Raceday March-May 2015

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MARCH-MAY 2015

LET’S ASK COACH MAT O’ H ALLORAN IF IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO DO

A FULL-DISTANCE TRIATHLON

RICHARD AND MICHELLE SANTIAGO REVEAL WHY MOUNTAIN BIKING IS GOOD FOR TRIATHLETES

THE PROFESSOR IS IN: DON VELASCO AND HIS SCIENCE-BASED COACHING PROGRAM

THE TAIPANS OF TRIATHLON RAMIREZ AND ALMENDRAL TALK ABOUT THEIR RIVALRY, THE INDUSTRY AND HOW TRIATHLON MAKES THEM MORE COMPETITIVE IN LIFE

EDITOR’S GUNSTART We Owe it to Triathlon

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’ve always thought it was the other way around—that triathletes are successful in their careers because triathlon naturally attracts the achievers and the accomplished. So, they were already successful before they even get into the sport.

But while interviewing CEOs David Almendral of Light ’N Up Marketing Inc. and Joey Ramirez of Dan’s, the opposite rang true. David says, “When I did my first triathlon, it just really clicked with me … and this is why I’ve learned a lot from triathlon. It helped me develop as a person. … I actually feel like my life, the way it was before, needed triathlon to fix a lot of things. Firstly, there was the discipline and the training.” Joey agrees: “...Initially it was more business for me, but when we learned to do things right, it reflects—where the business is now, where we are now is because of the triathlon training and discipline. It translated to efficiency in the business for me, that’s why I love the sport so much.” So the discipline and the drive that we develop in training and racing translate into very useful tools for our careers and other endeavors.

It reminds me of a story Century Tri-Hard Team member Victor Magno once shared with me. The very next Monday after Ironman Malaysia, he got into some trouble at work that resulted into a closed door meeting with his boss. While he was being given a fullblown dressing down, something that would normally affect him, he just calmly looked at his boss’ eyes, saying to himself “You can’t hurt me. I am an Ironman.” Now that’s a clear triathlon-acquired mental and emotional toughness paying dividends in the workplace.

But we’re not saying that you go and sign up for a full-distance race ASAP. There’s a process and a science to planning your races. We have Coach Mat O’Halloran sharing his views on the question, “Should I do a full-distance race now?”

Speaking of science, we’ve invited consistent Age-group podium finisher Don Velasco to write for us in this issue. Don has always been known as a tri-geek, and has recently started offering coaching services, bringing his data-driven and science-based geeky process into training plans for his students.

Capping this issue is a feature on mountain bikes. No one balances the road and off-road love better than the Santiago couple Richard and Michelle. Racing both traditional triathlons and off-road ones, they explain the different satisfaction that MTBs offer.

We beg for your indulgence for this issue. It’s a text-heavy one. But we’ve edited it so that each and every sentence carries relevance.

It’s part of your mental toughness training. Hope you enjoy.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF : Monching Romano MANAGING EDITOR : Christian Obmerga CONTRIBUTING EDITOR : Adrienne Dy ART DIRECTORS : Johnmer Bautista

Emmeline Sia CONTRIBUTORS : Mathieu O’Halloran

Don Velasco PHOTOGRAPHERS : Edsel Ochoa

Jen Tarnate

IDEALISK INC.

Unit 217 La Fuerza II Building, Pasong Tamo, Makati City Publisher/CEO Monching Romano Creatives Johnmer Bautista and Emmeline Sia Marketing Teresa Soriano Editorial Assistant Babylou Dalida For inquiries and feedback: Email us at racedaymagazine@gmail.com RaceDay Magazine is published bi-monthly. No part of this magazine may be reproduced, in part or in whole, without the written consent of the publishers.

The views and opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the publisher. All information, content and services are provided “as is” without any kind of warranty. In no way shall RaceDay Magazine be held liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential damages that may arise from any of the products, advice, reviews or information obtained from this magazine.

Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved

WHERE TO FIND US:

Monching Romano Editor-in-Chief

2 4 CONTENTS

Vol. 3 No. 2

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2XU

PRAGMATIC MUSINGS: The Hurry to Go Long

by Mathieu O’Halloran

Glorietta 3, Makati

BALESIN ISLAND RESORT BIKE KING Bonifacio High Street, Taguig

BIKE TOWN

SMART TRAINING The 3 Keys to Getting it Right

by Don Velasco

Pasong Tamo, Makati

GRAN TRAIL Pasay Road, Makati

HEALTH FOOD Glorietta 1, Makati

PRIMO CYCLES

THE RACEDAY INTERVIEW: DAVID ALMENDRAL AND JOEY RAMIREZ on rivalry, the industry and the life-changing effects of triathlon

Burgos Circle, BGC, Taguig

R.O.X. Bonifacio High Street, Taguig

RUNNR Bonifacio High Street, Taguig Trinoma, Quezon City Alabang Town Center, Muntinlupa

RUDY PROJECT

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OTHER CRAZY STUFF THAT WE DO: MOUNTAIN BIKING

Alabang Town Center, Muntinlupa Glorietta 3, Makati The Podium, Mandaluyong Trinoma, Quezon City Bonifacio High Street, Taguig SM Mall of Asia, Pasay Lucky Chinatown Mall, Manila Paseo de Sta. Rosa, Laguna

SABAK Pasong Tamo, Makati Alabang, Muntinlupa

SECONDWIND Home Depot, Pasig Greenhills Shopping Center, San Juan Teacher’s Village, Quezon City

CREDITS

ON THE COVER

Photo: Edsel Ochoa Hair and Makeup: Arlyn Basa and Jeri Sebastian Shot on Location: THE CITY CLUB

AT ALPHALAND MAKATI PLACE

SPECIALIZED Pasong Tamo, Makati

THE CITY CLUB AT ALPHALAND MAKATI Ayala Avenue Extension, Makati

THE VILLAGE SPORTS CLUB BF Homes, Parañaque

YELLOW CAB All Branches

racedaymagazine

PRAGMATIC MUSINGS

By Mathieu O’Halloran

THE HURRY TO GO LONG

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rguably the hardest one-day event most civilians can enter out of their own free will, triathlon has compelled a lot of over-commitments. The sport is very attractive due to a wide variety of choices in format, distance, and location. Logically, triathletes should follow the process by gradually moving up distances as they sharpen their abilities, increase their knowledge, and build their fitness.

Such logic, however, is not popular with new triathletes anymore. In this modern era where almost anything is accessible within your fingertips, a lot of people have become very impatient—even in sports. The ambition, peer pressure and idealistic mainstream media are luring triathletes to bite much more than they can chew. The reality is that triathlon has had some ‘victims,’ whose challenges are caused by being their own worst enemies.

