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!