In the past three weeks, my weekly mileage was consistently in the mid to high 20′s.  In fact, last week, I surely would have hit around 35km if not for a short bout with the flu.  I was hoping to get my mileage up to the 40′s by mid-August so that I could embark on a 10-week HM program, just in time for this year’s edition of the KOTR.  The 10k at the KOTR is likewise an option, that is, if I am unable to rack up serious mileage.  After all, it’s about time that I got that sub-Piolo out of the way.  At any rate, the plan was to get in a good enough condition to be able to run a decent race at the KOTR.

 I had a good start to the week, actually.  After running a good aerobic 10k run on Sunday, I went for a 30-min. bike ride on Monday, followed by an easy 7k run at Ayala Triangle on Tuesday.  I was going to run again on Wednesday but my buddies came calling so I decided to pay homeage to St. Michael instead.   

I woke up Thursday morning with a sore throat.  I also felt that I was coming down with the flu so I called in sick.  Had to cancel my run that day, too.  I was supposed to run Friday evening but decided to cancel last minute as I wanted my legs to be fresh the following morning for my basketball game.  It was the second season of the Den Daniel Reyes Cup and my team, the SF Baconators (so named due to our fraternity’s ties to the great Sir Francis Bacon), was bent on improving on our 4th place finish last year.

This group pic was taken a few moments before I got injured.

*Photo credit:  Archie Gonzales

I joined the proceedings a few minutes into the first quarter as I arrived late and had to suit up and warm-up a little.  Less than a minute inside the court, I found myself sprawled on the floor, holding on to my left ankle.  I knew something was wrong when I heard a snapping sound as my ankle buckled under my weight, which was quickly followed by what seemed like a gazillion volts of electricty shooting up my spine all the way to my cerebral cortex.  More than a quarter of a century’s experience of playing organized basketball told me that I had to call it a day.

It was a freak accident, really.  I have emerged unscathed from far more serious situations like this one (from last season’s tournament) for example:

      *Photo credit:  Ceazar Ryan Aquino

How and why it happened remains a mystery to me.  All I could remember was that I was scrambling for a loose ball then, pow! – I just twisted my ankle on my own.  I did not step on anyone’s foot or was otherwise thrown off-balance when it happened.  No contact from any opposing player either.  It was Murphy’s Law personified – by my own clumsiness. 

For the meantime, I’d rather not think about the ramifications of this, my latest injury.  It’s a long season anyway and still quite some months off from the KOTR.  However, I can’t help but reflect on recent events, more particularly, my seemingly frequent run-ins with injury.  All I can say is, shit really happens.  At least, this time around, it didn’t hit the fan.

I realized, however, that returning to full fitness is easier said than done.  After the mandatory 2-week leave from running, I tried to get in a few runs, only to find out that my ITBS was not completely healed.  Hence, I could only turn in short runs, few and far between at that.  Out of curiosity, I checked out my running log and I discovered that in the 12 weeks since my 2-week enforced leave from running, I averaged only 11km per week.   In fact, I was lucky to get in two runs in one week.

With my weekly mileage down the drain, it was but expected that my fitness would follow the same path.  At present, I am registering T-pace heartrates even for short easy runs.  However, I am very much hopeful that all this would soon change.  I am now able to run without any pain in my ITB.  Also, bowling season is over, thereby giving me a couple of nights more a week to hit the track.  Did I mention that our firm bagged the 2011 Inter-Law Bowling Tournament?   Don’t take my word for it.  As trial lawyers would say, the best evidence would be the res, which in this case, was the champions’ trophy.  Our trophy haul would prove this fact beyond any reasonable doubt. 

With the bowling season out of the way, I hope to get in more runs on a weekly basis.  In fact, just last week, I was able to run thrice (oh joy!), which included a 10k at the track, my first in more than 3 months.  This week, I have already turned in two runs for a total mileage of 13.8km.  I plan to do a short run later and another 10k or 12k on Sunday.  The plan is to get my weekly mileage to the mid-30′s by month’s end.  I know that I cannot rush back into regular training lest I risk a recurrence of my injuries or, worse, suffer new ones.  This early, in fact, my foot is already showing signs of my difficult comeback:

Nasty blisters

Speaking of injuries,  that’s another “regular” in my running cycle.  In March to May 2010, I took a leave from running as I got hit by a spate of injuries – deltoid ligament problems, knee pain and shin splints.  It was only in June of that year that I resumed my training.  After several months of hard work, I thought that I would finally be rewarded with a sub-1:45 finish in the 21k of the Globe R4H scheduled on March 27, 2011.  But it was not to be.  Almost one year to the day I suffered my first running injury, I got hit by a bad case of ITBS.  I had to do a DNS at Globe R4H and was relegated to photographer duty.  I had to take another prolonged break from running.  While I have been doing some light running of late, I know it would be foolhardy of me to jump into a training program straightaway.  Aside from the fact that I am nowhere near my fitness level back in March, I need to make sure that my ITB is well on its way to recovery.

