Increase Target
As of this date, I already have managed to cover 941.65 kilometers. I initially targeted 1,000 kilometers for this year. I am about to accomplish my target, so I made some adjustment: Increase the Target to 1,500.
I guess I would still be able to meet the new target due to some reasons:
1. Increased Training
2. Higher Mileage per Week in prep for the coming FULL MARATHONS.
3. Force to run more.
Heaven help us. God Bless.
6 DAYS Hence
Finally. Was able to run a dragging 7kms.
KM 01 – 08 mins 33.1 seconds
KM 02 – 08 mins 44.6 seconds (i thought i was running faster than the first!)
KM 03 – 09 mins 02.1 seconds (i really thought i was running faster than the first two!)
KM 04 – Walk Break (Pag-pag ba!)
KM 05 – 08 mins 56.1 seconds
KM 06 – 08 mins 36.5 seconds
KM 07 – 08 mins 11.7 seconds (now im feeling faster)
KM 08 – 08 mins 11.0 seconds
Total time spent running (for my recovery) = 01 hour and 13.7 seconds!
LSD tomorrow with the guys at 5am. A good 18 kms to look forward to!
Did 20KMS in 02 hours and 57 minutes.
Nice run…yeah!
Acknowledgements
After many runs, and the just concluded 33rd Milo Marathon Manila Elimination Race, I felt the need to give thanks.
Am forever grateful to the following:
1. To God our Father who never ceases to love us all. To our Lord Jesus for always being there. To the Holy Spirit who manifests in so many ways. To the angels who made me the apple of their eyes.
2. To Neil aka Crashburn, who biked along with me from the Buendia Flyover to the Finish Line, who gave me each bottle of water i need, who gave me soaking wet cold towels, who never gave up on pushing me and encouraging me not to give up…
3. To RJ aka X59 and Patrick aka Winceth = the UltraPat, both volunteer bikers…who’s just always at the right place and the right time asking for whatever we may need while running. The offer is touching enough.
4. To Glen, who gave me the energy gel at past KM 8 to the finish line.
5. To Luis aka The Gingerbreadman, for lending me his very own precious Garmin.
6. To the WHOLE Red-Colored Dressed Takbo.PH Support Group…who is almost complete at the CLP Night:
To the Rowers/Paddlers:
To the RUNHikers/Climbers:
To the whole 42K runners and the pacers:
To the Hoffs who inspired the others:
For the unscathed passion of this Takbo.PH in any endeavor, runs, activities or what-have-yous…
Thank YOU Very Very Much.
From a humble running/activity friend and partner.
I WANT TO RUN FAST TOO
I want to run fast too…But…
Not as fast as the animals of the Havana,
Not as fast as lightning,
Not as fast as the blink of an eye,
Not as fast as the Tarahumara Indians,
Not as fast as Natz, nor Pat nor Dennis,
Not as fast as the elites,
Not as fast as a txt message,
Not as fast as the weather changes.
For now…
I have lots of other plans still.
I want to try out the Newton shoes.
I want to try another TRAIL LSD.
I want to try another MIDNIGHT run.
I want to try another fast-paced 16kms.
I want to try wearing a Garmin 305.
I want to try a long run of 7 hours.
I want to try barefoot race in the sand.
I want to try running up a climb.
But again, these are just wants. I wish to focus on what I need now.
I need to run faster. How I will do this, or how I will be able to accomplish this is the question. I might have to ask the experts.
Expert #1: Develop the Fast Twitch muscle fibers – for explosive speed and quickness. How?
Expert #2: Perform Isometrics. Its all about conditioning the specific muscle fibers that cause your muscles to contract quickly and powerfully. This type of conditioning will result in you being able to run faster, and with greater speed and agility and balance. How?
Expert #3: Modify your Approach to Speed Training. How?
Expert #4: Increase your Turnover. Try Interval Work-Outs. Do Tempo RUN once a week. Try Steep Hill Training.
Wow. I’m amazed at how some people would go just to get the ‘speed’. I guess I’d have to make a concrete plan as advised by Expert #4.
* Increase my Turn.Over…the old 3 strides per meter increased to 5?
* Interval Work-Outs.
If you’re running on the road instead of a track, you can use lamp posts or telephone poles to mark your intervals. After warming-up, try sprinting for two lamp posts, then recover for two, and keep repeating the pattern until you’ve covered a mile.
