reCovEry MeAl

Ok so i'm still at the office shooting. Tonight is a no running night. I'm sticking to the plan, which is to rest and indulge in whatever I can chow down. Hey, I'm not after the super thin physique of the elite runners. And this is definitely one of the perks of running, eating whatever I can.
Oh and I made a promise to myself that I'd enjoy eating while I still can, cause when the big 3 - 0 comes. I'm going to have to put the bingeing aside and going organic... nah! hehehe

Going back to this afternoon. I'm still working and shooting FOOD! :) Lots a bread! And they came up with my favorite kind... monggo(mung bean) bread.....

Yup! That's a half empty pack and its the second pack already. hehehehe I was munching on this thing practically the whole day already. Any takers on the other stuff behind???? :D

Mung Bead is rich in protein and the bread has a good doze of carbs... Ok, I'm definitely rationalizing on this binge. :D

LSD TrAiniNg

I started late. Arrrgh! My stomach was just not cooperating with me early today. I was only able to go out and look for the other runners quarter before 5am. I was still set to make this as my LSD training day.

Same as my shorty run last night, the weather was cooperating very well with just some cool breeze blowing at times. Temperature was at the low 20's (C). Yeah i know its still considered as hot there in OC but here a low 20's is a cool already. I took my VR#2 route and planned to merge it with the VR#3 route. I was really feeling good from my shorty training last night. So I headed off for my run.

San Andres to Quirino Ave...

I was not too eager to push right at the start. I constantly checked my run time and since this was my usual route i know exactly when and where I should be. I was running at 20 seconds slower than my pace last night. Headwind was not too bothersome, in fact I was starting to like it already.

Roxas Ave...

I just started to warm up my legs and knees 10 minutes into running. I was still feeling good, no panting and no stomach cramps. I was thinking that this could really be a good training day for me.

Buendia Ave...

This is the part of my route that I really don't like. Jeepnies are always present and diesel fumes is always an issue here. The only thing that I enjoy here is knowing that kalayaan flyover is just at the end of the rainbow.... err.... I mean , end of the street.

Kalayaan Flyover

Still going strong with only 1 stretching stop about 2km before reaching the flyover. I was at the flyover at around 40mins, I was definitely on the roll. And I'm not sure if its the constant uttering of "the hill is my bestfriend...." during our hill climb last week, but I sure did feel a lot stronger today. I tackled the flyover in less than 8 minutes. I didn't even stop or slow down after the ascent(it's not steep for me anymore! :)).

Fort Bonifacio...

I came across about 6 runners from Global Striders again. I greeted them since most of them I knew from the local races. I took 5th street going to Mckinley Ave. No, I still am not going for Heritage park. Although I reserving that route come November. :)

McKinley Ave...

Now this is the best part of my route. I always enjoy running through this area. The road has some descent incline and downhill parts and there's not much traffic at this time of the day. I whiffed my way through this street for 11 minutes, still going at about the same pace when I started. I did however take walk up and through the EDSA flyover crossing towards Ayala Ave.

Ayala Ave...

It was really easy crossing this area. It was mostly flat and I was still really hungry for a faster pace. :) so much for LSD. hehehe but I still did the talk test by singing some weird kenyan chant/song. hehehe

Vito Cruz St.

Still flat and boring, Good excuse for me to push faster. I got to the Osmena Highway intersection at 1:53:00 (run time) and decided to make the last 600meters left as my cool down.

There I really like doing this Time Based Training session. I did the same long run session but gained about 4km additional distance(will confirm distance). VR#5 was a blast! I'm not sure though if Eric was still with me when I took the streets facing the on coming traffic again. hehehe..... VR#6, bring it on!


UPDATE:

I just confirmed the total distance. 17.99km, will be adding some more distance next VR session. Then will pull back on the distance again on VR#7. I hope this kind of training works against my evil friend CRAMPS! :)

foRm o JaForMs????

here's a cool video i saw on youtube. I hope this helps with your running. :)

iM a ConVert!!!!!!

My last hill training was still in December of last year back home in Legazpi. In the province we do have a short hill open for runners/walkers everyday till 9am. I am really excited to try out hill training again while still skeptical about the whole trail section of the planned run yesterday.

Doc Brent and I was planning on a trail run test at the La Mesa Eco Trail. Since I wasn't really familiar with the place I contacted RC another h@ppyFeet runner to help us out and show us the way to the place. He agreed on joining us and taking us there. So right after I finished yesterday's 7km race, I was stuffing myself with the free snack while I was on route to our meeting place. We left Manila at around 8:15am and headed out to QC. RC insisted on taking us to a more familiar place San Mateo Rizal. I guess we will have to move our plans to trying out La Mesa Eco Trail next time.

