Today is the beginning of getting back to my usual training sched. For the past 2 or 3 months, I’ve been very lousy either due to injury or plain katamaran.  So this morning I woke up around 5:00 am and head straight to oval track to do some training. There was no specific training in mind that time, I just went there and see what I can do. This was actually weird considering that i usually plan my sessions. But today, it was one of those moments where you want to surprise yourself with life’s unpredictability.

So I went to DLSU-D oval and ran three kilometers in the first lap. My split was:
1st km : 5min:42 sec
2nd km:  5min: 29 sec
3rd km: 4min: 22sec

I was able to complete 3 km for 15 minutes and 33 seconds. That was supposetedly a warm-up run gone berseck. This was followed by core exercises. I got bored with those core exercises so I followed it with 10x 150meters all out sprint with 1 minute walk/jog in between. I then proceed with core exercises again and some stretching I learned from Cris Sabal. I love to repeat this again but this time, I will increase my “warm-up” run by 3 km until I reach 12km by Thursday. What do I intend to gain from this? Get back my fitness level fast! I just hope I will have enough discipline to maintain it.

I checked my weight in my naked glory and noticed that I now tipped the scale at 148lbs! Then I remember this blog post I made about me being interviewed by Men’s Health Magazine, I remember I was already 138lbs back then…now I’m now 148lbs. Take note that I was 133lbs when I won 3rd place during Takbo.ph 1st Biggest Loser competition.  Somebody told me that at least I’m “improving” on something. Duh!

If you want to run efficiently, faster and with lesser impact on your body, you MUST learn to improve your running form. Over the course of several months, I’ve studied my own running form by looking at nearby window mirrors to check my form. Although I must admit I look like an idiot while looking at building’s reflective images here at the Fort, it actually gave me a glimpse of my own form while running. I know my running form is still a work in progress as I still commit newbie mistakes especially when fatigue comes in. However, I try to improve this by doing some drills and strengthening my core.

Follow these tips and start improving your form.

Head Movement
When I started running, I have this habit of tilting my head downward to check my feet or my cadence. I realize that this is actually bad in two ways. First, by looking downward you become too conscious of your stride and in doing so you won’t notice your breathing pattern changes immediately- making it harder for you to breathe deeply. So you switch to “shallow” breathing (taking in a small volume of air with each breath, using only a small portion of the total lung capacity) causing side stitch. I understand that there are several causes of side stitch when running and this is just one of the causes. Secondly, you are also using a negative posture, which can have an effect on your running ability as well as your general mood. To correct this, simply hold your head high while looking straight ahead. Elongate the back of the neck so you don’t slouch.

Shoulders
I remember many weeks before my Milo Marathon when I met Coach Ige and commented when he saw me run “you need to improve your form, para kang kuba kung tumakbo eh ”. Since then, I studied, researched and practiced correct running form to improve my running economy. In a nutshell, your shoulders should be relaxed, away from your ears, square or facing forward and not curved over. Rounding the shoulders too far forward tends to tighten the chest and restrict breathing. If you check elite runners during their run in race mode, you will notice that their shoulders show almost no apparent extraneous movement and both always remains parallel to the running surface. I know this because I always observe the running form of fellow townmates and elite runners Cris Sabal and Tolentino sisters at the Oval.

Arms
If you saw Cristine Reyes during Globe Run, you would have noticed how she sway her arms across her chest and sometimes in her belly button. This is bad and you should not follow it (you can still watch her movies though) because it waste a lot of energy as it creates a superfluous lateral movement that rides against your primary objective of moving forward. To correct this, try running with your thumbs out and pointed up for a few runs. This will give you a visual indicator of your hand movements. Personally, I like to run in such a way that my thumbs lightly brush the threaded side-seams of my running shorts. This will ensure that my arms are not moving across my chest. Additionally, keep your arms at 90 degree angle.

Hands
During my newbie days, I love to run in such a way my hand is positioned like its ready to punch unmanageable runners. The main idea here is don’t clench your fists, because it can lead to tightness in the arms, shoulders, and neck. Run with your hands as relaxed as possible. If you want to improve yours, you may want to run while holding a glass or better yet, run as if you are holding an egg (not a hard-boiled egg) and you try not to break it.

Land Midfoot
It still mystifies me when I hear some experienced runners running down hills on their heels. I tried asking heel-strikers why they do it and they gave me several reasons such as “so that I have control when I run downhills, so I don’t fall over, etc”. But in reality, if you heel-strike, you are stopping your forward momentum and causing undue stress on your joints and knees (plus: your ankle is not a shock absorber!). You also tend to over-stride when you heel-strike so avoid this especially for newbie runners. Furthermore, if you land on your toes, you are causing your calves to do too much work, which can lead to shin splints. If possible, try to land on the middle (ball) of your foot, and away from your toes.