That makes a lot of sense to me…
* Tempo Run Once a Week.
Tempo runs help you develop your anaerobic threshold, which is critical for running faster. To do a tempo run, start your run with 5 to 10 minutes of easy running, then continue with 15 to 20 minutes of running near your 10K pace. Finish with 5 to 10 minutes of cooling down. Your 10K pace is your comfortable pace that’s hard to sustain, but sustainable.
* Hill Training.
Hill repeats are an efficient way to build running strength. Find a fairly steep hill that’s about 100 meters long. Run hard to the top of the hill, and slowly jog back down. Start with 3 to 4 repeats once a week, and gradually work your way up to 6 to 7 repeats.
That’s a lot of hard work ahead.
That’s a lot of sweat.
I hope I could keep up and accomplish this plan. By God’s grace, I will.
THE 2ND WEEK OF JUNE
06.09.09 Around 7pm, I came late at the agreed meeting place for the supposedly early night run.
After a few minutes of chat, when all is set and ready to go, we started with a single round of run around BHS.
A few minutes rest, Vic and Marvin joined us. We head to McKinley Hills. It was an easy run and quite a serious night of running. We did some hills sprints, and fartleks. I’ve had a blast. My legs are somewhat challenged by it.
Two rounds up and down the hills was so nice. We then head back to BHS where the birthday boy NEIL treated us to some ice cold softdrinks and lots of PIZZAs! Bless the man!
The run ended with some more pictures and a quite heavy rain that shooed us away!
06.12.09 A few minutes past 6am, when I reached Chowking Baclaran, Pat, Pepsi, Rodel, Anna, Gab and Cindy was already waiting for us. Carina, Gary, Ayeen and Cele followed.
After some of us finished their breakfast, we all head down to the ‘titanic’ service to Pico De Loro jump-off. True enough, the bus, a mini-bus, was a real titanic – roomy and old and rusty!
Past 9am, we reached the DENR station where we registered. Now off to the jump-off…
Pat and Dennis decided to run from the DENR station to the jump-off. Nice! Fine sight of two ‘adiks’!
After the ‘group prayer’ we started the climb. I lead, Pat, Pepsi, Dennis and Gab followed. We’re planning to get to the first camp near the water source.
By the time we reached the Base Camp 1, a number of other climbers were already there. We then decided to just camp near the water falls. Pat went ahead of everybody. I took to follow him. Dennis too and Gab.
When Dennis was able to catch up with me, I can’t see a shadow of Pat. Not even a slight voice. I was already shouting his name. Dennis then decided to just pick-up the group from Base Camp 1 and head to the water falls where I will be waiting for them.
I was already near the water falls when the rain fell. With the quickest move I could muster, I pulled the raincoat at the back of my bag.
From the waterfalls where I shouted in vain for Pat, I go back to where the road to the summit and the waterfalls meet. There…Pat heading towards me, I towards him.
We took time to sit and wait for the others to arrive. Other climbers from other groups passed-us by.
When all’s regrouped, we head back to the waterfalls to pitch camp. The temperature was hot, but the cool wind compensated for that.
Rodel started cooking his famous Carbonara, Gab his sumptuous Sinigang. After the rice has been cooked, and it was quite a lazy late afternoon, Rodel, Pepsi and I went back to the Base Camp 1 to get some more water for the group.
When we came back, some are tipsy, some are already crazy! They jugged some alcohol and took turns relaying some funny stories of what transpired while were gone.
After the dinner, and some endless discussion over some interesting topics, we rested at around 10:30pm. It was a perfect night. Cold Night, Warm Company, Nice & Intelligent Discussion, Bright Stars, Clear Sky.
4am, I get-up and woke everybody up. After some coffee and some fast-snacks, we were able to assault the road to the summit at 5am. The RUNHikers: Me, Pepsi, Carina, Cele, Rodel and Dennis.
Past 6:15am, we were able to reach the summit. Bit it was a foggy and cloudy and drizzling morning. We took some snacks and drinks and a lot of pictures ‘up there’, and decided to head back down to our camp site.
After we break camp, and some group pictures, we went down the mountain to the magnetic jump-off where our service back to Baclaran is waiting.
We had lunch somewhere along the way, and ate again some cakes at Red Ribbon before we call it a day. I got home a few minutes before 3pm.