As a coach, it is becoming difficult to deal with beginner triathletes who aim for the stars during their first few seasons in the sport. It gives me flashbacks of my younger self: an athlete whose impatience to achieve made me fall short of my potential as a professional. I did my first Ironman race at the tender age of 21, after almost eight years in the sport. I was young, but not inexperienced. The major problem arose when I nailed that first Ironman, making me believe that it was not all that hard and that I had paid my dues—my natural ability allowed me to temporarily get away with it.

The reality was that I still had not mastered short and middle distances. In the end, I ignored the sensible advice of my coach to HURRY SLOWLY, and simply ran into a brick wall of reality.

The Problem There are a few reasons why age groupers want to go long sooner than later. They most likely started the sport late, where they feel they are on borrowed time. They might be surrounded by peers with similar abilities but far more experience, who they can match in workouts. They might want to do the longer distance slowly first and foremost, then try to do it a bit faster down the road. Older athletes might feel they lack speed and are better suited for long and slow efforts. Others may come from a different sporting background, which makes them believe they can take shortcuts.

The Risks Involved Beyond the obvious risk of physical injuries, the invisible stress on the immune system brought about by a lack of proper buildup can cause big problems down the road. While general aerobic conditioning is great for the body, overdoing it too soon and too quickly might actually be worse than not exercising at

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all. The potential long-term damage caused by excess fatigue and extended efforts will cause the body’s testosterone levels to drop and cortisol levels to rise. It can leave lingering sensations of lethargy, soreness and irritability. These may start to affect not just yourself but also your loved ones, peers, and even your professional life.

Mentally, failing to achieve expectations—no matter how realistic or simple—can cause depression in even the strongest mortal, and infiltrate one’s personal life. Needless to say, for those who don’t have it naturally, building mental fortitude must also be done slowly and surely. Start by setting small objectives and work on achieving them one after another, over time, in a progressive manner.

How to Know When You’re Ready to Move Up Distances 1. Consistency During preparation and competition, the ability to execute and pace your efforts during short or middle distances is needed to translate into long distances. Often, during shorter events, certain discrepancies may seem less prominent, only to be amplified during longer distances. Being able to complete the given individual distances per discipline is important. But the ability to cope with fatigue and accumulated strain, which don’t always manifest during workouts, is far more important.

2. Versatility Versatility is a crucial trait to master, as race day circumstances can vary immensely—from the weather to the race course or depth of the field. The event we choose to compete in will have an impact on our evolution and education as athletes. A slower result over more difficult short/middle distance events is a better indicator of our progress and preparedness to move up to long distances, compared with doing less challenging and quicker short/middle distance events, even if the result is faster.

3. Longevity It’s often the key to getting the best out of ourselves in sport, as it can take years to apply properly. Physiological longevity comes first and it needs to support the physical side. Sometimes, it means being able to do a few seasons without any major low points; other times, it’s about being able to overcome a series of setbacks and press on with the same enthusiasm that we started with. Failing to do so is a clear indication of the need to keep practicing and grinding before taking on a new challenge.

Extend the Speed Through Endurance, Instead of Lifting the Speed of the Endurance!

One never really knows the extent of one’s capabilities until he/ she actually does the long distance. Plenty of time is needed

to develop the strength, endurance and mental fortitude to complete a long distance race at best aerobic effort.

Having said that, for some athletes, starting with longer distances, then trying to increase the speed over time gives a quicker sense of accomplishment and a clear quantifiable measure. However, it comes with a more challenging and longer term objective to try to go faster, when the body has already been trained to go slow and steady.

Majority of the top endurance triathletes, swimmers, cyclists, or runners in the world actually started out with shorter to middle distances. They got the best out of themselves in terms of speed and intensity before moving towards longer distances. It makes sense to “earn your stripes” one distance at a time, prior to moving up.

Plan Your Career – Not Just Your Season!

With enough planning, most goals can be achieved. On the flip side, rushing through the process can make the simplest of tasks very tedious. With the guidance of a coach or experienced peers, set benchmarks for both process and outcome. Work towards them, through them and past them. It might mean waiting a bit longer to move up to the longer distances, temporarily taking a step back or watching others rush by you. We may never know what our full capacities are, but by respecting the process, we will get closer to knowing.

When all’s said and done, our PRs, placings, or which race we qualified for are all subject to circumstance. Respecting the process might be the only reliable and controllable aspect of careers. Regardless of level and natural abilities, the inner sense of accomplishment might be the greatest reward of competing in this crazy sport.

Our final destination is not the end-all and be-all triumph, but rather how far we have come from our point of origin. Starting with control, being patient, and finishing strong is the surest approach to going as far as possible, not just in sports, but also in life!

Mathieu was a former resident athlete at the National Canadian Triathlon Training Center, after which he worked on a drilling rig near 60th parallel North to jumpstart his travels around the world. After a few years racing hand to mouth as a pro in Asia, he settled in the beautiful Philippines. These days, he coaches full time, tries to keep fit, and spends more time on his computer than he should.

WHO IS DON VELASCO?

SMART TRAINING

THE 3 KEYS TO GETTING IT RIGHT

Words: Don Velasco

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Photos: Jen Tarnate

“No pain, no gain.” This cliché has been the mantra of countless athletes wishing to reach peak performance. It has nurtured an obsession with volume and intensity, giving birth to the notion that more is better. A lot of age group athletes began emulating the amount of volume and intensity the professionals put in. Thinking that the sheer stress will force the body to adapt and get stronger, they neglect important considerations. While it may be undeniable that “hard work pays off,” there is more to training than logging in the most miles or going the hardest.

The concept of “smart training” has been thrown around very often. However, only a handful completely understands what it takes to train intelligently. Often, the misconception is that smart training is equivalent to time-efficient training. While time-efficient training such as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) arguably gives the best bang for the buck, using such workouts haphazardly would be very detrimental.

These hard sessions must be balanced with bouts of recovery and a solid foundation of fitness. One must accept the fact that there are no shortcuts, especially when it comes to health and well-being.

I came across a particular phrase from an article by TrainingPeaks that sums up my views: “The point of all training is not to become the most tired; it’s to elicit the best training effect.” It may be true that fatigue is part of training, but excessive fatigue is unnecessary and often dangerous. In fact, it has often been said that being slightly undertrained is better than being slightly overtrained. Preparing for a triathlon is very complex; not only does it involve balancing three disciplines, it also requires finding the appropriate combination of stress and recovery. Thus, one must be very cerebral in designing a program.

Smart training primarily involves three key concepts: specificity, focus, and structure.

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Specificity Each athlete needs a tailor-made program.

This should take into consideration the athlete’s schedule, goals, and capabilities. Workouts that address the athlete’s weaknesses relative to the event he/she is training for should be prioritized.