The trip took about 30~35minutes since traffic was easy on a Sunday. We passed by Marikina and arrived in San Mateo at around 8:50am. We parked RC's truck on a uphill curve shoulder(well this can only happen in the Philippines guys :)) And we started to prep for our first hill-trail run session. Doc Brent had his 20oz Nathan, while I had 24oz Amphipod and RC was logging along his huge indestructible Coleman hiking bottle. hehehe I guess we were all bringing just a few liquids since the weather was really cool yesterday. Well it was cool right, It rain little animals while we were all preparing. hahaha and the raindrops seemed to get bigger and bigger. Well, backed by some medical fact(c/o Brent) that we are totally safe running in the rain, well except for lighting striking us, we headed out for our run.

Wet wet wet.....

Just starting our climb on a paved road everything just seemed to be getting heavier and heavier..... clothes, underware, socks and shoes! They felt like a ton! And the starting paved hill was really really steep! It took me 16 minutes to get to the Timberland Gate. Brent showed up a good 5 minutes after and RC.... well..... He got there too. hehehehe The route was really simple it was just follow one road and you will not get lost.

When we entered the Timberland gate, half of the road was still under construction offering us a good warm up for the upcoming trail ahead. Running in the semi loose sand, rocks and soil was a totally new feeling for me. and i guess it was the same for Doc Brent too! We reached the end of the timberland estates and had to take a single lane trail road. Now the real fun begins....

Trees, grass and more trees and grass covered both sides of this one lane rough road and it was covered with mud, sand and rocks. We were just all careful of the brown-red looking mud since this was definitely the very slippery one. :)

I know this is still not a real trail running route but hey! for someone who has been running around the metro for 2 years, any unpaved road is already a trail for me! hehehehehe By my guestimate we took another 3~4kms of this trail. I know it was short but it was hard to run on very slipper condition. We all agreed on making the run time based and that we set a 1 hour turn around point. It was alot of fun running in slippery mud and potholes!

chicken, tapsi, koren beef, foot long and some pepsi after the run

Run for Ariel.......

I woke up late again for yesterday's race. Well, not that late actually. It was about 10mins to 6am when I was running around my apartment trying to grab every single item that I need for the days planned run. Race belt, a couple of gatorade, powerbar, and extra clothes (thanks to Totoy's
tips). The worse part of it all was that I was supposed to pick up a fellow h@ppyFeet member(Roselle) from Makati. and since it was late already she already took the cab to the event . :( I am really so sorry Miss Roselle.

I arrived at the race start while the other runners where doing their pre-race warm up exercises. just good 5 minutes before race start. So again, I skipped my warm up exercise. Then I met Miss Lala, not a h@ppyFeet member, but a regular racer and a real fast one too! :) She was in some sort of educational hiatus, that's why she wasn't able to join races for a couple of months already. If you're reading this, Welcome back and i hate to say this but I think we're going to eat more dust again again.

So now back to the race....

I knelled down and reached for my shoe lace since it loose, when all of a sudden i heard the starting gun fire! <<<>>> and off everyone goes! Ok, I was still trying to tie my left shoe by this time. It didn't matter. I know that I can catch up since it was pretty much just a short 5km race. Well, wrong! This was a though one! Just exiting the Villamor compound it was already a good very mild incline. Then crossing the SLEX flyover was a real pain! Even the next 4~5 succeeding hills were really though.

First time check, 15 minutes into the race.

I was surprised when I saw my watch at 15:00 and I was still on route to the only turn around point. hmmmmm.... was I going that slow, panting caused by the difficult hills???? Well, I knew by then that this wasn't just a 5km course! Nonetheless, It's still a good one!

Turn around point....

I was still feeling strong taking only some shorter strides for recup and going back into race pace even before recovery. :) I guess all that rest all week payed off mentally. At least now I am prepared already for the route. Knowing where and anticipating the upcoming hills and descents I was able to pace better. I didn't however push myself entirely since I was still saving some energy for the planned run after the race. hehehe I clocked in at 28:25 @ 7km.

It was really nice to know that there were commercial sponsors who helped out this event and that there where a good number of racers who showed up and registered for this event. I hope that we all have helped Ariel in our own little way. It was also good to know that even members of the h@ppyFeet that was not able to join the race still registered and owed Mon(our financier) some registration money hehehehe.

Oh! and we have 4 members bagging awards again! TBR, Chaia, Roselle, Tisha! Wow! I think this is something that you guys can get used too right!? hehehe Congratulations to all the placers again and kick some more @ss next sunday in UP!

After the race I was already panicking cause I'm already late and someone blocked my parking space! ARRRGHHHH!!!!!!! Good thing ka Totoy was kind enough to back out his car and let me pass through. and I was off to my next adventure. :)