October 17 and 18
Whole Day:  Registration and distribution of singlet and race packet

TIME    ACTIVITY AND EVENT
October 17

11:00 A.M. – 3:00 P.M.
adidas  Fashion Show
Cardio Exercise 101
Hydration 101
Carbo Loading 101
Raffle Draws and Games

Hosted by:  Eric Tipan of Jam 88.3

3:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.
adidas  Fashion Show
Cardio Exercise 101
Hydration 101
Carbo Loading 101
Raffle Draws and Games

Hosted by:  Lia Cruz of BTV

October 18

11:00 A.M. – 3:00 P.M.
adidas  Fashion Show
Running 101 by Jojo Macalintal
Cardio Exercise 101
Hydration 101
Carbo Loading 101
Raffle Draws and Games

Hosted by Gellie Victor of RX 93.1

3:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.
adidas  Fashion Show
Cardio Exercise 101
Hydration 101
Carbo Loading 101
Running 101 by Ani de Leon
Raffle draws and games

Hosted by Rico Robles of RX 93.1

I’ve been scanning several running blogs lately and I’m beginning to see a trend. Everyone wants to be part of the action. This is the bayanihan spirit we Filipinos are very proud of. I hope there will be more to come. Here’s one email group message I got from Ms. Jai Cortes of Mizuno.

Dearest Mizuno Run Club Members,

Please pray for all the victims of the typhoon Ondoy. We were all caught off guard by the typhoon, and some people lost much more than their valuable possession: those that can’t be measured by money. While we can only pray for some, we can help the others start rebuild their lives. We already dedicated a whole day of our busy schedule to help in the outreach, organized by Ateneo de Manila, last Tuesday, September 29, 2009, but then we learned that in our own company, we have a couple of employees, who were also gravely affected by the typhoon, who literally lost everything that they worked for because of the typhoon. We are therefore dedicating the remaining sessions to help them.

Our 4th session would push through tomorrow, October 1, 2009, rain or shine. We would have an area where you can give whatever you can to the people who were affected. We do not accept cash. In lieu of cash, we would have items which we would sell at cost, and a huge part of it, would go to the financial aid funds for our employees. Those who will buy the items would get a 10% Discount voucher as well as a “free session pass” , which can be used to complete all the sessions, in case you miss one, to get the “Mizuno Privilege Card” or the “Mizuno Run Club Uniform”, if you already have the card.

For Donations, please bring:
Rice
Canned Goods
Water
Toiletries
Housewares
Old Clothes
Blankets

Thank you so much. God bless you and see you Thursdays!

Keep on Running! Never Settle… because Mizuno Run Club Members can do more… much much more…

-Jai

Fellow Takbo.ph runner Marga has the following announcement:

There’s more work to be done. Our Foundation, in coordination with the Harvest Foundation has organized an ANGEL BRIGADE. It is a drop off center for calamity relief goods for the people of Taguig, Marikina, Cainta and whoever needs the help.

Marami na pong nag pledge ng donations, kulang po ng volunteers from 7AM-10PM. To receive, re-pack, distribute the goods. I know may mga tatakbo mamaya sa BHS…please help? And to whoever else can donate their time, please call me.

To those frustrated that you can’t get off work and can’t help (for now), it’s okay. Marami pa pong trabahong kailangan gawin. Makakatulong ka rin.

Address: (old Shang Palace showroom, across Pacific Plaza Towers): Rizal Drive corner 4th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City

Maraming Salamat. Hindi po tayo magsasawang tumulong.

Call me so we can schedule shifts for the work: 09228962742/ 09175062742

Love,
Marga

I wish that even after this predicament, we will continue to unite and help one another.

Last Saturday I was at Mall of Asia with family. As if a foreshadowing of things to come, security informed all stores to close their shops around 6pm. We were left with no choice that day but to go home early. And the ordeal began. What could have been an hour of travel from Mall of Asia Pasay City to Dasma Cavite turned out to be a 10 hour travel time.  It was too difficult to travel going back, especially Bacoor flooded up to knee level. People coming from Pasay were all walking already going back to Cavite as most provincial buses going to Batangas were stranded. I reached home around 5am, slept and woke up after 7 hours.

I immediately checked the Internet and I was shocked with the devastation created by this typhoon. As of this writing, more than a hundred perished and thousands were displaced. It’s a good thing Hector of SecondWind store initiated something to help flood victims. Here’s his email:

Greetings friends in the running community.

In light of the typhoon that has left most of us emotionally drained, we would like to encourage the running / multi-sport community to pitch in and help out.

Kindly help us spread the word that we are extending help to our friends who were affected by the typhoon ondoy. Lets maximize however we can help, announcements in your blog, multiply, tweeter, or your status in facebook will be greatly appreciated.

