Be Cool Runner

Road Review

Pacific Mall – a 600m loop, of fairly smooth road, good for beginners since there are no surprise potholes to injure you, good energy return, best time to run is early in the morning or at night after the mall closes. I normally do 9 to 10 laps, with the last lap only brisk walking.

Alternate Road – about 2km stretch from the public market to Aquinas Hospital, smooth concrete roads but shoulders are bank, so running on it could stress one leg over the other, when i ran on the shoulders I ran loop on the same side to give the same exercise for both legs, another option is to run on the drainage top, which is flatter and better lit at night, but less energy return since your running on hollow concrete, so a little more effort but softer on knees. It usually takes me 30 mins to run that 4k loop, it’s a good place to do slow recovery runs.

Magayon Drive – from Charvec Carwash to Lignon or to Cheyenne Enterprise is about 2.5-2.6k loop of 5k. I pick this trail since you can have your car wash at Charvec and go running, and by the time your done your car will be clean to, it is one of the best roads to run on concrete with not that much banking, very good energy return, but on certain areas in the magayon drive road gets really tight, you need to be very careful from vehicles, it’s best to slow down and take the sidewalk. Also some stray dogs would show up, better to slow down so you wont catch their attention, or out run them hehe.

Now that’s a confusion, I’d like to call what I do running, it just sounds cooler, now what I don’t know is at what pace can you call it running? hmmm…or maybe it’s just a technicality.

As of this week I’ve done three running sessions totalling about 13k and one mountain biking with one day rest last Tuesday, 8min/km seems to be the pace wherein I’m not tired at all after 5k and feels like I could go another 5, and a moderately hard pace is about 7min/km. With these times I feel really slow, since I used to sprint 100meters in 12 seconds 10 years ago.  Well I’ve been training cautiously over the weeks too, so I guess it’s time to speed things up next week. When I go about reading running blogs and these people doing 10k in sub 55 mins, it just makes you feel slow. But I’m curious if they run as fast on trainings??

I still plan to do one longer run for the week, maybe on sunday a 10k or 8k, with also planning to run to cagsawa from legazpi before the year ends, I wonder how many k that is??

I decided to dedicate this part of my multiply to my new found sport.. Running, though the passion for it was always there, I’ve been a sprinter most of my highschool life, never really good at basketball and the usual sports, but I can be fast.

Back in college I was told I could qualify to train for varsity if I wanted to (criteria is not that high actually, what they need is dedication), but training starts at 5am. That’s like way way way too early for a guy like me..add to that commute time from where I lived, it ended my career in running.

Until a few months ago, Martin, a good friend and I decided to run the milo 5k, having been part of the race committee & helping out with the 3k kids for two years this time we decided to be part of the race.

My First Attempt was a 5k around the mall…keeping a good comfortable crawling pace, never having run that far ever in my entire life. I made sure I jog and run the whole 5k, at about the fourth lap around the mall, tiredness seems to disappear, as my legs feel like their in rhythm, it’s like their in sync of some sort wherein slowing down to a walk feels like my muscles would start to get sore, and somehow all my mountain biking got me in good aerobic condition, so i wasn’t out of breath at all, I just kept going till the 9th round in a 600m lap around pacific mall.

I just felt really good after, except for the tight leg muscles, everything feels just right, a personal wall has been broken, a life long belief that I cant go the distance is gone. It’s a personal achievement, it might seem a very small achievement in the running world, but 5k did it for me, I now feel like a runner.

Then the rest is history..

The 5k Milo Marathon, I made crazy mistakes like wearing a tight fitting kids 3k shirt over my jersey, causing me to overheat half of the race with my heart rate racing. A mistake I wont do again. But good thing I finish, and ahead of two older city councilors who was way ahead of me in the line, and they were my markers, it’s like I’m not gonna be slower than these people. hehe

The Mayon Trail Run, starting to like running, I actually help organized the Mayon Trail Run, a concept in my head that through the help of so many people, made this dream come true, something to help the city tourism and promote climate change awareness. Through this event we get to meet special runners, the Baldrunner’s Team, the Cebu Skyrunners, and other elite athletes that inspires a beginner to go the distance.

Too Much Too Soon..

After Mayon Trail Run, with the high of its success and landing frontpage in Inquirer, I slightly over trained, running 5km then climbing lignon, then the next day mountain biking for 3hours in rough terrain, then the following day doing a 10kms run, then after a day rest, started running again for 2km then went swimming all out till my lats hurt, then the following day I ran again for 3km…and that’s were my knee started to feel tight..after looking it up on the internet I found out it’s a sign of an injury..and that’s were I learned my lesson, that running is not just running, there are more scientific ways to it, stretching is vital. increasing mileage gradually is vital, posture is vital.

Now I’m back after 2 weeks of decreasing mileage, running for only 30 mins, in very slow heart rate of 70%-80% evrything is back to normal, now I’m keeping a limit of 15kms a week cross training with mountain biking. So far I havent really work on being faster and stronger, but just finding a mileage I can do without hurting myself. My goal next year is to do local races 5k to 10k, hoping to train enough to do a fast 5k come milo marathon or finish at least the 21k.

and this is my journey…