It’s funny how people would address me these days. Last night I went to Mizuno Store at Bonifacio High Street to get my winnings from The Bull Runner and was told by the Mizuno lady that she’ll be available around 8:30pm. I figured out I might as well join their training as they really have this cool drills I wanted to participate plus the runs. On my way there somebody yelled at me “Running Ninja!”, I looked around and there he was. His name is Wilson and his blog can be found here. I like the way he writes especially his novela type of describing the events following the recent Botak Paa-Tibayan race.  He’s currently taking his Masters (Electrical Engineering) at UP Diliman and plans to take phd after. He will also join the 100km TNF this coming Saturday in Clark while his brother and dad will do 50km. Well a family that runs together, stays together!

After the warm-up run,  on my way back to Mizuno Store, I met a guy who also addressed me as Running Ninja. He’s a nice guy and so we ended up running together for one or two small loops until he asked me to go ahead of him as he would take a quick break. Later I realized that he’s one of the pastors working for Victory Church at Fort Bonifacio Global City. Nice to meet you pastor Michael Paderes! Later, I found myself running alone that night and two gals quipped “Uy si Running Ninja oh”, like a teen-age boy I said “hello po”. I still love people calling me as Running Ninja but would prefer “Sam”. However, some people still call me “Ammy” following the race result at Alabang Town Center early this month. Please lang! I also got to talk to Coach Ige (Mizuno coach) and we had a small conversation about running. He’s happy to see running is starting to be the “hot” thing here in Philippines. I have to tell him that running coaches are now like the modern D.Is (dance instructors), earning lots of cash from trainings and one-on-one tutorials. He smiled convincingly. I found out later from him that aside from coaching people how to run properly, he also sells stuffs at Bike King. He also agreed to be interviewed in the future, so guys send me any questions you want to ask coach Ige.

Finally just when everyone is starting to leave, I met The Bull Runner and gave me my winnings ( see above 500 worth of food stuffs at Paul Calvin’s and Cocoon Spa and Salon). There’s not much conversation involve as I believe she’s in a hurry to go home (or she’s in a hurry to get rid of me hahaha!).

This is one of the things I like most with running, you get to meet a lot of people of all shapes and sizes. Keep on running guys!

I started running seriously only this year, first week of February. My primary intention was to lost weight to win a game in our office which we gamely called The Biggest Loser. As I haven’t been running seriously all my life then, the shoes I was using then were not really built for running. So when a local sports store went on sale, I immediately bought my first running shoes (which I still use today by the way), Adidas Ignition. It was the cheapest running shoes on that store that I probably just shelled out Php2,200 (or US $46) for it. After joining 5 races and 28Lbs lighter later (nice rhyme), I can feel my shoes suddenly losing its soft cushion. With this condition, I decided it would be best to buy new racing shoes and a trainer shoes, hence I got Nike Free 5.0 and Adidas Supernova Sequence with the intention of using my old running shoes and my Nike as my trainer shoes and Adidas Supernova Sequence as my race shoes. Now the question that goes into my mind and to most newbie runners is when to replace an old running shoes. I scout around the Internet and there seems to be gray areas on when to replace it. I tried looking for a common ground and here’s what I found.

Replace your shoes every 800 kilometers. 800 km limit is more of a guideline than a rule. If you buy a cheap running shoes, you would probably need to replace it after reaching only 300km. As I can easily throw out numbers here like 300km, 500km or 800km, still the best way to know if its time to replace them is to look at your shoes at least once a week. Check the bottom of your shoes for any peeling or cracking. Check the toes and insoles for tears. If you begin to see these signs, its time to buy a new pair or running shoes. Going to Quickly for a quick patching work is NEVER a good idea. Buy a new one, it will make your running experience more comfortable and less prone to accident due to bad running shoes condition.

If you’re not a fan of road running and spend most of your time running on treadmills, the damage on your running shoes might be smaller. Therefore, a treadmill runner may not even need to start checking their shoes until they have run 600 km in them.