In the last 15 days, I was only able to run thrice.  My inability to come up with a string of runs is not due solely to injury.  My running was limited by a combination of work, fun and play – just like what happened a year ago as intimated in My Past Two Weeks in Review.  This uncanny cyle prompted me to write this post and to share with you, in images, what kept me preoccupied in the last couple of weeks.

May 2-6: Family Vacay

First stop: Paris

Who would have thought that this is a mall? Magnifique!

Checking out some paintings at the Louvre.

Versailles

  Of course, I had to squeeze in a run around Gare De Lyon:

May 6-13:  Firm Trip to Spain (Madrid, Avila, Segovia, Zaragoza, Barcelona, Montserrat, La Costa Brava)

Group shot overlooking the quaint town of Toledo

 Visit to the Royal Palace:

Palacio Royal in Madrid

The aqueducts of Avila, simply amazing.

The aqueducts of Avila

 

More churches and castles:

La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

One of them castles.  After a while, they all look alike. 

Alcazar castle in Segovia

Of course, a visit to the Olympic Stadium was in order.  Was so tempted to go down to the track.  Hehe.

At the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona beside a photo of Carl Lewis.

We were fortunate enough to be in Barcelona the night Barca clinched the La Liga title.  The Catalans just went crazy:

Celebrations went on all night

 I think all the walking that we did those 12 odd days could match my mileage during training.  Seriously.  Nonetheless, I was compelled to do some serious running in Barcelona to make sure that my fitness does not go down the drain altogether.  I ran a brisk 4.71km around La Rambla at 5:18 mpk.   

All in all, not a bad two weeks.  Now back to reality and, hopefully, some serious running.

When I was a kid in the early 80′s, I remember that my Dad and Kuya (who were part of the running boom three decades ago)  were obsessed with the concept of pronation. Runners back then (and now for that matter) were so averse to the idea of overpronating such that it was often preached that one should make a conscious effort to strike the ground with the outer part of the foot first.  I could still vividly recall how the outsoles of their Brooks running shoes looked like – worn out on the outer portion of the heel pad.  (Heelstriking was still en vogue then)   That obsession with proper pronation stuck with me through the years.  Thus, I would always make it a point to strike the ground with the outer portion of my foot first. 

I first became conscious of my running form when I saw race photos from my Timex Run in November 2009.  These finish line photos will tell you why:

You don’t have to be eagle-eyed to notice that there is something terribly wrong with my right foot.  However, I didn’t think too much about it as, back then, I was more obsessed with setting PRs.  If I was getting faster, who cares about form right?

A year later, my bad form would haunt me once again.  After seeing my race photos from the 2010 QCIM, I thought to myself, “Holy crap.  There it is again.”   See for yourself:

Deja vu

On the same day of the QCIM, my brah also ran the Stan Chart in SG.  As was always the case, we traded race pics and this is what I got in my inbox:

My brah’s impeccable form as captured in the above photos made me feel worse about my own form.  From then on, I resolved to do something about it.  I analyzed my race photos and I thought that I should just make a conscious effort to make my toes point inward during my kicks.  This way, I could get rid of that “crooked” look.  In time, that became my natural gait. 

Then, disaster struck.  For the first time in my two-year running career, just when I was peaking in my HM training, I got afflicted with ITBS.   I thought it was just a case of over-use, nothing that 2 weeks’ rest would not be able to fix.  Thus, as the doctor ordered, I went on a short vacay from running.  Two weeks to the day that I stopped running, I decided to test the old ITB by biking from Marikina to Antipolo.  I also wanted to see if there was a significant drop in my fitness level.  The timing was perfect.  It was card-giving day at Assumption Antipolo and I thought it was an opportune time to get my rarely-used MTB covered with the right kind of dust.   

A must-have photo-op beside Valley's giant golf ball.

Arriving at my destination

I was happy with my bike ride to Antipolo as (a) my ITB didn’t act up; and (b) I was able to bike all the way up Sumulong Highway without getting a heart attack, indicating that my fitness had not totally regressed.  However, biking up to Antipolo is something that I don’t see myself doing again in the near future.  If the speeding jeepneys, cars and trucks won’t kill me, the pollution will. 

