Seabiskwit

Globe Run for Home 2010 - Finally Breached 2hrs

2010-03-27T23:33:00.006+08:00

Rewind
Last year, i ran a few half marathons. Some official and others.. not so official.haha! One thing common with these runs was i never got to breach the 2hr barrier. :-) I've plateu'd at 6min/km for 15-21kms distances. Ironically, my last official 21k run was the GlobeRUn 2009 where i clocked 2:06.

The Plan
For this year's GlobeRun, I was kinda hoping for a different result, so needed to try something different in terms of preparation and race strategy.

My plan was to run a pace faster than usual at the start and do a positive split. I don't have a garmin nor HRM to monitor my pace and heart rate. I just wait until i huff and puff, then make my adjustments from there.

The Prep
After Condura Marathon, i took a 2 week break from running. When i got back, my runs were just enough to prepare for the run leg of the Ateneo aquathlon. I was just doing short runs, 5-8kms each time, but with a bit more intensity, ranging from 4:30 - 5:20 min/kms. I sort of got fond of this program coz obviously it takes much less time than my usual 1-1.5hr runs 2x a week. I carried on with this program for the GlobeRun prep since i was pretty sure that i can take on the distance. Well, i did run a 15km (10km - 1hr rest - 5km) 4 days before the event. And a full day's rest the day before. I usually bike on Saturdays even when there's a run event the following day.

The Race
I went at it from the get go, weaving my way thru the crowd at a pace i never imagined doing right off the bat. Sure enough, just before the Buendia flyover, i was huffing. I guess my positive split can only go that far... hehe.. So i slowed down and took shorter strides on the ascent until i settled down and got my rhythm back.

I increased my pace once again and slowed down as needed. I never looked at my watch which was part of my strategy (i didn't wanna know my pace based on KM markers. If i knew that i was running faster than 6min/km after 10kms, that would've made my legs wobble) but i was sure i was still going beyond my normal 21k pace.

I took sips of water/powerade every water station early on but i noticed there were lots of them so i hydrated just every other water station i passed.

Strong Finish
At 17km mark, i finally decided to look at my watch, i was at 1:36. That means i can breach 2hr if i can maintain a 6min/hr pace. I wasn't that amused though, i was sure i was running at a faster pace than that and was expecting more time to spare for a sub 2. Anyway, i stepped on the gas anticipating the Kalayaan fly over ahead.

I passed a few runners in the process and finally stepped on the mat at 1:57++.

Found out later on that the distance was more than 21.1k. Some Garmins registered 22kms.
That meant my finish time should've been 4minsless. But i'll take 1:57 anytime...

The result
I finally got the official results and the analysis. My splits posted, being on the 14km and 17km marks, weren't that conclusive to figure out if i did a positive or a negative split. I probably did a bit of both. Positive split on the 1st half and a negative split on the 2nd half.. hehe.
....whatever... i'm happy with the results... at 1:57:31, it's a personal best!!

NAME: Ian Clemeno
EVENT: Run for Home 21Km
DATE: Sunday, 21 March 2010
BIB/DIV: 216 / M3539
TIME: 1h:57m:58s (gun) / 1h:57m:31s (net)

Ateneo Aquathlon 2010 - A bit sweeter the second time around.

2010-03-21T17:18:00.003+08:00

489 30-39 M Ian Clemeno 0:13:24 0:01:35 0:31:54 0:46:53

Although my swim form was (and still is) amiss, I improved from last years time by almost 2mins. Still ain’t fast by most standards… J But I guess I ‘m now used getting hit and shoved and I learned how to jostle for the position I want. Thanks to the group swim simulations and SWACs organized by Rico a.k.a Sheerwill.

The run was better than last year as well but it was a bit off my expectations. I was running 5min kms on the average for most of my 5-6k training runs (after Condura). However, I didn’t prepare for the heat of the 12 high noon run and was only good for 32min 6km run (or was if 5.5kms)

A lot of room for improvement on my transition as always. This was where I suck the most. Next time, I’ll lose the socks and get myself a bungee lace.

Like last year, It was every bit a great experience… and yes, a bit sweeter this time..

Condura Marathon... Redemption and Vindication

2010-02-11T21:17:00.010+08:00

Redemption… This was my chance to redeem myself after DNFing PIM.

Vindication… Subic Marathon was somewhat a shallow conquest for me because the heat of the sun was not part of the equation. Heat has always been a factor that every runner has to deal with in every marathon in Metro Manila...

The Prep.

30km Rizal Day run and logging 102kms for the month of January - this was way better preparation than when I ran my first marathon October last year in Subic.

I clocked a fairly decent time of 3:14 in the Rizal Day with minimal runs. So I figured that I can definitely run at a Rizal Day Run pace, and easily do a sub 5hr finish. With that in mind, I set my target at 4hrs40mins. This was gonna be a 30min leap from my Subic marathon finish.

Again, I needed help from my bud, Isko a.k.a. David Noggins. I asked him to be my pacer yet again. Thankfully, he agreed. He did not promise a 4:40 but assured of a sub5 finish.

As always, the strategy was 1-2min walk breaks every 30mins..

The Run

And so we were off at exactly 4am with fireworks to highight the start.

Isko, Eugene and I started At a comfortable 6-6:30min/km pace. Monster Erick Guieb tagged along with us. Erick was nursing a calf injury and just feeling it out while testing his new pair of NBs. He normally finishes marathons at about 4hrs.

Everyone seemed to be running at the same pace early on. It was practically a huge group run for the first few kilometers… it was that or the turn out was just that enormous making the road so dense with people.

In a Nutshell

At the 10km mark we were at 1:04, at 21k mark at 2:15… we were spot on with our targets… and guess what.. at 30kms were at 3:15... how accurate can anyone get to their targets.

After 30kms

At this point, I was pretty confident that I can do a 4:40 or even less.. I was oozing with confidence naively believing that we can sustain a 6:30-7min/kms the rest of the way… It was all good especially after passing the takbo.ph aid station.. every runner would have the needed boost literally and figuratively after passing by this aid station… Food, hydration, massage, bands, pictures.. what have you… and a lot of encouraging words from everyone.. thanks guys!!!

Isko, while chatting with another runner was unaware that I got my leg massage. So he went on… I wasn’t in pain or anything I just wanted to try the liniment being offered but I did not know it comes with a leg massage.. and boy it sure was a winner! It felt so good that I had both legs done… hahaha!

Thinking that I was still ahead of my 4:40 finish pace, I decided to have another walk break from the foot of Buendia flyover… and I walked… and walked… it felt so good walking I did not want to run anymore. Then it seemed to become so hot all of a sudden… the sun was right smack on my face… so I extended my walk thinking that It would just be a couple of kms after the flyover….and I could easily finish within my target. A few minutes after I resumed running I realized I was so wrong!

People whom I know to be fast runners was just about to make their turn to 5th ave towards the finish.… So, It’s either It was still a long ways to go for me or I have somehow caught up with these fast runners… that was a no brainer.
The pressure was on!

The wall?

It was considerably hot at this point and I started to get a headache. Again, I began to walk… I was asking myself… is this the proverbial “wall”. It was 4:20++ Then from about 200m around the vicinity of IS, I saw Erick waiting up for me egging me on… and told me that we’ll finish the race together…

Last 2 kms

I was relieved when I saw the last 2km mark. However, It became more obvious that I was going to miss my target. Ouch… That hurt!!

Strong finish

Despite the headache, some foot aches and a heartache... haha! , I still mustered somewhat a strong finish… running a bit stronger and getting past a few runners the last 500m.

Finished @ 4:51… A personal best for me. Despite missing my goal, I still was ecstatic! And still is…

My Special thanks to Isko “David Goggins” and Erick Guieb. It was great running beside you guys… ‘Til next adventure…

Speedo NAGT Subic Leg - Kicking off 2010 with a Standard Distance Tri

2010-01-19T15:34:00.025+08:00

Coming into this race, my target was a sub hour run and that was it. Not that i was undermining the swim and the bike legs, but from my previous sprint tri's, the run legs were real challenges.

Moreover, after a couple of weeks hiatus on training early december due to bronchitis (which made me miss the Final leg of Powerade duathlon), my 'training' revolved around biking and swimming and i was not able to do much of running. I did the 32k Rizal day run though but only at LSD pace.

I started prepping for the event after new years day, swimming as much as 3km and riding as far as 100km. They were the longest ever distances i did. I wanted to start my year with some personal milestones. For 2x a week, i swam and rode no less than 2k and 60k respectively so i was quite confident that i can finish the swim and bike legs of the standard distance. However, i only ran 5kms on 2 occasions and 1 10kms at a slow pace on one brick session.

1.5k Swim (2 loops)

I got a bit anxious with the swim after learning from one of the marshalls the day before that the swim route would be looping clockwise. Navigating would be a challenge for me in this case. I breathe comfortably on my left. When and if i do breath on my right, it takes me a lot more effort and couple more kicks.

The water was calm though which somewhat eased down my anxiety a bit.

With more than 60 swimmers on our wave and being just my second open water race, i decided to start from behind (like always) and from the leftmost side, where there are less number of starters... more room, less stress... safety first..hehe.

From there, i started working my way towards the buoy line as the crowd spreads out. That worked for me for a while until i got tagged once on the head knocking off my swim cap. Paddling while holding my swim cap for a while until i managed to tuck it under my trunks. Fortunately, That would be the only stressfull moment of my swim... well there were also some stinging creatures..

I think i swam around 100m more. I was zigzagging all over the course. haha.. Looking for the buoy line to my right every 3-4 stokes, i often found myself 5 meters away.. i would make the adjustment and get snagged on the buoyline after the same number of strokes.. then veer away again from the buoy line.... like there was something wrong with my rudder. It was quite amusing though, LMAO, it kept my mind off the distance and the stings... That was how my swim went the entire course... got to the shore 33mins+ by my watch..

T1... my bike shoes was not tri friendly.. Twist.. twist.. pull.. pull.. to tighten... like it would make much difference on my time if they are tri-specific. hehe... Anyway, took me couple of minutes to make sure that i didn't miss anything...

40k Bike (2 loops)
It was a hill towards the naval gate (or was it?) to start the bike course until the guard post for the turnpoint, went back, then a hard right towards yet another hill adjacent to the runway, (where the asphalt was pretty nasty, i don't know if they made it that way for better traction for the vehicles but it was really punishing the tires, it was then i realized that i forgot to bring my spare tube and pump. It would've surely been a DNF if i got a flat) then towards the mainroad until Petron station and back to the transition area.

The wind was blowing quite strong. The worst part was going uphill with the headwinds. I was going as slow as 16kph.

My training rides being limited to the flat roads of MOA, my strategy was to spin comfortably on these challenging hills even if it means using my grannie gears, and just hammer away on the downhills.

Going at 53kph, i held back a bit coz after those relatively steep downhills were ending up either on the turnaround on the Naval base guard post or a sharp right turn back that road adjacent to the runway.I was going 38-40kph in some long flat stretches to (or was it from) Petron gas station with a lot of help from the tailwinds... woooohooooo :-)

Completed the bike course a bit less than 1:20 on 39.5kms (29.8kph ave) on my cyclocomp... right on target...

T2... Had so much fun on the bike i forgot to refuel. I just realized that my GU is still tucked in my shorts.. it was 1:56 at that point when i comsumed my first GU and took my time to gulp it down... started running with 1:58 by my watch..

Trying to look strong at T2

10k Run (3 loops)

Now my real challenge.. a sub hour 10k run..The course was flat.. with some potholes.. going towards All-hands beach and back to Dungaree.

Still feeling strong off the bike, i passed a few runners early on the run. I completed 1st loop in 17mins.. at that pace i can complete the run in 51mins... but of course that was wishful thinking.. i took about a minute walk breaks to hydrate after each loop. Although, the succeeding loops felt a lot slower, surprisingly, i finished the run well ahead of my target... 54+mins..
.

And with that, i completed my first Standard Distance Triathlon in 2:52:30, 32nd of 67 finishers.

Not bad at all...

32 CLEMENO, IAN 0:34:08 1:22:00 0:56:22 2:52:30

With my roommates.. Nino and Nikko...
.

Overall, it was such a great event, the race conditions couldn't be better... Calm waters, Overcast the whole morning, cool breeze.. just perfect...

What made the event even better was i got to meet new friends and great company... and share a room and ride with no less than Nikko Huelgas, who topped the event with the time of 2:14... rubbing elbows with the champ! haha! This humble kid is going places... Watch out Terenzo...

This kid is gonna give you a run for your money in a couple of years..

Million thanks to Nino Fajardo whom i hitched a ride with and arranged the accomodations for us at Subic park Hotel.

Congrats to Rene, Atty. Marge, Rosan, Monks and of course Nino for their great finishes at the mini-sprint.

Congrats to my bud Mel as well, who despite the flu and having had bike issues ( carrying his bike back to the transition area), went on to complete the run leg.

Thanks to Kokoy Pineda for the great shots. You better get back to running and tri yourself bro... :-)

Nino, Me, Rene, Nikko, Marge and Rosan

.
.

See you all on the next event... SUBIT?

Rizal Day Run - Wrapping up the year with a 32k

2009-12-30T20:22:00.003+08:00

This was the first event I joined officially since I DNF’d on PIM. Well, I bandited on a couple of half marathons, NB power race and Philstar Celebrity , so those don’t count. Part of the reason I bandited was to avoid paying pricey entry fees for the course that I have ran a few times before.

The Rizal Day Run would definitely be something different for me. A lot of firsts for this as well… a first 32k. a first in Camp Aguinaldo, first time to go there also so I had to seek help from wikimaps for directions. More importantly, reg fee was affordable considering the distance. Well, actually I considered banditing this one as well but I came to my senses in time. Thinking that a military general is the race organizer inside a military facility as the race course… got the point?… hehe

I initially thought that the course would be a bit boring. Running the same course 4x was not very appealing. But On the contrary, the run was not that bad after all, infact it was quite enjoyable. I guess because of the varying backdrops each loop. First loop at pitch darkness, 2nd just as dawn was breaking, on the 3rd, the sun as up but the tree lines provided shade throughout the course and the breeze was still cool the 4th loop, the sun was up and there were already unshaded portions along the course.

One advantage of a multiloop course is you can take notes on where the difficult and easy terrains are and use that to your advantage on the succeeding loops; and you’d also know where the next water station will be and strategically increase your pace as you anticipate the next one.