Secondwind will be accepting donations:

- blankets
- singlets, jerseys or shirts
- old footwear
- food
- other items that can still be used

We will be accepting until Thursday (end of day) and will donate to ateneo thru Neville Manaois, PUR team principal, secondwind teammate and ateneo professor. Volunteers to pack and help transfer goods on Friday will be most welcome.

Maraming salamat in advance sa lahat ng tulong na maaari niyong mabigay.

Salamat.

wait for it to kick in -
Hector of Secondwind
email:
secondwind.proshop@gmail.com

site:
www.secondwindrunningstore.com
www.thesecondwind.multiply.com

Hardcore runner Sir Jonel also initiated his own drive. See TKO 250:Takbo Kontra Ondoy . Here’s an excerp from his blog:

team hardcore in cooperation with runradio (nu107, fridays, 9-10pm)  and the generics pharmacy is making its enduruns 4.5.5 (4 full and 2 half marathons)and laguna lake 200k marathon relay a fund-raising event.the runs will be collectively called TKO 250.

enduruns and the laguna race will total 250 kilometers.in particular, these are the races that the team will run; october 11 milo42, october 18 qcim im42, october 24 sim42, october 25 adidas21, november 8 pim42, november 15 timex21, november 28-29 laguna lake 200 (each runner of the 5-man team will do 40k).

for every kilometer we will do, a  prospective donor will be asked to donate 1 peso thus making it 250 pesos as his donation.it is most welcome if you give more than that amount. all donors/donations will be published later.

Fellow takbo.ph member were also not spared from this storm namely Edu, Chelly and Eric. I heard that their homes and personal belongings are soaked in flood water, except Edu who managed to save his Garmin and running shoes

Please let us all extend our helping hands to those who are in need.

I’ve mentioned from my previous post that I plan to create a customized program for me incorporating some of the Lydiard principles. The first step involve in this program is to run for 2 hours continuously regardless of the pace. I’ve done this already, running around oval track with my heart rate within my aerobic zone (133-153) three times. The next step is anaerobic running and leg-speed training and this is where I’m going to concentrate most.

This step basically consists of hill training and moving your legs fast. The aim of hill training is to bring resistance to the leg muscles specifically those white muscle fibers that are key ingredient for giving you faster speed. It also helps stretch your leg muscles and tendons which eventually will avoid the possibility of having pulled muscles or strained tendons during your actual race.

How I’m going to do hill training:
Warm-up is a MUST for all kinds of training so I’m going to run around the track for fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes is just my preferred time to spend for my warm-up, but if you find yourself already perspiring and your body feels warm already then you can go to the next step – stretching. Another fifteen to twenty minutes will be spend for stretching. There’s a proper way of stretching which was demonstrated to me last week by elite runner Cris Sabal. I plan to make a blog post with pictures in the future on how to do it properly so that we all can learn from it. After stretching, its time to attack the hill!

It’s a good thing my training ground has everything I got for my runs. It’s got a 150 meter steep uphill road leading to oval track and this is where I’m going to do my hill training. The aim of this exercise is to use your own body weight for the resistance; the center of gravity must be lifted up and down to gain resistance, not just lifting the knees. One key important to remember during hill training is NEVER RUN IT FAST. The idea is the slower the forward momentum, the more resistance on legs that will be concentrated and this is what we are aiming for. At the hill top, I’m going to jog for three minutes and when running down-hill, I’m going to do it faster with the aim of developing leg-speed and stretching leg muscle for better stride length. At the base of the hill, I’m going to sprint the entire stretch of the remaining road leading to Gate 2 entrance gate: this is around 50 meters of flat road then start again running slowly uphill. I plan to do this for one hour plus cool down for at least 15 minutes. All in all hill training can be done from 1:45 to 2 hours.

The running form when running up-hill
Keep the upper body relaxed with arms loose at the sides
Hold your head up, never look down at the ground; this will throw the hips back
Keep knees coming up high with the hips held comfortably forward

I don’t have access to up-hill roads, what I’m going to do?
You can try your building or condo’s stairs
Buy a manual thread mill which is usually always inclined

How I’m going to do leg-speed training:
I will do my usual warm-up jog for 15 minutes followed by another 15 minutes of stretching. I will try to run 200 meters (this I will do at the oval) with three minutes interval and will do this 10 times. After then 10th repetition, I’ll cool down for at least 15 minutes. I also plan to do this for 15minutes during work (most probably during my 1 hour lunch time) by utilizing my office building’s stairs

The running form when doing leg-speed training:
Run with normal stride with the aim of MOVING THE LEGS FAST.

My schedule:
Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday : Leg Speed training
Wednesday and Friday : Hill Training
Sunday : Long Run
Monday : Rest Day

I plan to start this tomorrow – July 24. I hope this will help me improve my finish time. On August 15, I will join the Urbanite Run (might downgrade to 10k) and this will be my motto:

IMPROVE OR DIE!!

