Quest 825 | SBR.ph In[FOCUS] Team Edition

For most triathletes, finding the perfect balance between work and training is a challenge. But like what the old saying goes, “if there’s a will, there’s a way!”. For our next In[FOCUS] Team feature, that’s something they deal and live with 24/7.

I’m sure you must be thinking, why the h*ll are those guys wearing suits?? Nope, they aren’t members of the congress. Most of our politicians are too busy (doing something which I don’t want to mention) to get fit, except maybe for Sen. Pia Cayetano.

For this In[FOCUS] Team Feature, we talk with QUEST 825. The much talked about team of the 2011 season. Quest 825 top guns Luis “The Elvis” Arcangel and Deo Patalinghog takes a lead.

Faith | Family | Triathlon | Cycling

SBR.ph : Welcome to SBR.ph, Quest 825!

Deo : Thanks Carlo for choosing Quest 825 as your team In[FOCUS] for this month.

SBR.ph : What’s with the name? Give our readers a brief history about the team.

Luis : I do know it’s quite the unconventional name, sounds somewhat like a rock band to some. In the best non-kitschy way I could explain it, “Quest” connotes the never-ending quest for athletic excellence while the “825” quite simply means that it’s a true executive team with a fair majority of our members grinding the 8-5 every day while still managing to sneak in some quality training time somewhere along the way.

We started out as an executive cycling team that quickly evolved into a scrappy, hard-charging multisport team. In other words, mga adik. It’s really all about a bunch of dedicated, highly competitive guys getting together in the spirit of self-improvement and the quest for athletic excellence, no pun intended.  We figured, since the resources that we were pouring into the sport was no joke anymore, we might as well strive to work hard and represent ourselves in the best way we could out there. That was pretty much the foundation on which the team was built, and those are the same ideals that keep us together to this day.

Deo : The team basically started as an executive cycling group early last year. Though we belonged to different triathlon teams, most of us rode together, so we decided to put up an executive cycling team. However, the “training together” part didn’t end with just cycling, we swam and ran together as well, so we decided to leave our teams and just form our own triathlon team.

Quest represents our drive for excellence and competitiveness, 825 is actually 8am to 5pm as we are all 8-5 employees.

The Quest 825 Train

SBR.ph : I usually see the Quest 825 bike train during weekends. Do you guys always train together?

Luis : We do have a regular training regimen that entails that we all train together at least twice a week. Weekdays it’s usually Camp Aguinaldo that serves as our de facto training jaunt, while on weekends it varies depending on the race that we’re preparing for.

Deo : We have scheduled bi-weekly trainings. Wednesdays we do bike speed work inside Camp Aguinaldo which we consider our “official” training ground. Saturdays are long ride days, spent in different parts of Luzon: Sierra Madre, Bugarin, Laguna, Jala-jala, Tagaytay, Clark, MOA and sometimes even Subic. These are “must” attend training days and more often than not, most of the guys are present.

Burning the roads of MOA

SBR.ph : How often in a week do you train together? Who makes your training programs?

Luis : As earlier mentioned, it’s usually twice a week but there are times that we meet up in smaller groups if it so happens that we’re all in the same area. We all follow our own individual programs for the most part, but our teammate and ITU coach James Dulalia (who also happens to be our team manager) makes sure that everything is in order and monitors our progress to ensure we are leveraging our programs for maximum efficacy.

Deo : There are two official training days in a week where the guys are together, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Other days of the week are individual training days but most of the time, we end up being together as well. We just can’t get enough of each other, hehe.  James Dulalia is our resident triathlon coach, being a certified ITU level 1 coach. Individual training programs vary but these are all reviewed by James and he makes sure that the program fits the athlete.  We also have a cycling coach who looks over us and our progress on the bike. We help each other out on the run. Arbs Portugal is a high school track coach and he is very instrumental in correcting the forms of some of our members including myself.

SBR.ph : The 2012 season is jam-packed with multisport races. Let’s talk about team dynamics. How many races is Quest 825 going to do this year? Do you require each member to do a certain number of races per year?

Luis : Most of our members race 8-12 times a year on the multisport circuit, majority of which is on their own volition.  What we do is that there are several races where full attendance is required, and the rest is up to our members to choose from the laundry list of races. Given that we also race the executive cycling leagues, this could all up to a quite taxing schedule and a lot of us were already running on fumes at the end of the season, myself included.  One of our main goals for this season is to synergize and reconcile all these races in our schedule so that we don’t compromise our performance. On yeah, and I forgot we actually still have dayjobs. Work is getting in the way of training haha.