I did not really do my best effort on this run. Haven’t run my race pace (6min/km haha!)for quite a while, so I thought I would risk bonking if I do one on a considerably longer distance than a half marathon. So again I paced along with Isko who was doing his ultramarathon training applying his strategy of getting walk breaks every 30mins.

Isko and I finished still a bit fresh @ 3hrs14mins. A great year-ender for my 2009 running season.

I guess at this rate covering whether a 32k or just a 30k, my sub 5hr target for Condura Marathon is within reach.

For the year 2009. I have covered a total of 1308kms.. with the Q109 with the highest mileage rgistered but dwindled there after. This was because of the swim and bike training that I gradually incorporated with my training.

Hoping for a better 2010 running season. Hope to do an ultramarathon by next year. BDM is a bit too early for me though. Happy New Year! See on the road next year!

Hills and Trails Sunday

2009-12-28T11:06:00.009+08:00

Took these pictures so i would have an excuse for walk breaks.. :-)

Looks like a formidable hill from here..

What should have been hill repeats program turned out to be a trail run after we got curious on where the trail will lead us..

It led us to more trails..

more trails..

Finally a paved road but more hills.. We should have gotten farther but we just realized that nobody brought any hydration. Well we were not supposed to run this far... and no trails mentioned when this was planned a couple of days back... so back to the trails we go..

Nice view but it did not end here.. about 3 more kilometers of knee busting steep downhill from here back to where we started.

Will go back for some more next time and hopefully better prepared..

Philippine International Marathon – I Tapped Out

2009-11-13T13:45:00.016+08:00

Yes.. a DNF.. not even close… My first ever…

The day before the marathon, I felt real sluggish. I just thought it was just because of the cold swim Friday night. However, the night before the run, I felt a bit feverish. There, I got real anxious and worried about the run. I anticipated the weather to be hot which added to my anxiety. I hardly slept. With the condition I was in, I might not be able to last under the heat of the sun. Oh well, there was only one way to find out. Run it..

And so I did run it. It was not very long to confirm that I was in trouble. Just before Delpan bridge, my legs became wobbly and I was having cold sweats. It really was an unusual feeling. I carried on and stuck with my strategy with 5mins walks every 5kms. I was hoping that I heat up and eventually get past that unusual feeling but I can only run slower and slower after my first walk break. I had a longer walk break until Lawton and began running again towards City Hall and thru Lagusnilad.. that’s where I felt really dizzy and almost blacked out. Called it quits at that point, tapping out at around 11km.

While the run course took a left at Ayala Blvd from Taft Ave.. I walked slowly towards Kalaw and took a right towards Luneta Park. I can hardly stand still while the National Anthem was being sang. After what seemed to be a very long walk from Taft to Manila Ocean Park, I finally got to my car and rested.

Later that day, home alone, while my wife and kids were at the movies, my fever shot up and I felt really nauseous. I somehow managed to drive myself to the hospital. I gave samples of urine and blood and i was found that I have some viral infection… or was it...

During my 2nd day of rest for my supposed viral infection, I suddenly felt this terrible pain on my abdomen… I googled the symptoms while I was wincing in pain hoping it to be just a bad case of constipation.. but 2 hours had past, the pain was just getting more and more intense. Again alone in the house supposedly resting, I drove myself to the ER thru the traffic. I was given a couple doses of pain reliever intravenously but it was only after the 3rd dose that the pain finally subsided. I was eventually admitted to the hospital. The next day, It was found to be ureteral stone. I was able to flush it out eventually. Fortunately, CT scan showed no other anomalies in my kidneys and my ureter. Just that one tiny thing…

(with my Road ID elite and the newest hydration gadget)
Down but not out!

Can’t believe that that very tiny thing can cause so much pain… so excruciatingly painful that it took 3 different vials of pain reliever to alleviate it… Oh well, I can’t really figure out what caused this but I just hope it does not occur again… One thing’s for sure… this won’t stop me from running… well, maybe a bit of a break from running will do no harm… haha!

PIM 2010…? If I don’t have a change of hobby by that time... I’ll be ready for you… hehe

SIM – My Full Marathon Debut… + KOTR 10k…

2009-10-28T14:54:00.023+08:00

I always find reasons to chicken out from a Full marathon… I had last minute change of heart on 2 occasions… 1st was in Botak and the other was the Milo Marathon Qualifying run. On both occasions, part of the reason was not having enough mileage.

What was enough mileage? All the marathon programs that I come across on the net says that one should have ran at least 32kms a few weeks before the marathon.

The longest distance I ran was merely a 25k and that was in preparation for the Condura Half Marathon way back in March. Moreover, in terms of run mileage, I have my lowest the past few months averaging only around 20k per week. I just picked up a bit on running the last few of weeks to prepare for 2 consecutive weekends of mutisport events which included short distance runs.

For this event, preparations was not any better. However, I got myself a few of what I consider better reasons to finally do the marathon.
1. Anniversary run… This will be a culmination event for my one year into (getting a bit) serious in running.
2. It was my birthday a couple of days back. How about Full marathon as a gift to myself. It came with a Nike Span 6 which I will break in on the Marathon itself. It goes against all the “marathon don’t’s” but my 2 other pairs are practically worn out and are way past their life span.
3. Forfeited my Singapore flight with my wife supposedly for that same morning. I guess running a marathon is a good reason to waste fare money for.
4. It would be mostly a nightrun. A perfect time to do the “required distance” for a marathon without the heat of the sun. Nightruns, much less sundown full-marathons don’t come around very often.
5. How often can anyone travel via SCTEX on foot?
6. I will be in great company with Isko and Eugene with support team, Carrey and Grace. All the takbo.ph peeps I know will be there as well.

So I took the marathon plunge…the hell with the lack of mileage... bahala na si Batman…

I came up with a strategy for my first marathon with a goal to finish below 6hours… The plan was to break the distance into 8 X 5k with an average speed of 7.5min/km (7min/km 1st half; 8min/km on the 2nd half) with 5mins walk breaks inbetween sets. With these walk breaks, we would have fresh legs to start each set.. This would total to about 5hours 40mins.

Eugene and I was good with the strategy but our coach, Isko, decided to shorten the walk breaks to 3mins on the fly. But they still averaged to 5mins because Eugene and I stalled everytime Isko tells us to resume running.. hehe

For the 1st half of the race, we followed this plan (sort of). At halfway point we were surprisingly at 2:25.. ahead of target by 15mins…

There was some discomfort on my knees after reaching this point (a chronic condition after about 2hrs of running)... I just applied liniment oil every chance I got which I think worked alleviate the pain…So, on the second half of the course, we deviated from the plan and began doing more walkbreaks after shorter period of running… 15mins run, 3-5mins walk… coach Isko made the calls… Despite this, we still got past a lot of runners who were either walking or running slow, apparently because there's no more water at the aid stations. I really feel sorry for these runners who busted their asses off in training only to be shortchanged by the organizers on the race day!! Boooh!

It was a good change of scenery at Km32.. (from pitch darkness to the lights of the toll gate) We’ve been going at it for 3:50 at this point. Still ahead of target. From my estimates, even by leisurely walking the rest of the way (12min/km), I’d still finish within my 6hr target. Having this in mind, and still feeling stronger than I expected myself to be considering the distance I've already covered, finishing below 5:30 is attainable.

Eugene lagged a bit but he was still being closely monitored by our support team Carrey and Grace and informing coach Isko how far behind he was.

Walking does not seem to help relieve the nagging pain on my knees so I figured we need to get this over with as soon as we can, so we stepped it up a bit when we run after our walk breaks.

About 2.5km to the finish we were at 4:50 on my watch, a 5hr finish would mean sprinting at a 4min/km pace…. Hmmm… just gave that a thought… An 8min/km will do… hahaha

Finished my Marathon Debut in 5hrs10mins… Eugene crossed the finish 20mins after.. Woohooo!!!!

At the finish line with Eugene, Jeff Abenina, Isko and Gene Olvis. Jeff and Gene both BDM 102 veterans finished the race under 4hrs.

Rank BIB # Name Time Distance Gender Age Group
52 319 Hermogines M. Olvis 3:54:31 42 M C
53 158 Jeffrey Abenina 3:55:26 42 M E
296 862 Franciso S. Lapira 5:10:05 42 M E
297 1126 Ian B. Clemeno 5:10:22 42 M E
398 294 Eugene Marie B. Tariaga 5:33:58 42 M E

I attribute my surprisingly great marathon debut run to the following people:

1. Coach Isko for pacing and pushing us to our limits when he felt we were slacking off...

2. Manager Carrey for the support (vehicle and hydration supplies). While most were struggling due to lack of water stations, she kept us hydrated throughout our run. Can’t thank you enough, manager! Thanks to Mary Grace for the pics (wherever they are) as well.
If you happened to pass by that white van with HardCore Team banner and asked for water… and 2 gorgeous ladies offered you banana and hardboiled eggs, that’s them.

3. Eugene for his never ending yapping for the first 32kms.. I’ve known these guys (Eugene and Isko) for more than a decade. Although we’re telling the same old stories, they never fail to give us some laughs which kept our minds off the pain and distance ahead of us. I was glad to have done my first marathon with these guys...

Adidas KOTR

We headed straight to The Fort from Subic after a very late dinner to celebrate our accomplishment. After only a couple of hours shuteye in the van, we found ourselves at the starting line of yet another run - Adidas KOTR.

Eugene and I did 10k pacing Carrey and Grace. Isko being a hardcore and part of TKO 250, did the Half Marathon.

I did a 42k and a 10k in less than 24hrs… I guess I now have the required mileage for a full-marathon…. Hehe..

Philippine International Marathon next? Why not!! :-)

Speedo NAGT 4th leg… Let’s Tri this again…

2009-10-23T07:40:00.008+08:00

Back in June, I did the same exact course in the Animo sprint tri. I needed to get back for it to find out if I have made some progress in this sport.

I swam and biked more often since then. I swim after work about 2x a week and I made sure that I bike on a Saturday or Sunday for at least 50kms each time out. This took a lot of time from my running though. My run mileage dropped to less than 20kms a week . But I made sure that these are quality run mileage and run mostly on race pace.

Race Day..

I guess with a few multisport events under my belt, I've learned to do the worrying on the race day itself and not worry too much the night before. Else, I’d get sleep deprived on race day. I wouldn’t want that to happen on the 4th leg of Speedo NAGT at AAV.

Swim:
The pool was crystal clear this time compared with Animo; and from my estimates, only about half the number of participants on my age group. So there’s, not much blows being thrown and lots room to swim on. It’s that or I may have gotten used to the slaps, tugs and brushes with other swimmers.

It was a good swim for my standards. I finished with more than 2mins improvement from the last time. It may not seem that much but for me it’s a milestone.

All psyched up for the swim... Jonas, Angelo, Me, Norman, Jason

Plenty of room at the swim leg

Bike:
Having a bit better bike than the one I used the last time, plus the cleats; and more importantly way lots of bike mileage, I must say I did pretty well in the leg of the race.

Like the last time, the inclines of the bike route were challenging (still). I shifted to my granny gears each time I pass that portion before the turn to Acacia. I never ever shifted to granny gears before since I do my all my bike trainings on the flat roads of MOA. Having very little knwledge in proper gearing, my chains came off twice. Once while shifting to the small chain ring while on the biggest rear cog and the other when I shifted to the big chain ring while on the smallest cog. Perhaps its just my FD being out of tune. Nevertheless, despite having these chain issues, I finished the bike leg 6mins better.

@ Transition 1 after running about 100m from the pool.

T2 took longer coz I have to change shoes. This was my first time to use bike shoes on a race.

Run:
Being new on cleats and having used it only for the 3rd time, I still had my quads do most of the works mashing the pedals. As a result, it still took me a bit of time to shake off my tight quad muscles. Fortunately, Glenn of South-tri let me pace with him from km2 to the finish, constantly updating me of how much distance we've already covered.

I finished the run 5mins better that the last time.

Oveall, I competed the race with 13mins improvement from Animo Sprint tri.
The weather was a significant factor as well. It was overcast the whole time.
Completed the race in 2hrs11mins.

45 360 CLEMENO, IAN M 36 SP 0:22:50.00 1:05:24.00 0:43:02.00 2:11:16.00

Jonas, Me, Norman and Monks... all ecstatic at the Finish

I would definitely Tri this again next year to find out if I make further progress..

*Thanks to Norman's wife, Abby for the great photos!

Corregidor Aquathlon Challenge … braving the waves…

2009-10-15T19:38:00.035+08:00

I was never anxious nor excited about this event which was totally unlike the night before my first open water aquathlon in Camaya a few months back when I hardly slept. Even on the ferry on our way to Corregidor, I was all calm and composed. Still reflecting on the great flood of 2 weekends before... But then I saw the raging waters of the swim course from a distance… then I got real anxious… probably a post traumatic stress after my Ondoy experience.

After doing a test ride, I found out that It was not all that bad... the swim course was shallow, just about 5ft when you stay close to the bouy line. I did not dare to try how deep it was 10meters farther. The course was parallel to the shore.

Psyching up!

The first 400m swim leg was more of a fun swim rather than competetive, everybody was all smiles braving the nasty waves. And like most of the participants, I did the swim walk swim strategy… hahaha

where are the racers?... they're pratically engulfed by the waves...

Socializing at the transtition.. hehehe.. competetive eh... we're actually trash talking.. (pic from Alman of AMCI)

Unlike the swim, the 7km run was no fun for me. I was running on all fours to make up for my miserable swim(slash walk). Running uphill half the course totally took the wind out of me. This was the part of the race where I ask myself why the hell I do this. I didn’t even notice the historic scenery around me except for the lighthouse (which registered only because that part of the course was a deviation from the main road). I was real cautious running the downhill portions. I was running right in the middle of the road for the most part to avoid the mossy parts of the road (only tour buses use the roads of Corregidor.. nice!). A spill would’ve resulted to rolling down the rest of the course. (that would’ve been faster though, but I wouldn’t want to do an ocean swim with road rashes all over).

Still managed to regain my running form for the camera.. thanks Carina!

The 2nd swim leg was walk swim walk swim swim walk walk walk walk swim walk walk walk … just like that … I was done in 55mins, surprisingly finished 8th overall and 5th among men… unofficially..

Ziggy placed 2nd finishing in 52min.

Takbo.ph aquathletes.. where's commissioner Rico?

After we had our free lunch, we took a tour around Corregidor. Only then I realized what I have missed while I was grinding it out in the run course...

Nice place! Creepy though...

Powerade Duathlon… and a Multisport long weekend..

