First Crash, Third Century

Things have to be measured in numbers if to be remembered. Last Friday, I registered my third 100km and more mileage. I did 102.67 from my house to Calinawan Cave in Tanay, Rizal. I can still remember my first century ride last April during the Licao-Licao tour. It was memorable since it was a major ride where 85 riders participated and I was freaking dead tired when I reached home after 15 hours when I left home at 4:00 AM. My cyclo comp showed 110.78 km. They call it century ride once you hit at least 100km on the saddle . My second on the other hand happened last June with about 114km enroute to Tagaytay and back. Being "paydak-all-the-way" (pedal all throughout/no car) makes century rides achievable and more in the horizon. Only one denominator with these three was the seemed to be never-ending roads. It surely consumed my energy almost to the limit. Unfortunately, my ever growing century rides gave me another stat. This time my first crash on my mountain bike ever. Yeah, I had a couple of misjudgement over a rock, a stump, or rut but they were all minor. No wounds to worry, no cuts gained. This time I literaly banged myself to the ground hard.

It was hot and humid afternoon, must be nearing 3:00PM. Just passed by an overlooking view of the town of Tanay and was now about to go downhill on a fireroad approaching the first village in Pinugay. The gang was traversing the inner trails of Tanay-Sampaloc-Pinugay that would show us back to Marcos Higway. It was a sort of Rizal Loop but instead of doing an all road we did the inside trails going back to the jump off point after visiting Calinawan Cave. Oh boy, it was fun to hit above 50 kph on your cyclo comp. I was on the tail end of the group since I was having some problems with my chain which already sucked in between crankset and frame a couple of times. How can anyone explain the great feeling when the wind is blowing on your face, great scenery, the mood of the countryside. Still sipping the last seconds of the downhill rush the jeepney fully loaded with local people from Pinugay was also taking advantage of the downhill portion to gain some speed. She was some 25 meters ahead of me. The jeepney was occupying the road somewhat a little bit to the left of the center, taking half of the other lane which was supposed to be against the law. But if you were in places like this, who cares much about the law? Few vehicles and wide open countryside. So there was no way for me to overtake her from the left, the normal way. My momentum showed faster than what the jeepney was doing. She slowed down a bit. Now I was caught in the moment whether to pass to her right or not as she kept her pace while keeping her place to the left of the center of the road. Stupid of me I know it's not a good idea to pass any vehicle to the right side. I applied some breaks, a little to the rear and a little to the front. Suddely i felt my rear tire wobbling, she must be skidding. It's okay I told myself it happens when you are pressing breaks when going down the hill. I know it would hold since I was now using Crossmark 2.1 which is much better than SmallBlock 8 that came with the bike when I bought it. Crossmark had bigger threads for better traction. As they say, accidents happen very fast. After just one second that my wheel came wagging, I saw my handle bar making a swift circle to the left. I realized I was in deep shit. Next thing I knew my right shoulder banged against the compacted road, can't really remember if I spin but review of what happened and the prescence of bruises and small cuts in both of my shoulders and legs told me I did. Yeah, I remember my head slammed to the road, thanks to my Specialize helmet. I was also lucky that my cleats disengaged on it's own I don't know how. All of this happend very quickly. I would say in just about 3 seconds from the time my tired wiggled. I can still hear the voices of the shocked young girls who were straddling at the end of the jeepney..Haha, young girls on estribo, what a sight indeed. Plus, a stranger in a beautiful bike to their eyes crashing. Lol.

Instinct told me to get up and check my body for any injuries. My hands run through the side of my body, my arms, and my legs. Seemed perfectly ok. The last two fellas came and one asked what happend. It seemed he didn't see a thing and was wondering I was coming up the side of the road with my bike laying down. An indication that something bad happened since it wasn't a resting position or anything to that effect. And who the hell in the world would rest at the end of the downhill part. I told him my bike skid. The skidmark was still there some 5 meters from where the bike was but the mark was not that long, maybe just a meter and a half. That gave me a conclusion I did flip over, thrown away sideways from the bike after it skid. The bike might have fully stopped and I fell to the right like a log. The other biker told me he saw everything. Yes, my recollections were true. Fortunately I didnt have any visible injuries. Just the scratches, bruises, and small cuts. I was worried of the colar injury that any biker is prone when crashing. But since I was able to make some shoulder, head, and arm rotation, I guess I was Ok. My helmet held on and wasnt broken. they were amazed to see me get up as if nothing happend, my jersey was intact with no tear. We continued to bike.

The following morning I went to the doctor to have some xrays for some peace of mind. Luckily, all was well. Just two days of rest and I was back to what I love doing. Lessons learned. Much care to be taken next time.

