Category: Jogging

Another Wednesday “Double” Run & “The Engineer”

On By kingofpotsIn Insights, Jogging, Runners' Training, Running1 Comment

I was out of town last Monday and Tuesday and had a complete rest from my running. But as soon as arrived in Manila, I immediately hit the ULTRA oval track on the early morning of Wednesday with an easy run with a distance of 12.5 kilometers in 1:14:31 hours. It was another 30-lap run for the day.

What is worth mentioning in this blog on this particular morning workout was my coach’s initiative to introduce me to a fellow runner, Mr Leo Valdez, who is popularly known as “The Engineer” of the worldwide known stage play, “Miss Saigon” and an outstanding singer and recording artist. I’ve been seeing him doing his running workout almost every day at the ULTRA Oval Track and there was no chance for us to be introduced to one another as both of us were busy with our respective training. During our brief conversation, I congratulated him for making the Filipinos proud and known worldwide because of his superb acting in “Miss Saigon”. I even told him that we were both runners & marathoners during the 80’s when Mr Elpidio Doroteo and Jun Castro were the popular Race Organizers of road races in the country. And such recollection of our past running experiences made our conversation more interesting. I hope to see more of him in the coming days at the ULTRA Oval Track. “Mr Engineer”, you make us proud and hope that you will be blessed with more shows to come! Keep on running!

At 5:30 PM, I was back at the Oval Track with a plan for a faster pace. I did another 30-lap run with a distance of 12.4 kms in 1:07:51 hours. After my usual post stretching, my workout for the day was done.

I was able to cover a distance of 24.9 kms for the day.

FREE Speed Training For “Hardcores”

On By kingofpotsIn Insights, Jogging, Runners' Training, Running9 Comments

Team Bald Runner is inviting runners who have been training/running continouosly for one year for a “free and personalized” speed training lectures and speed workouts at the ULTRA Oval Track every 5:30-7:00 PM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. This is open to everybody, male and female, who are in competitive running and would like to improve their PR Best times in every road race. This training will start on 18 November 2008.

Captain Ferdie Espejo Jr and Coach Saturnino Salazar, both Level 4 IAAF trained-coaches, will conduct the said training and to be assisted by members of Team Bald Runner.

Runners are advised to prepare P29.00 for payment to Philsports/ULTRA for the use of the Oval Track.

Duathletes & Triathletes are also encouraged to join this training.

Update: Project Donate A Shoe (Nov ’08)

On By kingofpotsIn Insights, Jogging, Pictures, Running3 Comments

As of this date, the latest donors of Project Donate A Shoe were the following:

Mark & Tiffin—Mizuno Running Shoes

Jinoe aka Manokan Express/Takbo.ph—New Balance 1024

Wayne aka SF Runner—ASICS Gel-Landreth

I have yet to give the “ONE” Wristband to Mark & Tiffin. However, I gave one to Wayne and Jinoe last Sunday.

I’ll be also giving away Takbo.ph “button pins” courtesy of Jinoe to runners who will give their shoes to Project Donate A Shoe. Thanks, Jinoe.

As of this date, this project was able to receive 59 pairs of running shoes from donors and was able to give 58 pairs of running shoes to less-fortunate runners.

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Jinoe donated his NB shoes and runners’ “button pins” with his running partner & Maj Rod Turno

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Wayne aka SF Runner donating his brand-new ASICS Gel-Landreth

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This is the old running shoes of Mr Bawic (used for 2 years) which was replaced by the ASICS shoes donated by Wayne aka SF Runner.

Thanks to all the donors. And for those who made their “pledges” to support this project, thanks also for your support.