2009-09-22T16:03:00.004+08:00

Thanks to the holiday (Eid al-Fitr) for a truly pain-full but fun-filled long weekend.

Saturday… Row and bike (Training)

I did my usual Saturday dragonboat rowing training with my team. We did a some endurance routine 2 X 2000 and a few race course programs. Like always, it was exhausting. After cooling down and stretching, i yanked my bike from my car and off I went biking.

I only did a slow 35km with a few sprints still training for the Duathlon the next day. Just so my leg muscles won’t forget how to spin. The last 6kms, I rode while chatting away with Mel, who’s also new in biking (but a seasoned Marathoner) and Miguel Tobias, an Ironman of Team Timex. Mel and I were soliciting advise on what to expect for that distance and if ever we decide to join WRT. Same distance as Camsur Half IM. It was truly encouraging. The only discouraging part about it is the registration fee.

Sunday … Powerade Duathlon

This was the highlight of the weekend. I have been busting my butt off training for this. I have been biking for about 60kms each time the last couple of Saturdays in the middle of rain showers to get myself ready for this event.

Flashback: Clark Off Road duathlon last June left a real bad taste on my mouth. Almost DNFing that event and a lesson well learned. I did the event totally unprepared with 0 mileage on the trail with an almost brandnew substandard full suspension MTB. Sold that bike a week after the event on my disgust.

Anyway, wouldn’t dwell on that any longer.. hehe Moving on… My secret strategy for this race (like everybody else) was to run, bike and run as fast as I could. Hahaha! On the 1st run leg of 7km (2 loops), I was able to get ahead of a few people who I know to be fast bikers . On the first loop of the run, I clocked at 16+ minutes… I thought I must be running beyond my usual fast pace or the actual distance was shorter than what was advertised. I’d soon find out that it was the former…

I began to slow down towards the latter part of the 2nd loop but still managed to clock at 35+ minutes.

But this would take its toll on the bike leg. Transition was more of catching my breath and refueling which still took some time even without changing shoes.

As expected, some of the people I got ahead of in the run made me eat their dust on the bike leg, overall, the bike leg was a bit off my target. My calves began to cramp up alternately after my 2nd loop. To get thru this I mashed the pedals harder with the good leg alternately (Now I know the advantage of using cleated shoes). … then I felt both of them were cramping up at the same time… At this point I just pedaled with my feet parallel to the ground to avoid locking up my calves and hope that I get past it soon enough. I got past it alright and finished the 31.8 km bike leg at 1:02 averaging a bit over 30khp. (on my cyclocomp). I guess the heat was too much and was not part of the equation on my Saturday trainings. Still ain’t bad though.. :-)

I started my 2nd run leg walking with 1:42 on my watch, unfortunately I was walking on the wrong direction and was told to go around the transition area. Some precious seconds taken away to catch my breath. At that time of the day, it was searing hot already. The ice cold water on the aide stations sure was helpful. I stopped on every water station and poured water over my head. I was totally spent and cramped both my quads 300m to the finish. Stopped briefly and still managed to do a semblance of a run to the finish.

Completed my first road duathlon in 2:04+. Not bad at all! yay!

It was great to have met a some biking monsters from Pinoyroadies and some familiar faces of takbo.ph.

It was my friend Isko’s 1st duathlon who did quite well on a borrowed bike and for just his 3rd bike ride in years.

I went straight to Cartimar to buy myself a pair of cleats for my pedal after the race. This would be another challenge.. getting used to bikeshoes… good luck to me..

Monday – Sheerwill Cup Aquathlon

This was a simulation run for the upcoming Corregidor Aquathlon for the benefit of those takbo.ph peeps who would do an aquathlon for the first time. The actual event will consist of 400m ocean swim – 7k run – 400m swim. I did a couple of swim-runs and 1 trailrun–ocean swim- trailrun aquathlons but a swim-run-swim will be a first for me as well on the open water.Transition is always key on these events especially important on the swim off a run which could be a bit dangerous in open water. So I really looked forward to doing this activity.

Due to limited slots there were just a handful of us who joined namely Ziggy, Ellen, Raff, Jonas, James, DocT, Rico, Argo. The event was timed and marshalled by Pepsi and Carina..

I finished the course at exactly 1hour, far 2nd behind Ziggy who finished in 55mins. Lufet talaga to si lifeguard Ziggy.

The event was made possible by RicoV a.k.a Sheerwill who was the brains behind this activity and James of Takbo.ph who was very generous to facilitate the availability of the venue (pool and run course) in their posh village in Taguig and provided a hearty brunch after. Thanks Rico and James! Hope we can do this again! hehe

Sarap talaga ng feeling finishing a multisport event… be it simulations or trainings. They can be as much fun as the real event.

The Dean’s Cup Triathlon… Short but Sweet..

2009-08-31T14:55:00.010+08:00

I had a hard time getting registered for this event since they prioritize people with UP affiliations. But after a few emails to Eric Pasion, I was finally able to get myself officially registered just a week before the event.

The event was well attended. Considering that it was originally limited to 50 slots, I heard that there were 70 triathletes who were able to register. A few IronMen (donning IM 70.3 Finisher shirts) also joined.

The event started just before 10am. The weather was perfect. Overcast the entire time. If it was sunny I don’t think it wouldn’t have been much of an issue because of the large trees providing shade on the course.

I ran the Botak 10miler the weekend before primarily to recon the bike and run routes and wondered how the bike leg would be considering the joggers and bikers along the route. It was amazing how the organizers were able to control the usual weekend running crowd on the roads. The course was sufficiently marshalled and directional signs were everywhere. Great job Eric Pasion, and Ian Alacar who has a hand on the organization as well.

750m Swim

The swim leg consisted of 3 loops of 250 (5laps) and 4 waves. 1st were women and relay participants. 2nd were participants with UP affiliations. 3rd and 4th was for Open category. 3rd wave consisted mosty of the fast swimmers who were eager to finish the event the earliest they can (obviously) and some random picks by the marshalls. I was with the last wave. There were just about 20 of us on the wave.

As always, I was tense early on the swim. I was just able to relax and get a bit of rhythm going after the 1st 250m. Anyway, I still managed to get past a few swimmers.

Got off the pool 19mins+. Been swimming more often than usual a couple of weeks before the event and I can usually manage to clock around 17mins.

Well, 19mins under duress is still ain’t bad for my standards.

Surprisingly, this time around I wasn’t at the receiving end of any kicks and slaps…

20km Bike

Like the last couple of tri’s I did, I put on my running shoes right off the pool and use them for the bike leg. Apparently, I still don’t have bike shoes. I better lurk around BaldRunner’s donate a shoe booth and hope that someone donates a pair of size 44 sidi bikeshoes. :-)

We had to run about 250m to the transition area from the pool so I think I had at least 20sec advantage over those wearing flipflops to T1 :-) . However, I still took abit of time setting up and hydrating while on T1 to make sure that I did not forget anything for the bike leg... tops… check, shades... check, helmet… check, … oops wait… my bike… hahaha!

I’m still wondering how this foreign girl ran 250m to T1 passing in front of the church on her bikinis (not the swimwear bikini). Not the usual sight for the Sunday morning churchgoers. Haha!.

Back to the bike route…. The course was great! 8 loops of 2.5km+. 50/50 Downhill/ uphill. Took advantage of the downhill portion… going as fast as 46kph on my cyclocomp but slowing down to as low as 23kph on the uphill portion. I ended averaging 29kph on the 21.45km course. The whole bikeride took me about 44mins+ to complete.

Not bad for the 2nd hand (or 3rd) Giant TCR roadbike I acquired barely 2 weeks ago. It 's definitely great to handle and responds very well compared to my previous bike. Thanks to Rayzon Galdonez for informing me about this bike being posted on Biketradesph.com about 3 weeks ago. Made arrangements right away with the seller and eventually bought it. It definitely was a great buy.

Thanks idol for the tip and for the bikefit as well…but you still owe me a pic with Monica.. :-)

Though I now got a better ‘pana’ than before, the ‘indian’ still has lots to work on.

I was putting my race face on whenever I pass Vener with Xty who was taking pictures of the racers along Osmena Rd. He got some nice shots of me on the bike like this one below. Thanks bro!

BTW, I did a pathetic attempt to draft behind Rayzon who overlapped me on my 6th loop, but the 36kph plus uphill was just way too much for me to handle. Disengaged after barely 500m. hehe

5km Run

Again took a bit of time on T2, tucked salonpas tape (freebie from Botak run the weekend before) under my bike shorts just in case my quads cramp up. I started my run 1:10min on my watch. About 10mins into the run I decided to put the salonpas tape anyway on my left quad and right calf. Wala lang.. I just want to feel how ‘potent’ it was and sayang naman yung time and effort I spent getting it from my bag and putting them under my shorts if I wasn’t gonna use them. It felt cool J…. But I think it was a placebo (ala phiten ata.. haha) effect on me as my pace got faster as I ran further. I was able to outrun a few more runners. (I prefer not to mention the gender)

I couldn’t believe I was nearing the finish already coz I still was feeling strong. After I crossed the finish, parang bitin.. I felt I could’ve run another… 500m.. hehe.… I think it was the bananacue (there was no siopao available) I munched on just before the swim leg. Sustained energy realease unlike Hammer gel’s sudden burst.

Finished the whole thing in 1:36+.

I was generally satisfied with the outcome of this race coming off 2 dismal runs the last couple of weekend events, Botak 10miler and the Kenny Rogers 15k nightrun.

This sure is something for my books.

Rayzon eventually took home the Dean’s Cup. That was a figure of speech though. He cannot take the prize home. The huge silver cup will be displayed In UP College of Law with his name etched on it (as was announced the the Race director). Incidentally, Rayzon brought along fellow Army athletes who appeared to be new to the sport. I saw him giving them pointers on how to do transitions and even showing one guy how to use STI shifters on a roadbike which was obviously borrowed. And guess what, these guys are monsters. They finished just behind Rayzon getting, if I’m not mistaken, 2,3 and 4 spots.

Congrats to RicoV, Aries who also finished the race as well. It was nice to meet fellow newbie Mel and I forgot the other guys name.. :-) See you guys again on the next tri event.

Update:

Just got the results: Placed #13.. :-) Not bad!!
http://run4change.com/2009/09/deans-cup-triathlon-results/

Botak Paa-Tibayan and Kenny Roger’s Open... Plateau’d @ 10kph...

2009-08-31T13:49:00.008+08:00

Although, I was having a bum stomache right before the start of the Botak 10miler and my primary objective running the race was to familiarize myself with with the bike and run routes, (and the parking) for the next weekend's Dean’s Cup triathlon, It was still an event that I paid for. Thus, it should deserve a run that would make my heart pound.

Running along side with Isko, who was running off a bad cold, we initially took the run easy. I remember doing the 1st loop in 31mins, 2nd at 37mins. On the third loop, I cranked it up a bit to somewhat salvage a strong finish and elevate my heart rate abit as well to somehow get my money’s worth. However I could only manage 29mins for the final loop, finishing the 16k course in 1:37.

The KR Open was a bit better considering the difficult course running/walking the killer inclines of McKinley Hill and Bayani Roads with the nasty humid weather.

I think I have stopped and hydrated from all the water stations and consumed a lot warm powerades along the way. (Probably that’s what caused my stomach problems for several days after)

Clocked in 1:30+ on this run. I was a bit disappointed though, nothing ‘unusual’ happened inside heritage park which would’ve have significantly increased my pace. As it was, my pace remained constant at 6min/km

Can’t seem to break that 6min/km average for runs longer than 10k this the last few months. Hey why am I compaining? this is definitely because of my ever dwindling mileage on runs the last few months. I guess I have plateau’d at 6min/km.

Moreover, I’ve been biking and swimming more often lately thus taking away time from running. Well, honestly, I like it this way… it breaks the monotony of running…
Below has been my routine lately:

Monday - Rest or Weight training
Tuesday – Swim, Run
Wednesday – weight training
Thursday – Swim, Run
Friday – Rest or weight training depends on the Monday activity.
Saturday – Row, long bike
Sunday - Row, bike (or run) when i don't join events.

I make sure that I do every activity 2x a week and just compensate accordingly if I miss any. I do every activity about 1 hour except for long runs and bikerides which takes at least 2hrs. I also make sure that I still have a lot of time to spare for my kids’ homework when I come home week nights.

Run for Home… Timing chip? - Use IBM ... “ It’s Better Manual” :-)

2009-07-21T08:58:00.016+08:00

After Milo half marathon, because of the bed weather for the past 2 weeks I only ran on 2 occassions. Both 5Ks. I really was a bit worried for the whole week coming into the Globe Run. I felt I needed to flex these legs before Sunday’s event.

Late prep…

Friday night, I went to the gym and worked my legs out a bit. Did a few squats and leg curls. I usually do volume training in the gym which takes much less time.

Saturday morning is my usual biking and rowing sked. I was just planning to do an easy 30k but since there were no training for my rowing team (recognition day of the new members) and the weather was perfect, overcast and cool, I extended my bike ride to about 60k around MOA. It took a bit more than 2hours. I didn’t care much about the next day’s run, all I knew was that the weather was just perfect and it doesn’t come every Saturday. This was the longest distance I ever biked.

As soon as I got home, my wife and kids were preparing to go to the mall to catch the first screening of Harry Potter. Since my wife had already seen the movie and I’m not much into Harry Potter, we just left the kids with their friends in the theater. But then, I had to accompany my wife around the mall to shop. I’m sure you guys know how physically demanding that is.

So my legs were quite spent a day before the race.

Race day…

When I woke up, I felt some tightness on my legs. Uh-oh, not a good sign.. I had a few minutes to stretch at the starting line and as soon as I got warmed up on the first couple of kilometers of the race, my legs seem to have gotten better and I was cruising. It was 56mins on my watch as I approach the 10km mark… well within a sub2hr pace… Although, I know the route pretty well having ran a lot of events on most part of the course (except Ayala), I was not too keen about the sub2. I was on the same pace at Condura half and finished at 2:05 with better prepration and mileage.

As I expected, after 1.5hrs of pounding, regardless of the distance.. my knees never fail to crave for attention. I was again hounded by pain on both knees. I was at around 15km at that point. I saw an ambulance at the foot of kalayaan and I asked for liniment oil but it was taking them a bit of time looking for it so decided to just carry on and get the race over with as fast as I can possibly can.

The result...