These sessions should fit within the time available for the athlete. No matter how well designed the program is, it is only effective if the athlete actually gets to perform the workload. continued on page 06

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by RaceDay

Coach Don Velasco managed to climb to the top of the age group rankings within a couple of years of entering the sport, despite having no athletic background prior to running and triathlons. By sports’ standards, he learned how to swim and bike late, yet he manages to swim in the low 30s for 1.9km and mid-20s for 1.5km. And even with a low weekly running mileage, he is consistently one of the fastest runners in the sport.

Coach Don is a consistent podium finisher and races continually while managing to avoid injury and burnout all year round. To date, he has participated in close to 70 races, more than a dozen of which were halfdistances and three of which were full-distance races. He remains at the top of the age group rankings even with a busy coaching career and love life.

Coach Don credits his coaching savvy to his engineering background, which translates to a very scientific and technical understanding of the sport. He spent a huge amount of time acquiring in-depth knowledge about heart rate, lactate, and power meters.

Currently, Coach Don is the only multisport coach in the Philippines who administers and integrates lactate testing into his programs and is the only triathlon coach in the Philippines with a Human Performance Lab – a venue for testing and profile analysis. He’ll soon introduce metabolic testing to determine nutritional needs at rest or during races. Among his tools of the trade to help his athletes are TrainingPeaks, WKO+, and Golden Cheetah.

His coaching takes into account the athlete’s schedule, goals, abilities and other considerations in designing a personalized program. Coach Don is a suitable coach for aspiring full- and half-distance athletes, or for those who want to improve their sports performance significantly.

For coaching inquiries, you may reach Coach Don Velasco through: Email: FlyingDonV@gmail.com Mobile No.: 0917 832 1986

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Focus Each workout should have a purpose. An important consideration is that an athlete’s needs may change depending on the phase of training.

As he/she progresses through the season, focus shifts to other forms of training.

Structure People tend to focus too much on stress whilst neglecting another equally important aspect of training: recovery. One reaps the benefits of the work put in during bouts of recuperation. A well-designed program balances appropriate forms of stress and recovery. Such interplay between the two takes place in small doses between sessions, in small blocks across weeks and on a larger scale across months within a season (microcycles, mesocycles and macrocycles, respectively).

The Role of Lactate Testing Lactate testing is a tool to assess the metabolic stress and performance of an athlete. It gives us a preview of what happens to the body in a physiological sense. Similar to blood sugar testing, the lactate test determines the athlete’s athletic profile by taking blood samples across different intensities based on speed or wattage. These intensities range from easy to very hard, and the increasing blood lactate concentration levels from these stages are graphed and analyzed.

The data plot gathered from this test is called the lactate curve; it shows the athlete’s current fitness level and what intensities he/she can sustain for specific durations. The shape of the curve is a good indicator of the aerobic and anaerobic capacities of the athlete. Based on the data from this test, one can determine whether the athlete is in shape for the intended event. More importantly, the appropriate workouts and training load can be prescribed based on this assessment.

Furthermore, lactate tests fine-tune the athlete’s training zones based on how he/she functions physiologically. While there is nothing wrong with training based on feel, this approach often leads to a misrepresentation between effort and effect.

For example, to improve one’s lactate threshold, it’s important to train near a blood lactate saturation of 4.0mmol/l. This is a very solid effort that requires focus and some level of freshness. Since fatigue masks fitness, our perception of hard often results in different intensities. In some instances, athletes may be so exhausted that they are unable to reach the appropriate intensities despite a solid effort. This results in a very tough workout with mediocre results, since the stimulus desired is not reached.

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On the other side of the spectrum, to recover from hard intervals or workouts, one must train at lactate levels well below 2.5mmol/l. Athletes who push too hard during these recovery workouts negate their purpose. Instead, they dig themselves a deeper hole and end up more tired.

Finally, it is important to note that stress is defined as the combination of volume and intensity. Different intensities tax the body in varying ways and are most effective at prescribed amounts of workload. Easier zones build aerobic capacity and increase capillary density but need relatively long steadystate efforts to do so. Higher intensities, such as threshold and VO2Max, build aerobic power and improve one’s lactate threshold. Too much volume, however, is detrimental. Thus, structure must be taken into consideration when planning within and between these sessions.

As published in the medical journal Frontiers in Physiology, research by Thomas Stöggl and Billy Sperch show that polarized training, which requires a balance of easy and hard work, has been most effective. Keeping the easy days easy so the hard days can be hard is more beneficial compared with pushing oneself during each and every session. Neglecting recovery workouts results in a decrease in performance for the other key sessions. This leads to a single speed athlete who works hard yet underperforms. Using lactate threshold

testing, athletes have a sense of what it really means to go easy, and what it takes to go hard.

References: The Use of the Blood Lactate Curve to Develop Training Intensity Guidelines for the Sports of Track and Field and Cross-Country Chris P. Belcher† and Cynthia L. Pemberton‡ http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1358&context=ijes Physiological Responses at Various Lactate Markers for Running at 4 and 8 Minute Treadmill Increments James Peter Gavin, Stephen Daniel Myers, Marc Elizabeth Theodorus Willems http://www.sportspa.com.ba/images/june2013/full/rad1.pdf

Polarized training has greater impact on key endurance variables than threshold, high intensity, or high volume training by Thomas Stöggl1,2,* and Billy Sperlich3 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3912323/

Six weeks of a polarized training-intensity distribution leads to greater physiological and performance adaptations than a threshold model in trained cyclists.

Neal CM1, Hunter AM, Brennan L, O’Sullivan A, Hamilton DL, De Vito G, Galloway SD. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23264537

THE RACEDAY INTERVIEW:

DAVID ALMENDRAL JOEY RAMIREZ AND

ON RIVALRY, THE INDUSTRY AND THE LIFE-CHANGING EFFECTS OF TRIATHLON

Words: Monching Romano | Photos: Edsel Ochoa Hair and Makeup: Arlyn Basa and Jeri Sebastian

Shot on Location: THE

CITY CLUB AT ALPHALAND MAKATI PLACE

The City Club, 7232 Alphaland Makati Place Ayala Ave. Ext. Cor. Malugay St., Makati City www.thecityclub.com.ph | T: (+632) 846.6205 | E: sales@alphaland.com.ph

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ivalry energizes anything it touches—relationships, academics, business and most specially sports.

In local triathlon, it’s not easy to find an epic matchup ala Crispa-Toyota or Ateneo-La Salle. Well, there used to be one—Fitness First vs. Polo Tri, the first and biggest teams to be formed. They even used to have exclusive head-to-head races. But in such a small community with its members’ DNAs sharing common patterns, it has always been a friendly competition. Not the kind of rivalry that becomes legendary— you know, the bench-clearing kind.