Having determined that my ITB was on the road to recovery, I decided to run the following day, a Sunday.  I did  an easy 5k at the track at 5:43 mpk.  It felt great to be running pain-free again.  However, my euphoria was short-lived.  The next day, my ITB hurt so badly that I couldn’t bend my right leg.  I immediately took NSAIDS in the hopes of accelerating the healing process.  I was so desperate that I even took salabat (ginger ale) in huge doses after every meal.  One of these remedies must have worked as I was fit enough to run the following Thursday.  I ran a brisk 6k (inclusive of 1.2k warm-up) at the track at 5:14 mpk. 

In that particular run, I discovered that striking the ground with the middle to inner portion of my foot did not put much pressure on my ITB. So, I just went with that gait/footstrike, even though in my mind, I knew that this would bring out the crooked form once again.  Boy was I wrong.

I ran a brisk 5k on the treadmill last night at 5:08 mpk.  I started with my usual (conditioned through the years) footstrike – outer portion first. As I was facing the glass walls of the gym, I could easily see my form. I noticed that my right leg still had that crooked look to it as I was running. But my left leg looked normal enough. After a while, I felt some strain on my ITB so I went back to the middle to inner portion first foot strike that I used at the track last Thursday.  Guess what?  Watching myself in the glass wall, I noticed that my form improved drastically! What I thought would make that crooked look more pronounced actually straightened out my right leg!  And the best part? Now I feel absolutely fine.  No strain whatsoever on my ITB. 

Form and substance.  Never leave home without it.

Moments before gunstart of the 15k

10k runners getting ready

Runners doing some last-minute stretching

Off they go!

Official timekeeper

Seeing red at the crack of dawn

5k top finisher

5k 2nd placer

5k 3rd placer, a regular at Marikina Sports Center

Darwin Lim, 2nd place in the 10k

Top finisher in the 15k event

1st place in the 5k women's division. Sub-20 baby!

The amazing Michelle de Vera

Wifey en route to a 1:28:27 finish in the 15k

Wifey with my partner, Atty. Peach Ledesma, and her hubby MIke

As you can see, I had a grand time taking photos and watching from the sidelines.  Not!

In my previous post, I mentioned that I will be going all in for my attempt at a PR-setting half marathon.  Well, I indeed went all in but got wiped out.  

When the early signs of ITBS came out after my Sunday long run on March 13, my kuya slash coach slash running guru advised me to take it easy henceforth.  In fact, he told me to ditch my program and just run every other day.  And all these runs should be E-Pace runs.  So after that fateful Sunday, my next run was an easy 5.4k the following Tuesday.  Since I was to run only every other day, I skipped Wednesday then ran again on Thursday.  Unfortunately, when I got to the track, I just couldn’t help doing my usual mile intervals.  I know, very low EQ of me.  I did my usual 2k warm-up followed by some religious stretching then off I went.  I felt great during my first set.  In fact, I was averaging 5-7 seconds faster per lap.  That’s huge in terms of speed workouts – that meant that my mile intervals were about 20 seconds faster than usual.  I wasn’t even pushing myself much.  The second set was more or less the same, although I found it difficult to maintain the pace on my last lap.  At that point, I had forgotten about my ITBS and was more worried about not finishing my workout due to fatigue.  After my 800m jog recovery, I went for my third set.  However, less than 200m into my first lap, I felt some pain in my right knee.  I decided to stop right away to prevent further damage.  After jogging for another 800m pain-free, I did some extensive stretching.  I thought the problem had been contained.

I took the following Friday off and decided to run an easy 10k on Saturday.   When I got to the track, I ran at a leisurely pace to warm-up my muscles. But alas, I was able to run only 130m.  I felt some sharp pain in my right knee that simply stopped me in my tracks (no pun intended).  I decided to walk for 2 laps and do some stretching before going at it again.  Unfortunately, the same thing happened.  In fact, my second attempt didn’t even last 100m.  I knew that there was something terribly wrong.  I decided to rest for a while, hoping that by some miracle, the pain would go away on my next attempt.  However, it was not to be.  I made seven attempts in all that night, to no avail.  I even tried all the possible combinations – I tried jogging, running at moderate pace and even at inteval pace.  Nothing worked.  Everytime, I would feel debilitating pain in my right knee just a few seconds into my run.  I knew that it was time to throw in the towel.

