Training and Me

I am having the time of my life doing running training and joining short distance races that produces good results. All these I am able to do together with office work and home duties (many thanks to Art for providing the unselfish support).

running training is something that i always look forward to

But then there are some aspects in my training which i have been neglecting.  First is the need to update my training log. You see, sometime during our second month into training, Coach Rio asked us to maintain a training log. In this log, we are to write down our everyday activities – from waking up, to the food that we eat and the time we did, the physical activities we had for the whole day – may it be running training, running races or even cross-training (uh-oh, “hanky-pankies” not included mikey and vince, hehe!) and up to the time we signed-off for the day. All these i have deligently recorded everyday until this month of November when all hell broke loose! Yep! I have been remiss with this duty for a whole damn month now that what I only have for recording are the running trainings and races i have participated in.  The food intake i can’t seem to cmfortably remember (hehe, and that was a damn lot!).

But as the merry season of December unfolds before everyone of us, I am jolted to the reality that i have to continue with this log. Why? Not because Coach Rio is asking for our notebooks for checking already but because when I was up-to-date with the log, I was also conscious of everything I do – from the time i sleep to the food that I eat. Boy, I even have my food planned ahead so that I can stay within my self-imposed diet. So I will definitely resume with the training log activities not because somebody tells me to but because i want to. 😉

my training log/notebook

Next, I have been out of the gym for a long time now. I have been having enough cardio activities/exercises but then almost zero for the strength training. The coaches have stressed to us that we need strength training too. Being the good girl that I am, I have already asked my gym PT (hello Chinggoy!) for the program I am about to follow for the first two weeks. Since I have yet to set a fixed gym schedule, I will be doing this gym program by myself first and hopefully agree with my PT on a fixed schedule for what is to be my serious gym comeback. As advised, I will be doing these whole body workout for a period of two weeks : lat pull-down, chest press, hip adduction, hip abduction, shoulder press, biceps curl, triceps pushdown – all to be done in two sets of 12 reps and to be partnered with two sets of abs workouts of 20 reps each. Hmm, for sure this will result to another bout with muscle soreness. lol!

back to the gym i should be

Third, I really want to be able to do some cross-training activities especially being able to resume with my mtbiking activities. With Art’s and friend Roland’s bikes both unavailable, I am left with but a few choices. Hmmm… I will be able to figure it out, i know i will!

hopefully, i will also be able to awaken the biker in me

Lastly, I will be scheduling a consult for my shin problems. I realized that I really have to see a medical expert to determine my real problem. Are these shin splints or just mere muscles that hardened? I will know soon enough.

Seems like an early new year’s resolution right? Well, a resolution it is maybe. But isn’t it great to aim for goals and look forward to achieving it? Wish me luck please! 😉

Meet the Running Coaches

Tomorrow will be Day 4 of the Nike Running Clinic and maybe, just maybe some of the attendees are not yet that familiar with the names of the people comprising Coach Rio’s coaching staff.  Since most of them are our coaches in training too, let me help in attaching names to these friendly faces in time for everybody to be able to smile and greet them by their names tomorrow. 😉

Coach Rio with his assistant coaches

In the photo above, Coach Rio poses with his assistant coaches namely (from left to right) : Coaches Roel Ano, Jo-Ar Calvadores, Coach Rio, John Lozada, Jordan (Jords) Oberez and Jessie Ano. Coaches Sardeña and Obet are not included in this photo as they are camera-shy – hehe, just kidding – they were not around when this was taken.

during Nike Running Clinic Training Day 1 @ ULTRA

In this second photo, see the coaches having fun with “student” Marga (The Changeling Child) during Day 1 of the ULTRA training.  The two men in between Coaches Jords and John are also assistant coaches who are from the UP Track and Field Team. The man at the rightmost is Coach Sardeña.

Sorry, no available picture of Coach Obet but you will know who he is if and when you see him in training because he is the biggest in the whole staff. 😉

I am proud of them (di ba halata, hehe!) because all of them are bemedaled coaches. Listing their achievements here isn’t super necessary anymore, I just encourage all to talk with them, ask and learn a lot from what they have to share.

Happy training!

Philippine Intl Marathon for the Pasig River in Feb 2009?