I wanted a rivalry story for this issue. Individually, I’m sure many have their own personal triathlon wars especially among podium finishers. But no one has publicly called out an opponent for a duel much like in WWE. But I think I found a worthy matchup, not the one I dreamed of, but equally heated and fierce, in some sense.

The Cervelo-Specialized rivalry is a global one. Both are top-tier bike brands and market leaders. Many cyclists have debated about which one is really better, much like the neverending Canon-Nikon argument. In the Philippines, Specialized is distributed by Dan’s, headed by its CEO Joey Ramirez.

Cervelo, on the other hand, is handled locally by Light ’N Up Marketing Inc. with David Almendral as CEO. Both are triathletes and very competitive ones. And as if by design, they also belong to the two biggest competing teams: Almendral dons the Polo Tri jersey, while Ramirez races for Fitness First.

So I sat them together for this issue’s The RaceDay Interview.

I asked them about their rivalry, the community, and their personal takes on the sport. I tried hard to agitate them, but in the end they were the perfect gentlemen that we triathletes are known for.

Raceday: You two are direct and major competitors. Are you friends or do you hate each other?

David: We definitely don’t hate each other. I don’t know if he does ... (laughter). I knew Joey’s dad and his brother before I met him, and I’ve always had a lot of respect for what it is that they still do. I would say that we are friendly competitors.

Joey: I would say the same in terms of pushing the envelope, of how distribution would be, how the bicycle business should be. I couldn’t say [the same] about other distributors, but I would say that at the end of the night, we have the same outlook on how to take care of the customers, how to market the products well, how to take care of the brands. There’s a common place there ... In other industries, people hate each other. But here, I think it is not a big industry like the automotive or motorcycle industry, and if you hate each other, you can’t grow together, so it becomes stagnant. So I try to keep good relationships with everyone.

RD: There’s no formal study on the triathlon market but I’m sure you have a working number of the population.

What’s your estimate?

Joey: We’re very conservative in the company and so I’m looking at 6,000 to 10,000 in terms of potential … but we’re very conservative.

David: If you just look at the races and in all the provinces, my guess would be, nationwide there’s probably at least 15,000 triathletes. If you’ll include duathletes and occasional people that are serious, maybe it goes up to below 20,000. That’s just a guess, there is no formal study here.

RD: There are at least 23 races this year. Do you think we’re growing too fast?

David: In a way, yes, because the growth is being pushed by the organizers. But at the same time, there is something to be said about the demand for well-organized races, like some of the franchised or branded ones. When we have major races that are expensive selling out in less than a day, there is room for more.

If you look at what happened to running, there was a time when just any group of friends could say, ‘We’re race organizers.’

They put up a race, fill it up and they think they’re organizers.

When the industry contracts, the strong will survive. I think that Sunrise, the Challenge group, they’ll be around. They definitely have a lead. They are doing things right. The people who are not putting up as good of a product or putting up the same product and trying to charge more—those organizers, I think their days are probably numbered.

RD: Do you think that by next year, there will be a correction or will we see more races?

David: I think the number of races will kinda pull a little bit steady and I think you’re going to see a lot more informal races, especially in the provinces, because they have a need for them. And those people are eventually going to channel into the bigger races, the branded ones.

Joey: It’s growing fast. But, I’m a little bit uncomfortable with what’s happening because as a distributor, we can’t really be in all races. We can’t support everything, right? My take on it is yes, it’s still growing. There’s still room to grow from here in terms of the bigger races. I agree with what David said that there will be a lot of [small provincial] races and that’s what’s needed in terms of feeding the bigger races. I think it’s a good place to be in right now.

David: If you’re talking about the growth of the number of races, a lot of informal ones will pick up, especially in the provinces.

If you mean the community, I think there’s still going to be a lot of growth in the provinces. In Metro Manila, most of the people

are in the 35 or below. A lot of them would be tempted to try triathlon. They’ve already done it, they’ve [invited] their friends out to do it. A lot of people have left golf already (laughter). …

It’s gonna keep growing like for the younger people. They’re just going to replace the atrition rate.

We did a road trip about three years ago, and tried to get some of the provinces interested in our products. Now they’ve all come back and asked for support, so it’s definitely growing …

The whole country, it’s still gonna grow for some time but the pickup rate in Metro Manila is probably going to slow [down].

RD: When you started your company, triathlon hadn’t even started yet in the market. So was this anticipated or was it a pleasant surprise that suddenly it’s a market?

Joey: We forecasted triathlon back in 2008. It was in 2007 when we started investing heavily on road bikes and tri bikes.

It was this time that we were looking at the running industry.

We were looking at the US, how it was growing. We were paralleling, counting years. It roughly took two years for the trends in the US to [become] the trends in the Philippines. So we were already counting numbers. … We gambled upon how the US trends will happen—we had two years. We put that into factor. We put the factor of running in the Philippines because we had quite a number of races here already. And what was next? We factored in behavioral study on Filipinos wanting to get better every time. So as soon as I finished the 42K, I don’t move to be the fastest 42k [runner], I need something else. I need something more, right? So ... we were kinda a year early but it was forecasted.

David: We have a saying about the first among the old triathletes. We say, ‘Hey, they’ve been doing it since before it was cool.’

I’ve always gotten into the businesses where I saw a need, or something that I could improve or do better. The first time I bought a nice mountain bike, I put an XTR group set, which was top of the line. Two months after, it broke. I didn’t get it from Joey, don’t worry (laughter). I called up the distributor and they said, ‘Oh sorry there’s no warranty.’ I’m the worst pissed-off, worst irritated or unhappy customer you can have.

That put in my mind, if this is how things are being distributed, there is room for someone to do a better job. At around the same time, I was in the shipping business. I was doing some logistics work for some bike shops and sporting good stores, and a friend of mine, Anton Gonzalez of Planet Sports, says, ‘Hey, instead of just shipping this stuff, why don’t you look at distributing it cause no one is doing it?’ We were surprised at that time … we had our wish list of brands, none of them were here. So we had our pick of any brand we want. We got all the brands that we went after. I wish that I could say that we did a bunch of accounting studies like Joey’s family did, but we didn’t. It was just cool fun so we got into it. Honestly, I had no idea that it would pick up the way that it has, but I think if you look at cycling and triathlon, what happened during that time is how retail has changed, race organization has changed.

RD: You were an athlete first and you saw a need that’s why you went into the business, or was it the other way around?

