started training for the october marathon

so i have started training for the marathon and am currently on my 17th day. it is not that intense of a wokout; tuesday, wednesday, thursday runs, weekend longruns and cross training. i still have pain on my left knee but i decided: what the heck. if i keep on spoiling my knee, it might turn into a brat. hahaha.

what went wrong

so, i started running with a pair of sneakers and consistently upgraded to the shoes i have on today. i don't know if most runners share the same sentiment but i have an emotional attachment to my running shoes. websites and sports magazines tell me that at 500 miles you should replace your running shoe but i thought different...my mind set was that at 500 miles, my running shoes should deserve a last hurrah, a curtain call, a swan song. so, i decided to run a 21km (greenfiel run) race with the shoes that i was going to retire, and we performed well but it was time to retire them. my new shoes felt fucking great; they felt great on the heel and they felt wall on the toe and they looked pretty awesome. but, i injured myself for the first time while in them....

they felt so good that i ran 50km while in them...they felt so good that i did hills workout on them but, what fucked my knees up was my over confidence. i thought that my body could take anything and everything i gave it, until now my left knee hurts. what affected it was that until now i got my excercises from the internet and they worked out very good until i came across a knee stretching excercise which is what ruined me. i'm not going to name the excercise but i think the point here is that if it works for you don't change it; 'if it ain't broke, don't break it'.

as new runners we tend to get excited about learning new excercises, techniques etc but what you must realize and know is that everyone has a unique body, everyone has a unique reaction to things.

it's been a while

it's been a while since i last posted a post; a lot has happened since then. i bought new running shoes which are of course of the new balance brand but are of a different style, price and comfort. i purchased my previous trainers based on how i perceived myself as a runner but this time around i bought the trainers on the basis of how far i wanted to go as a runner; the salesman was pretty good too. so, i bought trainers with better cushioning, better aesthetic value and of course, better (higher) price. these were New Balance trainers that had locks on shoelaces, that cushioned both the heel and the forefoot and damn!!!!!!! did they cost a bunch. you would think that as a runner, a purchase like this would only be good, that these pair of shoes could only bring good to me; improve my running... i thought the same and man, was i wrong.................................

lazy lazy lazy

i still need to work on my discipline, i only ran 3 times during the holiday season which lasted 14 days and i call myself a runner. but, during those 3 times that i ran i wasn't winded and i ran my usual 10 kms. i'm really looking forward to the races that i am going to join this january; takbo para sa ekonomiya and happy run. i long to feel see the road and the horizon infront of me, hear my footsteps on the pavement and feel my heart pumping faster and faster and faster.

run for life race

as i mentioned in one of my posts, i haven't found my pace for the races i have ran so far; my pace was either too slow or too fast so i entered this run for life race with one thing in mind: to run my optimum pace for the 10k. i had everything planned out, my pace for every kilometer laid out but as the race began, i found myself running a lot faster than the pace i had planned. But, everything worked out fine in the end, the result came in and i came in 33rd, not bad right? My next race will be the yakult 10 miler on december 7. wish me luck.

running races

it was only this year that i started joining races. started with the adidas king of the road 21k, then the run against pain 8k, VSO run against pain 15k then just this weekend i joined the run for life 10k. obviously running by yourself and running with a group are two very different things. you find out a lot about your running while running with others. the adrenaline you feel when the starting gun goes off is something else. when that gun fires, and you hear the steps of runners ahead of you, it gets your blood pumping.
i remember my first race at the adidas king of the road, the starting ceremonies gave me such a rush, i got excited and ended up running faster than my usual pace, mid race i was so gassed up i barely finished the race and boy was i tired. at my second race, i paced myself better but i wasn't happy with my performance. i finished the race feeling as if i had just warmed up. i guess these are all part of learning how to run races. my most recent race was a lot better. i ran at a pace of 6-7 min/km during the 1st 3 kilometers and a pace of 4-5 min/km the rest of the race. something that i noticed at this last race was that there were pacers; runners that ran at a constant pace of 6 and 7 min/km. this could really help a lot of runners. i just wonder, do they get paid for this?
the thing with races is that you could gauge yourself with other runners at a competitive level. i find it to be useless if all you do is run at a constant pace, running the same distance all the time. there has to be room for improvement and you have to be constantly pushing yourself.
i just hope that there will be more races that are more than 10k in distance. give us more 26-21-42 kms. hehe.

running, music and me

i am a musical being, i love music. i have learned to play a few instruments but my favorite is the guitar, been playing for 16 years.
music has been my companion during my runs, a good upbeat song can give me a second or even a third wind. you know how they say that food without spice is like life without sex? well, that is how i feel about music and running.