Gotta rest. Gotta sleep. Gotta be ready for the Long Run tom.
06.14.09 Near a quarter to 6am, Carlo, Rod, Vicky and I reached the Oblation.
It was a fine morning – cool breeze, bright sunlight, great company, nice run!
We took the 10kms route of the PTAA and some more rounds around the UP Oval. It’s nice to run along the group who shares the same passion with you.
After most of the registered runners finished, we took time for some photo-ops. It was quite a number of Takbo.PH member-attendees. Such Fun.
sprinting to the finish line!
We ate at Rodics…and got treated! Thanks to the Hoff Marvin! Nice tasting TAPSILOG and LONGSILOG. We then head to KOPIROTI in Katipunan for some more chats…I ate a coffee bun and the MILO Dinosaur.
Chelly dropped me at the LRT Line 2 in Santolan. Off I go. Off they went about too.
Am full. Am energized. Am glad.
FREEDOM CLIMB EXPECTATIONS
After last month’s climb at Mount Maculot with the gang below this paragraph, I have a new set of gang joining the climb this June 12, 2009 – The Freedom Climb.
We shall be joining other climbers in Mount Pico de Loro. See the view below.
So what do I expect now? Not much.
1. Fun Climb
2. Jolly Gang
3. Sunny Day
4. Cool Night
5. Musical Evening
6. Easy Leg Work-Out
7. Del-uscious Meal
8. Early Get-Home
9. Warm Company
10. Blessed Day
11. Back Home Safe and Sound
12. Some Wacky Messed-Up Evening
Thanks to Carlo for the design. And thanks to the group composed of the following: pepsi,flyingboar,oOoceleoOo,dhentzm,argonaut,hagibis,dirtysanchez,drunkenlilly,joseph,ana and ayeen for making themselves available.
Looking forward to the fulfillment of my expectations!
FAVORITE RUNNING CONDITION
As most of my closest friends knew, I like running in the rain. It’s my favorite time for running…a condition that’s so cool for my body.
This is exactly what happened at the Earth Run. I was able to beat old time records. This is now my personal best time. Thanks to the drizzle, and the wet road.
The race started 30 minutes late from the supposed time. All runners of different categories were made to start all-together.
As expected, unless you’re position at the front, you are forced to start slow. The road is crowded. 16km-runners spammed with 3km and 5km group.
Navigational running experience sets in. You must find your way among this crowd.
After the first lace-marker turn-around, the road seemed to just open and give-way. I was having fun recovering from the uphill of McKinley. After the 5km marker, 16km-runners basically own the road.
I tuned my pace with at least a hard effort. I marked the 6km-pacer as my personal target.
Going to Pasong Tamo Ext., I was able to set a good pace with the pacer. Am glad with my pace. We’re basically like running buddies running together. All the way down to Bayani Road, we’re just arms away from each other. Not until the trun-around at C5. The pacer kept up with his pace. I have to slow down to recover. At this point, we’re about to run-up again to Lawton Ave.
With the best effort I could muster, I gave all, and consistently kept a fast-but-careful stride to the finish.
Like I would always do, a strong finish is my usual aim. And I was able to accomplish the same.
Am glad to have set a new personal best record. I hope to continually beat the same over some hard training.
CITY OF PINE RUNNING
Above, you’d see the elevation detail of the run…and the distance too. What we thought was 21 KMS turned out to be just 18.36 KMS. Nice.
The agony of running uphills (see again the figure above) is so much. Running down is much easy.
For once, like what happened last Sunday, i will agree about the ‘thin air’ thing. I was about past 2km from the start when I started feeling it. I was trying to ignore it but then after some more time of continuous running, I felt ‘hard breathing’ to ‘lacking out of breath’. I have to stop, re-clip the belt of my hydration bag and start deep-breathing in and out.
After a couple of passing time, and trying to walk the minute, the guys started catching up and passing by me.
Right on time for my recovery, the big bulk of the group joined me. And so I catch-up run with them.
The gravity pull going down was so easy. It was the feat after the turn-around that tested everything we’ve got.
It was bliss when I reached the top. Though forced to walk and in some kind of pain, I was able to recover again and started running straight to the finish line.
The sight of the Red Bold Letter hanging in the air gave me enough push to finish the race strong. Am so happy with the group’s accomplishment. I am so glad with mine.
