Week 3: Back to Badminton

Before I started running, I was playing badminton regularly. Twice a week the very least that is. Us workmates from my previous company have the badminton court in our boss’ place reserved those two slots every single week. Rain or shine, we put up a fight. It was simply a routine. 

badminton tourney
at my previous company a year ago

When I moved to my new company, everything just wouldn’t let me get back in that addiction. There was no court nearby, schedules get messed up and most of all, it’s hard to find playmates! When I started being at home in my new workplace, a couple of months ago, conversations about badminton just sprung out. I knew it, badminton is one of the most common sports around, it would be impossible not to find people who play. The rest was history.

This Saturday is the second day of a four-day tournament at work. And yes, I registered right after I read the publicity on my mail weeks back. I’m always going to be competitive at what I do, when I know I can be good at it. Stan, my partner last week, and I won our first match. I can just remember how my lungs felt struggling for air then. We were on the same page when we said we should finish the game in two sets, or else, it’s a loss. But hell did we put up a fight. Each point in the third set was literally breathe taking. We’ve been playing before, but we both lost our shape. I’ve been running for a while now, but I must admit, sprinting to every corner of the court is a different story. While I was recovering from a smash, I would need to run to the other side of the court. Everything is unpredictable, you cannot maintain a pace. You have to get to that point before the shuttle lands on the ground. I was totally unprepared. I was out of my game, but I will come back. Fwahahahah!

I’m writing this here because training to be good at badminton feels like upping my game in running too. A couple of days after last Saturday, I can really feel that my legs got stronger, specially my upper leg. Most of the time, when you play, you have to squat a bit to get your body closer to ground. It helps to have longer strides and I just realized it has a certain principle same as in running. By keeping your body closer to the ground, you have more control over your center of gravity. It will help you save your energy, when you can use that control to your advantage. If you keep your center near the ground, it will conserve you energy. Lean forward, and you get more potential to sprint to your shuttle.

I call my badminton my cross training!

Week 2: Strangled at RU2 2012 21k

I was a hopeful pagong last Sunday at 2012 Run United Leg 2. I didn’t have much sleep the night before, but upon seeing other sleepy heads under the pouring rain, I recalled how much this particular road race means to me. The route from BGC to Mall of Asia is fun too. I promised myself that I’ll put every effort to get a sub-2:30. But, I didn’t.

Look a lot bloodier than this, my phone cam
didn't capture the bloodiness.

It was supposed to be a favourable day for me. There was a sprinkle of rain at the start and cool, windy weather as the race went on. My legs had enough rest, and maybe a bit too much. I knew I brought enough fuel and I knew when to take them – 3 energy gels and my favourite cereal bar. There was enough hydration, good handling of traffic and all of the nice things that you can expect from a Runrio race. The whole race felt good, but short at my objective. I crossed the finish line 28 seconds after my target. But wait, the timer was late by around 10 minutes from gun start, meaning I was around a 2:40.

I spent some time thinking what I did wrong, and there were a couple of things that came to mind. First, I took a pee in a gasoline station near the 5K mark at Buendia. Hmm, took the second floor bathroom, didn’t know there was one downstairs. Maybe took 3-5 minutes for that. Then I enjoyed my walk breaks too much. I set that every 5k mark, I’ll walk a bit to let my legs recover a bit, but I think I lost track of time those moments. >.< Last and obviously not the least, I TIED MY SHOES TOO TIGHT!! Arg! I didn’t realize that that was what they meant by your feet expanding when you run. I always felt awkward when my feet don’t stay in one spot in my shoes, that’s why I tie it a bit tight. Been doing it ever since, and I just learned how to give my feet some breathing space. In the end, my feet were just crying out loud. It made me walk for a while even though I can still run non-stop. Thinking of loosening it a bit, but I felt like that would take more time. After I took off my shoes and socks, just found blood in my blisters on my pinky toes.

Better photo here.

But still, this is not one of my worst races, still a good one, considering that I spent 3 hours in this same route during RU1 earlier this year. I was able to sustain my energy and will to run till the end. Pero marami pa kong bigas na kailangan kainin!

Nothingness

Now that I’ve realized, it’s been months since I left a 500-meter radius. My place is along EDSA, then, my work is around two blocks away. This is just the perfect setup to save a lot, but also be kept from the rest of the world. I had been so engrossed with my work. 

