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Digressions

How Biking Helped Me Keep Fit in My 40s

Are you looking for ways to stay fit and healthy in your 40s? As we age, it can become more challenging to maintain a healthy lifestyle, but there are still many options available. For me, one of the best ways to stay fit and active has been with the Kespor GRX 2.0 Gravel Bike.

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Digressions

Brotzeit brought life to Alabang West Parade

Ever since Brotzeit opened at Alabang West Parade, the place has gone bonkers with foot traffic. I’ve been frequenting the strip mall as a bike stopover for the better part of the pandemic and it served more as a halfway respite for riders (Hugo Bikes used to be there but closed after a couple of months) and pocket meetings that didn’t want the crowds of Molito.

Snapped this photo (with excitement) when they were finishing construction!

Lo and behold, in one of my rides I found the canvas to a new restaurant concept revealed — huzzah! Brotzeit was finally coming to the south. I was telling Spanky that this was the anchor establishment that West Parade needed and I was correct — days after it opened, it was almost impossible to find parking after 8PM (usually the mall is relatively empty at night).

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Digressions

The Alabang Creek Canal Bike Trail

There’s a bike route I’ve been following more often. And the irony is the trail is within a mall.

The Festival Mall canals are really something else. In a way it reminds me of the huge ponds of the former QUAD (now Greenbelt) in the 1980’s and Virra Mall but on a larger scale. Festival Mall’s humongous expansion extends the mall towards Asian Hospital with new outdoor areas around a forum that follows the freshwater Alabang Creek as it makes its way out into Laguna de Bay. The creek itself isn’t a sight to behold, and to be honest I have doubts of how “safe” that water is as I’ve seen freshwater fish floating dead in some of the more stagnant waters. But easily accessible bodies of water are a rarity in the urban sprawl, and in this case — it IS the urban sprawl.

Read on to see the photo gallery.

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Digressions

The bike that saved me

I never really thought about year-end goals until I checked my Strava account. Ever since my wife got me a bike last year, I’ve been trying to clock in rides every week. Some days I have daily streaks of 20km rides. Other times, every other day but longer distances of 30 to 40km. In the beginning I used to come home with aching legs but as the time passed, I have been breathing better, making less pit stops, and exerting less effort on my rides to go faster.

It wasn’t always like this. I spent most of my 30’s finding an excuse to not exercise — or at best to try to be inspired by those “from couch potato to hero” motivational workout regimen. There was a short time before the pandemic I got into kettlebells, but again, knowing me, I could not last. I fear gyms in general because despite all the movement, I’m stuck in a room.

Fast forward to the pandemic.

Categories
Digressions

Home renovations in the time of Covid

I’m writing this while confined with a mild case of COVID. After two and a half years of evading the virus, it finally caught up with me. Thankfully, symptoms are very mild, with slight cough and fever the first few days.Â