David: I still don’t actually think of myself as an athlete, okay? (laughter) I was a recreational mountain biker. I really like mountain biking but when I did my first triathlon, I realized that it just really clicked with me, I think, personally, and this is why I’ve learned a lot from triathlon. It helped me develop as a person, and it’s something I wanted not just for myself. Whether other people gotten into it or not, I think I would still get a lot out of it, and my kids have. They’ve learned a lot from triathlon seeing me, and my friends do it, too. It’s something that I hope to do well into my years as long as I can, even if it’s not cool anymore (laughter).

Joey: Before the family got into the bike business in 2004, my interests were all board sports—wakeboarding, stuff like that.

When I came in to the family business, it was bikes. So I needed to understand bikes. It was a funny story, how I got through the triathlon market. In 2006 or 2007 I had this crossroad ... I needed more discipline. I could either go to army training or do triathlon. The easier [choice was] triathlon (laughter). But that stayed with me for a while. So when we were studying the market and we were seeing that triathlon was picking up, it gave me the opportunity to get into the sport. I needed the discipline to wake up early, to [be conscious of] my time, stuff like these.

And initially it was more business for me but when we learned to do things right, it reflects—where the business is now, where we are now is because of the triathlon training and discipline. It

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translated to efficiency in the business for me, that’s why I love the sport so much.

David: I actually feel like my life, the way it was before, needed triathlon to fix a lot of things. Firstly, there was the discipline and the training. My wife has been very supportive. She sees me when I am in training for something and then she sees me a lot when I am not in training for something. She always says, ‘David on triathlon is much better than David not on triathlon.’ So this year, she registered me for all the races (laughter).

RD: Cervelo and Specialized are the top two brands, I don’t know if in terms of sales but for sure in terms of brand excellence, right? Which of the new entrants are you most worried about?

David: Outside the Specialized and Cervelo, I would be very worried about Felt (laughter). (Light ’N Up is also the authorized distributor of Felt in the Philippines.) There is this very respected website called Aero Geeks and they compared the Shiv, the P5 and the Felt IA as the three best, hands down.

And they have all the graphs and everything. But honestly, I’m not worried about too many other new brands. The way that we market, the way that we present our products, I don’t think too much about the competition or what they’re doing.

Actually, the Kona count—in my book—the winner of Kona doesn’t say as much about a bike as the Kona count. Cause any brand who makes a good enough bike, a decent bike, can probably get lucky and have someone win. A couple of years ago, Pinarello had one rider on a Pinarello. She won; even Pinarello was surprised. On the other hand, the age groupers in Kona are arguably the best in the world. These are people that, on average, beat everybody that we know. They’re not sponsored; they have jobs, take their hard-earned money and invest it in a product. So they do their research and they only make good investments. I’m most proud that Cervelo and Felt are always at the top of that as are Specialzed and Trek.

Sometimes I feel like I don’t know how other brands can manage when the best age groupers in the world would buy bikes and don’t even pay attention to it. At least I can say that all four make good products.

Joey: I’m more worried about who carries the brand. There are top big brands, second-tier brands and third-tier brands. I’m worried about top tier-brands that are being handled by really good distributors.

RD: Like?

Joey: Like Light ’N Up (laughs). Light ’N Up is a good distributor in terms of marketing, but in terms of the market, I think if we take the numbers there, my big number is 10,000, [David’s] big number is 15,000 to 20,000. Those aren’t all Specialized people, so people who are interested in my brand are not all of them. There’s space to share. Now if we’re talking about brands of bikes excluding its support, I’ve seen Felt and Cervelo’s performance. People would go for Cervelo, people would go for Felt, people would go for Specialized, right? So it’s not the brands that I’m worried about. We already know where we are with the brands in the market now. It’s not a matter of grabbing more from the current customers of Cervelo or from Felt, but of addressing the need of the newbies, which is the pool that we’ll get in the coming years.

David: A tri-bike for anybody is a big investment and I always say, ‘Do your homework.’ Look at the reviews, look at what other people are saying about it. One reason I said it is because I have confidence that a good portion of those people when they do their homework are gonna end up with one of my brands, not because of what I’m saying here locally but because of how it’s being reviewed abroad. And I think if someone chooses another brand that I respect over mine, I understand that. You know, unfortunately, I think here we still have a case where brands that are not great products are oversold.

For me if I’m going to buy a car, I always ask the people who own that—how’s the service, how’s the warranty? So for me, you could have something that’s rated as one of the top bike brands in the world, but if its local distributor isn’t gonna stand behind it fully, 100%, it doesn’t matter if it is the best bike brand; if something happens, they’re not going to support it. The old school way of distributing products was there was no warranty, no service—so that’s why everyone brought things in. Now people don’t tend to bring in things so much, because you have distributors who are standing by your product. To me, standing by your product means that if I have a customer and I know that the product should be warrantied, sometimes that means I have to handle it even if the principal

would say ‘No.’ Sometimes it costs you money, you have to live by it. I mean we all live by it, we all live by our words and I always tell people that if they’re interested in other brands, just ask around first because not all distributors are the same.

RD: Is the market price sensitive?

Joey: Culturally. I believe that the ones that choose to get into the sport already can afford ’cause they already chose the sport; their numbers are already calculated at the back of their heads. So I think the question is a culture thing that has been passed on to generations, that you need to get the lowest price. So it’s a hard behavior to change, but that’s okay as long as there are guys like Light ’N Up that will push for quality service, right? Preach that all the time, and hopefully other distributors will also preach that all the time. I think Sram in the US and Shimano have taken out a lot of their distributors because of price—they can’t control price. Most of the consumers of that discount, I’m not sure but probably are in the Philippines or in Asia. It’s a hard thing, but we are price-sensitive.

David: Twenty years ago, 15 years ago, maybe even 10 in the Philippines, there was no support for products. So it melts the whole transaction down to one factor, which is price.

So you go door to door, you get the best price you can, any way it comes in, and you go that way ’cause nobody will honor warranties anyway. There was no after-market. So when we started bringing in brands, we had to stabilize the price and the way it made sense to that to the customers is we offered service and warranty that no one else was offering. Yes, it does cost more, but this is what you get out of it and we packaged it together so that they can make a logical choice. We never try and say, ‘Buy ours because we’re the authorized person.’ We say, ‘Buy ours because this is what we can do for you.’ Warranty, of course, is a big part of it. To me, I don’t look at other good distributors being in a price war with them. We’re still at a point when we’re trying to convince people to buy from authorized distributors. I tell my shops, not only do I want you to do a good job for my brand, I even want you to distribute the other brands well. If I have a shop I’m dealing with, when I found out that they are parallel importing another bike brand, I don’t like that either. And I think that the whole industry has been changing.

People who are changing with it, getting away from this lowest price at all cost ... And you’re gonna see major changes in distribution, even now ... If you look at the bike shop experience now compared to five years ago, we’ve come light years. It’s amazing.