I received an SMS message earlier today saying that the “Philippine International Marathon for the Pasig River is confirmed to push through on the last Sunday of February 2009 as per Ms. Gay Maddela”.  Another text message says that an official announcement will be made via ABS-CBN by December.

Now if this information is really, really true (not that I don’t trust the person who sent me the info, of course i do!), then the running fairy may have been smiling to all runners here in the Philippines who are originally looking forward to run their first marathon on the then scheduled QC Marathon. Since the postponement of the QC Marathon have been announced and left most with few options, the Pasig River Marathon being held on Feb is one great, welcome news.

Anyone care to confirm this? 😉

P.S. Confirmation have been given by both Ms. Gay Maddela (race organizer) and Mr. Patrick Concepcion – RunningShield himself (who received the original info from Ms. Gay) – after this post have been published.

UNICEF 10k and 5k Race Results

As if the UNICEF run/walk event being a super well-organized race isn’t enough, Coach Rio’s team is at it again, making the official race results available for everyone to see.

When i checked the 5k results, I was really happy to see that it is indeed a PR for me with a time of 37.18 mins (my VSO 5k PR was a 38.41).  A slow time for others but for one who just recently got into formal running training, this means a lot. Evidence that training brings about good results. 😀

Starting this month, all races organized by Coach Rio had its official results released the same day of the race. If these are previews of good things to come, I think we will be seeing a Runrio-organized race which makes use of the much-awaited “Runrio timing chip”. Will it really be this December ha Coach? 😉

Check out the UNICEF race results at the runrio website. 

UNICEF Walk on the Child’s Side – My Family’s 2k Experience

As early as seeing their UNICEF 2km kits, my kids have excitedly looked forward to joining this event. So on the night prior to the this, my kids were obedient children who helped in preparing the things we needed to bring, the clothes they will be wearing and have slept early to be able to wake up very early the next day.

We arrived at the event area a few minutes before 6am, enough time to make some small talk with my running friends and classmates Wilbert – who we bumped into doing his warm-up run and Aljo, Mayen, Bobby, Joy and Carmen who were on their way to the 10k check-in. Before I did check-in for my own 5k run, I sent them off to one of the available tents and saw to it that they will be well-settled.

playing while waiting for the walk to start

While I was doing my 5k, Art and the kids busied themselves with the available kiddie entertainment available in the area which were the two giant inflatable slides. Our little boy Adam, giddy enough with just being able to walk in the spacious grass-covered ground.

adam doing his warm-up walk

The 2km walk was just a simple playtime which was full of a lot of photo-ops, even one with the “Star Wars” costumed “walkers”.  Simple as it is, the organizers did not disappoint because markers were also present to guide the people. We met JunC along the way who nicely took photos of us, Miguel and Jaymie Pizarro with their kids also doing the 2km walk, Jay who is doing his recovery run after doing his 10K and Dindo (DATC) who was not able to run his 10k but still went and took photos of the event. We aso met couple Mark and Tiffin on our way to the finish. Thanks Tiffin, JunC and Dindo for taking photos of me and my family. 😉

at the start of the walk

with the star wars gang

by the finish line

After the walk, all were treated with lots of freebies – Rush Fitness Water, Hidden Spring Mineral Water, Starbucks Cofee. Finisher’s shirts were also given to 2km registrants. Photovendo on the other hand has a photo booth for everybody to have their post-race photos taken. If you were lucky to have a hold of a Photovendo stub, your photo will be printed on the spot and given to you for free. Boy, was there a very long line of people in this booth. 😉

UNICEF Freebies all!

We stayed in the area long enough for my two daughters to be able to have their picture taken all the while being able to chat with friend Mikey whose family was there to participate too.

The whole UNICEF event was one great experience for the family. What makes it an even greater experience is that we were able to help UNICEF raise funds for their objective in the process. Congratulations to UNICEF and to organizer Coach Rio for a well-thought-off event. 😉

family pic by the stage

adam, art and trish with coach rio

my girls with my coach 😉

After the event, Art, me and the kids walked to McDonald’s McKinley for breakfast. We met the Happy Feet folks there who have just finished and was having a post-breakfast chikahan. We also learned that it was Mon’s bday and he was really nice to have insisted in treating the whole family for breakfast. Thank you Mon and Happy Birthday. 🙂

 

breakfast at McDo

gutom na!

More pictures can be found here.