Hill Sprints & Hill Repetitions

On By kingofpotsIn Insights, Jogging, Runners' Training, Running2 Comments

If you have some problems with the hills of The Fort, McKinley Hill, Heritage Park & Bayani Road and to anticipate the route in this Sunday’s New Balance race and other races in the future, I think you should read this: 

In the book “Run Faster” by Brad Hudson, there are three general groups of training methods for muscle training that increase stride power and fatigue. These are: hill sprints and hill repetitions; speed intervals; and strides and drills. Short hill sprints are the primary means of  first increasing and then maintaining specific strength and stride power. Hill repetitions help to build a “fitness bridge” between strength and speed. The primary tool for speed development is speed intervals, or short intervals run at 5K pace and faster. Strides, which consist of very short (about 100-meter) intervals, usually at 1,500-meter pace, are essentially a form of speed interval used in warmp-ups and cool-downs. Drills are also used in warm-ups and serve to develop and maintain power efficiency.

Hill sprints should be short. Your first session should be performed after completion of an easy run consisting of one or two 8-second sprints on a steep gradient of approximately 6 to 8 percent. If you want to know how it feels to be on a gradient of 6-8%, get on a treadmill and adjust the incline to 6%. After experiencing running on this gradient. You can now find an inclined road that matches it.

First, increase the number of 8-second sprints you perform by one or two per session per week. Once you are doing 8-10 sprints, you may move to 10-second sprints and a slightly steeper hill. After a few more weeks, you may advance to 12-second sprints on a 10% gradient. Always allow yourself to recover fully between individual sprints within a session. Most runners will achieve much strength and power improvement as they can get by doing 10 to 12 hill sprints of 10 to 12 seconds each, twice a week.

Hill repetitions, as opposed to short hill sprints, may be used later in the endurance phase and early sharpening phase to build a fitness bridge between strength and speed. Hill repetitions are beneficial for injury-prone runners and especially those who tend to get injured when running fast. Running at high intensities uphill involves less impact force and less tissue strain than running at the same intensity on level ground. In addition, hills add a strength-boosting element to running at high intensity that reduces injury susceptibility.

The following is a basic example of a four-week hill interval progression:

Week 1—6 X 200 meters

Week 2—6 X 300 meters

Week 3—6 X 400 meters

Week 4—5 X 600 meters

These sessions may be performed after an easy run or a long warm-up or after a threshold run. Hill repetitions should be done on a shallower gradient than your hill sprints (4 to 6%). Do shorter hill repetitions (200-300 meters) at 1,500-meter effort and longer ones (400-600 meters) at roughly 3K effort. Time each repetition to make sure you are not slowing down in the later intervals. Allow yourself to recover fully by slowly jogging down the hill between hill repetitions. 

If you want to apply “hill sprints and hill repetitions”, you can choose those uphill climbs along the Mizuno-Rush/VSO Run route and along the BHS loop. Good luck and enjoy your workout

Reference: “Run Faster: From The 5K To The Marathon” by Brad Hudson, pp-80-84

“Team Bald Runner” Performance

On By kingofpotsIn Insights, Jogging, Runners' Training, Running6 Comments

Here is the list of performance of “Team Bald Runner” in last Sunday’s road races in Metro Manila and neighboring areas:

At the VSO “Bahaginan” Road Races:

Gerald Sabal—1st Overall Male/15K Run

Bernardo Desamito—1st Overall Male/10K Run

Maricel Maquilan—1st Overall Female/15K Run

Ailene Tolentino—2nd Overall Female/15K Run

Ellen Tolentino—1st Overall Female/10K Run

Michael Embuedo—1st Place, 30-39 yrs old Age Category, 5K Run

Ferdinand Elpidio Espejo Jr—1st Place, 40-49 yrs ols Age Category, 5K Run

At BF Homes 5K Charity Run: Isidro Villasola—1st Place Overall

At Bacolor, Pampanga’s 10K Run: Reynaldo de los Reyes—1st Place Overall

The following runners did not run for this week’s races in preparation for next week’s NB Races and Milo Marathon Finals: Elmer Sabal/Cresenciano Sabal/Jujet de Asis.

Pictures @ VSO Run

On By kingofpotsIn Jogging, Pictures, Races, Running5 Comments

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High Altitude, Aldz, & friend with the Bald Runner before the start of the race.

