I have been absent from blogging because, first, I was not motivated to write anything for the past days; second, I have to take a rest from my daily running for the past 14 days; and lastly, I have been busy trying to “break-in” my newly bought heritage boots which is Made In USA (my first time to own a pair of boots made in the USA) around the house. So, instead of running with my sneakers/running shoes, I have been walking around the house, in my backyard, and on the streets within my neighborhood. I guess, I will make another blog about my experience and review about the said boots in the future.

It was a blessing in disguise that I have decided to have a 14-day rest and recovery from my daily running workouts. I was able to gain more weight and was I able to rest and have at least eight hours of sleep every night. During the past 14 days, I was able to eat whatever available to be cooked and I have to alternately eat fresh foods like vegetables, poultry, and meat. I was able to eat fresh fruits that was harvested in my backyard, too! However, on these days, I was not able to drink those sweetened cola drinks but more on water. In the end, I was able to gain more weight, about 4-5 pounds and feel to have regained some strength.

This morning, October 24, Saturday, I have decided to start running again in my Backyard Loop. Maybe, I was inspired by what had happened last weekend at the Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra where the winner, Karel Sabbe from Belgium, was able to run for 75 hours where he was able to cover a distance of 502 kilometers. This feat is a Course Record for the said event. In this event, runners have to run a loop course of 6.7 kilometers every hour until only one runner remains.

I have been thinking of doing this kind of format of running in my Backyard Loop but for the past months that I have been doing my “Virtual Runs”, I have observed that I have slowed my pace and speed. Due to old age and lack of speed training, I could barely finish 6.7 kilometers in one hour in my Backyard Loop. On my first month of virtual running in May, I can still run the said distance in one hour but I have only few minutes to take time to rest before I start again for the next lap-hour. Maybe, I could only last for 4-5 lap-hours until I am exhausted from being able to finish the said distance every hour.

With this predicament and my present situation, I have to adjust and had been thinking since Tuesday that I have to reduce my target distance to cover within one hour. Finally, I have found a good balance between having a leisure run (without much stress and intensity) and being able to cover some distance without any worries. I thought of starting again from my 14-day rest and recover by doing the MAF (Maximum Aerobic Function) Training with the goal to finish 5 kilometers in every hour. (Note: I have discussed and posted a post in my past blogs for the said training procedure).

On my first day of the MAF, I was able to cover a distance of 5 kilometers with an average Heart Rate of 127 beats per minute (bpm) which is slightly higher than my target HR of 122 bpm even if I forced myself to hike and walk if I see that my HR was getting higher than 122 bpm. Anyway, I was happy that I was back again to running today.

I will be maintaining this MAF Training for the next month/30 days. I will call this the One Hour In 5 Kilometers Per Day In 30 Days Challenge. Follow me as I go through with this new Challenge.

Thank you for reading this blog.