Although my walk breaks became more frequent the last few kilometers coz of the discomfort on my knees, at the last 500m, I went at it. I ignored all the pain to somewhat salvage a strong finish. I sprinted to the finish and stepped on the mat at 2:07+ on my watch (could be less on timing chip). That was 2min faster than Milo 2 weeks ago. 2min+ short of my personal best of 2:05+ at Condura.

Still ain’t bad considering that my preparation was amiss.. :-)

Surprisingly though the official results are not out yet… very unlikely of a Rio organized run who usually delivers the results the same day.

Apparently, the timing chip did not work as advertised… I guess "It’s Better Manual” (IBM)… hahaha!

----------------------
Update: 23 July 2009

Finally got the results. It was worth the wait after all.
Great job Finishline!

NAME: Ian Clemeno
EVENT: 21 Km Run For Home
DATE: Sunday, July 19, 2009
BIB/DIV: 5107 / M No Age
TIME: 2h:7m:30s (gun) / 2h:6m:12s (net)

PDBF 1st Leg Regatta 2009… Abandon ship!!!

2009-07-16T20:15:00.013+08:00

I missed quite a few of DragonBoat races this year. A couple of them out of town races in Subic last March and CamSur in last May. Because I was completely hooked on running back then, obviously I chose to join run events Condura and Botak instead. Both of them half marathons. There was another one which I missed last April but it was not the hardest decision for me to make… I took the Triathlon event over DB coz it was gonna be my first Tri.

Well, this time around, nothing was gonna stop me from joining the Dragonboat event (not even the traffic). I passed up on the usual Sunday run event and participated on the 1st of PDBF Regatta for 2009 which turned out to be an eventful race…

Had a bit of trouble getting to Baywalk where the DB race was being held as usual. Roads going to Roxas Blvd were closed. Apparently, aside from Fit and Fun Buddy Run, there was another run event on-going that early morning. A run organized I believe by PNP but was open to civilians as well. It was very well attended, so I had to wait quite a while for the runners to thin out before I was finally allowed by the Police officers manning the Quirino intersection to cross Roxas blvd and parked at Raja Sulaiman. Now I know how it feels to be stuck in traffic coz of on-going road races. :-)

This only attests to the running boom in the country. Running events are everywhere on weekends. I guess, this was what I needed exactly…a perfect time to take a break from running. Just seeing people run makes me throw up. Hehehe j/k.

Before I was hooked on running, I was quite active on DragonBoating. Been rowing/paddling for more than 5years now. Although my rowing days is now down to only Saturdays, I still make sure that I do activities to complement my rowing muscles by hitting the gym at least 2x/wk.; Swimming, which mimicks the movements of paddling, 2x/wk; running about 30k/wk and bike around 40k/wk, to build stamina and endurance.

Despite all these activities, after just 3 heats of 300m on last Sunday’s race, my rowing muscles were sore for a couple of days. They were just three 1min 20secs of very intense, adrenalin pumping sprints to the finish but i got really spent each time. I wonder what my heart rate was during the race. It sure felt like it reached over 200.. hehe.. Better get myself one of those HR monitor gadgets.

… Anyway, our women’s team bagged 4th place on the event. Woohoo! You surely whooped their asses! Way to go girls!!!

Unfortunately for the men’s team, we hit a bit of a snag in our semifinal heat. The boat that we had drawn was not in very good shape. Lacking a seat on the rear portion, our paddlers had to move a seat forward making the boat nose heavy. It was a disaster waiting to happen. With the strong winds and very choppy waters, our boat almost capsized and got filled with water during the semifinal heat. We had to “abandon ship” a few meters to the finish before it completely sank. We had very close calls on our first two heats. On our third heat, the waves got the better of us and knocked us off.
As the event progressed, the waves got even stronger. PNP’s boat capsized and completely sank during their Final Heat. The Phil Navy eventually came out the winner followed by the CamSur team.

Thanks to Emyard for the great photos..

33rd Milo marathon... "Kaya nyo yan…"

2009-07-06T20:53:00.006+08:00

Hats off to the takbo.ph peeps and other people I know who successfully finished their first full marathon. Indeed “Kaya nyo yan”.

Some of them really stood out on their runs for me. A couple of them qualified for the finals.

Wilnar – I learned that he started running last march. The one thing I noticed with him, the newbie that he is, was his basketball shorts. Ran a couple of LSDs with him along with the takbo.ph guys with his knee long shorts. This dude does not seem to get tired. I wonder what he eats for breakfast. He finished his full marathon in 3:53. Although training is key, I’m now thinking that running fast may have a lot to do with one’s genes. :-)

Natz – He really put in a lot time and effort on training for this run. I often see him running along Lawton Ave while driving to the office. I’ve been following his blog and his dedication to running is simply amazing. The training sure paid off. He clocked in at 3:57.

Roderick Guieb – finished at 4:16 despite running the last few kms on his flipflops. Apparently, got an issue with his shoes or foot the latter part of the race. I met him last month in Clark duathlon. He was a monster on his MTB. Then I saw the results of the recent Powerade duathlon at MOA where he had a great finish. 55th among about 300 participants. Begged off this event coz I think I had a huge disadvantage of not having bike shoes only to find out that Erick used his mountain bike on the event.
I now starting to believe what Carrey told me … “wala sa Pana, nasa Indian”. I wonder how he’d done with a better “pana”. Perhaps a Cervelo TT bike.. scary…

Lordan – my rowing teammate. Just his second run event ever, TNF 20km at sacobia being his first. He clocked in at 4:20. Learned later on that he just got his Nike trainers sole glued the night before. Encouraged him to join duathlons, as he’s into MTB as well.

RicoV – woohoo… clocked in at 5:16. coming off 4 half marathons averaging 2:40… that finish was really something… The LSDs you organized week after week sure paid off.. Congrats bro! I envy you big time!

Bong Yu and Eo also ran their first full and clocked in just a bit more than 5hours.

Ziggy and Aries – pushed on despite their injuries and cramps clocked in just over 5:30

Isko – Finished 9th in Botak 100 Ultramarathon exactly a week before but still ran and finished the full despite having foot issues. What drives you man?

Doc Roy and Sam – pushed on and completed their full marathon.

BongZ and Timmy – After finishing their half marathons pacing the newbies still had the energy to go back for the full marathoners and kept them company. You should’ve ran the full yourselves.

My sincerest thanks to the takbo.ph support crew in Buendia support station who really selflessly gave the much needed cheer to boost the runners.. stronger than any power bars, gels or what have you. It’s an instant turbo boost when you get by that station. I’m sure it was the same energy at Kalayaan station for the 42km runners.

Thanks TAKBO.PH for making overwhelming support happen.

Let me know if you need company on any of your runs… seriously… wag lang full.. for now coz I myself have not done a full or a pace under 5min/km. hehehe

It must’ve been so much fun to be on the support side of the race.. hope I can do all that someday soon as well...

By the way, i finished my 3rd half marathon in 2:08. Not a PR but not bad at all.

My thanks to Don whom I chatted away with through the last stretch of Roxas Blvd to the finish. Kept my mind off the discomfort I was feeling on my knees.

For the full marathon, I did not think “Kaya ko yan”.. for now. My moment will come... soon i hope...

ANIMO Sprint Triathlon 2009… Enjoying the full contact sport!

2009-06-15T15:14:00.023+08:00

This was the first ever sprint distance triathlon for me and my first bike race on the road longer than 11k (mini-sprint distance). I did the 1st leg speedo aquathlon early this year with the same swim distance and I was hoping to improve on my official time. Never thought much of the run as it was supposedly my strongest discipline of the 3. Anyway here’s the outcome:

The 950m swim was nasty. The pool was even nastier. I don’t know if they intended for the pool to go along with the De la Salle color. Hehe!

There were more swimmers on the leftmost portion of the pool. Snatched this pic from Deo P.

There were around 60 paricipants on my age group. Now I know how if feels like being put on a washing machine. It was utterly crazy on the pool. I got kicked, slapped, pulled down and shoved aside on the 1st 3 laps. I now believe that triathlon is really a full contact sport. J There was a point where I got stuck on the pile of swimmers and was only able to propel my self forward by pulling the lane dividers and escape the pile up. Joined a few aquathlons before and this by far has the most blows that landed on me. To make it worse, due to the very poor visibility, the blows were coming from everywhere. The pool was so bad that the i can barely even see the black lane marker at the bottom.

At the start, I wanted to position myself at the back since I anticipated the swim to be rough, judging by the number of swimmers on my age group, and just hoped to be able work my way around and pass a few swimmers when the crowd spreads out. However, we were packed like sardines and everyone seemed to prefer to be at the very back. So I found myself right in the middle when the mayhem started.

It took a lot of effort and energy for the first 150m. I was only able to get my rhythm when I finally had some room to myself on the 4th lap. It was smooth sailing from there… kinda...

Finished the swim in 24min on my watch. About 2mins behind my target but more than 2mins faster than my first aquathlon early this year.

The 30km bike. My transition to bike took a while.. putting on my running shoes and helmet, (I didn’t see anyone else on my age group using running shoes on the bike) and getting a few gulps of mountain dew and water took a few minutes. I really should work on my transistion. It’s not anything like preparing breakfast for the kids then doing the laundry on a weekend morning. :-)

Without the bike shoes, I had difficulty managing the inclines, took lots of work on my quads. I took advantage on the downhills though… I especially liked that downhill stretch in front of the church.

Though this bike looked like a rag inbetween bikes 354 and 356.., or compared to 301 thru 353, 357 thru 399, it held on without a flat.. hehehe.. that’s all I was asking from this baby and she pulled through…

Btw, she’s for sale.. anyone interested?.. hahaha!

My target was to finish the ride without any bike issues. My first attempt on triathlon a couple of months back left a bad taste in my mouth. My tires blew because I had an underinflated front tire causing a pinchflat when I ran over some humps. It would have sucked big time if I get another one of that. Thankfully, my bike didn’t fail me this time around.

I was also real cautious with the bike route. I didn’t mind slowing down to ask for directios from fellow racers or marshalls to make sure that I complete the course. No one wants to have a DQ across their names on the results.

Incidentally, on my second bike loop, I saw Rico V having some issues on his bike. As much as I wanted to help, I didn’t think I would be of any help anyway given that I was pretty much spent. Found out later on that he had a flat but he managed to get it fixed eventually. Sorry bro!

Finished the bike leg in 1hr8min.. on my watch.. ahead of my 1:15 target.

The 7km Run. Since I already have my running shoes on. T2 was much better. However, the run itself was a disaster. I was not able to hydrate that well during the bike leg and I felt the urge to eat as well. So I munched on my kitkat at the start of the run hoping that there would be a water station soon. Apparently, the water station was nowhere near the start. It was only after about 20mins into the run when I was finally able to get my first sip of water. Took my time on that first water station probably drank at least five cups which were getting refilled by a “tabo”. Hope the drinking water was not as bad as the water in the pool. As of this writing, my stomach is acting up. Hope it has nothing to do with the water stations nor the green pool water.

Anyway, it took me a while to recover from the bike run. I think I walked about a quarter of the run distance. I only got my running rhythm altogether on the second half of the course. I was even surprised when I was already about to make a right turn to University Ave and was nearing the finish. That moment I realized that it was too late to make up for the lost time.

To think that the run was supposed to be my strongest leg, it turned out to be my worst. I think I finished the 7km run just below 50mins.

Overall, I completed my first ever Sprint Tri in 2hr24min on my watch.

With Deo P. and Ziggy. It was all good at the Finish!

I could’ve done better if I pushed just a bit harder though. I know I got some more left when i I crossed the finish. It only meant that I didn’t push myself hard enough. Hope I can do better next time.

It wasn’t that bad! I had fun really. It was more than twice the distance of my first triathlon a couple of months back and i was more than twice the fun as well.

Crossing the finish now makes me a sprint triathlete… 0.1667 IronMan or one sixth IronMan… hahaha!

Hopefully by next year I’d be a Half IronMan… preferrably the lower half. Hehe!

Triathlete celebs who joined the event, among others. Got this pic from crouchingmonki . Thanks bro!

Clark Offroad Duathlon 3… just done it!…

2009-06-09T22:54:00.007+08:00

I never have thought of joining this event… well.. at least not this soon.. I guess having never done a trail bike ride ever before was a good reason enough. I only acquired my MTB barely 3 months ago and have only used it a few times on the road. The closest it has gotten to an offroad was along dilapidated asphalt roads of our subdivision in Paranaque. Well… joining such event is (or was)on my bucket list, but doing it this soon was never part of my plan. However, my rowing teammate, Elmer, somehow convinced me to sign up just a few days before the event. Oh well.. as the Nike slogan says…”just do it”…

So… while every runner i know were getting their PR finishes in Mizuno run at The Fort, my friend and i were struggling to complete the clark Offroad duathlon. Being my first duathlon and my first offroad bike experience, my main goal was just to finish and best effort on not finishing last..

There were around 40 participants on the eventconsisted mostly of elites which includes Leo Oracion and according to Rayzon Galdonez, whom i had a chat with, some are members National Duathlon team. And the rest, judging from the size of their quads, i believe, have done this a lot of times before. There were also some bikers who speak the local dialect so, i assume they have run the course before and I’m sure are very much familiar with it.

Also met Erick and his wife Let (My so called life Blog) who arrived at the assembly area after us (we were the first at 5am). I believe, he’s a seasoned MTB enthusiast. Had a chat with him as well. He said he did a recon the day before and had some challenges riding the course. It dampened our morale some more when he said that the bike course for him may take around 2hours to finish. Uh oh that sounded trouble! That means it would take us twice the time. I told Elmer.. let's just have fun enjoy the ride... coming from the nose... hahaha!

1st 5km Trail Run. According to Elmer, the course was partly the same route of the TNF trail run which he joined a couple of weeks back.

So were off.. under the Sacobia bridge we ran dipping our shoes on the ankle deep and some parts knee deep streams. The 1st 5km run was no sweat as i took it easy saving as much energy for the bike ride. Finished the run just a bit over 30mins.

The 30km bike course consisted of 4 loops passing parts of the sandy run course under the Sacobia bridge then a steep climb which i walked each time towards barangay Manggahan, Mabalacat, then it was downhill from there on a muddy and wet narrow trail with a couple sharp turns along the way and a dive on a 3ft stream that ends the downhill part (I liked that part the most). Moderate uphills followed. I most hated the part where i needed to carry my bike on a 20ft stairs to the foot of the Sacobia bridge to end the loop.. Imagine doing that 4 times… carrying a not so "superlight" bike..