RD: People used to go to Cartimar for their bikes. Is it still the place to be? Do you distribute in Cartimar?

Joey: We did a study on where the people [get their stuff]— new and old people. The older ones, the ones who’ve been cycling or running for 10, 15 years still go there, because Cartimar is also a shoe place and everything can be bought there. People who know where to buy will go or still consider Cartimar because they have, number one, relationships already there, yung mga suki nila … For those who are new, that will be half di ba? Some would go to Cartimar, some won’t. It’s halved based on time and capacity to pay. The newbies right now in terms of executives, we see that they tend to go to the store that are nearby, concept stores—Primo, Epic, Sabak.

And we already have some hubs per area that they know of.

Cartimar is a hub for the seasoned. Probably the Pasong Tamo group, Alabang, the MOA road group, those hubs are for the newer athletes. But eventually when they know, I think they’ll probably find their way there.

David: I don’t have any studies but informally, I always ask young triathletes and cyclists where they go. More and more people I talk to now, let’s say under the age of 30, most people never step foot in Cartimar. In fact, young triathletes I talk to don’t even know where it is. Okay. Now in my opinion it’s a progression in the whole retail experience of buying bikes, being involved in triathlon. People are paying a lot of money for products, they expect to have a good experience.

The experience that I would want all my shops to give is like they’re the BMW, Mercedes dealership. You should honor

every customer like that. Now within Cartimar, we only deal with a couple of shops there and they’ve had to change. There’s always gonna be people looking for a good deal there, so they will survive. My opinion is they’ll have to adapt with the times just like all retailers. Some have made the change, others who refuse to change will be left behind. You know, Paulina’s for example, at Cartimar, they’re the ones that have gotten with the times—her daughter and her son-in-law opened up a new Paulina’s in MOA so it just shows that there’s a realization that the old ways are good but we’d better evolve.

RD: Are there any trends that you’re seeing in triathlon that you feel are bad, or will have a detrimental effect in the long run?

David: I think the one thing that I see is—and this is true in America, maybe everywhere—they joke around that triathlon is a mid-life crisis sport. So you do attract a lot of guys who are approaching 40 years old, they haven’t done a sport in 20 years—sometimes ever. They start running with a group of friends and they say, ‘Oh, I can do a half-Ironman or I can do a marathon.’ And they don’t have that build-up. Because of all these long races that are happening, people do a little bit of training for six months and say, ‘Oh, I can do it.’ Maybe you can, but training for six months doesn’t erase the damage that you’ve done your whole life. A sedentary lifestyle is not reversed in six months. It’s not even reversed if you can run the times and everything. I would say the most dangerous thing is, people try to do too much, too soon. And I think most of the incidents that you hear about people getting hurt or something happening, you usually see that they sat around and watched TV for 20 years or 40 years and then say, ‘I wanna do a half-Ironman,’ and they didn’t train over a long enough period of time.

Joey: I’m thinking more on the part of the organizers—they should be able to talk to each other so they can organize better, space out some races. I think it’s also for the good of the triathletes and the good of the business. I’m not sure if they talk to each other, but I mean, it’s just spacing out the races, agreeing on a calendar the whole year in the best interest of all the stakeholders of the industry.

David: We’re talking about branded races and unbranded races.

Whether you’re branded or not, the Philippines is a hot place and the reason why branded races have regulations on how much water you have to have and how far apart, is because it could be very dangerous. So that’s one thing, that these unbranded races should still follow the same guidelines. You have to have water stations … You cannot run out of water—that’s really dangerous.

And another thing that we saw just a week ago, people are sort of openly promoting fake products. This is not just a distribution

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or an intellectual property issue—it’s a safety issue. And in the last 70.3 in Subic, there was someone there with a fake Cervelo bike. We talked to the athlete and said, ‘Hey, just so you know, if your bike is not real, it could be a safety issue. We would love to help.’ We even told him, ‘We’ll give you a deal, we’ll help you get into a real one because you might not have known that you bought something that’s not authentic.’ What do you know, the guy’s bike comes apart during the race, broken in several places.

He crashed, scraped himself up. He could have really gotten hurt.

Fake bikes, fake wheels, fake aero bars, it’s not just a matter of branding—it’s a safety issue. So that’s another trend that I see openly and I’d like to see that change just for public safety.

RD: You two obviously have an influence on the sport. If it were up to you, where would you wanna take it? How would you like it to be three to five years from now?

David: On a performance level, there’s no reason physically why our ITU athletes can’t compete with every other country regionally. I’ve been very critical of our national triathlon program in the past, but it’s come a long way. And I think that they’re making the right moves now to get the program in gear and be serious about how to develop competitive athletes. We have some of the best athletes right now that we’ve ever had, and hopefully that trend will continue. As for age groupers, what I would like to see in three to five years—it’s something that has already started—is for the Philippines to be a regional hub for triathlon. And I was very encouraged in the last Challenge in Subic and 70.3. Almost every pro we talked to said they love racing in the Philippines. I talked to age groupers from all over the region and they said, ‘Wow this is my first race in the Philippines, I’m definitely coming back.’ So the word is out and people are coming here. I even talked to a pro who said, ‘You know I was going to move to Thailand, now I’m kinda thinking of moving to the Philippines.’ So there’s great progress with making the Philippines a hub, improving our ITU or National Team athletes.

For age groupers, when 70.3 first came here, we would train for months. That was our biggest event of the year and we trained for months for it. What I’d like to see more of these people looking at it like doing a 70.3 is like running a marathon. So you don’t necessarily have to load up on these big races. This occurred to me when I talk to this distributor from Florida one time and he said to me, ‘How many races do you do a year?’

And I said, ‘I do my country’s major races which were Subit, at that time White Rock, 70.3 and Xterra.’ That’s all we had. I told him that basically for all those races, you had to either get in on a plane, or drive and spend a few nights somewhere. And the guy tells me he did 23 races last year and he never spent the night anywhere else. He’s from his house—he did 23 races, that’s great. It’s an accomplishment and people should be proud of doing a half-distance race. At the same time, I say, let’s move on and let’s get enough people doing it. They don’t have to train for six months to do a half. And then we can see a full distance Ironman well supported in the country and definitely within that time.

Joey: I’d like to see triathlon and probably also cycling as a sport on a collegiate level, and see colleges bring the sport into their programs, and probably UAAP and NCAA adopting it.

