Toiling up Tagaytay

Long weekend = long ride, what a waste otherwise. Having gone up Sierra Madre just a week ago, and done Bugarin a couple of times, perhaps it was time to do the Tagaytay trek. And so it happened. Mike P was going to be our guide; Butch, Jerome, and myself the hapless trailers.

Meeting place was 6am at Bonifacio High Street. How to fit 4 bikes in one car? Easy: one bike inside the trunk; three in the bike rack. After so many car scratches, experience has told us how to orient the bikes correctly: the first bike should have its cranks facing the car’s trunk. For some reason, this also provides room for the other bikes not to be hitting each other.

We got off BHS by 6:30 am, with the Men’s Health Run already in full progress. We got stuck in traffic at the Bicutan construction, and by the time we got to the Daang Hari police station to park, it was already past 8am, already “late” by biker standards.

We mounted our bikes and went through the length of Daang Hari. Mike guided us through rough stretches

At the Mahogany Market for bulaloa-ding

of Molino, then through the raucous Aguinaldo highway, before we turned right at Robinsons then left through the secluded highway leading up to Amadeo. From there it was a rolling gentle slope up the ridge, with a couple of Coke stops along the way and thoughts of bulalo keeping us going. Two-and-a-half hours and 51 kms later, we reached the ridge near the Petron station and proceeded to the Mahogany market for our bulalo fill.

We originally had planned to go further to Nasugbu, but as it was already late and as Jerome determined that we had suffered enough, this was left for a future project.

Coming back we decided to go through Silang, with a brief stopover at Gourmet’s Cafe. It was of course all downhill, and with the sun covered by clouds, made for a most pleasant ride. We finally made it back Daang Hari by 5pm.

Although the road quality might be poor compared to Sierra Madre or Bugarin, coupled with the fact of having to weave through the buses and jeepneys of Aguinaldo highway, nothing still beats the cool weather and amazing view of Tagaytay. Toiling up Tagaytay by bike has its rewards indeed

All smiles after our bulalo fill

 

Run and bike from/to Makati-Cubao

The other day, I had a discovery of sorts. I’ve really been wanting to do some running in the evenings, especially as it becomes cooler these past few nights. I sort of envy the joggers running around Salcedo village everytime I go out after work. I was thinking doing the same thing, maybe run an hour or so around the village. As I drove home that night, for some reason, I set the car odometer and recorded the distance from the office in Makati to Cubao where I live: 9.8 kms. I realized suddenly that this is precisely the hour’s worth of running I was looking for; I promptly decided to try this out the following day.

The next day, after office at around 8pm, I went to the car inside the parking lot, changed into running gear, and proceeded to run, leaving the car overnight. There was a slight rain as I started, and it continued to drizzle all throughout. I passed through Makati avenue from dela Costa St., crossed the bridge to Mandaluyong, emerged into the city hall rotonda, then onwards through Nueve de Pebrero St. I crossed Shaw Boulevard, entered A. Mabini St., came out into Wilson, then went through these winding roads that end up in Santolan St, finally reaching our house in N. Domingo St, near Aurora boulevard. Time it took: 1hour 5 mins. Not bad, since the other Friday, it took me 2 hours, at the height of the evening rush hour, to traverse the same route by car.

The next day, I set out early, this time by bike, basically going through the same route. Time it took: around 35 minutes. This is about the same time it takes by car, with average traffic.

I repeated this exercise a couple of days later, i.e. last night:  leave car in Makati, run to Cubao, bike the next day back to Makati.

I consider this experiment a sucess and so I plan to go bike commuting next week. Riding by bike through the streets wasn’t really that bad as some people perceive it to be. It was no problem carrying clothes inside my backpack; I can get a shower in the gym in our office building; there’s a suitable place to park the bike in our office building; I have gotten the additional bike accessories necessary for bike commuting: lights, bike lock, saddle bag, spare tire. Let’s see how it works out next week.