Remember that running shoes depend on the rubber and the foam to cushion your feet’s impact against the ground, so when those two things break down, shock is transferred up to your feet and body, causing long-term injury than you realized.

Remember this, replacing your running shoes is significantly more gratifying than not being able to run anymore!

Almost two weeks ago, I posted in this blog about Adidas promo and I thought this is too good to be ignored. So I headed to their Adidas Greenbelt store days later and bought for myself Supernova Sequence that cost me Php 3,900. Had it not been for the php 1,000 discount (original cost is php 4,900), I would have not bought this shoes for the fear of verbal spanking from my wife

Essentially an upgrade from the very popular Adidas Supernova Control series but much lighter, I’ve been using this shoes on my running sessions to break it in at the DLSU-D Oval and so far I like the support this shoes offer. As I do have an annoyingly sweaty feet during runs, this shoes has absorbent moisture wicking that keeps my feet comfortable and dry. Add to this the Adidas-patented cushioning and and the midfoot structuring, this shoes guides my foot more efficiently with less muscle fatigue. Using Supernova Sequence during my run makes me feel stronger and I seem to notice that it helps me propell forward rather than slow me down on impact.

How I would use this:
I would probably use this for running 10k or half marathons.

Features:

• Fabric mesh upper is breathable and light weight
• Leather and synthetic overlays provide better stability and durability
• Padded tongue and collar and removable insole cushioning for secure fit and extra comfort
• Moisture-wicking fabric lining absorbs excess perspiration to keep feet dry and cool
• Adidas patented adiPRENE midsole and 3D ForMotion provides lightweight and flexible cushioning and guides foot to promote proper running form
• Durable outsole with exclusive Torsion technology for great structure and high traction tread pattern

Supernova Sequence Fabric Mesh Upper section

Adidas patented adiPRENE midsole

3D ForMotion provides lightweight and flexible cushioning

3D ForMotion provides lightweight and flexible cushioning

How It Fits

• Sizing: Standard running shoe length
• Heel: Narrow to medium
• Midfoot: Medium volume
• Forefoot: Medium
• Toe-Box height: Medium
• Arch Structure: Medium height

Weight: 12.1 oz (size 9)

Pronation Control Technology

Designed for mild to moderate over- pronation

• Midsole: Pro-moderator medial support, Formotion heel, torsion system
• Shape: Semi-curved
• Construction Last: Strobel-lasted Adiprene 55 in the heel, traditional strobel-lasted forefoot

Cushioning Technology

• Midsole: Compression-molded EVA
• Heel: adiPRENE, Formotion
• Forefoot: Full forefoot adiPRENE+

Upper Materials

• No-seam fit technology, quick-dry open air mesh, 360-degree reflectivity

Outsole Technology

• Heel: Adiwear carbon rubber
• Forefoot: Blown rubber

Adidas Supernova Sequence cushion

Adidas Supernova Sequence Heel section

Adidas Supernova Sequence stability shoes

When Pojie first started the idea of doing Long Slow Distance (LSD) run from Tagaytay to Sta.Rosa over takbo.ph thread, I immideately signed up. While I understand that most of my readers are runners, I want to give new runners a quick idea what an LSD is. The main benefit of a long slow run is to develop aerobic resistance. This differs with medium paced training runs  and with tempo runs which develop aerobic power. This aerobic resistance gained from doing long slow runs is the fundamental building block on which your ability to run a long distance at a sustained speed in a race is built. If you’re gearing up for a marathon race (which I guess most of us at takbo.ph will do this October), LSD is a MUST for all of us. Two more benefits are development of blood circulation system which allows your lungs to move more oxygen to the muscles that need it and, and my favourite one, it burns more internal fat efficiently! FYI, our muscles usually use glycogen as a source of fuel, but during an LDS run,  this runs out and the muscles start to use fats as fuel. It is for this reason why most marathoners have super sexy legs and slim body structure.