We already have runners, we already have swimmers. Cycling already has a collegiate program in the US. And it’s not an easy sport like swimming, you just need a cap. It’s an expensive sport, but as soon as you see the sport growing, like right now with parents that are pushing their kids to take up swimming instead of soccer. And we’ll see all these 30-year-olds have kids in college soon, and I think they’ll want their kids to take it up. If we have 15,000 next year, we’ll have more in the coming years. In three to five years we’ll probably have 30,000 or 40,000. So we’ll have a pool of athletes in hopefully high school and the collegiate level. So that’s what I want to see, because from there, we can bring up the grassroots to where David wants to bring it.

David: Joey has a good point about the kids’ programs. You know, my kids personally have gained so much. They mature so much from doing triathlon. And for us to develop future competitive triathletes, we have to start younger. Whatever sport you’re going to do, not necessarily especially for the triathlon, we have to have programs where kids can get into and get active. Kids getting out and getting active and getting outdoors is the best thing for all—it’s the best thing for the country, it’s the best thing for all sports we are talking about.

RD: As the top major players in the industry, what do you think should be your role in its growth?

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Joey: For me it’s just really supporting. Dan’s mission in the bike industry or in the sport industry, is to make you a little bit better. People get happier when they are a little bit better.

So with that, it’s a lot of aspects—it’s the equipment aspect, the people aspect. With equipment, you have to take care of equipment, and with people it’s coaching. That’s why they’ve also worked with a lot of coaches. Dan’s provides that. Going on and talking about what I want to happen in the collegiate level—I mean, you won’t earn in the start, so you have to spend for it in the start. You won’t earn from it in the next two to three years, but you know that the investment is good, you need to support it.

David: I think that we assume a lot of responsibility as a company. Our primary function is to get the best brand and products, and to show people that there’s a different way that they can interact with these brands. We will support them. We do things that we think hardly anybody does in the industry as far as supporting. Before people were selling top dollar items and then giving them no support. So we want to show you, you take your hard-earned money, invest it in something you deserve and have the complete service that goes along with that. As far as athletes’ races, we try and look for partnerships that are win-win for everybody, where the athletes benefit, we and my company and my brands benefit, and the organizers benefit. Certainly we’ve had what I call some homeruns. If it’s lopsided where the organizers benefit but no one else does, that’s bad. Or the distributors benefit and all, or everything is good for the athlete and no one takes money, that’s also bad. It has to have a balance, so we’re always looking for that. And I guess it’s more of a matter of heart—we want to be involved in the development of top level athletes. We really do that because it’s something that we believe in. We have a desire to make sure that people that deserve a chance, that work hard, get a shot that

they deserve. Sometimes it has to be done in conjunction with the national effort, sometimes despite of the national efforts. So I really view that more like a matter of national pride that we want to see developing. I guess the long-term effect of it is that people see these athletes being held up on pedestal and it does help grow the sport. And it trickles down to the people who are buying the stuff.

RD: Do you think we need a hero? Would that mean a lot to our growth?

Joey: Everyone needs a hero at one point—someone to look up to, because we’re talking about inspiration. Inspiration creates the idea and probably the passion to participate in something.

It’s not all of a sudden you wake up, ‘I want to do triathlon.’

There’s some sort of influence that has to happen—whether it be a national hero in form of probably Claire Adorna or it could be a hero in your own sphere, right? Or heroes you see on TV. I think in terms of where heroes are concerned, everyone needs influence to be able to push on something, to start something and also to be consistent in something.

David: You know, I’ve always thought that people who are truly inspirational inspire people to do things completely unrelated to whatever it is they were good at. If you look at Muhammad Ali in boxing, for example, there’s a businessman out there who’s saying, ‘I found Muhammad Ali as a kid and he taught me that I can overcome any obstacles that help me in business.’ Someone like Manny Pacquiao has helped so many Filipinos who are never gonna box a single round in their life.

So I think we have a good opportunity to not make heroes of our triathletes, but build inspirational stories around them, to make them inspirational figures that will help everybody no matter what it is that they do.

OTHER CRAZY STUFF THAT WE DO

WHEN WE’RE NOT WEARING THE TRI SUIT

MOUNTAIN BIKING A

n athlete’s life is built on routine. It’s this cycle of repeating a certain task over and over again that hones our skills and puts us on a level of competitive perfection.

There’s no denying, however, that there are times when we’re tempted to skip whatever program we are in and do a totally different activity just to break the rut. But we also can’t afford to hamper the gains from the time and effort we already invested in training.

Good thing there are diversions that can complement our drills— like mountain biking. Though it seems to land on the extreme opposite of the cycling spectrum, it’s packed with benefits that can provide significant improvement in our biking skills.

Triathlete couple Richard and Michelle Santiago are certified mountain bike fanatics. When they aren’t busy managing Ineng’s—their famous barbecue chain—you can find them on the road or off a trail with their mountain bikes. They say their only regret is not getting into the sport earlier in their lives. A fixture in Xterra and most of the mountain bike races in the country— not to mention the handful of triathlon races they join—the couple makes the perfect resource for this piece.

Ride the Mountain Mountain biking has around a dozen sub-disciplines, but the ones most common in the Philippines are XC or Cross Country, All Mountain/Enduro and Downhill. Currently, XC dominates the number of races year round, says Richard. XC is more on endurance, while All Mountain and Downhill involve more skill factor, he explains further, cautioning, “Kailangan magaling talaga handling mo.”

The Cross Country races usually cover a distance of 25 to 35 kilometers. It seems short, but Richard opines that the effort you need to finish such a race is comparable to racing 90 kilometers on a roadie. “Almost two hours yan, two and a half hours sa iba.

Words: Christian Obmerga

Kaya pag inisip mo, yung Xterra races, parang half-Ironman sya. Yun ang effort mo,” he says.

Aside from the bike and courses, the big difference from road cycling, according to the couple, is the skill requirement of riding a mountain bike. “Pag di mo kinonsider yung skills, mas malamang maaksidente ka,” warns Richard. And skills don’t come easy, one really needs to spend time on the trails, the couple advises.

The good news: There are plenty of trail options nearby, such as in Antipolo, Rizal and Sta. Rosa, Laguna. Richard also says one should consider the opposing effects of riding a roadie and a mountain bike. “Ang road bike kasi pinapatigas yung hips mo. … kung titingnan mo yung magagaling na mountain bikers, very flexible yung katawan. Kasi they really have to go with the flow of the trail. Pag kailangan mo itulak yung bike paharap … pag kailangan umabante, yung weight mo fino-forward mo. Iba rin yung handling, hindi basta liko lang.”

Why should we, triathletes, bother getting involved in mountain biking, then? For one, it can help you become a stronger climber on your road bike. “Kasi mahirap umakyat pag naka-mountain bike lalo na yung off-road,” explains Michelle. “Kasi heavy sya,” chimes in Richard. “Kaya pag nag-road ka na, ang sarap,” adds Michelle.