Posture
Runners tend to slouch over a bit especially when exhausted. They’ll often look down to a point just a few feet ahead of them causing changes in their breathing pattern. This will increase contact time with the ground and put more impact on your joints. I must admit this is something I’m still working on. Try to develop strong core muscles and try to engage your deep abdominals when running to prevent slouching towards the end of long runs.  The latter is something I always hear from Coach Ige even during drills and stretching. You can also try core work-out exercise from renowned hurdler Lolo Jones below:

Lolo Jones Core work-out from Runner’s World Website
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-263–13030-3-1X2X3X4-5,00.html

I hope post helps. Let’s keep on running and improve!

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!!

My quest for a structured training method led me to do some research on Arthur Lydiard’s methodology. I’m not going to copy and paste any contents from the said training program but rather, I encourage you to print and read it yourself during your rest days. Check it out here. As his method is based on balanced combination of aerobic and anaerobic running, you will most likely find this very useful if you have a heart rate monitor watch.

However be very careful when reading it. His training plans are optimal plans, so if your body can handle it then try to follow his program to achieve your full potential. To give you a sample of his training guide, he suggested running with a total mileage of 165 km weekly ? Obviously, he is a huge advocate of running a lot of base miles/kilometers. This meant lower intensity for long times. He said that this running should be done for as long as time permits before getting into any other stages. While you can use it as your base if you want to be a podium finisher, I suggest that you do your own adjustments based on your level of fitness and age. Sometimes it is more important to listen to your body then a plan written down on paper. After reading his plan, I’ve concluded that Lydiard training was more for pretty highly motivated and competitive athletes who really care about achieving their best.

I will try to come out with my “modified” version of his training method and will post it later with the intention of helping myself and my runner-readers improve their performance.

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I was running with Cris Sabal (one of our Athletics representative for Laos-South East Asia games on December) around DLSU-D campus and asked him his training schedule. I was surprised to learn that he and Tolentino sisters trains twice a day every day (not sure if Saturday and Sunday is included). He also told me that they run with a total mileage of at LEAST 150km a week. I didn’t ask him about AL training method but obviously, 150km base mileage a week will help you land in podium! He’s a good and humble man and even offered me to join him in his training so he could dish more tips to me. After his offer, while looking at my body he blurted out “pero mukhang marami kpang tatakbuhin ah, hahahahaha!” I’ll be lost in translation if I translate this to English but what he was saying was that I’m not yet physically fit or not yet in my optimal running weight.

I can only agree with him. I just started running last February and lose 28lbs (from 181 lbs to 153 lbs) in two months as detailed from my previous post. While that particular blog post encouraged a LOT of coach potatoes to take up running to shed some pounds, I have to admit that my weight loss plateau at 153 lbs for two months. Currently, my weight ranges from 146 lbs. to 149 lbs. depending on several factors. My optimal running weight based from my research should be anywhere between 130lbs to 135lbs.

And so, my newest project would be to get rid of extra 10 lbs in one month. Yep, 10 lbs. in one month. I shall post my current weight for the next blog post and hopefully after a month, I should be at least 135lbs.If this becomes successful, I’ll make another blogpost on how I did it. And yes, I’m not going to starve myself to death, do fasting or take ridiculously expensive diet pills advertised on our TV.

Can the Running Ninja do it? Let’s see.

My tender big toenail
A Marathon run brought you a new color
Soon you will be gone
I will miss you my friend,
From deep, deep inside.
So Sad, so Sad…

Five days later and 4 lbs heavier after my debut marathon run last Sunday, I finally was able to do a recovery run this morning at oval track. It was just an easy 7km run and up to this day still reeling from painful toe nail on my right foot. It’s completely red while my other foot’s toe nail has a small red patch on it.

I did a quick search in the internet to know how I got this and here are possible causes:

Tight shoes: I’m not so sure of this as the upper section of my Nike LunarGlide+ has enough room for my toe nails

Downhill running: Big toe is forced against the tip of the running shoe which causes excessive trauma. Same as above, there’s more than half an inch space between tip of my big toe and upper-inner section of my shoes

Toe nails not trimmed properly: Screw me I think this is the reason. After the run, I checked my foot and I noticed an extra 3mm toe nail on both big toes. I initially dismissed this as the cause but after doing more research, I found out that one of the preparations you MUST do before a very long run is to trim your toe nails properly. It doesn’t help when somebody assured me that it will turn black after a week and then falls on its own. It’s funny how much effort I’ve prepared for my marathon only to be greatly affected in a negative way by my toe nails.

Having said that, I’m still proud of it because I consider it as a badge of honor for running a marathon because not anyone can completely finish a marathon here in Philippines dba? Now I’m scratching my head whether I should push through with 21k run on July 19 to join Globe’s Run for Home or just rest..oh well.