all we went to have fun.

And saw some sights...

Including the Baguio Country Club...

And this vintage automobile which didn't seem to fit with the Jeepneys. (Let's see now what do those three round thingies on the side indicate... haven't seen those in years.)

And then we went shopping (again).

Bill & Dea Update

It's Tuesday here in Makati. Yes, I know I live in Brentville! But since Thursday eveing Dea and I have actually been hanging our hats at Barry and Michelle's in busy Manila. Dea has been commuting to work mostly B & M's driver has been taking her too-and-fro. In fact they're likely fighting traffic right now to get back in time for a band concert at ISM that Stevii and Davis are in. By the way, the reason we're hanging our hats here 'til next Monday is that Barry and Michelle took an anniversary trip to Sidney Australia and are taking a tennis school among other things like laying on the beach ( do they do that in Australia during their winter? - Well that's what they said.) and we were hired to fill their shoes. Someone has to suffer.

Two weekends ago Dea and I went with our neighbors for a weekend in Baguio (it was a 4-day holiday from school so the three of them were able to go. I Don't have such restrictions on my life. I was the driver in this adventure). Baguio's up north in Luzon and more than up north it's up at an altitude of over 5000 ft. The Philippines 'Mile High City'. And it was quite pleasant and an enjoyable.

One of the things we did was to visit the original Brent International School. It's now one of seven schools but this one was special in that the setting was in the pines. Reminded me of some of my younger days as a kid at camp in the pines of Prescott Arizona. I'll put up some pictures after I get back to Brentville.

The school certainly made us feel welcome with a super tour of the facilities. Quite different facilities than the newer South campus we're most familiar with. Like I said, in the pines and a bit more spread out than South. Smaller student body, and older buildings though well taken care of. The third grade teacher there took some time to take us around the Baguio area and see some of the sights.

I'll get some pictures up later but have to get together for the band concert. Stevii plays the Oboe and Davis the baritone Sax.