Deo : We have mapped out our races during our January 15 planning session for 2012 and have decided our official races for the year. The team actually requires each member to race one official race and another race he is interested to join. Our official races include SubIT, Tri-United 2, Cebu 70.3, WRT and Timex 226. On top of these, we will also be present in all Phil. Cycling League ( PCL ) and most Bike King cycling races. We will also be in full force in this year’s Tour of Matabungkay. There are also some run races that we will need to join as support for some of our sponsors.  Each member is also required to act as support for the team in cycling races at least once.

SBR.ph : How can someone join Quest 825?

Deo : We are probably one of the teams out there with a stricter membership guideline. But before people start thinking about us being snobs, the reason for this is that we want all our members to be with us for as long as the team exists, so we screen the applicants thoroughly and see if his personality and attitude fit the team.

We limit the number of members of the team. In 2011, we limited it to 13. This year, we have limited it to 14. This is to make sure that things don’t go beyond unmanageable levels and keep the team focused.

Annually, we decide on how many members we will have for the succeeding season. Once the number is finalized, we start the recruitment process. Some people are sent invites (though being sent an invite doesn’t guarantee membership into the team). We also accept applications to the team. All these go through screening by all members of the team. Once an applicant is chosen, he then is asked to join the team trainings for 2 months so that regular members can feel him out. After 3 months, the team decides whether he becomes a probationary member or not. If he becomes a probationary member, he will need to race and train under the Quest 825 team for 3 months after which he will again be evaluated. Once he passes the evaluation, he then becomes a regular member of the team.

If one is interested to join us, he can send a letter of interest to any member of the team, but please, don’t ask, ”what are the benefits of being a member of Quest 825”, because for sure, you won’t make it. To copy and modify JFK’s famous words: “Think not of what your team can do for you, but what you can do for your team.”

Luis : It usually helps if we’re actually friends, or if we’ve trained or raced with you in the past. We usually assess potential members and send out limited invitations on the basis of both athletic potential and more importantly, their looming chemistry with the team.  Unlike other “social” teams where membership is open, we take pride in running a tight ship and valuing friendship over podium finishes. We don’t want to take the route of bloating our ranks by getting all these hatak who get us to the podium but whom we barely know in real life.

Nasa Kabataan, ang Pag-asa ng Bayan.

SBR.ph : Do you need to have an 8 to 5 job to join the team?

Deo : No. All one needs is the passion for the sport, and the financial capability to back it up.

Luis : Not necessarily, we do have some entrepreneurs on the team although they are in the minority. And yeah, maybe one or two COO’s (child of the owner) haha.

SBR.ph : How many in the team actually has an 8 to 5 job? :)

Luis : I’d say about 85% of the team :)

Deo : All of us, though we have members who are COOs ( Child Of the Owner ).

Serious

SBR.ph : I keep on hearing about this certain “Erick Guieb”, as the next big thing in triathlon. (Ka-age group ko pa! @!#$! Hehehe..). Is he the team’s captain?

Luis : Oh, THAT guy. What’s his deal again? Haha. Erick is one of the primary driving forces behind the team and one of our biggest inspirations. He has continually improved himself to a top-tier level while working with a very demanding work schedule.  He was last season’s co-captain, a position that I have assumed for this season while Deo remains our captain. For this season, Erick maintains a role that’s somewhat of a cross between a team coordinator (for registration, training, logistics, finances) and your crabby Grandma (during TTT’s where he yaps at you if you slack off on the rotation) lol. There’s a method to the madness though, and we all somehow get a glimpse of the indefatigable spirit that has brought him to the upper echelons of his division.

Deo : He used to be the team’s co-Captain. Now, he handles the team’s finances and leads the regular training sessions. He is also our strongest triathlete, but the other guys are catching up with him faster than we expected which is good so that Erick doesn’t slacken up on his training…hehe

The team before the start of TIMEX 226. Masasaya pa.

SBR.ph : Most of you did the TIMEX 226 Iron Distance triathlon. Will that be a yearly iron-affair for you guys? Are you going to require each member to do it?

Deo : Ultimately, every triathlete’s dream is to finish an Iron-distance race. All the members of Quest 825 share this dream, so we didn’t need to have Timex 226 as a required race as all of us look forward to it as “The RACE” every year. When Timex 226 was announced last year, almost all of us wanted to race. Unfortunately, some, though qualified, had to wait for another year due to personal reasons. Believe you me, if everything went well for all the members of Quest 825 late last year, there would have been 11 of us toeing the start line of the inaugural Timex 226.