If you’re an avid reader of this blog, you would noticed how I would religiously post my race preparations especially my first marathon race where I became so obsessed with it I even detailed my actions on per hour basis prior to the actual start of the race. For this race, I decided to screw my usual pre-race preparation post because I realized however detailed my preparations are, the expected outcome usually never happen because of several factors I don’t have control. However, I always make sure to study my previous race and learn from any mistakes I encountered. Hence in this race, I did some adjustments:

Banana
Pooping twice on your debut marathon race will sure going to destroy your game plan. My mistake from my marathon preparation was that I was eating 3 bananas per day up to the actual race day. Later I found out that eating too much of it can simulate bowel movements. Hence I totally ignore banana on most days but I did eat a small one coated with honey during the race day for my breakfast.

Immodium
I’ve been hearing this from fellow runner bloggers that taking Immodium an hour before the race will ensure no stomach upset. I did try this on Thursday and Friday during my usual morning run and seems to work OK on me. This worked well on the race day as I didn’t experience loose bowel movement. If you should try this, please try it first during your training to see if it will work well on you. NEVER try anything new during the race.

Hydration
During my marathon race, I remember drinking 3-4cups of Gatorade/water for every water station. This made my stomach feel so heavy which probably contributed to having to release my bowels during my last race. So for this race, I probably bypassed five liquid stations but relied more on my hydration belt plus a cup of water from 3 or 4 stations.

As for my race strategy, I did prepare for this one. I reckon that after doing two 5km races (Condura and Air Speed), two 10km races (Greenfield and Southern race) , a 16km (Earth Run), 15km (Mizuno Infinity), a 21km (Botak Paa-Tibayan) and a marathon (Milo 33^rd elimination), pushing for PR this time for my succeeding races will make sense. I was hoping the training I did for Milo and a week before this race will help me improve my disastrous/severely dehydrated 21km finish time of 2:37 via Botak Paa-Tibayan race. Furthermore, I was hoping that my CWX Ventilator tights that I got from Runnr store will provide support to my knees and help keep sweat away from dripping into my feet. The tights did work and I believe this also helped me recover very fast. A review will be posted later.

The race started on time and I found myself running comfortably fast during the first 4km. This is the first race where I did challenge myself to look for potential running targets with the aim of running faster. I would increase my pace once I’ve identified a target then once done, I would slow down and maintain a certain speed, look for another running target and increase my pace again and so on. This would go on for the first 11km until I get tired of it. I know its fun as it gives me “mini-success” during my race, it also motivates me every time I over ran my target but it’s not maintainable. I wasn’t checking my heart rate monitor watch but rather my time but upon checking my heart rate I realized that I was running way beyond my aerobic zone (133-153) and my heart rate would range somewhere between 165-175. I knew right-away that muscle cramp will soon find its way on my legs and true enough; it attacked me along the Lawton-Bayani road. There’s something about this road I hate about. This road always gave me cramps for some reason. I remember fully stopping in this road and applying my ever trusted roll-on Salonpas from time to time. Everytime I would continue my run after a brief stop, muscle cramp would appear every 10 minutes. If some runners dread the Kalayaan Fly-over, I dread more this part of the road! If this road goes further down to Heritage road, I knew I would not make it within my target time. Alas, the u-turn going up was so quick and I soon find my way to the Fort again. Six hundred meters away from the finish line, I was running fast but muscle cramp near my hamstring would soon attack me. This happened three times that I have to stop, do a walk and soon jog. The last 100 meters, I was already running, giving all my best and before I knew it, the finish line was just a few meters away. I saw two ladies ahead of me and wanting to overtake them, I sprint. One of the lady runner (which I later learned was a takbo.ph member) saw me coming from her behind and tried to increase her pace too. Alas, the ruthless running ninja will never give way to a lady for strong finish and so I sprint and overtook her.

After the race, I asked a fellow takbo.ph runner what was his time as I was just behind him and told me 2:26. So if my estimate is right, I finished this race somewhere between 2:26-2:27. A ten minute improvement from my previous 21k race woohoo! Later after the race, we did our usual post-race carbo loading at Jolibee. Unknown to me, Rico, Chris and the gang prepared a mini program to give medals to fellow takbo.ph members who finished 42km run last Milo race. While I understand Milo has nothing to do with it, I did appreciate the fact that my running family recognized the hardship I did to finish my first 42km run.

I went home very happy knowing that I did improve my race and even more, knowing that my running family will always be there to support and encourage everyone to achieve their personal goal.

If you see me sprinting with that kind of face and you happen to be running nearby, run with utmost caution

Emo me receiving Milo replica medal from his hoffness Poj

Me and the Medal