For the past two weeks I haven’t been running at all. I spent most of the time working with the gym’s Elliptical trainer and resistance training on my upper body. As a result, I think I gained some muscle weight…and some unnecessary weight as well due to lack of more challenging cardio exercise. If you’re going to ask me how I got injured, I got it 3 weeks ago when I used my long-run shoes (which I typically used for long steady runs) on a 21km – race mode. Definitely a newbie mistake and so all my training plans are put into back burner.

I haven’t consulted a doctor yet, but I feel like its just some torn muscles in my extensor digitorum longus (that hopefully will heal itself eventually) .  I’m a bit worried, because there’s this company sponsored race next Sat and the company is pushing me to do really well to represent the company daw.

Well, its not gonna happen people, I will just take it easy and screw the pressure!

You reach that certain age when birthdays have ceased to be an issue.

This is one day when everybody goes out of his way to be extra nice to you.  Once upon a time there were only a handful of people (like family, friends and colleagues)  who knows the exact date of your natal day.  But then, thanks to Facebook, your birthday will be as big as the number of friends you have approved and allowed to gain access to such delicate information.

So today is my birthday and if anyone asks me how I decided to spend it, I will tell them that the day has been categorized into three specific activities:

(a) Replying to a stream of text messages from friends with all sorts of birthday greetings ranging from the pre-cut-and-paste “Happy birthday to you” (worst HBD for katamaran’s sakes!)  to the more exotic forms of greetings which include chimpanzees and other mammals — to the very serious Bible quotations talking about each candle added on your cake means that the Kingdom of God is close at hand.  Guys, I don’t read canned text message and I don’t reply back to say thanks. Read the rest of this entry »

I really need a more systematic training plan.

What I did today in the morning

1. Ran 4km around Makati area
2. 3x 4min/km with 2 minutes rest in between
3. 30 minutes elliptical while watching some episode of House

And that was it. I need to break off from this lazy cycle or else, I will not improve.

Any sub 4 hour for 42km training plan there that will not require me to train everyday?

So my so called return to ultramarathon failed miserably. Although my legs were still kicking strong, the sun’s heat destroyed me. Several things I’ve learned from that race:

First. I will never be comfortable with that gigantic hydration bag (a 2Liter Camelback) bouncing off my back. As I ran I noticed that it caused some friction on the lower section of my back neck, hence the annoying heat I felt whenever I run. Good thing I carried my petroleum jelly, I didnt suffer any chaffing on that area. I might purchase a smaller one, probably a 1Liter local brand, I saw one at Mall of Asia (forgot the brand)

Second. The run walk strategy is a cool idea, but it didn’t work on me. I had extreme difficulty transitioning back from walking to running and this affected my pace. I’ve found my running phase got slower everytime after a minute of walk.

Third. When opportunity knocks, I will try to dose myself with cold water. I only did this on my face but never on my head and upperbody as I’m always wary of too much water ending up on my shoes. Read the rest of this entry »

Sat 12pm

I got home around lunch time and the wife was surprised why I got home early. She knew that I’ll be running my first trail run- 57km (that started 5am-ish that day)  at that and she expected me to arrive past  5pm. I told her that I didn’t finish the entire run, that  I only got as far as the first loop (the route requires to finish 2 loops for 57km total) and the reason why I didn’t finish the race was because I lack heat training, the race was too hot and sun’s killing me. It was raining cats and dogs outside the house and I wasn’t really sure if I was able to convince her of my alibi.

Rewind  10 hours earlier

I picked up Xerxis (ultra team mate from Team Ungas) around 3am and the plan was to pass through Carmona Exit to reach Sta.Rosa Laguna. The road from GMA to Carmona exit was treacherous, several uphill that you could not see the next incoming vehicle and the downhill roads  you have to be very careful with, there we no lights along the road, several sharp turns in the road with no necessary warning signals, I was wondering if the local government of Carmona were a bunch of monkeys that didn’t pay attention to road safety(much apologies to real monkeys).  To make things more complicated, it was raining that day that I thought I’d rather run another 102km than drive along those roads.

Xerxis was hoping that it wouldn’t be too hot during the course, I could only agree with him by nodding my head and not say anything as I was more concentrated driving on that hell road while muttering in my head biblical passage Psalm 23 with slight innovation…”even though I drive through the road of shadow and death,because you are with me, I fear no harm.”  We reached Nuvali club house around 4am where the rest of the 25 and 50km runners were already gathered. Read the rest of this entry »