Now going back to our LSD, we plan to start our run at 4:00 am to avoid the afternoon sun. By Pojie’s estimate, we should be able to reach Sta.Rosa Laguna by 9:00am. Luis and I decided that we will park our car in Laguna where Doc. Eric will pick us up and drive us to his place in Mendez Cavite. However this was not followed so we ended up going to Laguna with his car while I left mine at Laguna.

Eric showed up around 3:30am and we were able to reach his grandmother’s place by 4:20am.

The street from Doc Eric’s place to the main road is full of dogs no one from the team dared to run. For readers abroad, we have dogs here belonging to a breed called Askals. They are ferocious, respects no one, bites every running souls and are usually noisy at night. As we don’t want to deal with these dogs, we walk all the way to the main road

After surpassing that small and very dark street full of dogs, we start our running session. As we started very late (5:00am), we decided to up our pace 8m/km until we reached Tagaytay Rotunda. It was at this point I somehow got a foreshadowing that this will not be a typical slow run but a tempo run, and boy I was right after finishing this 27km run.

Our greatest fear the Sun rises early that day. We ran faster at this point to reach Tagaytay Rotunda.

I decided to take a quick rest in a restaurant somewhere in Tagaytay road that sells Ostrich, Steaks, Ostrich again and Burgers. The owner of this establishment decided that a Bridal car in front of this restaurant is sure to catch attention. Sure it did catch my attention!

Before we reached Tagaytay Rotunda we met Jinoe and Jerry.  Yes, thats them in the middle of Tagaytay road where speed monsters bikes were also travelling that early morning.

The road from Tagaytay Rotunda going to Sta. Rosa area is full of surprises. I must admit it was my first time to run that road (the farthest I’ve traveled by car in this place is Picnic Grove area) and so I did not waste no time taking pictures of everything I see.

We didn’t run together as one group but instead ended up with subgroups. This is the first group led by Ultraman Jerry. Later on, I ended up almost 1 kilometer away from them as I spend quite a lot of time taking pictures and searching each stores for Gatorade while running this road. The next group following me would be Poj groups, 2 kilometers away from me. If my memory served me right, I was running alone for almost four kilometers that day.

I can only imagine how tough it is for a women to do an LSD. Imagine if they suddenly feel the need to pee, they have to enter an establishment (e.g restaurant, store etc) just to relieve themselves. This treacherous road we traveled have no such establishment and so, some of us just have to look for a special place to pee.

We finally reached Sta.Rosa around 11:10am.

We still have to run 9km more to reach Mhel’s place. However, it was just too hot we can’t do it anymore. But as expected on how running addicts would normally behave, some of us still ran!  Those who ran were Pojie,Jerry,Mhel, Quennie, Carly and Raymond.

We reached Mhel’s place and feasted on what could be the best arozcaldo in the world ever made.

And finally, class picture with the rest of the team.

As with my previous postings, I always put my “lessons learned” every time I run. So here they are:

1. When doing LDS, its always best to run with a group. The camaraderie and encouragement you get is enough to continue your passion. I say this based on my experience. I did my solo 20km run from Dasma to Silang and I could say it was boring. Running with a group is more fun!

2. Use a comfortable running shoes on your LSDs. Better, invest one that is specifically geared for your long runs.

3. Ensure you’re properly hydrated, load lots of choco mucho/gels or sports beans on your hydration belt.

4. Better if you know of any available toilets along the road you’re planning to run on.

Alright that’s all folks! Hope to see you on our next LSD!

Finally the long wait is over. The result of the Paa-Tibayan Race can be found at takbo.ph website. As expected, the outcome is somewhat questionable. My name, even my number was not there. So there I am, non-existent on that race event! Hahahaha! I need to speak with their people to search for my official time. Some blogger-runners also got wrong result. For instance, Jonel’s 42k result is 3:11 which is beyond his ability according to his post and to quote him “how can you get sooooo incompetent beyond comprehension?”.

I hope Botak will work on their future races. Most of the runner’s experience was just so bad boycotting their future races might be their only option.