Art of Peace

After more than four months of hibernation, the Art of Peace has been calling me from deep within to get back into the groove or should I say back on the mats. Time to continue my Aikido. I've been running my fingers on my gi (uniform) for some days now wondering when I can wear them again. I called Hiroshi on the phone and asked when does he want to go to Alfonso,Cavite and train at Sensei Dennis Tatoian's dojo (training hall). Sensei is the Japanese term for teacher. He said he's been out for three months and still busy with his job. Hiroshi is a senior Aikidoist in my school, Traditional Aikido in the Philippines, and Dennis Sensei is our Technical Adviser. Dennis moved to the town of Alfonso just outside the panoramic city of Tagaytay from California in 2006 and built his dojo there. Surprisingly from out of nowhere I got a text message from Sensei Aries Supremo, my Filipino Head Instructor, that Hitohiro Saito Sensei is in town and there will be Aikido seminar on over the weekend. I've been out of practice for a while and my school was also out for some three monthsa as everybody seemed to be busy lately.

It's the sixth time, if my memory was correct, that I am attending Saito Sensei's seminar in the Philippines. Saito has his own dojo in Iwama, Japan called Shin Shin Aikishurenkai. His father is Morihiro Saito Sensei who was the longest serving student of Aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba or whom we all referred to as O'Sensei. The old Saito stayed with O'Sensei for 23 years until the Founder's death in 1969. He was given the task to take care of the Iwama Dojo, thus the Iwama Style as well as the Shrine. Hitohiro on the other hand, started his training with O'Sensei at the age of seven. He was born in Iwama and continued training with his father until his own father's death in 2002. Now, we still continue that Iwama tradition under the guidance of Hitohiro, again as taught by O'Sensei to his father Morihiro and then to him.

I arrived at Ascott Hotel's Japan Room beside Glorietta in Makati around 4PM Friday, July 31 to find some 25 Aikidokas from different schools in Metro Manila. Some were familiar faces or repeat attendees and most were first timers. Others came as far as Cebu. I can see that almost half of the people were wearing hakama (skirt). I was thinking weather I would wear mine or not. I'm only at brown belt but my school would want brown belters to wear hakama. Normally, as in most aikido and other martial arts school, hakama is conferred only to black belters. This is not to say that a brown in Iwama is equivalent to blacks of other Aikido schools. This is still a debate. But we do things in our dojo the Iwama way, the way it was taught by O'Sensei to his students back then. No changes, no personal modification. It is said that we do it the hard way. Thus, I would say, the effective way. I practiced that day not wearing my hakama. One thing, to show some humility since I haven't done anything for four months, and to also gauge how the black ones would fare that day.

My feet were really aching from the seiza position. Four months made my legs really sturdy. It's hard. I had to kneel from time to time to give my feet some break from the seiza (Japanese sitting position). Just a little review of the techniques and I'm back on track, slowly but surely. Saito Sensei always tells us not to fall if we are not really going to fall. What he meant was uke (attacker) should not submit to falling from nage (thrower) if he or she is not losing balance. This is one critic that onlookers are tainting Aikido. They say it is fake and that we tend to fall to the ground as if everything is scripted and rehearsed. Some schools tend to become soft during practice that students seem to fall easily without much effort from nage. Some, really fall in not so convincing way out of respect to his partner specially if he was a senior student and becomes a habit. We in Iwama-style are taught not to fall just to show nage that uke is falling. Still, with all due respect to nage whether of higher belt or lower he should be able to execute the technique correctly and successfully unbalance uke. That's why other schools do not want to pair with us during seminars since we grip harder and hold our ground a little bit tougher. I mean we don't intentionally fall to the mat if we still have balance just to save a training partner's ass from humiliation. One black belter from another school paired with me during one of the Ikyo Urawaza sessions. He needed to pin me down after executing a spiraling 180 degree turn while stretching my arms. Ikyo is the First Holding Technique in Aikido. Urawaza is the "back" style as there are front (omote) and back (ura)execution of every technique (waza). This visiting black belter can't throw/pin me down just as he expected me to be on the ground. I told him I'm sorry but I still have my balance. With a look of some frustration and a little bit of irritation, he told me to just maneuver. Meaning, I should just fall. Hahaha..Not in Iwama. Not in our school. This is our seminar. Just after Hitohiro Sensei demonstrated the next technique, he left me and looked for a new partner. Too bad to see a hakama-wearing aikidoka doing that.
Second day, we did some more of holding and throwing techniques in the morning and some suburi (sword-swinging) and tachidori (sword-taking). It was fun to do a review of them. It made me understand more the philosophy underlying each technique. I guess the four months of inactivity gave me a lot of time to reflect and meditate on my Aikido. During the seminar, I was surprised to suddenly came into almost full understanding on why hips should always be dropped, on why turning should always come from the hip, why one should always go back to hamni (stance) every time. Before, I was having hard time figuring out why do I have to do this and that. Now, things seem to be a lot easier and understandable. I could easily follow a technique with just one viewing. I guess I was finally able to dig deeper into the philosophy. I wore my hakama on the second day by the way, as I felt more confident. Plus, I got Saito Sensei's name signed on my new aikido t-shirt.