Sunday, February 27, 2011

Sub 60: The Story of My Run

"Sometimes you have to get lost to find a better way."

Running came to me at a time when everything was going on a downward spiral and my confidence was at an all time low. I've never been the athletic or sporty kind and never had the consistency to maintain a regular physical activity but I guess when you want to break a trend, you just have to do something different.

I was entered into my first two fun runs more as a favor to my friends rather than at my own will. It was literally a 3 kilometer walk. Running even just a hundred meter is such a chore. The third one was a charm as we run with the raindrops falling hard on us. I still tried to join runs at least once per month... no goals... no training... no pressure... This is getting to be fun!

After a while it became a habit. I now tried to train on my own and spending a few week nights just completing 5K distance and there was some improvement though I still have my habitual walks in between. With the small gains, I came to realize that I can do better and that was enough to have me pushing myself further into the next level.

I now shifted to a structured training and I was asked of a goal I want to achieve. At first since I was running 5K, I was thinking to just go for sub 30 or finish 5K in less than 30 minutes but I eventually decided to just copy my friend's goal of sub 60 or finish 10K in less than 60 minutes. That would be a tough goal considering I've never run a distance outside 5K and I'm such an undisciplined runner to go on a structured training but maybe, I'll just count this in as a leap of fate.

After just a few weeks of training, I entered my first 10K and finished a miserable 1 hour and 18 minutes and I now feel that my sub 60 goal were light years away and this considering that my second 10K run had me finishing just a minute faster. The third one was once again a charm as I managed to shave off a full 6 minutes of my 10K time and from then on I continued to progress towards sub 60 and was even able to complete a 10K uphill run that measured 12K at a decent pace. The training was working. By the end of the year, I was just 6 minutes shy of a sub 60 time.

2011 had me breathing down the neck of a sub 60 time with an hour and a minute mark at Subic. I also started to beat the sub 30 mark for 5K. I knew that sub 60 now was just a matter of time but it was then that I realized that something was wrong with my system. I had a nagging pain in my heel tendon. That had me worried with my goal so close and having the time of my life running my heart's out, I may now have to stop running. I took additional precaution and had anklets and insoles as protection and I also started to pace myself better and somehow, I was able to manage the injury and continue running. I was able to complete a 15K run at a respectable time and each 10K race thereafter were all close to the sub 60 mark until the last week of February.

It was an improbable feat and something I wasn't expecting as I've been sleep-deprived, stress-ridden and in-and-out of sickbay. As the gun start fired, I went at it at a very face paced and was able to sustain the pace for a few more kilometers before I ran at a steadier pace in the middle kilometers but I was still on my way to a sub 60 time. At kilometer 8, I started feeling some tightness in my right lower calve muscle and despite that I still went at it at full level. In the last stretch towards the finish line, I saw that I still have time to catch up sub 60 and thus the child in me took over as I sprinted towards the finish line and the time was 59 minutes and 54 seconds. Sub 60, Finally!!!

Six seconds, that's the fraction of time that I almost didn't hit sub 60, and that's probably just a few inhales and exhales away but I'll take what I can as sub 60 is sub 60. Of course, I'll aim for a more convincing sub 60s in the future and try to do this consistently. I have reached my goal, but I guess the story does not really end here as this is just a beginning of a new story and I'm calling the next chapter, Half-Mary. How I'll do it? I don't know as that is a story set to be told at another time.

The story of my run starts with a downward spiral and at the end of it, I not only found my confidence back, I did find or create a better person - fitter, trimmer, stronger, feistier, tougher and faster. I've had so many preconceived limits when I started and slowly, each of those limitations are becoming a thing of the past all owing to training hard and training smart. 
Excess Inkblogs: Thanks to my running and training partners Mascy, Jeff & Gryf, Total Fitness for all of my sponsored runs, to Coach Andy and his Alpha Training System, to Eunice for entering me in my first fun run and running with me in the rain, to Mike for continuously pestering me to run at your level, to my Garmin for letting me run faster with your ever so stingy ways, to my trusty lunar glide for giving me speed and to the ever growing running phenomenon in the country that had so many of us hooked in you web of acceleration.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Stuck in Stressville

It's not as if my life was not in the fast lane and now, I'm stuck in Stressville with a few days going to the board meeting, I still have issues to resolve and clueless on how things will end up. The surprises that came in were beyond expectations. Makes you think, what's the use of all the preparation when in just a flick of the hand, you're back to square one. That's what you get when you don't get the right people in the right places. Oh well, it's now a game of reaction. I'll just see it through that we get pass this even if I know the efforts would go on unappreciated.

It just seem the flavor of the season but I don't work to get appreciated or to get rewards but to get the job done. It's just de-motivating to know that people get rewarded for grabbing credit for other people's hard work. The tough days are not done but it is always glad to look forward to those better days and I'm booked for those warm summer days starting in a few weeks.

My schedules is as full as ever with work + training and soon vacation would be added to the equation. I'm back to back weekend runs this week and next, then Coron the week after. With all that's happening, I forgot that I'll be turning a year older though I'm not as upbeat with that fact this time for a change. It just seems nice to see those wonderful time if I only I could survive the next three days.

My brain is all maxed up... my body is all beat up... have coughs and colds... and I have still to find a way to get things done. It's quite interesting to note that I've been consistently sick in all the previous board meetings. I need to find better things to do but for now I have to find a way to get past Stressville.

Thoughtless Thoughts: One of the best comfort you can give yourself is to be secure with what you have.

Excess Inkblogs: The start of my run unfolds at run-a-holic.

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Bad Banana

I was coasting at a very good time earlier covering the first 5K of a 10K run until I got thwarted by of all things... Eating a banana... Instead of the energy boost I expected I suddenly had a heavy stomach so had to struggle in the next 3K until I got my second wind at the 8K mark but was still able to finish at a decent time of 1:03. Oh well, wasn't able to get a new PR and my sub 60 goal... Oh well, will have to take it at another time. I'll have to take the comfort that I did push myself even on a suddenly heavy stomach. Bad Banana...


From a bad banana, I've been wondering until when can I maintain my good and no-whine personality at the office. Imagine I've been sent to Taipei on such short notice twice, been on the loop of some opportunistic people taking credit and reward for what I've done and still a lot of things unresolved in the yearend closing and yet I'm veering away from my hard headed ways. Maybe I have made up my mind on what direction to take and I'm getting numb already with this dysfunctional system. It's gonna be a difficult week to come as we do need to finalize everything before the upcoming board meeting this month.

The summer is heating up and I'm on a vacation booking spree. I've booked 2 already (Coron and Boracay) and I'm looking forward to booking several more. I have expiring miles to waste. It seems that I've booked my weekends already 'till the end of summer with all the runs and all the travel I have to take. It gets exciting by the minute and I guess that's how I'd like to go forward from this point on... No holding back and living life to the brim.

As things heat up at work, I get a rare chance to cool down my injuries this week. Off the tracks for the meantime but I'll be back on training a week after as there are minutes to shave off and a lot more runs to conquer and maybe next time, there won't be a bad banana to thwart me this time. =>