As early as the first bike loop, i was having some doubts of finishing the race.. it was a real huge challenge for me. Obviously, I didn’t have any idea what I’ve gotten myself into.. Just do it eh?! Hehehe! What's even more demoralizing was when a few bikers began to overlap me on my 3nd loop. To add injury to the insult (was that suppose to be the other way around? :-)), On my 4th loop, both of my quads cramped up, it came as I near the stair climb to the bridge. My muscles locked up and i was not able to move my legs for a while. That was quite a scare. By that time, no one was around for help. There were some spectators 3 loops before but i guess they've gone to lunch. So I rested for a while, stretched my legs and began to pedal slowly. Fortunately, the cramps did not recur until the end of my bike leg.

Completed the bike leg in about 2hrs45mins.

2nd 5km trail run. I took my time before i started my last 5km run. Spent some time on the water station drinking and pouring water over my head. I walked and jogged hoping that my quads don’t cramp up again.

There were these local kids (two of them appears to be indigenous) I ran into along the course. They were bugging me for some change. I told them I don’t have anything with me but if they kept me company, I may have something for them at the finish.. hehehe. They enthusiastically obliged and ran along while telling me a lot of stories about the place..i really enjoyed the conversation with those kids.. It kept my mind off the gruelling course and the searing heat at 12 high noon. They must've mistaken me a relative coz of my skin tone.. hahaha... they kept me company the rest of the run course.

Finished the entire course a bit over 4hrs… with a few more participants behind me… The pain and agony disappeared when I crossed the finish line.

Elmer finished about 30mins after and was real ecstatic to have completed his 1st multisport event.

This is another experience I won’t soon forget. Should I do this again? Not anytime soon.. hehehe! …For now… Offroad Duathlon… Check!!!

The bike transision area

Elmer with his less than 24hr old bike getting ready to be broken in

Me with couple Eric and Let. Hope to see you guys again soon.

Earth Run 2009…Slippery when wet… I like!

2009-06-02T13:10:00.010+08:00

Running in the rain… not the first but definitely a first for me on an official run event. It was just a drizzle actually. I would’ve liked it better if the rain was stronger and roads wetter though. But generally, the weather worked perfect for me.

Pace . For the most part of the run, I was trying to keep pace with the 6min pacer dude. I never let him out of my sight, lagging 20m at the most. I was pacing side by side with Erick a.k.a Shocks_5 of takbo.ph on the first few kms. However, I can’t keep up with him and this running program he’s trying out in preparation for the Milo marathon. He’s doing mile sprints and moments of jog/walk for recovery. My recovery time takes a lot longer so I decided to stick to my more consistent pace of 6min tailing this pacer dude.

Shoes. I opted to reactivate my Nike pegasus from retirement coz I figured the fit will work better when wet than my NB. That was based on my very little technical knowledge on running shoes. My basis.. it’s tighter…haha! plus it would have better traction on wet and slippery roads coz the soles are not that worn out yet.

Route. The route was my usual training route when the Army grandstand is unavailable to the public, so the inclines on McKinley hill, Gate 3 and Heritage park never bacame issues for me.

Hydration. Obviously, hydration was less of an issue. Water stations seem adequate given the wet weather. I don’t think that would have been the case on a May 10 Botak weather. I liked the earth friendly gulp size paper cups they used in the water stations.

Overall. It wasn’t a strong run.. but considering that I have not run that much for the past few weeks, I can’t ask for anything better. It still was a great run for me and more importantly, it was fun and surprisingly pain free after the run. Maybe my brief break from running paid off afterall.

Finished the run on my clock at 1hr32mins.

Picture... picture... takbo.ph gang...

Running couple Neil and Rachel... How i wish i can get my wife to run as well.. :-)

Had breakfast with the cool takbo.ph gang. IE8 and Earth Run runners converged at McDonalds after the runs.

Rowers Club Philippines teammates Doner, Eymard and Patch...

Burnout??

2009-05-29T20:44:00.005+08:00

Well, my skin is… thanks to the beach weather the past several days..

Last weekend, while everybody was in Sacobia for the TNF trail run, my family and I took a vacation in Palawan. We stayed there for about a week. The weather was beach perfect and we definitely had a blast.

While we were there, all we did was go to the beach or a local resort and then tried out Puerto Princesa’s known restaurants and pig out on the buffet lunch and dinner (courtesy of my ever generous dad-in-law) plus a few bottles of beer each time. Wow.. talk about carboload solid and liquid. As a result I gained about 5lbs... lost 2 of my five pack abs. The sixth was a work in progress until that vacation. Now I’m back to working on my 4th onwards or downwards. Hahaha!

I brought my running gear with me in Palawan just incase I had the chance to squeeze in some running. They turned out to be just excess luggage.

On a positive note... I got to do some open water swim while i was there.

As of this writing I’m still on my vacation mode and only ran a very long 5km since I came back last Tuesday. I was about to do a 16k LSD after office this afternoon in preparation for the Earth Run this coming Sunday but the weather did not permit. Well, I actually hoped for it to rain so that I would have an excuse not to run. This is definitely a bad sign!!!

Even before this vacation, I noticed that my mileage is dwindling significantly. For the month of May, I‘ve only logged 60kms+ when I averaged around 160 for the first 4months of the year. Is this a sign of running burnout?

Since I started to run seriously last quarter of last year, even when I’m injured, I have not relented on running.

I was passing up on Friday night parties and gimmicks (which I would never do before) coz there would be run events on the weekends. Running was one of my top priority… I don’t think that holds true for the month of May.

Hope I can go back to my running sense real soon and pour in some mileage for Milo Marathon on July 5th. I’m in dire need of motivation. Help!!! :-)

Botak Paa-Tibayan 21k.. I Survived…

2009-05-11T15:07:00.010+08:00

DNS?! Last Friday, my mind was made up to just DNS this run. Being down with colds most of the week, thus no runs at all for that whole week. Generally, having lacked training for more than month due to injury as well.

I registered for 42k a couple of weeks before the race hoping that I could catch up with just enough training to finish my first marathon in 5 to 5.5hrs. But then came the colds. Well, honestly, even without it, I had serious doubts on finishing a full without having the adequate mileage. The colds was just the deciding factor.

But when I was about to get my 42k (450 Php worth) singlet at ROX afternoon last Friday, I bumped into Mhel who was getting registered for a 21k. Found out that he was also suffering from colds but seemed to be determined to run anyway on a “chill” pace. We had coffee next door and somehow he got me encouraged enough to run even for 21k. (it was probably the coffee that got me going. Hehe. Thanks for the coffee bro!). We even talked about running together with a finish target of 2:30. So, I downgraded my 42k entry to 21k and hoped and prayed that I get a lot better in the next couple of days.

So, the following morning, I went out to test my stamina. I went out for a bike ride. Did about 25k around BHS and about the same distance more to and from our house. Being idle the whole week, I figured that I should save my running muscles for the half marathon. (I don’t know if that makes any sense at all). The bike ride went well so I guess it’s a go for Sunday’s run.

The Run. From the start, my game plan was to do an LSD pace all the way. And while everybody was complaining on inadequate and inefficient water stations, I was mostly focused on finishing my 21k given the situation and the physical condition I’m in. Having realized that there would be issues on hydration right after passing on the first 2 very crowded water stations, I had to change my strategy on hydration a bit and I figured to take as much water when available even it that means queuing up for a few minutes. That also meant I’d get my much needed power stops/walks.

As Mhel didn’t show up (he had a few errands to run for Mother’s day celebration.), I paced along with Eugene. I needed someone to chat with to get through this long journey. Although I have to get ahead of him in some occassions coz I can’t keep up with his erratic pace.. he’s like doing inverval routines the whole run. Hahaha…
I’m still trying to recall though, who paced who? Hehe.. I think I benefited more running alongside Eugene. I got some GU gel and somehow got a push when we sprinted 500m towards the finish. This dude is getting stronger! Thanks Bro!

I guess my strategy worked out after all. Eugene and I finished the half marathon at 2:29, seconds ahead of my target. Although, it was almost half an hour longer than my Condura finish, I still was ecstatic to have finished the run given the circumstances.

I barely survived this run. Never been so wasted after. Thankfully I backed out of the 42k otherwise I would’ve DNF’d or DNS’d (Did Not Survive). Oh well, it was still another half marathon under my belt.. the full marathon will have to wait another day..

At 8am, the searing heat was simply unbearable. Can’t imagine how hot it had gotten an hour or two after that. Hat’s off to the Takbo.ph guys who endured the heat and went on to finish their full-marathon.

Congrats as well to the Camanava runners/ultramarathoners Abet and Jeff for a great finish and what would’ve been a great finish respectively. Hehe.. Too bad Isko had to go on out-of-town assignment at the last minute.

Takbo.ph peeps..

Eugene, Grace and Carrey with High Altitude

‘Til next run adventure…

Camaya Coast Aquathlon Challenge… 1.5km Open water swim – Check!

2009-05-04T09:40:00.026+08:00

Cross this off my list.
It was a great and sunny day… much better compared to the last few days. A nice day for a swim. That’s what I keep telling myself (tink potisib!). Being my first time to do an open water swim, I had a lot of apprehensions and (barely) managed to keep a positive frame of mind. I was excited but mostly anxious the night before and was barely able to sleep.

1st 3.5km trail run.

I did not want to burn a lot of my fuel on this first leg of the run for obvious reasons. Moreover, I needed to keep my legs fresh and did not want them to cramp up during the swim. That didn’t work out. I got tempted to pace close behind this girl Nina from David Salon Tri team. I eventually overtook her. That was not a very smart move which would tell later on my swim.

The beach run was another first for me. Even for just about a total of 1km, it took a lot of effort to get much needed lift for the feet. The trail run was nothing like what was described by Coach Rick on the briefing. (Only 10m elevation and trails wide enough for a vehicle to pass??) It was way harsher. It was uphill (few portions quite steep) all the way towards the turn point and mostly less that a meter wide trail. Can’t recklessly go along with the downhill momentum as there are lots sharp turns and a few stream crossings (jumping over) as well. I guess Ziggy knows better now as he took a spill on the trails. All’s well for him though. He bested the 30-39 age group.

1.5km swim

On the race briefing I was thankful to hear that the swim leg would be starting from the right going to a counter-clockwise loop. That means I would be able to keep an eye on buoy line on my left. I’m used to breathing on my left side on a freestyle.

Tried to rectify that but obviously 3 pool sessions and swimming on the beach waves of Club Manila East a few days before the event were not enough.

CME wave training.. hehehe

Anyways, I managed to keep myself a feet at the most from the buoy line, i even snagged my arm on it a couple of times on the first 200m… until.. gulp! gulp! swallowing sea water was no fun at all. The water got a bit choppier as I got farther from the shore…uh oh! I lost my momentum right there. This was not getting to be as fun as advertised… hehehe! Lee and BongZ, both doing breast stroke got past me as I hung on briefly to the buoy line to regain my composure. I decided to follow suit and do the breaststroke as well. It was a bit slower but my head was well above the swell for easier navigation and to avoid swallowing more seawater.

As I got near the shore I tried to do freestyle thinking that I’d be able to make up a bit of time … Not! The current was so strong that I kept veering to the right... away from the bouyline. Took a lot of effort to go back on track. There I decided to forget about freestyle altogether as it was not working for me. Did breastroke all the way during my last loop. I didn’t kick as hard though coz I was feeling that my left calf was about to cramp up. That was what I got from going at it on the trail run. Thankfully, the cramp did not act up until I finished the swim. That would’ve been ugly.

Camaya Coast challenge wasn’t anything like doing swim laps on PA pool but I think the waves of CME helped a bit though.

Anyhow, I did it! I swam 1.5km in open water! whew!! Finished swim leg under 45mins ..I hope. (No Official results yet from TRAP)

2nd 3.5km Trail Run

At the transition, I was disappointed to see my socks and shoes all wet and sanded up. Thanks to the faster swimmers… My fault... I should’ve anticipated that… No fun running on sandy wet shoes.

Slow start as I was feeling the cramps setting in. Fortunately it did not. I was still able to sprint towards the finish at the beach. Got myself a couple of blisters after.

On my watch.. Finished everything at 1hr40mins.. hopefully less.. Well see..

Did not realize that the event was that demanding until last night. My calves are sore. Did not have anything like this when running way longer distances on (my) race pace in flats. Felt this is TNF though..

This is another experience I wont soon forget. Now that I got the taste of the open water, I have a bit on an idea what to expect when or if I do it again. I sure need to ramp up on my swim mileage and maybe hit the beach more often. Or hit the beach waves of CME. hehehe

Congrats to the Takbo.ph members who joined the event… Ziggy (1st in 30-39 age group), BongZ and RicoV finished the Aquathlon. Jihan and Cathleen finished the grueling 10k trail run with a bang, bagging 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Thanks as well to Ellen, BongZ’s friend for taking our pics. Looking forward to the copies. It was great meeting you. See you again on the next events hopefully as a participant… Congrats to Lee as well...

takbo.ph team - Jihan, Ziggy Rico, BongZ, me, Cath, Ellen

After the race, my friends from takbo.ph and I took time to chill out and relax ("Chillax" as Cath would say it). The place was awesome. On top of the free ride to the place and back, there’s free lunch, merienda and overflowing Buco Juice … free massages and henna tattoo… plus the usual speedo swim cap and shirt!.. nice…

This event turned out to be so much fun (as advertised) after all.

By the way, I forgot to shout “I Love Camaya” at the finish like what was instructed on the briefing. So here it is.. “I Love Camaya!!!” … no reason for a DQ now.! J

Speedo Aquathlon Series 2009 2nd Leg …I Tri’d and Almost Failed…

2009-04-19T18:37:00.006+08:00

The swim.

From my standards, I had a good swim.. I started at the back of the pack and overtook a number of swimmers to the finish. Some of them I think initially sprinted out but ran out of gas towards the finish. Finished the swim in 7min35secs.

The Bike.

I acquired the 2nd hand rag tag bike just over a week ago and road tested it just once.
Yes, that was a disclaimer… hahaha!

Anyways, as I was managing for a turn towards the 2nd loop, I miscalculated and ran right over these “small but nasty” humps right on the middle of the road. I believe they were suppose to warn motorist when they're on the wrong lane of that intersection. I felt something not right on the handling of the bike after... WTF!!! Got a flat tire!

I was pretty disappointed. Of course that was an understatement. As I leisurely walked back to the transition area, which was at least a kilometer away (still lucky it wasn’t farther). At the back of my mind… this would be so embarrassing! Can’t imagine myself DNFing on a mini-sprint tri. It was too short a distance not to finish.

