Mizuno Infinity Run 10k: No Fluke

It was the same race org, the same race route, and the same distance. Mizuno 2011 Inifinity Run was the perfect venue to confirm if my first sub-60 achieved in my previous race was no fluke.

Well, to summarize my performance, I finished it in 59:32 (unofficial). Not only had I beaten last year's Mizuno 10k record by a minute and 25 seconds, but I've set a new 10k PR by a close 6 seconds.

Yup, not bad.

LEARNINGS

From the two races, I Run For Integrity (IRFI) and Mizuno 10k, I was able to remember my per-5km lap times as below:

The table above definitely shows that I positive-splitted these two races, mostly caused by the uphills in the latter half of the route (including the ruthless Kalayaan Flyover). There is also the question of my endurance of keeping a sub-6:00/km pace for more than 5km.

Either lack of endurance at fast paces or hills, that could be where my focus should be. I have to admit, I absolutely hate hills as much as the next guy. That could be the reason why I don't do much of hill training as I find myself content with tempos, speed intervals, and long runs. Yes, I'd probably should be doing more hill training....

...Or should I try running a 10k in a flat-route race such as those held in MOA to see if I can break 59-minutes? Or 58 minutes? ;-)

PROGRESS

If I were to base how I am in terms of my running, the Mizuno Infinity Run is one of those races that will form part of the criteria. My race times for the past 3 versions of this race were very encouraging (2009-1:09, 2010-1:00:57, 2011-59:32) as it reflected constant improvement on my speed.

Yup, things are lookin' good. Now if only I could bring this 10k pace to a half-marathon, that would be great!

Jersey Up The Rafters

As the ball bounced towards the outside lane, I stretched and tried to reach it to keep it inbound. I failed for I was late for about a second and the ball was eventually given to the opposing team.

As I was walked/jogged back to play defense, I felt a pain on my back which could've resulted from the previous play.

Darn it.

A possible back strain which is still lingering as of this morning.

Last night was only the 3rd time I played basketball since December 2010 and by some sheer bad luck, I've come off injured by the following day. Prior to discovering my passion for running, I play regular hoops with the guys here in the office around once a week, and then there was a time that I'd even do shoot-arounds at Club650 by myself once a week during lunchtime. I was keen on getting my shooting-pulse in ship-shape and try to imitate the driving moves of my idols: Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. In spite of all those practices, I would still be often left on the bench on school-alumni leagues and office sportsfests. Yup, I love basketball but I don't seem to have the skills to make basketball love me back.

Several thoughts came up as to why these string of post-basketball injuries have become regular:

First, I think that my body has been more attuned to running in which once you get the form and pace right, you just need to do the same thing over and over as you tick off the miles. You don't need to bend, stretch, jog backwards, do lateral movements, nor jump. But in basketball, you need to do all of these. Di na ako sanay sa basketball, I guess. Probably spending more time in strength-training would do the trick.

Second, and the more obvious reason, is that my body is not as young as it used to be. I'll be 38 by the last quarter of the year and even the aches and pains that I feel during hard running workouts just goes to show that I need to be more careful of my body at this age. The banging, jumping, and different paces of basketball is something that I need to watch out for. Wag nang sumabay sa pagrebound kung malalaki ang mga katabi. I think I should just impose my age with the youngsters (mang-gulang? hehe) like my other idol: Robert "The Big J" Jaworski.

Yup, I've no plans of hanging up my basketball jersey just yet. I will just have to be more mindful of my limits.

Well I hope my bad back will heal in time for Mizuno 10k although I don't think it'll be much of a problem (crossing-fingers here) since no bending/diving for the ball is required.

Expos - Dislike

I'm starting to dislike running/race expos. The matter of claiming your singlet/racekit should be simple and fast. Adidas KOTR 2009 was such an example. For those of you who were there at SM Megamall Megatrade, it was mayhem just to claim the racekit. The following year, KOTR 2010 scrapped the expo altogether and just gave the racekit upon registration.

I thought that was the last of that.

Well, Mizuno Infinity Run 2011 seemed to have followed suit. I heard that the first day of claiming (Jun2) was mayhem as well so I decided to claim the next day.

From my office in Ortigas, I left lunchtime and drove all the way to Mizuno Magallanes only to be approached by this sign at the lobby:

I tried on the M-size but I felt like a suman (not really a sight to behold if you'll see me race on a singlet of that size).

Time and effort wasted.

Utter disappointment. Again.

I'm starting to hate expos.

It Never Ends

Along with Condura, the Mizuno Infinity Run is one of those races that I want to run every year. The concept of beating your time year after year is both unique and challenging. Well, I've just registered for the 10km event earlier this week and I'm all set to hopefully beat last year's 1:00:57 and my recent PR of 59:38.

I was surprised btw when I visited the Mizuno.PH website and found that they archived the list of "beat your time" finishers (comparing 2009 and 2010 results). I was humbled to find out that I ranked well (out of 48 runners) last year as seen below:

I've never ranked that high on a race, so seeing my name on page1 as above was very gratifying.

As mentioned by the comments on my last post, I'm all set to be greedy with logging sub-60 race times for 10k from hereon, hoping that the 59:38 from last weekend's race was no fluke.

See you on June 11!