It’s just that I know that this will not last forever. I want to ride the wave while it still carries me. I know it will end. I’m putting every effort to keep my glide until I get where I want to be. How strong my will maybe, I know it will falter, as much as I don’t want it to be. But there is just one more thing that keeps me going.

I’m afraid of death, that all of I see, feel and strive for will go nowhere. All that people say and expect you to do are things that usually keep you from getting what you want. But because of that notion of death, I owed myself the right to be selfish. Someday, everything will just be nothingness, and you wouldn’t even know it. No senses. No state of mind. Simply nothing.

But today doesn’t have to be that way. We can be more ambitious, while we can be. Know what truly matters to us. It may not be the thing that people that we love want, but for sure, it’s that one thing that no one can take from us.

Week 1: Jumpstart with a Half Marry

Different trainers say different stuff, but at the end of the day, they want you to get enough mileage. Not speed – Mileage. You have to be running a substantial length of the distance you are aspiring for. Part of my plan right now is run a 21k once a month. I believe that is something that my body could handle. In between those, I plan to strive for PR’s in shorter distances for speed training. Summing that all up, I will be getting more mileage than I used to. Before, I don’t train for my runs, but I guess that is pretty much lame. Or pretty much, suicide for my leg muscles.

Last May 27, I ran the Greenfield City Run 2012. It was so much fun running in an unfamiliar place. Greenfield City, Santa Rosa, Laguna is a place you’d consider in settling down. It’s a quick drive to and from Manila – well, if there’s no obnoxious traffic. It’s my first half marathon after I proclaimed I was going to do a full marry by early next year. This time, I was conscious about the time.

What I did was segment the run into four 5K’s and an anything-goes last kilometre. That way, I would say like, “One last kilometre for this quarter of the road!” Psychologically, it works. Not only that, it gives me an excuse to do walk breaks. When I get to a quarter-mark earlier that I planned to, I walk for a while, until a couple few minutes before the next quarter of my race. It actually works.

But something happened on my last quarter. I became ambitious, I felt that I can run faster than I intended to. It took a toll on me on the last few kilometres. The muscle above my knee just hurt a lot, making me walk for a longer while. Also, the water that I pour on top of my head dripped to my socks. It was creating some sort of friction that hurt and made me walk some more. It was almost a sub 2:30 for me. All that, plus the heat of the sun, was all to blame (hope races start a bit earlier, like 3:30am in Condura this year). It’s just frustrating that these small things hurt my goal big time. But I guess, 2:37 is not that bad at all, especially for a turtle like me, hahaha!

21k for June, Run United 2012 Leg 2! See you there! To a full marathon, yay!

Week 0: Road to a Full Marathon

I started running on September 18 last year. A couple of HS friends invited me to my first 10k. I had mixed feelings about it. Back in UP Diliman, I would run around Acad Oval. The thing is, I can’t even keep up for five minutes back then. Eventually, I gave in, and it’s just a different kind of high when you see a lot of people running, all shapes and sizes.

Guess what, my next run after that was a 21k, hahaha! But mind you, that first 21k is still my PR right now for that distance. It took me 2:35 gun time to finish Adidas King of the Road 2011. I don’t know what got into me that time, I just kept running, I wasn’t thinking about the time, no watch, no gadget, no anything to track my time. I was just so excited. And here I am, I’m not improving much on my running. I’ve ran four 5K’s, 7 10K’s, three 16K’s and five 21K’s. Thought about it for a time now and realized that there is no stopping me from becoming a decent runner. I just need the right game plan, and I’ve found it. I’m going to put it out there – I will run a full marathon in the first quarter of next year! I’m planning to run “The Bull Runner Dream Marathon”. Hope I get a slot.

I searched for training plans and I think I found what I need – some stuff from Jeff Galloway’s site and my favorite running blog, Old Man Running (wrote about it on a previous post). These are just templates, but as how I’ve done things in the past, I still listen to my body well. If I feel like I’m doing too much, I try to slow it down and when things get a bit too easy, I step it up a little. Just eye on the target – FULL MARATHON NEXT YEAR!!

I’ll take it one step at a time. First thing that I think I need to accomplish is get a good PR at a half marathon. I’ll train for that first, then I’ll just think about what I’m going to target next when I get that goal. I believe that the best piece of advice that I got from reading is that to know where you’re at first. And by saying that, I don’t plan on jumping to a completely new training plan. I’ll just tweak what I have right now. Good luck to me on my road!