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 The 15K race started ahead of the 10K & 5K races at 5:49 AM

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 Captain Espejo, Coach of Team Bald Runner, won 1st Place in the 5K’s Age Category of 40-49 yrs old. 

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 Maricel Maquillan of Team Bald Runner won 1st Place in the Women’s Overall Category in the 15K Race

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 Ailene Tolentino of Team Bald Runner won 2nd Place in the Women’s Overall Category in the 15K Race

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The Bald Runner got his PR Best Time for the 15K Race. 

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I was still smiling after the 15K race not knowing that I broke my time for the 15K distance

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Captain Espejo, Jinoe, Wayne aka SF Runner & Dindo. Jinoe & Wayne donated their running shoes to Project Donate A Shoe. Jinoe also donated a bagful of “metal buttons” for donors to the project. Thanks, Wayne & Jinoe for your generosity & support.

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The runner on the left, Danilo Bawic of Global Runners, who won 6th Place Overall in the 15K race, was the lucky recipient of Wayne’s shoe donation. Wayne aka SF Runner is seen giving a brand-new ASICS shoes to Mr Bawic.

“I Broke My 15K PR Best @ VSO Run”

On By kingofpotsIn Insights, Jogging, Races, Running17 Comments

Race Report: VSO “Bahaginan” 15K Run @ The Fort

Due to technical problem of not being able to access my blogsite for the past days, I really did not know exactly my past finish times for the past 2 renditions of the Mizuno-Rush Infinity 15 Runs for this year before I left my place for this 15K road race. My race strategy was to run an even-pace of 4:45 mins/km up to 4:55 mins/km. Actually, my target was to run an even-pace of below 5:00 mins/km for the whole distance.

Knowing that the race starts at 5:30 AM, I was already at The Fort at 4:50 AM and started to do my stretching and warm-up run. I was already sweating when I entered the starting area at least 15 minutes before the race started. I saw the usual faces and “new” runners who introduced themselves. I was able to have a brief chat with some of The Happy Feet Runners, High Altitude, Aldz, JayR, Roselle, Joms, Foreign Runner, RunUnlimited, and members of the Team Bald Runner.

Finally, the race started after the Emcee announced that the race starts after 10 seconds and the countdown followed. My GF 305 registered 5:49 AM as the start time which was good enough because it was still dark at 5:30 AM. I started my run by pressing the start button of my GF 305 and controlled my emotion of not being carried away with the pace of the elite runners at the front and the “younger runner-bloggers”. From Km 1 up to Km 8, I was able to maintain an average pace of 4:36 mins/km up to 4:51 mins/km. From Km 9 up to the Finish, I registered an average pace of 5:01 up to 5:25 mins/km, except for Km 13 where I finished in 4:58 mins. As usual, the uphill terrain at the Bayani Road and McKinley Hill slowed my pace but I felt I did not push my pace “too hard” along these parts of the route.

After I reached the Finish Line, my GF 305 registered a time of 1:14:43 with a distance of 15.11 kilometers. My average pace for the race was 4:56 mins/km with an average HR of 157 bpm and maximum HR of 163 bpm.

For this race, I was able to set my PR Best time for the 15K run by shaving off 2:10 minutes from my previous time of 1:16:53 during the 1st Mizuno-Rush Infinity 15K Run.

After the race, I immediately changed my drenched running kit and had some photo-ops with the other “runner-bloggers”. As I stayed at the BR’s Project Donate A Shoe booth, I was able to meet Wayne aka SFRunner who just arrived from San Francisco yesterday morning for a 10-day vacation in the country. He donated a brand-new ASICS Gel-Landreth Running Shoes which was in turn given by Wayne to a recipient who was wearing a 2-year old ASICS shoes. Thanks, Wayne for the generosity and for spending your “running” vacation here.

Congratulations to Coach Rio, staff, and volunteers for a wonderful and enjoyable 15K race. Good job!