The following day, I decided to pay a visit to a sports injury clinic in SM Megamall, which I found courtesy of my bud Julius Cervantes of Life is a Highway fame.  The doctor I consulted confirmed my worst fears.  I had to take a break from running.  Surprisingly, I didn’t take the news that badly.  After all, running is not my life.  Heck, I’m just a recreational runner who gets a kick out of setting PRs.  But I will definitely miss the training, most especially the high that I get from pushing myself to the limit - those MSS (masuka-suka) moments after every hard workout.  And one thing’s for sure.  I’ll be back.  Stronger.

Good luck to everyone running the Globe R4H tomorrow.   In the meantime, I’ll enjoy my beer.

I did my Sunday long run at the track (I know, 52 and 3/4 laps in all!) in 1:54:37, which, technically, is my new HM PR.  It’s not so much that I set a PR in that run that got me excited; it’s the fact that I wasn’t meaning to that tickled me pink.  In fact, I ran it at E-pace, save for the last 5k, which I tried to run at my target HM race pace.  I was able to run only 8 laps of that final 5k at 2:00 ave. per lap (5:00 mpk).  However, my 9th and 10th laps were 2:04 and 2:07 respectively, so I decided to just treat the remaining kilometer and change as my cool down.   My average heartrate for the entire run was only 156, which was well-within my aerobic zone. 

I also had a good speed workout that week.  It was an 8k tempo, which I ran at 4:48 mpk.  As a matter of fact, if I were to include my 2k warm-up, my 10k split time would be 49:59, a sub-50 10k on a training run!  Not bad for a 37 year old litigator.    In fact, after that tempo run, I promised myself that my next race after Globe R4H would be a 10k, to see if I could break the 47-minute barrier.  My rather promising training week was well-documented in Daily Mile:  

Then, some cause for concern.  Last March 13, I decided to do my Sunday long run at BHS.  I was supposed to run 22km, but I was able to finish only 14.9km.  My legs felt very heavy, which I attributed to muscle fatigue.  I thought that i had yet to recover from my Thursday tempo run and my Friday hills training.  There was also the matter of the slight discomfort that I felt in my right knee.  I was kicking myself for doing two quality workouts on consecutive days.  Not too smart. 

Little did I know that muscle faitgue would be the least of my concerns.  By Sunday evening, that slight discomfort in my knee morphed into pain.  In fact, in a matter of hours after my run, I was walking with a noticeable limp.  I researched the symptoms online and came to the conclusion that I had ITBS.  All of a sudden, the following words of advice from my kuya slash coach slash running guru proved prophetic:

“No question your fitness level is improving.  Just don’t overdo things.  3 weeks to go, there’s not much else you can do to substantially increase your fitness level.  There’s a lot you can do to wreck it.  At this point I think it’s prudent to consolidate your gains and just continue doing what you’ve been doing.  Make sure you’re allowing yourself some quality rest (recovery) time, too.”

I was still walking with a limp on Monday, but on Tuesday morning, I was happy to see that the pain had subsided.  It had to take a lot of EQ on my part to fight the urge to run that day.   However, I am determined to take my kuya slash coach slash running guru’s advice to heart and just consolidate my gains and not try anything stupid in the following days. 

This morning, after 2 days’ complete rest, I ran an easy 5.4k.  I felt some discomfort in my right knee a few hundred meters into my run.  Fortunately, it went away shortly thereafter.  While I was supposed to do an easy 10k, I decided to do a time-based easy run of 30 mins. so as not to punish my knees too much. 

I felt fine after the run, but now, my ITB feels stiff.  There’s just so much I could do to treat my ITBS without sacrificing my fitness.  I’ve been dealt a bad card and now, the chips are definitely stacked against me. I have no choice but to go “all in” on this one.  Que sera, sera.

Completing the registration process was such a breeze;  easy as one, two, three, LITERALLY.  Step One:  go to any of the four computer terminals to enter your personal details.  Step Two:  pay at the cashier.  Step Three:  claim your race pack and other freebies and you’re good to go!   If I could only breeze through my HM as well.   :-)

Now the hard part begins.   Four weeks to get myself into tip-top, sub-1:45 shape.  Hope my left knee holds up.  See you at the starting line.

I was kicking myself for not signing up early.   If you are one of the four dedicated followers of this blog, you’d know why. For months, I had been anxiously waiting to exorcise my 21k demons and I thought that my long wait would finally come to an end at Run United.  I got so excited by the prospect that I even joined the Condura 16k to simulate my half-marathon race pace for Run United.  Not only that.  I ate, slept and breathed Run United such that I was beginning to look like Coach Rio.

I swear, kumapal ang buhok ko! LOL

Nuff said.  You can imagine how disappointed I was.  Training for a race is difficult enough.  But running purely for running’s sake is even more difficult.  It can be such a chore.  In fact, as of this writing, my mileage for the week is only 13.9 km.  My beer consumption this week may be more than that.

