While browsing on the Facebook Page of Mayor Michael Keon after watching his Live Interview with Pinoy Athletics in the past few weeks, I found this particular post or story on the Mayor’s FB Page. This story answers the question why he resigned from the Project Gintong Alay.
My snappy salute to Mayor Michael Keon for his conviction for the good of the Philippine Sports during those days when the Project Gintong Alay was at its peak and success.
Please click on the link below.
One of the training tips that my Coach had given me when I complained about my knee pains as a result of my long runs in the mountains is for me to try hiking into the mountains instead of doing my easy long runs there. However, he told me that I should carry a weighted backpack with me starting with 10-15 pounds for my first try or experience in hiking to the mountains. This workout of hiking with a weighted backpack should be done once a week.
This advice or tip was given to me way back last December 2019. It was good that I bought a North Face backpack which is made with thick material and does not have so many pockets or dividers inside it. I would use 2-liter bottles filled with water as the weight I would carry inside my backpack. Since then, I have been hiking with a weighted backpack once a week in going to the mountains for a hike of 3-4 hours and steadily progressed on making my backpack weight up to 25 pounds. Despite the fact that I would be enticed to run the downhills, I forced myself to be patient and slow on the downhills. On those hikes with weighted backpack for the past weeks and months, it gave me more strength on my legs and thus, I was able to finish my ultra trail races (local and international) since then up to the time Covid-19 Lockdown was imposed.
During the Lockdown period (past 4 months), I have been doing my daily runs in my Backyard Loop and I would be doing my hiking with a weighted backpack once a week. After I rested for one week of no running, I resumed my hiking with a weighted backpack yesterday with a reduced weight of 20 pounds. However, I did it in my Backyard Loop. After one mile, I started to perspire and after one hour, I was able to hike a distance of 3 miles.
It was good to be back hiking with my weighted backpack again and I am eager to go back to the mountain trails in the coming days and weeks.
Thank you for reading!
Last Tuesday, I was able to run in 61 minutes (1:01 hours) covering a distance of 4 miles or 6.4 kilometers in my Backyard Loop. I started with an easy pace of 16-17 minutes per mile until I was able to increase it to 12-13 minutes per mile. I usually run one loop in my Backyard for 5:30 minutes on an easy pace but I could also finish it in 4:15 minutes in my tempo runs.
I still had my Army Physical Fitness Challenge later in the day which I passed, doing the exercises on the minimum/passing scores of 20 push-ups; 30 sit-ups; and 20-minute 2-mile run along the paved road in front of my compound. Later in the evening, I did my 2-minute forward plank challenge and 100 push-ups challenge.
Yesterday, Wednesday, I did a one-hour hike in my Backyard Loop carrying a backpack weighing 20 pounds of water which were contained in six 2-liter bottles. I was able to cover a distance of 3 miles in one hour. Later in the day, I was able to do my daily “Challenges”.
On the Covid-19 situation in the Philippines, there are now 143,749 total of confirmed cases where 4,444 cases were reported for the day. The following picture shows the latest update from the Department of Health:
The weather had improved for the past two days but it is still cloudy and overcast. The ground condition of the trail in my Backyard Loop has become softer due to the past rains but I am glad that the composition of the soil is more sandy than being a muddy one. My trail shoes had been appropriate with this kind of ground condition. Every step gave me more comfort to my old knees and joints.
Thank you for reading and have a good day!
Today is Monday and it is supposed to be my Rest Day in Running but since I was not able to run yesterday because of the strong rains brought about by Typhoon “Enteng”, I did a 4-mile run in my Backyard Loop which took me almost 1 hour and 30 minutes. I started with the first mile by walking and slowly started to jog at the start of my second mile. Every time I finish a mile, I would change the direction of my run along the loop.
After finishing the run in 1.5 hours, I immediately did my stretching exercises. I usually do four (4) stretching exercises targeting my quadriceps, hamstrings, calf muscles, and my groin muscles. I do each stretching exercises at 3 minutes for each leg.
No Army Physical Fitness Test Challenge for today. However, I still did my Daily 2-Minute Forward Plank Challenge and 100 Push-Ups Challenge. It was my 3rd day for the Forward Plank and 9th day for the Push-Ups.
I uploaded my latest video on my You Tube Channel and I am still learning on how to edit my videos. Hopefully, I will be able to learn more about video making from the other You Tubers. Using my iPhone and my old Panasonic Lumix for the meantime is just temporary. You can watch my video (in Filipino dialect) here.
Thank you for watching and reading this blog.
Bald Runner 
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