(Note: Pictures could not be uploaded due to technical problems from WordPress. Pictures will be posted later)

Two Days Before Race Day

On By kingofpotsIn Insights, Jogging, Runners' Training, RunningLeave a comment

6:12 PM 07 November 2008 @ The ULTRA Oval Track

Together with one of the runners of Team Bald Runner who is personally supervising my daily workouts at the Oval Track, I had an easy and even-paced 10K run with a time of 50:25 minutes and an average pace of 5:03 minutes/km. I registered an average HR of 149 bpm and maximum HR of 159 bpm. What I learned during this run was to maintain an even pace from start to finish of the run and I was reminded by my partner/coach for the run to develop a “cadence”. He reminded me also to be light on my feet once they touch the ground and must be able to lift my knees a little higher during my legs’ “turnover”.

After 25 laps around the oval track, we had two laps of slow jog and had our “water break”. After about 2-minute rest, I asked my running-partner/coach to walk towards the concrete bleacher on the west side of the oval track and told him that I need to do at least 10 reps of hill sprints along the stairs of the bleacher from the lower row to the top most area. We did, at least, 12 reps at a moderate speed which made my leg muscles “burned & fatigued” after each repetition. We had to walk at the top level and walk our way down to the start. I did not record the time on how fast we were doing those hill sprint repetitions but I could estimate to be at 12 seconds per sprint. This workout is an example of Brad Hudson’s “Run Faster” principle of adaptive running where a runner should take an extra “mile” or workout after an scheduled workout. He calls this term as “progression runs”. These runs could be hill sprints or hill repetitions; additional 20-minute run at moderate pace after an easy run; or fast-paced 2K run after an interval or tempo run workout. 

After the hill sprints reps, we walked for two laps around the oval track in order to cool-down our leg muscles before we had our stretching. My running-partner/coach gave me a massage after the usual “personnel-assisted” stretching routine.

5:47 PM 08 November 2008 @ The ULTRA Oval Track

It was Saturday early evening, at least 12 hours before the VSO 15K Road Race, and I went to the ULTRA Oval Track for a short and slow run to loosen my leg muscles and to “sweat it out” for the day. I did 3 sets of 6-lap run and was able to finish 18 laps. I finished the 1st set in 16:46 minutes with an average pace of 6:46 mins/km; the 2nd set was timed in 12:50 minutes with an average pace of 5:16 mins/km; the last set (cool-down) was timed in 15:33 minutes with an average pace of 6:15 mins/km. There were no recovery runs in between sets. However, “water breaks” were observed after sets.

A walk around the oval and post-stretching exercises terminated my workout. I was able to run a distance of 7.49 kilometers.

(Note: Posting of this story was delayed because of some technical problems with WordPress)

Another 50 Laps #2

On By kingofpotsIn Jogging, Runners' Training, Running5 Comments

5:50 PM 06 November 2008 @ The ULTRA Oval Track

After some exchange of SMS with MarkFB, I was “primed” for another 50 laps at the ULTRA Oval Track as my running workout for the day. I sent a SMS to Bugobugo85 after receiving an e-mail message from him telling him about our plan for a 50-lap run at the oval that afternoon. Bugobugo85 had to decline because he had his morning run already.

I arrived at the Oval Track at 5:45 PM and I could see Mark doing his run already. I just did a brief stretching and immediately joined him for the workout. We finished our first 25 laps, covering a distance of 10.33 kms, in 57:22 minutes with an average pace of 5:33 minutes/km. My HR ranged from an average of 138 bpm to a Maximum Rate of 151 bpm.

I had to stop for my “water break” and for my recovery walk after my first 25 laps while Mark continued his running. After my brief break, I re-joined Mark and did my second set of 25 laps with a slower pace. I finished my 2nd 25-lap run in 58:51 minutes with a distance of 10.26 kilometers. My average pace was 5:44 mins/km and HR range of 138 bpm to 145 bpm as my Maximum HR.