However, it seems that I won’t be slacking off for long.  This morning, just after having a leisurely breakfast and taking a strong mug of coffee to nurse my hangover, I browsed my friend Edwin Soriano’s Runners’ Runner website and, to my delight, found out that the Globe Run for Home 2011 will be held on 27 March 2011 and, more importantly, it will feature a half-marathon. 

*Image taken from Globe Run for Home 2011 Facebook page.

I haven’t joined the past editions of the Globe Run, but I heard that it’s a pretty good race.   Registration will start on 21 February 2011 and I’ll be damned if I miss this one as well. 

Training starts now.

As intimated in a previous post, I joined the 16k event for a host of reasons.  However, I never did really explain why I decided to sign up only in the last few days of the registration period.   

The day that I signed up for the 16k event was the day that RunRio came out with the announcement that Run United will be held on 6 March 2011.  I had been waiting anxiously for a good 21k race and I felt that Run United was it – the race that would finally banish my 21k demons.  Thus, I signed up for the 16k event of the Condura to simulate my race pace for my 21k at Run United.  So there you have it - the  Condura 16k was meant to be a training run of sorts, nothing more.  Little did I know that I’d get so much more out of it.

Apart from the basics that you’d expect from a`good race – timing and distance accuracy, as well as adequate hydration – the Condura Skyway Marathon offered much more.  The race was very well-planned – down to the most minute of details.  From gun start times, race routes, traffic flow, spacing of hydration stations, to the mobile generators that provided much-needed lighting in the wee hours of the morning, it seems that Condura left no stone unturned in making the Condura Skyway Marathon the premier running event in the country. 

I guess with a team like RunRio behind the event, working on a sizeable budget at that (the reg fees weren’t exactly spare change), such good things are to be expected.  But for me, more than the perfect logistics, more than the exemplary handling of the event, more than the extraordinary fanfare, what made this race truly unforgettable was the way it brought out the best runner in me – that never say die attitude, that constant quest for excellence, which, in the vernacular is exemplified by the phrase “pwede pa,” as opposed to the mediocre “pwede na.”  And for this, I pay tribute to runner # 41470, whose name I came to know as Straad Clement Abalde when the official results were finally released.  

Straad and I were both in Wave C, which started some 4 minutes after the first wave of 16k runners set off into the direction of Amorsolo.   I didn’t see him until after kilometer 2, which was after we had already made our way to the Skyway.  I made the mistake of going too fast on my first kilometer (4:30), so I took it slow on the second (5:28).  Maybe the steep incline of the ramp leading to the Skyway contributed a number of seconds more to my 2nd k.  By the time I reached the Skyway, I had already caught up with most of the Wave A and Wave B runners. Likewise, most of those in Wave C who foolishly started the race fast like I did were already nowhere to be seen.  Then I saw Straad.  After 10 more minutes, he was still there.  Right there and then, I determined that Straad would make for a good pacer.  I told myself that for as long as he did not stray too far from my race pace, I should not let him get out of my sight. 

It seems that Straad had not done much hills training as I would almost always leave him behind on the uphill portions of the Skyway.  However, he would almost always come back strong from those inclines and overtake me as soon as the course turned flat or went on a downslope.  However, I was always never too far behind.  This pattern continued all the way to the Buendia Flyover when I thought I had lost him for good, only for him to pop out of nowhere and overtake me once more on the downslope.  As we made the turn on the final corner leading to the finish line, he was about three stridelengths ahead of me.  I quickened the pace a bit, but not too fast, seeing that the finish line was still about 300 meters away.  I had just overtaken him when this photo was taken:

That's me in Blue; Straad's the one in white shirt and white shoes.

True to form, Straad did not allow my lead to last long.  As soon as we reached the cobblestoned portion, he made a move and overtook me once again. 

Straad (in the white shirt and shoes) about to make his move

Just like in life, when you’ve gone a long way, feeling spent, it’s so easy to give up or just coast along.  But sometimes, just sometimes, you click into a higher gear.  In the last 70 meters, I launched into a sprint that saw me reclaim the lead for good. 

Sprinting towards the finish line

The end result - 1:23:13, which was good enough for 22nd place over-all.

I was three minutes off my target time (according to my Garmin I ran an extra 167 meters) but I was more than happy with the way I ran this race.  Straad, I know I already told you this as I  shook your hand shortly after crossing the finish line, but just the same, “thanks for pushing me, man.” 

For recreational runners like me, this is what running’s all about.