Actually, I’ve thought of that very scenario just before the race when I saw air pumps mounted on some bikes (I’m sure they come with spare tubes)… I thought If I ever get a flat tire, I would just run the rest of the distance dragging my bike along…
I should’ve knocked on wood…

Obviously It was different on a real situation. Being exhausted comes with a lot of negativity. Ordinary people like me tends to lean towards what’s more convenient and make up excuses. And this was the excuse i came up with --> I was just on my way towards the second loop which was a good 6km to the finish. That would take me at least 36mins… plus yung run leg pa.. Wag na… DNF nalang! haha!

When I finally reached the transition area and just as I was about to slam my bike on the ground, Lo and behold.. here comes Deo P. Their age group started ahead of ours and he just finished his bike leg. I told him the condition of my bike and he generously offered the front wheel of his brand new high-end bike. I initially thought he’ll lend me his bike…that would have been awesome… haha! “hinde.. yung gulong lang .. harap ba?” Hehe! That was at least five minutes I took away from his time as he helped me set up the wheel. Would never forget this Deo. Thanks Bro!!!

I was having second thoughts of continuing on as I already have conditioned myself DNFing. However, I guess I’ve regained a bit of composure and a bit of positive frame of mind so I decided to continue…oh well..what the heck…let’s finish this race.

I had to bike starting from the transition area over again towards the main bike loop to complete my last loop. From my estimates that was at least 25mins that I lost.

The Run

The last bike loop took a lot of energy from me as I really mashed harder than I can remember. Ok… harder than last Sunday when I road tested my first road bike.

When I started my run, nobody else was around. I was running alone for the first half of the course. I was thinking Uh oh.. I’m the last one running and was worried that the marshals as well as the directional signs were already pulled out. Not only that I was afraid that I would not be able to get to the finish line but I was also worried of getting lost altogether . That would be even more embarrassing if I’ve gone missing. Until finally.. I saw a few runners on their way back and I was able to overtake one who was walking. Thankfully, he looks out of shape and I won’t be the last to finish. Whew!!

Apparently, there were a couple more who finished behind me. They also had bike issues.
Yay!!!

Completed the mini-sprint triathlon in 1hr15mins.. :-(

Slimmerun… one good LSD…

2009-04-19T18:04:00.003+08:00

I did not plan to run on this event but I planned to do an LSD on that same morning.. I slept a bit late the night before so I thought that If I woke up early enough to register onsite then I’ll do the 16k Slimmer Run for my LSD. Obviously I woke up on time.

It was so humid yesterday morning. I was stopping on every waterstation to hydrate and pour water over my head to cool down. I was also still feeling some discomfort at the back of my left knee all throughout the run. I hope that this is nothing serious. I got this when I paced my friend, Isko a.k.a. Noggins on Bataan 102 Ultra 2weeks ago. And I have not gotten good mileage since. Despite all these, I surprisingly I finished the run in 1hr37mins. My LSD was not that S afterall.

Entry fee was only P150. There were a lot of freebies which I think was worth more than the fee I paid for. For that, I don’t regret waking up earlier than I planned.

Eugene finally got his picture with his Idol. Got a couple more pics and he never let go of BR.. like he wants to take him home. hahaha! Carrey and Grace are beginning to be fans of BR as well.. :-)

Bataan 102 Ultramarathon... I'm In Awe...

2009-04-07T21:11:00.013+08:00

I’m in awe of these athletes. I wasn’t just a support for my friend Isko (runner # 16), but I was a witness to the strength, courage and determination of these 83 super athletes...

Runner no. 16... If you look close enough, you will find him somewhere there...

Yep.. there he is at a much better angle.. Hehe

At the start of the race, while most have started slow as expected, there were a few who surprisingly sprinted like they were running a 10k race. Judging from their built, they have done this before and I’m sure they know perfectly well what they’re doing. I’m sure they’re the elites as they were just too fast for me to have a good glimpse of their faces.

Camanava Runners in action.. Jeff, Abet and Isko ...

The middle pack including Isko reached the halfway point around 7:30am as the heat of the sun is just beginning to get felt. Everyone still appeared to be fresh at this point, where they had their pit stop at Km50 in Abucay, Bataan. This was expected because most of these guys have cosistently trained more than this distance on their runabouts

1km before the halfway point.

At the 56km mark. Isko and BR behind Bugobugo..

I got a piece of the action myself pacing Isko from the 62km marker til the finish.
I started to pace him around 9:30am when the heat of the sun was nearly at its peak. Eugene joined us soon after. Actually, it was more of keeping him company rather than pacing him coz at that point, the scorching heat was taking its toll on most of the runners. They were doing mostly power walks and jogs. I’m sure some were running on empty and were even toying with the idea of quitting. A company or two would surely help keep the runners “sane” under the given conditions. :-)

As for me and Eugene, this was a big leap. Jogging/walking for more than 7hrs covering 40kms+ under the very hot summer sun without sleep. This was the longest we’ve ever covered, distance and time wise. As Eugene calls it – VLVSD – Very Long Very Slow Distance. Hahaha!

Chuwariwap boys - Eugene and i just happen to have the same shirt..

Isko started to have knee issues at Km80 and worsened as he continued on. Ice seemed to alleviate the pain, so for the last 20kms, our support vehicle was always nearby to replenish the ice pack on his left knee. From this point onwards…each kilometer marker we passed by seemed to get a lot farther..

Our thanks to the Fort Striders support/pacer who stopped for us with less than 5kms to go as he noticed that Isko was in terrible pain and shared their linament oil. That surely helped! Thanks guys!

Super Pinoy.. not so super after kilometer 80

Isko finally reached the Bataan Death March 102km mark, ranking 36th at exactly 5pm.

With Roxy, Maurice and Emily

This event is more than a test of endurance and strength, it’s a test of one’s character as well…It’s whether you choose to continue or quit when your body tells you you had enough… It’s whether you give in to the pain and give up or carry on despite the challenges ahead… It’s whether you slip in a few kilometers or more by giving into the temptation of riding your support vehicle when you think no one will notice. Hahaha!

Me and my brother.. thanks bro for lending us your car and for being the designated driver.. quit smoking and start running!!!.. :-)

The Support team, Eugene, Carrey, Me, Emily and David Noggins ... collectively known as Team Maiteam..hahaha!

MBC-DZRH Summer Sea Sports… Took a break from a Run event..

2009-03-30T13:19:00.004+08:00

Skipped Men’sHealth Miracle run and took part on the MBC-DZRH Summer Sea Sports event. I skipped last weekend’s Subic DB race in favor of the Condura Half marathon. I missed that first Dragonboat race for this year so I wasn’t gonna let this one pass.

The last Dragonboat race I joined was December of last year. That seemed ages ago. Although, I still consistently train on Saturdays (Sundays now being taken by run events), it’s nothing like the heart pounding adrenalin of the race itself. This weekend’s race was not a regular 500m distance though. It was just roughly 400m taking only about 1min30secs of adrenalin pumping sprint towards the finish. But still, a race that intense would always take the wind out of anybody.

Well, despite being hooked on running lately, I guess DB rowing is still on my system. My muscles still remembers the routine. The only difference now, since I have built my endurance on running, I am able to recover from exhaustion much quicker… and I even wanted more… hehe

Unfortunately, the team didn’t reach the finals. We had our chance but everyone seemed to be off during the semifinal heats yesterday. Probably jaded from the consecutive heats on last Saturday’s eliminations. Men’s, mixed and women’s categories – where most of the crew in Men’s and Women’s categories were also included on the Mixed category and the teams heats were done one after the other.

Still, It was a good race for the team considering most of the crew lack training.. as always. Same faces and teams ended up at the podium… PDRT, PNP and I think Navy (paddling for clubs)… Even so… RCP!!! Payt!! Keep on rowin’ guys… will get there… someday…

The Condura Run 09... 21k PR... Priceless

2009-03-24T07:16:00.004+08:00

1,200 strong runners on 21k alone. That’s a good number of participants on any given run event. This is really one for the books. How may times in your lifetime can you literally set foot on the skyway. (unless you get a flat tire or if your car stalls).

Hat’s off to the organizers of this run, Concepcion brothers. This by far was the biggest and maybe the best organized run event i have ever joined, considering that this is not even sponsored nor organized by any major shoe/apparel company.

For a registration fee of 500 pesos, it sure was well worth it.. plus a lot more.
Let me enumerate what i got for 500 PhP:
- Finisher’s Medal probably worth P150+
- Commerative shirt P100
- Sports drink/bottled water/ firetruck shower along the route P60
- Toll fee back and forth P170
- Swift corned beef P20
- 10% discount on Nike items..
- Running my first 21k (therefore a PR) and saving the butanding.... Priceless...

Finished the run @ 2:05+.... still just another face running in the crowd...

Congratulations to the takbo.ph forum members who finished their 1st 21k as well. This is not just any run event.. this is technically a marathon.. (Half nga lang)...
Sayang i was not able to join the takbo.ph group pic. Rushed to McDo.. nakakagutom pala half marathon.. :-)

With TBR, Eugene, Carrey and Isko (my supposed pacer who bailed out on me... hehe j/k)

Takbo.ph CLP Party... Friday night out... Mingling with runners... and playmates..

2009-03-24T06:49:00.008+08:00

Takbo.ph Calboloading party was a night of fun and a night of getting to mingle with a lot running personalities... rookies and veterans; 21k first timers and Nth timers (21k virgins and non-virgins); not so fast and fast runners; young and not so young runners; runner bloggers and runner runners; Bald runner and not so bald runners.. hehehe!

It was a great event organized by no less that the admin, Jinoe Gavan, the brains behind takbo.ph. Even greater hosting by Cathy a.k.a Cathletic and Rico a.k.a. By Sheer Will. There were also fun games and prizes given away to the winners.

To start the night off, i got a very nice takbo.ph singlet, a hearty meal from Kenny Rogers and a lot of goodies from variuos sponsors including another copy of Men’s health magazine and a teaser copy of Women’s Health magazine.

Througout the party I was scrambbling for strategies on running, swimming and biking from people who have done racing on these disciplines a lot longer than me. Thanks for the inputs guys.

Eric, Doc Lyndon and Jinoe.. was not able to get the name of this pretty girl from Kenny Roger's

Craig and family

Marc Nelson and cousin Ronald.. hehe

The meek runner meets the Bald Runner

Photo ops with BR

takbo.ph creator, Jinoe and finacee with Marc Nelson

Later that night..
I went to another party at Source bar in Ortigas Center. I was invited by my officemate, Dante Ward a.k.a. Wardonthenet. It was the launching of the Playboy magazine’s anniversary issue featuring all the cover playmates for April 2008 thru March 2009 issues of the magazine.

Would you believe going to a party like this without having any alcohol. If i wasn’t that much concerned or worried about the 21k i will be running in less than 36 hours, i would’ve partied that night away. Oh well, i guess that’s one of the sacrifices that i have to make in order to get that 21k PR (which only means finishing the race... hehehe). Like the title of this blogsite says “No Sacrifices... No Rewards..”

Playboy Playmates

Nevertheless, i did not go home empty handed. I get to take home a couple of playmates.... (not the real ones...) they’re covers of the earlier issues of Playboy magazine. I hope Playboy considers sponsoring some run events. I have enough copies of Men’s Health magazine already... hehehe

Nice...

Run for Their Lives… ducking the itchy worms…

2009-03-15T19:11:00.015+08:00

I’m attributing my sub50min 10k finish to the itchy worms (not the band but the higad.. catterpillars…they look like worms and they are supposed to be itchy!). I was avoiding and running away as fast as i can from the line of trees they were hanging from in the last 300m of the race. I wouldn’t have made a sub 50min finish if it wasn’t for them. Clocked in 49min 51sec on my watch. 9 secs slower and it woudn't have been a sub 50.. hehehe! That's a good 3mins faster that my previous PR 2 weeks ago.

I guess I wasn’t all that wasted at that final stretch as I was still able to notice those tiny caterpillars hanging on the trees. One still ended up on my neck though. Thanks Carrey for noticing. Hey, they weren’t itchy afterall…

Another factor that definitely helped for my Sub 50mins finish was keeping pace (or chase) with this girl in tutu. hehe! I was able to overtake a few of them Polo tri girls in tutus but this one I kept pace with for a while, spitting blood and all (no thanks to these braces I recently had for getting my lips severed) until I finally got past her on the last 3km, along with this other girl in knee high socks whom I saw a couple of weeks before in Botak. I vividly remember eating her dust and eventually losing sight of her coz she was too far ahead then. Not this time though.. hehehe… I locked onto her when she got past me about the middle of the race and never let her away from my sight … thanks for the pace girls.

Sub 50min... that sounds really good. (Notice how I’ve mentioned Sub50 quite a few times already). This is gonna be hard to top. Luckily, I don’t have any 10k’s lined up for the next couple of months.

I’m gonna skip Airspeed coz I’ll be one of the support crews for my friend Isko for the 102km ultramarathon in Bataan. He just had one of his weekly LFD’s (Long F***ing Distance) of at least 50km this morning from Mariveles to Abucay Bataan. Another test run. Just 2 of them this time along with another Camanava runner. That’s how you define an addict... I’m still hoping someday to get to that level (of endurance and maybe addiction).

My legs have gone cold waiting for the raffle to finish (They were giving away Oakley sunglasses. One of those, along with my first ever running medal would have made my day even better!) But I still managed to jog about 8km more for about an hour after. I’m making sure that I log enough mileage and get myself all prepared for next weekend’s Condura Half.

One thing’s for sure… when (or if) I cross the finish on Sunday, it’s gonna be a 21k PR for me…whehehe!

With Rico (still nursing an injury) and Paulo.

With Eugene, former ofcmate. He's well becoming an addict as well.. just got his fix this morning, even equalled his 10k PR.

Chanced upon the Bb. Pilipinas winners..
I'd go LSD (or LFD's) with any of these girls anytime.. HAHAHA!
They would’ve looked better on tutus...

Takbo.ph 21k LSD... Post run pics :-)

2009-03-09T12:38:00.012+08:00

After the Fun Run under the hot morning sun...

After 21k all smiles pa rin.. parang wala lang..

Mr Photographer... nasan na yung class pic naten? hehehe

ayun.. finally... nakasama din sa pic..

Thanks guys! It was nice running with y'all! Hope we can do this again soon...

Botak Paa-bilisan… Raising my (mini) bar just a bit higher..