I finished 20.59 kms for this particular easy long run at the oval track with an aggregate time of 1:56:23 hours.

150 Days: Wednesday’s “Double” Run

On By kingofpotsIn Insights, Jogging, Runners' Training, Running3 Comments

5:30 AM 05 November 2008 @ The ULTRA Oval Track

Since I did not have my running workout for Tuesday, I decided to have my morning workout for the following day after being used to going to the ULTRA Oval Track in the late afternoon or early evening. As soon as I arrived at the Oval Track, I saw a number of runners, maybe about 6-8 runners, and from a distance I saw Prometheus Cometh and Amado, the “daily brisk walker”, having a conversation while doing their workout. In a short momemt, I joined the two where Prometheus and I were doing a slow jog while Amado was doing his “brisk walking”. It was an opportunity to officially meet Amado in person who started to post his comments to this blog after I posted my shoe review for the NIKE Lunaracer as to whom I was referring to as the “daily brisk walker” and he was seen wearing the said running shoes at the ULTRA Oval Track.

The meeting, while doing my running workout, was a chance to talk to other people who are passionate in physical fitness and active healthy lifestyle. For the past days, I met and talked to Kathy Santillan, a TV news anchorwoman; I said “Hi” to Karen Davila who is also a TV Newscaster; talked to other “runner-bloggers” and other visitors of this blog; and now Amado whom I’ve been seeing almost every day at the Oval Track doing his “brisk walking/walkathon” workout.

Amado, Prom and I covered a lot of topics about running and plans to join the scheduled races for the month of November and beyond. Conversation is not complete if we don’t talk about our respective families and our work and interests. While doing the conversation, I was surprised that we were hitting 6:45-7:00 mins/km average pace during our workout. It might be a slow pace for Prom and I but I was really amazed with the stamina and consistency of Amado’s pace. This guy is strong even if he is 2 years older than me!

Later, Prom and Amado excused themselves and left the track after one hour plus and I was left alone still doing my easy run. I finished my workout after my GF 305 registered a distance of 10 kms. After the run, I did some simple running “drills” and pylometric exercises before going through my post-stretching exercises. After my workout, I just rested and relaxed by observing the other runners doing their  workouts under the supervision of their respective coaches.

 

5:45 PM 05 November 2008 @ The ULTRA Oval Track

I felt that I still need to run on this day. At 5:30 PM, I was already at the ULTRA doing my stretching exercises as I was decided to do my interval training. I started my run with 5 laps as my warm-up run with an average pace of 6:20 mins/km. I made sure to have my “water break” every time I finished 5 laps. My workout interval training was to do 5 repetitions of 2K within my race pace of 4:45 mins/km with 2-3 minutes of recovery jog & “water break”.

I did my first rep in 9:06 minutes with an average pace of 4:19 mins/km (HR: 158-165); finishing the 1st Km in 4:21 mins/km and the 2nd Km in 4:19 mins/km. It was a very fast pace for my 1st interval. I need to control myself and don’t be carried away by the pace of other faster runners on the track. After one lap of recovery run and “water break”, I did my 2nd rep with the thought of making my pace a slower one this time and the rest of my repetition runs. The following were the results of my interval runs from 2nd to 5th reps:

2nd rep—9:37 minutes @ 4:38 mins/km pace (HR: 155-162)

3rd rep—10:10 minutes @ 4:55 mins/km pace (HR: 148-158)

4th rep—10:00 minutes @ 4:49 mins/km pace (HR: 150-159)

5th rep—10:00 minutes @ 4:50 mins/km pace (HR: 148-158)

I finished my workout with another 5 laps of slow jog at an average pace of 6:45-7:00 mins/km. My overall workout for the evening culminated with a “personnel-assisted” stretching routine which I badly needed to stretch my leg muscles and core.

I was able to run 40 laps which is equivalent to 10 miles or 16 kilometers for the evening’s workout. For the “double” workout for the day, I was able to cover a distance of 26 kilometers.