Michelle also reveals that it helps in developing your bike handling skills, “Di ka na masyado manenerbyos sa road, eto mabilis yung [reaction, reflexes].” Richard concurs: “If you could do off-road triathlon, yung road biking skills mo, gumagaling ka. Like for example nag-preno ka sa likod, nag-fish tail yung bike, di ka na kinakabahan basta-basta. Naia-apply mo yung skills mo. One time dyan sa Aguinaldo nagba-bike ako, nag-fishtail yung road bike ko. Di na ko kinabahan dahil nga lagi kong nae-experience sa mountain bike yan. So nothing new.

Na-recover ko agad and di ako natumba.”

At What Cost?

They say there’s a right tool for a job. In mountain biking, this means the right bike for the trail. There’s a dizzying array of mountain bikes, from hardtail to full suspension, light XC bikes to heavier all mountain types, and the geometrically optimized downhill machines. Grade A bikes cost around P300,000 to P450,000—almost as costly as road bikes. “Mountain bikes have a lot of upgrades also. Kung top-of-the-line ang gusto mo, pareho silang magastos,” Richard opines. Michelle actually thinks that mountain biking is more expensive, “Kasi depende pag sumasali ka ng races, may mga times na pwede na yung hardtail, may mga times naman na kailangan mo full suspension. So kailangan dalawa ang bike mo.”

Photos courtesy of Richard and Michelle Santiago

Richard elaborates how different bikes provide different experiences. Unlike road bikes, “pag na-setup mo na sa geometry mo, yun na yun. So pwede ka lang magbago ng shifter … upgrade lang. Ito (mountain bike) pwede kang gumamit ng pang-all mountain, pwedeng hardtail. ... Kasi di mo masasabi na tama yung bike mo kung di mo nae-experience anong bike gagamitin mo.”

Michelle reccommends picking a hardtail for your first bike.

“Mas maganda kung mag-start ka ng hardtail kasi mas natuturuan ka sa skill. Kasi pag full suspension, guided ka na eh. So maganda rin na parang mag-start ka sa manual kesa automatic agad. Then kung gusto mo na lagi ka sa trail, magfull suspension ka na lang. Para di ka magastusan.”

Reality Check Before you get in to the sport, however, you have to do your homework—research, talk to people in the sport, ask questions and recon the course. “Yung iba nadadala sila kasi inu-underestimate nila yung course,” shares Richard.

“Malakas naman ako eh. Di puro lakas yan. Di puro endurance yan.”

In mountain biking, “di mo pwede sabihin na maganda katawan nito, malakas to. May malalaki na magagaling sa skills. Malalaki pero magaling sa bike handling, talo yung magaganda ang katawan. Magugulat ka,” shares Michelle.

Richard stresses that you need to know your bike, and you need to know the trail so you’ll know how to approach it.

“Sabi nga, ang road bike, pwedeng di mo nadaanan, di mo napuntahan kumarera ka. Sa mountain bike, importante yung track read.”

He recommends to try out the trail at least twice, and not race pace: “Talagang recon lang … mahirap, kung iisipin mo, marami kang kino-consider.” The couple also warns against being cocky on a mountain bike. “Wag ka lang masyado confident sa mountain bike. Kailangan alam mo yung limitations mo, especially if you are new to the sport.”

They caution that though accidents on a mountain bike occur relatively more frequently than on a road bike, mishaps on a road bike often are more serious, due to it’s high-speed nature.

On the surface, mountain biking appears to be a totally different animal from road cycling, yet Richard and Michelle conclude that you can simultaneously do both with proper scheduling and a bit of caution while racing off-road. In fact, they swear it’s the perfect match. “Nakakatulong din sa akin. Tingin ko lumakas ako sa off-road triathlon because of [the cross-training between road and off-road]. Magandang combination ... complementary.”

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OTHER CRAZY STUFF THAT WE DO

WHEN WE’RE NOT WEARING THE TRI SUIT

GEAR

Being a triathlete, we know how important it is to get the right equipment for the job. Here, we list down four of the best mountain bikes that offer top-notch features using the latest technology.

2015 TREK SUPERFLY 9.6 For years, the Trek Superfly has been pushing the boundaries of what a carbon XC hardtail can do—drawing from the design expertise of mountain biking pioneer Gary Fisher and the Trek Factory Racing team.

The full-carbon frame has the perfect combination of compliance and stiffness, allowing you to put the hammer down even in the roughest of trail sections. Trek’s G2 geometry translates to intuitive handling, making short work of technical single track, punchy climbs and bareknuckle descents. A slick-shifting 2x10 drivetrain gets you from point A to point B in the fastest possible time.

Like other Trek hardtails, the Superfly uses smart wheel sizing, equipping riders with the fastest wheel for their height. Riders who are on XS and S bikes get 27.5 wheels, while M and larger riders are on 29s—which means there is no compromise, whichever size you ride.

FELT EDICT NINE The Felt Edict Nine was borne of the FRD program, designed to challenge the demands of the World Cup Circuit, Olympics and even Offroad Multisport. On its first year, it won the U23 Mountainbike World Championship.

Its proprietary FAST Suspension System keeps rear shock at optimal 27 percent sag, making it more responsive with that direct path feel. Its frame features Felt UHC Performance carbon fiber, mated to 100mm of travel to make a winning combination of lightweight and precision.

Currently the go-to bike of Multiple XTERRA and ITU Cross Triathlon World Champion Josiah Middaugh, the Edict Nine is all about racing.

SCOTT SCALE 700 RC The SCOTT Scale 700 RC’s HMX Carbon Fiber frame is one of the lightest hardtail frames in the market. The RC comes fully equipped with a Rock Shox SID fork, along with our RideLoc technology to allow for three travel settings to always optimize your ride. A SCOTT Swisspower and 3Rox team replica, the RC is as race-ready as it gets.

The SCOTT Scale is available in both big wheel sizes: SCOTT Scale 700 RC (27.5”) and SCOTT Scale 900 RC (29”).

Visit http://scottbikes.ph for more information on SCOTT Bikes.

SPECIALIZED RUMOR FSR 29ER The Specialized Rumor gives women the opportunity to head into uncharted single track territory. For flowing trails or technical descents, this XC trail bike is engineered using ground-breaking technology to give females the best-fitting, most capable full-suspension 29er.

The Rumor has a women’s M5 alloy frame featuring women’s XC trail 29er geometry and tubesets, 110mm travel, tapered headtube, ultra-low standover height, and full water bottle clearance on all sizes. The bike and suspension were designed together from the ground up, featuring custom-tuned spring rates for lighter weight riders. Extensive field testing and research on women’s center of gravity and weight distribution helped determine the optimal spring rates for female riders.

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