2009-03-02T08:53:00.007+08:00

I have broken my previous best of 55mins (Unicef run Nov of last year) clocking in around 53mins. Not bad at all for my own standards. Woohoo! This is my first official 10k road run for 2009 (the other 10k being on the trail).

My secret goal for the year is to get best times on
each run event I join. This means that I should only have better finishes on my succeeding 10k runs. According to Takbo.ph, there are 2 more 10K’s lined up for the next two weekends before the Condura Half. If I want to top 53mins, I guess I should include speed training on my routine for the next couple of weeks. Either that or I ‘choose my races’ meaning I’d shy away from 10k’s until I’m absolutely sure that I can run/jog faster. Now, the pressure is on.

After Paa-Bilisan event and jogging under the morning sun for about 45 more minutes, I went to a bike shop dragging along my policeman friend (hoping to get better bargain and not get ripped off -- he’s a regular customer on that shop..hehe).

Got myself a new toy...

It’s not a roadbike though. I would have gotten one instead but my friends (including the police friend) had long been convincing me otherwise because they’re into MTB. Well, I figured that I could share the bike with my eldest kid anyway and hopefully get him to be interested in biking especially now that a lot young kids seems to be into MTB.

I’m still hoping I could get myself a roadbike in time for the next leg of Speedo aquathlon in April which will also have a beginner’s tri on the event. If not, I’m gonna have a huge disadvantage with a full suspension offroad 1 ton MTB on the bike leg. Oh well, at least now, I would be able to get these legs to practice pedalling. From an MTB, it would be easy for me to switch to a roadbike when I get one… I think… I hope.

Ateneo Aquathlon – Took my breath away…

2009-02-23T14:05:00.006+08:00

This was my 2nd aquathlon in 3 weeks. Having joined the Speedo event last Feb 1st at ULTRA. These races can be very physically demanding even for short distances. Not only it involves swimming and running skills but a bit of wrestling and muay thai as well. At least you must know how to yield, avoid and absorb kicks esprecially from breast strokers. A couple of frog kicks landed on me, luckily not on my face. Struggled to gasp for air for a while there.

The Swim.
On my age category, there were quite a lot of paricipants that 1/3 of the 25m start lane was occupied. I ended up a bit in front at the start. Bad position. Not that I wanted to be there but the pool was so crowded that you would not be able to pick a position. Plus the race started before everyone knew it.

On the 2nd 200m and after absorbing a few kicks and doing a lot of effort in overtaking the frog kicker in front of me which I never got to overtake, it took it’s toll and took a lot wind out of me that I had to rest a couple of times at the end of the lap. There goes my 5min target per 200m.

The Run.
I started very slow trying to recover from the swim and was hoping to get my wind back after the first Km at the most. I did get my rhythm back and started to pick up pace only after about 10mins into the run. However, after the 3rd turn around, I began to feel a very intense pain right on my midsection. I was sure it was a cramp but at the back of my mind I was hoping that it’s not anything related to my internal organs. I stopped and walked it off for a couple of minutes but apparently that did not help , so I thought I might as well run the remaining 1.5km and just hope for the best.

Now I definitely know it was just a cramp. That part of my ab muscle still feels a bit tender. The bright side is I’m now getting my abs ripped… but so is my face.. hahaha!

Anyway, I wanted to think to have clocked around 50mins (17 and 33). I forgot press the start button of my ever reliable G-shock. I'm still waiting for the official result to come out. I'm worried that I did not step on the RFID mat after my swim. We’ll see.

Overall, it was a dismal perfomance. I was targetting 45min (15 and 30 split). It wasn’t a formidable target since I can do better speed on my normal trainings. Although a much longer time of rest inbetween coz I usually take a shower after my swim and take my time putting on my running gear. Shoe laces takes the most time. Hehe! And obviously, on a very minimal stress level and heartrate in a controlled training environment without the full contact sport part. I don’t think I could simulate that race environment on my training program. ‘Nuf excuses already!

With some podium finishers. I usually see these guys training in Army gym

with Eric, Rico and MJ

Power Run … when in doubt, just run away…

2009-02-15T19:11:00.006+08:00

1:25 for 15km plus about 1.5km off course. Not bad!!

I think I need to change my strategy on training for a run. I need to put in a few kilometers more for margin of error incase I go off course. And not lose my focus and morale if I do get off course … and just keep running.

On this morning’s Power Run, I have seen the route beforehand and even checked it a couple of times on takbo.ph the night before. However, I totally got confused along with a lot of runners and apparently got lost briefly along the run. There goes my PR. hehe! I think the marshall went on a yosi break or something and left his post on that corner where the 15k runners were suppose to take a left. As for me, having the feeling that there should have been a left turn, but I just thought there was a last minute change and just followed the runners ahead of me and went straight on that stretch. I’m sure the organizer will be hearing and reading a lot constructive critiques from the runner bloggers.

The Amazing Race route

Overall, it was a great run. 1:25+ for about 16.5k. Wow!! Fastest ever for me… and longest… we did 5km more to cool down. My first time to do that. Normally after the race, I’m done for the day.

I guess I’m on target for the Condura Half next month. Thanks to my friend Isko who paced me throughout the 21.5k run. This was just the latter part of his usual weekend long run. He ran from Calooocan to MOA (roughly 20km) in 1.5hrs and still managed to do few sprints when he got bored pacing me… Now that’s hard core…

Till next run…

Speedo Aquathlon ... Testing the waters...

2009-02-01T16:44:00.011+08:00

Yep. I joined an aquathlon.. a quite premature move.. 950m swim 3km run.

Last Friday, while doing some laps on Phil Army pool, I was seriously contemplating on chickening out on this event. I figured that this event would be mostly joined by swimmers rather than runners...duh?!... and my chances of finishing last is quite up there. Until i overheard this couple on the pool, Andrew and Tintin, when i was about to finish my swim, that she will do a practice 950m swim for the event as well. So, I started to inquire about the mechanics and the swim skill level of those who usually join such events. Apparently, his words of encouracement worked and i decided to show up this morning.

The 950m swim... there were about 30 swimmers on my age group 30s and 40s. My strategy was to start behind all the swimmers to spare myself a few kicks on the face instead of swimming ahead and just be overtaken anyway, and get myself a lot more kicks on the face. I did longer distance for quite a number of times before, so i was feeling quite confident early on. However, after the first 350m, it became more challenging than i thought it's gonna be, and started to feel a bit fatigued (maybe because of the pressure of the target i set for myself of not finishing last was quite a tall order. Hahaha!). I even did a breast stroke just to recover and catch my breath on the second to the last lap hoping for a strong finishing kick. It did not work. I finished the swim 26mins on my watch with about 5 more swimmers on the pool. Hence, swim target was a Hit. :-)

The 3Km run... i thought i was gonna be able to make up some time for this... Not. My target was 16mins about 5:20/km pace. I almost cramped up early on the run. I only managed to overtake 1 runner and finished about 18mins+ . This was a Miss. :-(

Overall, this is an experience i won’t soon forget. I registered on this event just last Tuesday, barely a week to prepare. Did a 1km swim @ 28mins and a 5k run @ 30mins that same Tuesday; and just about 600m swim and a 10km run last Friday.

Got to meet a few runners and triathletes including Rico. Was talking to him for quite a while only to find out when we were about to leave that he is Rico Villanueva a.k.a “by sheer will”. One of the running blogs i came across quite a number of times.

Now i have a dilemma... Ateneo aquathlon 600m swim/5K run or 15K RunNew on Feb 22.

My 1 man support team My 11y/o kid Tristan ; with Tin and Andrew; with JM? and Rico

It sure was a Happy Run...

2009-01-25T14:15:00.013+08:00

1hr25mins... on my new shoes... not bad...

I was forced to get myself a new pair of running shoes a couple of days before the Happy run.

My Pegasus sort of shrunk when I gave it its first ever ‘rinse’ right after the TNF trail run. I did a couple of runs as soon as it dried up and I acquired 3 small blisters on my toes, a large one on my big toe and a dying toe nail after.

Now that I have my NB 1223, I had few less excuses not to finish and 3.2k Php (on sale) worth of reason to finish the Happy Run. Hopefully this would still be true for the next several months' runs.

Overall, 'twas indeed a happy run for me using my new NB 1223.

TNF – Chill off the trail…

2009-01-20T13:17:00.020+08:00

As mentioned on my previous post this was my first trail run. This turned out to be a perfect run for me. Besides the weather being perfectly chilly, the more important reason is that i managed to finish 8th place in the 10k overall. Woohoo!!

I was running just within my comfort pace 87% of the way. I was aiming just to be on the top 100 finishers of about 103 runners for 10k. Apprently, I finished a bit ahead of my target. hahaha!. 12% of the route, I made a bit of effort with and totally went beyond my comfort zone. This was on the steep drop and the killer ascent around the middle of the course. The last 1% , which i made a lot of effort on was when I sprinted the to last 100m with another runner to secure the 8th place, he was 9th. Sorry dude!

My previous apprehensions were no issues after all. The trail wasn’t that bad. Maybe a bit overrated when it was described at the clinic last week; Thankfully, my knees and ankles held up; and my Pegasus were sturdy enough to live thru the rocks, dirt, cow crap and corn shoots. I gave it a well deserved rinse when I got home to show my appreciation and gratitude. Hehehe!.

That was really a fun Sunday morning and an even more fun was this great run to start off my 2009 running season. Haha!

Some other highlights for me on this perfect Sunday morning were:

- I finally broke thru 50km mileage for that week. Logged a total of 52km including TNF run.

- A few of my rowing teammates made it to the top 10 of the 10k. Tebats got 2nd place in Male and Ana was 3rd in Female. Got themselves TNF products and Timex ironman watches. Go RCP!!! Credit goes to our team captain Kiko who was leading thoughout the 1st half until he went off course sucking along a few runners with him. Hahaha! Thanks dude! I wouldn’t have made it to the top 10 if it wasn’t because of him.

- Met Jerry a.k.a. High Altitute and a lot of other runners, including this girl who got the 1st place for the 10k by a nose hair. I kept pace with her from Calaruega until i bolted and sprinted out the last 100m to secure 8th. Got this pic from Jerry's blogsite.

- To top it all off, i got a free ride to Evercrest and back. Spared me a 160km drive. Thanks Papa D.!!! thanks for the pics as well!! :-)

Thrill of the trail…

2009-01-14T15:28:00.004+08:00

I managed to get myself registered for the TNF run this coming Sunday. Fortunately, my teammate from our rowing team cancelled and transferred the reservation to me. Thanks Alboi. Got the race packet just today during my lunch break at G4.

This is gonna be my first time do a trail run and my first official 10k run for the year. Not to mention this is also my 1st time to climb a mountain in almost a decade. Hope I can finish this run on a high note.

I got some apprehensions in doing this run. First, I don’t have any experience doing trails; Second, I seldom do hills on my weekly runs. But I did McKinley Hill a couple of times.. hahaha!; 3rd, I don’t have trail shoes. I hope my Pegasus holds. :-) ; and lastly, I don’t know if my ankles and knees are up to it. Oh well.. Good luck to me...

12k.. no sweat…

2009-01-14T08:56:00.006+08:00

That was not a figure of speech. It was a cool and windy late afternoon yesterday when I did my 12k run in PA grandstand. I literally did not break a sweat. I was aiming for 15-18 since it was a perfect weather to do a long run. But I was still feeing a bit of sting in my left ankle. When is this (excuses) going end? Finished my run in 1hr9mins.

A friend of mine, Isko, did his long run last Sunday. A long run is an understatement in his case. He did a 50km run! Whoa!! That distance has been my week’s target which I never got to do since the year started. He’s been doing these long runs over the past few weekends and still doing shorter runs in between. This is in preparation for the BR’s Death March 102km Ultramathon race in April. He’s one of the first 3 guys who have registered for the event so far . Imagine, he’s running longer than a full marathon each weekend. From what I know he started running only early last year. That’s determination! Hats off to this guy.

I wonder when I could run that distance?…

And then I swam…

2009-01-07T15:54:00.012+08:00

I had my first swim since about a month. My right foot is still in no shape to run so I decided to have a swim last night. I did a 1.6km or about a mile in a very slow pace. Finished 32X50m laps in about 42mins. I wonder how i can swim faster?...

I was swimming alongside a couple of other swimmers. They seemed to be effortlessly breezing through the pool and their pace were faster mine. Not that i was struggling, in fact i could have gone for a few more laps but it was gettng dark and the pool closes at 6pm.

I believe i got Plantar Fasciitis. I still have this pain on my right foot. Hope it heals soon. I have not run for almost a week now. :-(

Injuries to start the year.. damn!

2009-01-05T12:09:00.006+08:00

Did my first run for 2009 last Friday night. Did 15km at about 1:38. Wanted to go on but I had to bring home the pizza I bought (just before I ran before it gets much colder). No complaints this time. I might have just gotten used to the pain on my left ankle and on my right knee.

Last Saturday I brought my car to a shop for a paint job and walked all the way back home with my flip flops. Just about 1.5Kms. When I got home, I felt a bit of pain on my right mid foot. Thought it was nothing. I tried to run on a treadmill yesterday but the pain became pretty unbearable to run with. Ended up doing some leg presses and curls.

Now I have 3 lingering pains to contend with. Will try to rest them feet for a few days. Whatever they are, I hope they heal soon. There goes my 50km target for the first week of the year. What a way to start 2009… :-(

EOY run…

2008-12-31T13:03:00.004+08:00

I have been using my ‘new found’ Nike Pegasus the past few days. This pair is relatively heavy compared to my Adidas Modulate. I tried to run with them a few times this week but only about 10km at the most. I’ve acquired a blister on the left big toe after. :-(

This morning I did a ‘long run’. Started my run at the fort, cruised along lawton avenue until nichols and back. Then several more rounds on Boni High street until I felt my knees were giving up on me again. It was just an easy run of 6-7min/km. I was able to cover about 17-18km. Not bad to end the year.

Hopefully I would be able to increase my mileage Q1 of next year and hopefully finish a half marathon within that period. Quite a realistic target. So the Condura half in March is definitely within reach. The TNF thrill of the trail run is out of the question now. Apparently, registration was limited and had been closed a week after they opened the registration. There are a couple of 15Ks in line before Condura. I hope I can join all these runs.

Happy New Year!!! Run on...

I need a new pair of running shoes...

