Month: January 2009

“A Runner’s Wish For 2009 & Onwards”

On By kingofpotsIn Insights, Races, Running4 Comments

After getting the permission from my friend and fellow-Ilocano, Lakay Felipe Dumpit aka Kinderdorf, I am going to post this article which came from his blog. The post was initiated from an e-mail of Lito Evite which is self-explanatory. I hope the race organizers, sponsors, the officials of PATAFA, and runners will be able to read this post and this will encourage them to be observant on these concerns and feel free to post comments relative to this letter/post.

The following is the post I copied from Kinderdorf: Continue reading ““A Runner’s Wish For 2009 & Onwards”” →

My First Run For 2009

On By kingofpotsIn Insights, Jogging, Running5 Comments

4:54 PM 01 January 2009 @ Rizal High School (Pasig) Oval Track

The sky was still overcast when I started my run in the afternoon of the first day of the year 2009. Upon my arrival at the Rizal High School Oval Track, the elite runners of the Team Bald Runner had just arrived at the place a few minutes ahead of me. I could see that our elite runners of Team Bald Runner are seriously preparing for the March 8 Philippine Marathon for Pasig River. According to Captain Espejo, he updated me with a report that our marathon runners of Team Bald Runner are on their right track and training for them to qualify on the Olympic Marathon finish time of 2:18 hours.

After a warm-up run of 4 laps with an average pace of 6:15 mins/km, I did my stretching and speed drills. I told Captain Espejo that I will be doing a one-hour long run at my 80%-85% (5:45 mins/km pace). He suggested that I should increase my pace for the last 30 minutes of my run. For the first 30 minutes of my run, my average pace was 5:25 mins/km, running on a counter-clockwise direction on the oval track. For the last 30 minutes of my run, I changed my direction on a clockwise along the oval track and I was able to register an average pace of 4:45 mins/km. After one hour of continuous run, I slowly jogged for another lap and then walked for another half lap. To include my warm-up run, I was able to run a distance of 14.4 kilometers with an average pace of 5:11 mins/km.

My workout terminated with a full stretching routine assisted by Coach Espejo. Coach Espejo gave me a positive feedback where he made a comment that I was able to correct the defect on my strides and footstrike. Thanks, Coach Ferdie!

Finally, allow me to make a comment about the Flagcounter that I newly displayed on my blog last 31st December 2008. I am amazed and surprised with the results I am seeing right now with the Flagcounter. After almost two days, I could see that there are readers from 30+ countries around the world visiting this blog. Assuming that the readers are Filipinos, we could just imagine how the Filipinos are located entire the world. On the other hand, if these readers/visitors are really permanent residents in these countries, this proves that running is a “universal” sports and it makes the Philippines also known to them through this running blog.

To my readers/visitors from all over the world, even if you are unable to leave a comment in this blog, thanks for the visits.

94 Days: Last Run For 2008

On By kingofpotsIn Insights, Jogging, Pictures, Places to Run, Runners' Training, Running2 Comments

8:30 AM 31 Dec 2008 @ Rizal High School (Pasig) Oval Track

There were three other joggers/walkers when I started my warm-up run at the Rizal High School Oval Track. After four laps, I had my stretching and speed drills. I decided to have my speed/interval runs in order to correct the defect that Captain Espejo had noticed on my strides and footstrike during my previous run.

I did 10 X 400-meter runs with one-minute recovery in between repetition within my 110% effort. On my 1st to 5th laps, I clocked in 1:35 minutes; 6th & 7th laps at 1:40 mins; 8th lap in 1:38 mins; 9th lap in 1:36 mins; and 10th lap in 1:40 mins. During these repetition runs, I experimented even-pace throughout one lap and slow first half and increasing my pace on the last half of the lap. I found the second mode of running, slow & then fast pace, to be the most comfortable way to undertake such speed runs.

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The stage and the 100-meter dash run portion of the Rizal High School (Pasig) Oval Track

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The left side of the Oval Track as I was standing from the stage.

After the 10 reps, I had my cool-down with two laps of slow jogging and another two laps of walking. I ended my workout with stretching exercises. I was supposed to run another 45 minutes at my 80%-85% effort after the speed runs but I really felt tired already and I opted to call it a day. I was able to run a total distance of 7.5 kilometers.

After assessing the results of my speed runs, I found out that my time for every lap was faster than the time for my 110% target goal which is 1:45-1:46 minutes. However, I really don’t know how I fare with my time if I try to reach the maximum 20 reps for a typical/normal speed run workout. With this speed run workout, I was able to correct the defect that Coach Espejo had observed from my previous run at the oval track.