Muscle memory, intensive workout did not fail Kim Atienza in cycling event

‘Kuya’ Kim Atienza discovers he can still cover long distances on a bicycle./ARMIN P. ADINA

CLARK GLOBAL CITY, Philippines — TV host Kim Atienza used to be a busy triathlete who trained in running, swimming, and cycling and joined several races for years. But he has since shifted to cross fit which he has been doing for about a year already. So when he signed up for a bike ride event recently, he opted for a shorter route because he had not taken his bicycle for a spin for a little while.

“I thought I could no longer take the distances I used to finish, so I signed up for just 60 (kilometers) now. And then I realized it’s still there, so I actually cycled a total of about 105 kilometers today,” the TikTropa host shared about his cycling competence when he spoke to the Inquirer after finishing the bike event at the Clark Global City in Pampanga on May 21.

Atienza, in the past, had openly discussed having survived a stroke and a debilitating Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS), a rare disorder where the body’s immune system damages the nerve, causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis. However, he confessed that he did not train for the ride at all, and just hoped for the best.

“I did not imagine it to be still there… I was a triathlete also for 13 years, and I was cycling almost every day. For one year I did not do it. ‘Bahala na!’ So I relied on past muscle memory and cross fit training, and it’s all there, I was able to do 105 km quite easily,” he said.

His recent training regimen includes mostly upper-body intensive workouts, he said. That is why he was surprised he was still able to pedal his way through a distance that even exceeded the declared limit, as if he had not hung up his bicycle for a while.

Atienza used to ride distances of up to 180 kilometers as an avid cyclist decades ago. “I like long distances in the 90s,” he said. So there really was a wealth of past cycling experiences he could tap into for his recent ride. It was not a race though, that is why he and his fellow cyclists had a leisurely pace in what was dubbed as a “Gran Fondo.”

He was among the thousands of registrants from various parts of Luzon, including actor-director Zoren Legaspi, news anchor Gretchen Ho and Sen. JV Ejercito.

Kim Atienza’s (third from left) cycling buddies include (from left) actor-director Zoren Legaspi and news anchor Gretchen Ho./ARMIN P. ADINA

Atienza will again test his stamina when he joins the cycling festival’s Cebu leg on May 28, which will include the newly-opened Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway in its route. As in the Clark leg, the upcoming ride has three Gran Fondo distance categories—100 km, 60 km, and 30 km. EDV

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