Instead of maintaining my usual morning runs last Wednesday & Thursday at the ULTRA Oval Track, I decided to have my runs in the evening. It was already past 6:00 PM when I arrived at the Oval Track and some of the runners were about to go home already. Lala Calma surprised me when she greeted me as she was leaving the track.

After my stretching exercises, I started to do my easy run and I was able to cover a distance of 14+kilometers along the track, which was equivalent to 35 laps with an average pace of 5:10-5:35 minutes per kilometer.

After my run and while doing my post-cool down and stretching, I saw some of the members of the Team Bald Runner watching me from the grandstand. I had a brief chat with them as one of their runner-friends had signified his intention to join the team. Elmer Sabal (Champion in the 1st Mayon Trail Run) and Rey De Los Reyes were surprised to see me running a lot of laps at the oval while they were complaining to me that they have sore legs due to the trail run and had been resting for almost 3 days already. They even asked me if I am taking some “drugs” or “drinks” as if I did not had any pain on my legs after the trail run.

My explanation to them was very simple. Since their legs and muscles are not used to trail running as most of them had been running on the paved road and oval track, their running legs had to experience some adjustments and the muscles and cartileges which were barely used in road running had been used as the trail and rocks were uneven plus the steep incline/decline of the hill to be traversed gave a lot of “jolt” to their leg muscles. I told them also that I take GU Sports Gel during the run which I observed to be helpful in my immediate recovery after every run. Lastly, I emphasize to them that a complete sleep of 8 hours every night gives me enough recovery to run again the following day.

The following day, Thursday afternoon, I went back to ULTRA at 4:30 PM but I could not start my workout earlier as I had planned because a scheduled Archery practice was still on-going up to 5:00 PM. Instead, I did a longer stretching and warm-up exercises on top of the bleachers until the archery practice was done.

My speed workout consisted of a 5-lap (2K) warm-up; followed with one lap recovery; 5 repetitions of 2K (5 laps) @ 10K race pace with one lap recovery in-between repetitions; and finished with another 5-lap (2K). After finishing this workout, I was able to cover a distance of 16 kilometers. My average pace ranges from 4:36 mins/km to 5:04 mins/km during the speed runs. This running workout was a “hard” one!

After this Thursday evening workout, my legs were sore and I need a rest day for my massage.