This year, most of the guys will be back in Anda, Bohol with the addition of Wilnar Iglesia, James Dulalia, Jason Dela Rama and Emil Ancheta. We will probably be one of the most represented there again, God-willing.

Luis : Definitely! Actually, if not for a couple of logistical snags there should have been more of us who competed at Timex 226. Given that there’s a fair share of endurance athletes on the team as well as just plain crazy people, we are expecting a near-full roster in December. A good motivator may have been our tales about the mystic 5 minute lechon at the after party.

Team Captain Deo

SBR.ph : Deo, we’ve known each other since the car club days! Which lifestyle is better? Or better yet, alin mas magastos??? =)

Deo : Pareho! Hahahaha! The difference lies in the obvious benefits and disadvantages. I am living a healthier lifestyle now, but I had a better social life before. Hehe

Praying for guidance for the long road ahead.

SBR.ph : I keep on telling aspiring triathletes that doing an Ironman, (the full, not the 70.3), forges an unbreakable bond between all the participants. A brotherhood that only an Ironman will know. Being one of the teams with the most number of participants last year, how did that race change your team’s outlook with regards to training and racing?

Luis : It was an experience that was one of the most difficult to prepare for and one that really took a lot out of us at the end. It’s no freaking joke. It’s not something that you could just wing and waltz right into to. You need a heck of a lot of preparation for that seeming war, and I agree that the brotherhood and camaraderie is at a completely different level. My guess is that less than 1% of 1% of the population will actually ever do one, and people somehow take extra time to encourage and look out for one another, perhaps more than any other race.

Deo : We’ve heard this before and I’d say it again: There are no shortcuts to finishing an Ironman. What you reap is what you sow. Train easy, then expect to race hard. Train hard and you’ll have an easier time than the others. We know that now. Haha

The team used to train “bara-bara” before. After Timex 226, we now train with more science in the program. Gone are the days when we will just ride for the sake of having mileage. Now, even our 1 hour trainings are “patayan” to the max. Just this morning, the team rode for about 50K criterium style, 40K of which are in Zone 4, an average of around 36-45kph, maxing out about 52kph on flats. Yes, it hurt, but by experiencing the pain you get stronger. Each of our member’s determination to get stronger is our ticket to finishing an IM. We now try to combine determination and science in trainings and races. Correct your form in running and riding, factor in your high intensity training and recovery sessions, add to that grit and determination, equals strong finish.

Ronald Rei rocking VFF’s at the TIMEX 226

SBR.ph : Can you explain to us how the heck Ronald Rei runs using VFF’s?? (Vibram Five Fingers). He finished the Bataan Death March and TIMEX 226 using VFF’s! Pag-nagbabike ba yun naka VFF din??

Deo : If you check out Ronald’s sole, you’d notice there are not much difference between it and the VFF’s. :)  Ronald is blessed with a strong knee, strong patience, and a body type that can withstand century runs on the most minimalist of shoes. He’s also suffering from some form of insanity he’s keeping secret from us. Hehe  The longer the race is, the more it is to Ronald’s liking.

Luis : It’s a special talent that he has, among many others. Most of which are not fit for print lol.

I rest my case

SBR.ph : Speaking of VFF’s, are you guys BFF’s in real life too?

Luis : Given that there aren’t that many of us in the group, I wouldn’t go into the whole “we’re like a family” shtick that seems like a pre-recorded mantra for this kind of question. I think a more accurate description would be a bunch of college buds on cold turkey, most of whom were already downright crazy to begin with.

Deo : This I can answer with YES in all caps. Not only us, but our partners as well. All of us consider the team as second family. Our wives have an FB group which they keep exclusive to them. Our kids know and play with each other. We watch Pacquao fights together over some beers and pizza while the wives discuss the latest showbiz chika and the kids murder some person’s iPad. Quest 825 is more of a family than a team, that’s why you’ll see that in FB posts, we refer to a member of the team as “brother” and not “teammate” most of the time.

We also have aliases in the team as our terms of endearment: King Koopah , Coach Panda , PussyKat , Elti , Elvis, Sastre, Bunso, UltraKups, Kuntador, Ispaks, McDAP, Luli and Tars. I leave up to you to guess which alias matches the member. Hehe

Bromance is all around

SBR.ph : Correct me if I’m wrong but it’s a sausage fiesta in the team! Is that by design? Do you guys also have women members?