2008-12-29T17:25:00.013+08:00

I feel that I’m getting my knee battered everytime I run. No thanks to the shoes that I’ve been using since October KOTR when I started to get a bit more serious on running. To date, I think I have logged at least 500km already on this pair of Adidas Modulate. Now, it's a bit worn out already.

Because It is categorized as running shoes, definitely light weight and fits comfortably on my feet, I never thought that it would contribute to the knee joint and ankle pains that have been bothering me for quite some time now. As I was browsing the net and blogs looking for better running shoes, I’ve seen a lot of recommended brands and models that are locally available. They are a bit pricey for me though. So I visited Sports warehouse in Market Market and came across this NB 903.

I was considering getting them because they're on sale (about 40% off) but then I remembered a pair of running shoes that I bought last year on this same store – a Nike Pegasus, which i only used a few times during a basketball tournament (I never liked using Hi-cuts). They were just sitting on my shoe rack collecting dust ever since. Might as well try them out first.

While I was looking for pics on the net to be posted on this article, I found out that this very same model has been voted as shoe of the year for 2006. As soon as I recover from this hangover, I’ll be trying out this pair of Pegasus and see if I perform better on them, otherwise, I’ll get myself NB 903s or just forget about running altogether... :-)

Ain't this bike a beauty?...

2008-12-22T15:50:00.008+08:00

I saw this very same road bike (or somewhat similar) at ROX. It's one of the relatively cheaper road bikes on display and I have locked in on it since last month. This was on the top of my Christmas list until my wife asked for a laptop for a birthday gift. Oh well.. :-) Now, i'm now looking for a cheap/secondhand road bike. Hope i'd be able to find one soon.

The bike would've completed my being a wannabe tri-yin' athlete. BTW, I have not gone swimming for the past couple of weeks. There has been a lot of activities lately plus the weather is getting a lot colder. Excuses... excuses...

Yehey!!!.... Party...

2008-12-17T18:31:00.005+08:00

Went to the yehey.com christmas party the other night. It was attended by the wonderfull team of www.yehey.com, their partners, registered users/bloggers and one gatecrasher (haha!). Food was great, free flowing drinks, bands and of course raffle prizes, plus pretty faces everywhere. Overall, It was a blast! Unfortunately for me, I had to leave when the party was just heating up. It sucks that i have work and training the following day... sigh. Anyway, there still a lot more parties in line for the next couple for weeks. I think i smell a moratorium on running.... NOT!!

Sea Dragon... Payt!!

2008-12-17T07:37:00.022+08:00

PDBF 3rd Leg Dragonboat Regatta - Did not make it to the finals.. too bad! :-( ...but we put up a decent fight in the semis. We came in 4th in the 1st of 2 semifinal heats. Just a coupld of seconds behind the 3rd finisher where only 3 for each semis heat have advanced to the finals.

Oh well, it wasn't that bad after all. I don't have the official results yet but i think, overall, for the year 2008, RCP Sea Dragon, our team, made it to the top 4 among about 20 teams recoginized by PDBF. Top 2 were military teams, PNP and Phil Navy.

This has officially ended rowing season for the year. Still don't know the schedule for next year but i'm sure PDBF.com will update their race calendar.

Our team fared pretty well for this year. As far as i can remember, this is one of the most competitive year for the team since i joined 5 years ago. Credit goes to our current team captain who really worked his ass off to get the team to improve. I can definitely say that the team has improved a lot on his watch. Needless to say, however, that there's a lot of room for improvement.

One of the team's winning moments this year

One of the team's areas for improvement is the crews' training attendance. Paddlers come and go. There are a few members who are consistently training though. But you can't blame the rest.
Most of the crew usually row just for the fun of it. A few to get fit, some to belong to a team, a number of them to socialize. Others just happen to wake up early enough or have just gone straight to training from a late nights party. hehe!

While everyone has their own reasons, they're definitely not paid when they win races. Aside from occassional medals and cheap trophies for podium finishers, all the get are bragging rights. Then again, for most part, isn't that what we're after... bragging rights?!! hehe

Ankle support?...

2008-12-13T20:03:00.005+08:00

I decided to rest my ankles coz it has not gotten better since the swelling subsided. I still feel some pain when i run and its not just in one spot. The pain seems to go around the ankle itself, on a different spot each time i run.

I had my 1st run this morning since the Yakult 10miler, after about 6 days of hoping that my ankle would get better. Apparently not. After i did a considerably fast pace for my standards of 5min/km for the 1st 4kms, the pain started again. But unlike before when the pain goes away after about 10mins, this time the pain stayed on and prevented me to maintain the pace. I was planning to have a 2 hour run but i decided to cut it short coz the pain was becoming worse as i went on. Just dragged myself for the last 6kms. About an hours run. I'm still feeling the pain when i walk as of this writing. Ankle support?

Hope this is not gonna be an issue tomorrow for the a Final Leg of PDBF regatta for 2008.
Hope me and the team reach the finals. Keeping my hopes up...

Indulge...

2008-12-11T15:05:00.004+08:00

The New Coffee Walnut Bavarian - extraordinary flavours, combining exquisitely smooth coffee and Kahlua cream in decadently moist chiffon, adorned with walnuts, cocoa powder and dark chocolate bars. Wow!!! Had a considerable amount of this cake last night courtesy of Red Ribbon in Libis. It was Red Ribbon’s launching of this new flavour which was attended by a number of food bloggers and food blogger’s friends (I’m one of the friends). Hahaha. I even had a whole piece brought home late last night for my wife and kids. I’m sure they are feasting on it right now.

It wouldn’t hurt when we treat ourselves once in a while with these lusciuos food creations and forget about how much calories we’d get from them (especially when it’s free).

I’ll just add a couple more miles to my next weeks’ run. Undoubtedly, these are great source of energy for long runs. Not to mention the energy boost from the coffee ingredient. A certain study has proven that the ingestion of caffeinated coffee could enhance the performance of sustained high-intensity exercise.

It maybe a good idea for Red Ribbon to put up a booth at the race finish or right in the middle of the race route. Since chocolate drink or chocolate in whatever form is a great source of energy for turbo boost and recovery. Run on…

Yakult 10miler and Lactobacilli...

2008-12-09T15:41:00.006+08:00

Lactobacillus is a genus of Gram-positive facultative anaerobic or microaerophilic bacteria. They are a major part of the lactic acid bacteria group, named as such because most of its members convert lactose and other sugars to lactic acid. Lactobacillus is a genus of Gram-positive facultative anaerobic or microaerophilic bacteria. They are a major part of the lactic acid bacteria group, named as such because most of its members convert lactose and other sugars to lactic acid - Wikipedia

Ironic isn’t it? For endurance sports enthusiasts who don’t want anything to do with lactic acid…

Yakult promoting lactobacilli... sponsoring a marathon… did not realize this irony until i was about to finish this article.

This however has now been disproved. Much recent studies say that While lactic acid may play a role in fatigue and its supposed role in muscle soreness, it is now being recognized as more of a positive player in metabolism.

Anyways... Yakult 10miler - ‘twas a perfect weather for a run last Sunday.. cool and cloudy. I clocked 1:31:23 easy. I was not wasted after the run and was still able to attend our rowing training right after plus a few warm up exercises with the team before rowing.

My time was well ahead of my target of 1:36 (6min/km). My strategy was to run easy for the 1st half of the race and play it by ear afterwards. There were no km markings but I assumed that the 1st turnaround at Airport Rd was the 5km mark. I was on 27mins at this point.,. not bad for my standards. I just maintained the pace thereafter although I know I could still increase my speed. I didn’t want to risk it though. I was afraid I might lose wind towards the last few kms plus i was still feeling a bit of pain on my left ankle. But I did sprint thru the last 500m and still had a lot of gas left at the finish.

Looking forward to the next race. Hope I could run another race before the end of the year. Just to set an official PR. A sub 50min for 10k maybe… hehe.. we’ll see…

Lactate threshold ...?

2008-12-03T12:46:00.002+08:00

Last Monday night, just for the second time, I ran 16k. This time it took me an even 1:40. about 5 mins faster than the last time… not bad for my standards. I would have ran longer but I think I’ve reached my lactic acid threshold. My quads were giving up on me and did not want to force it. I might end up crashing on the dark track of Phil Army Grandstand.

I don’t know what training program fits me right at this stage… interval, tempo or what have you. Right now, I just want to run the longest distance at a 6min/km average pace in preparation for the Yakult 10miler this coming Sunday. After that I’ll add interval and tempo runs on my weekly training program… and hopefully be strong enough for the 20k The North Face Thrill of the Trail on Jan 18th.

Have you read a book lately?...

2008-12-02T09:21:00.008+08:00

Got invited by a friend to a blogger’s event in Fully booked Boni High street last Friday night. Hey, I just started blogging last week and now I find myself attending a blogger’s event.

Fully Booked in partnership with Yehey.com formally launched Bloggers Book Club. I guess I’m a part of this club now. Haha! There were about a hundred bloggers who attended the event. Some are authors of prominent bogsites.
Anyway, I ended up getting 2 books for free and a sumptuous meal catered by Hizon’s.

I still can’t believe I’m a part of this club. Honestly, all my life, I never a finished a novel. I’m just not into it. Given a choice between a magazine and a book, I would choose a magazine without blinking an eyelash. I’d rather spend my time doing something more productive like laundry than reading a novel. I would just wait for the novel to have its movie adaptation then watch it on DVD in my own time.

But for book lovers out there, you may want to visit Fully booked. It’s a totally different concept of a bookstore. It even has Starbuck’s right inside the place. So if you’re into books and expensive coffee, this is the perfect place for you. Forgot to mention they also have a record bar with impressive collection of music and videos. What impressed me most about the place was their mini theather located at the basement of their 5 storey bldg. The theater can only hold about 60 people but it has a full function of a movie theater. Wait, there’s more… just go there and find out yourself. Check out their online shopping site http://www.fullybookedonline.com/.

Incidentally, on my way back to the parking lot, I found these runners in front of Nike park getting clinics from running coaches. One is them I believe is coach Rio. You can’t miss that afro. I also saw some familiar faces from the running blogs I follow. TBR was there. I wonder how I can rub elbows with these guys. Hehe. I guess I’m way out of their league… but will get there... eventually... hopefully...

Too Eager for a 10miler...

2008-11-26T13:56:00.004+08:00

I was too eager to train for a 10miler. I dragged myself last night thru the last 3kms of 16km run in preparation for the Yakult 10miler in Dec 7th. It took me 1hr45min to accomplish this. Now both my legs are sore and I think I’ve aggravated my ankle sprain.

This is the longest I’ve ran since... birth. I wanted to go on coz I know I still have the gas for at least a couple more kms but I was afraid that my ankle would just snap any minute.

I’ve read in an article that the rule of thumb to progressive training is 10% increments to your distance capacity per week. I guess I have overshot that by 15%.
Now I know...

55mins... Woohoo!!!

2008-11-26T13:40:00.008+08:00

Unicef – Walk on the Child Side. This was my best run ever for this year. Coming off another 10k run (57min) the day before and considering I still have to bear a bit of pain from a recent ankle sprain, I clocked in 55m10s. woohooo!!! it’s the best run I’ve had since I can remember. I hope though that the actual distance registered 10k on everyone’s Garmin.

I was even able to overtake TheBullRunner. I’m one of the avid readers of her blog. I see her in most of the runs I joined, going towards opposite direction on her way back obviously. Not this time though, I did not see her not because the turnaround was not in the halfway point but I was simply faster that morning.. hehehe.. Oops wait.. just read a recent article on her blog… she DNF’ed?!! Damn!! You mean I was only able to overtake her coz she was injured ?!! That’s not fair :-) … Still a PR for me though.. And a good 2min progress in just 24hrs. Doing the math… that would be a 10min progress in 5 days… watch out BaldRunner… Hehehe!

Got a nice picture from Photovendo right after the event, the queue for the booth was not that long just after I finished so I decided to try it out. I went for a jump shot. This is too good a pic for me that I decided to put up this blog because of this picture. Hahaha! Thanks Photovendo.

57min - not bad..

2008-11-26T13:33:00.000+08:00

Race for Life – 57min+. Not bad considering that i still have not fully recovered from an ankle sprain. They have not posted the official results yet but I’m sure my casio watch is accurate enough.

Driving all the way to Clark for a 10k run?... Nah!

2008-11-26T13:30:00.000+08:00

NB power race – decided not to run in Clark coz I didn’t think a 10k run is worth the long drive. Oh well, hopefully by early next year I would be able to run a 25k and ready for the NB power race. I friend of mine clocked in 2hrs28min for this race, a very good time considering, he started running just early this year. Wow, what an accomplishment for such a short period of training.

An ankle sprain right before the run.. ain't that a bitch..

2008-11-26T13:08:00.005+08:00

VSO Bahaginan was a forgettable run for me. Well make that an UNforgettable moment as i didn't have the chance to do the run.

I did not register ahead of the race day for this one which i normally do for every run event i join coz i was not even sure if i was gonna be able to join. And when i do register, it would still have depended on the weather whether i'd do a 10k or 15k. The weather would have been great for a 15k run. (should’ve been my 1st 15k official run)

We had a Dragoanboat race in Punta Fuego the day before and i anticipated that i'd come home late. Sure enough i came home around 12mn. But still ,I did set my alarm to go off at 4:30 and was able to wake up feeling good enough for a run..

Anyway... While i was about to register for the run about 5am, on my haste on the way to the registration booth thru the darkness (of dawn), i stepped on a 'ledged' gutter and twisted my left ankle… felt the crunch.. Ouch!!
Swelled right then. Oh well, it happens sometimes.
Tried to walk it off thinking it wasn’t that bad. 15k is out of the question at that moment.. I can hardly finish a 15k on two good feet.
So i squeezed myself though a few more runners on the booth for last minute registration only to find out 10k is 'sold out'. Since i've invested a lot already for the registration alone - time, effort and a sprained left ankle, i can't go home empty handed. I ended up registering for 5k.
Jogged on the way to the parking lot for healthcheck, about 100m from the booth. It became apparent that the pain was too unbearable even for a 5k run. I ended up watching the runners while driving home feeling the sting everytime i step on the clutch.

The bright side is i got myself a VSO singlet.

I went to the Doctor the next day. X-ray showed negative on fractures but i was barely able to walk for 2 days.

Scambbled for websites about sprains and how long they would heal. Of course they vary, depending on the gravity. I guess I would just have to find out myself. I still feel the a slight sting when i dorsiflex as of today. But, it's kinda nice to run with a bit of pain sometimes. That sounds masochistic.