Deo : We thought of having female members in the team, and in fact, sent invites to at least two. Unfortunately both declined as they were still tied up with their teams. We ditched the idea after that, though we’re still planning to add one by next season.

Luis : Sausage fiesta it is! The team has extremely jealous wives and girlfriends so there isn’t any other option otherwise. Seriously though, we did try to recruit some female members to further diversify our depth. Suffice to say, we got jilted :) Remind us to send over some flowers next time.

Loaded for 2012

SBR.ph : Who are the sponsors of the team for the 2012 season?

Deo : We’ve just signed up with L TimeStudio last Monday. So expect the guys to be wearing Soleus and Speedo watches in the next few weeks once the new models become available, and the L TimeStudio logo splattered in front of our jersey once our 2012 uniforms are launched. We’re still backed up by Bikezilla with Ridley bike frames, Token wheels, Lazer helmets, SH+ eyewear and Hutchinson’s tyres. Blackberry and Vibram Five Fingers have now come into the fold. Potencee (probably the best Vitamin C supplement out there ) continues to support us via providing each of us a year’s worth of supply. Trident Logistics and www.dulaliahomes.com round up our minor sponsors.

Luis : I’ll defer to Deo on this, he pretty much answered this.

SBR.ph : Any tips you can give out there to aspiring Ironmen?

Luis : Never take your training for granted. And never, ever give up even when it seems like it’s a lost cause. Pray for the pain, because it’s actually your cue to push even harder than you ever have.

Deo : Don’t let the passion burn out. Train wisely and race intelligently. When you’re in pain, keep in mind that others are in pain too, you’re not alone.  And try to bring a lot of “chismis” into the race, you’ll need it during the run part.

Wait.. home come you’re all holding the same bike??

SBR.ph : Luis, why the heck do people call you Elvis? =P

Luis : Haha, to be quite honest I have absolutely no idea! In the running community they used to just call me Gingerbreadman or simply GBM from the title of my website. Elvis is a relatively newfangled thing that probably emanated from some senseless but well-meaning drivel as always. And whatever its true meaning is, it’s probably just as crazy as the people who coined it lol.

SBR.ph : Some people make work as a default excuse not to train. How do you deal with that? How do you balance work, training, and family life?

Deo : Personally, I find work being a lame excuse for not training. My work starts at 8am and ends at 5pm and I am still able to train for an IM, at the same time have quality time with the wife and kids in the evening. I guess it depends on how much you really want to do the sport that matters.

My normal day starts at 4:30 a.m. I leave the house once all my kids are awake in the morning so I could kiss them off then try to be at Camp Aguinaldo by 6:00 a.m. to either swim, bike or run. With all the years I’ve been training there, I made friends with the pool caretaker so I get free showers even if I didn’t swim.

My nightlife died with triathlon though. Before 2008, I used to hang out with friends twice a week. These days, its about twice a year, Christmas and Reunion…hahaha

I try to be home by 7:00 p.m. to help out the kids with their homework, then bunker around 9:00-9:30 p.m. Weekend afternoons are sacred for the family.

I pretty much share the same sked with the other married members of the team. That’s why we agreed from the very start that regular family parties will be held so that they don’t feel left out…and our race visas won’t get revoked…hehe

Luis : Big secret – I don’t sleep. You should try it too. It’s great for time management and painful for your weekly coffee bill. :P

SBR.ph : Lastly, given a choice, what would you pick? Work 8 to 5 or train 8 to 5?

Luis : A good balance would probably keep me sane, I don’t see myself doing too much of both or it would drive me nuts :P

Deo : I’m a realistic person. Though I have been hooked with the sport going 4 years now, I’m still sane enough not to make it my priority. Family still is number one and it’s about putting food on the table first before anything else. Also, I am not genetically gifted to be an FOP athlete, despite my efforts on getting stronger and faster, I seem to have plateaued a year ago and have improved in seconds instead of the minutes I wanted.

I try to share my experiences to the newer ones instead. I know that what I have been through in this sport is being undergone by the newbies currently. I’m trying to pay it forward via my blog: www.thesweataddict.com. It basically chronicles all my endeavors, sufferings and personal victories in multisport and I hope a few of the few who read it could pick up a thing or two.

SBR.ph : Thanks for the time guys! Appreciate it!

Deo : Thanks again bro! And more power to SBR!

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