2018 Review of Goals

As 2018 comes to an end, it's time to look back at the goals I set last January and see how I fared in terms of trying to achieve them.

A-Races:

1. Milo 21k. - DONE. Achieved sub-2:30 to meet the cutoff.
2. BikeKing Duathlon. - DONE. Achieved a PR in terms of average pace
3. National Duathlon Championships. - NOT DONE. This race got canceled.

B/C-Races:

1. One (or two) PhilDua Races. NOT DONE. It was either conflict with weekend life priorities or sometimes plain unpreparedness.
2. Pinoy Fitness Sub1 10. DONE. Achieved a Sub60 to meet the cutoff.
3. One local 21k race before Milo 21k. NOT DONE. Wasn't able to schedule this unfortunately.
4. One international 10k or 21k race. NOT DONE. Went to Korea last summer but wasn't able to find a race during our stay there. Will be in Japan after Christmas but also haven't found any race there....yet.

Fitness Goals:

1. Lose 15 lbs. FAILED. Ugh!!!
2. Achieve a peak CTL of 75. FAILED. Was only able to reach the lower 50s.
3. Achieve a bike FTP of 210. FAILED. Was only able to peak at 180+ but went back to 169 after a few weeks of no training. But I am still happy with the improvements I've made on bike, having increased my FTP from 155 to 169 since Nov 2017.
4. Set a sub-2:20 21k and a sub-1 10k. FAILED on the 21k but DONE on the 10k.
5. Ride for 100km. FAILED.

If I were to score this overall based on count (total of 12 items), I will get a disappointing achievement rate of 37.5% ---not really something to be proud of.

Well, there's 2019 to look forward to. I hope to race more (raced only thrice this year) and tick more items on my Fitness Goals list.

But then, with all that's happening with me with family and work priorities, I am still (somewhat) happy to being able to squeeze in my trainings whenever I can despite the hectic sked.

I just need to put in more in terms of delivering the goods (Fitness Goals) and more will power to train at a higher level (to register for more races).

Hopefully it will be a better score for me on 2019.

How was your 2018?

Improvements (I think)

Although it's been quite a long while since I last posted, run and bike training has been constant for the past 2 months. I have slowly crept back up in the upper 40s CTL thanks to diligently following my workouts for the week. Hopefully, I will be back im the 50s CTL soon.

I was able to ride up Antipolo last weekend (my last climb before that was probably May this year) and the new Ultegra R8000 groupset I had installed before Sept this year held up well. The 11-30 cassette had me grind up the 2+ km stretch from Jollibee to Cloud9 better than I had hoped ---effort wise. No Strava PR was made but looking at my TP ride for max 12min power between my May and last weekend's ride showed the following:

1. I was able to increase cadence by about 10.
2. Power recorded during that 12min stint was lower by 10 watts.
3. Speed was roughly the same, about 0.2kmh difference.

Unfortunately I wasn't wearing a HRM last weekend, but I bet ave HR in last weekend's ride could be lower.

Higher cadence, less power, same speed. Hmmm...

The 11-30 cogset which I used in the climb could be the main contributer of the "improvement." Coming from an 11-25 cogset, I can safely say that the cogs >25 offered quite a relief tackling that climb that I have known for quite a while now.

I will know for sure once I get to add more of these Antipolo rides in the coming weekends.

Plus keeping the weekly training constant, of course. ;-)

BikeKing Duathlon 2018: Race Report

THE GOOD:

1. Bike leg on the SCTEX.
2. Well positioned aid stations especially on the bike leg
3. Nice giveaway bag.

FOR IMPROVEMENT:

1. Bike leg measure only 56kms (bitin!)

MY RACE

I was probably about 80% ready for this race since I've done this dua several times. The run1 and run2 legs were going to be flat, which was a great relief for me as I never got to pick up the weekly mileage leading up to this race. This was the same for the bike, wherein my longest was a sole 2.5hr chillax ride in Nuvali peppered with Trainerroad workouts here and there.

Run1 went smoothly as planned with an average pace of 6:36/km. It was then off to the bike leg where I will see how my Trainerroad sessions since Nov 2017 will pay off. I set my Garmin such that I only see the Ave 3s power, cadence, and speed. The power value took half of the screen which is what I wanted since I want to look at it to ensure that I am well below my FTP. 

Went aero by grabbing the aerobars during the flat and downward sections whenever I can (which is probably the reason why my right lower back is aching since Monday night, hehe).

Average speed for the entire 55.4km bike leg was 26.5kmh ---a modest improvement from my 25.8kph recorded in the same race last year (though with a longer 62km distance). Take note: same bike, but different engine. ;-)

Run2 started off well in the 6:30s per km but drifted off from km2 to 4 in the near 7:00s. I'm not sure why this happens often (I experienced the same in the 2017 version of this race). I'm guessing that it's probably over fatigue from the whole race effort that the body starts complaining by that point. Run2 average speed ended at 6:56/km which is almost the same as my 2017 Run2 (6:58/km).

Finished the race in 3:20:40 ---a decent improvement from my 3:36 finish last year (but again, a longer bike distance then).

In summary, I need to improve on my runs despite having modest improvements on the bike. Well, I do need to improve a lot on the bike so thank goodness there's Trainerroad to keep me focused.

I'm thinking of ending my 2018 race season here but we'll see. There's a couple of good duas in the coming months but with current load in work and personal stuff, getting a good performance out of it will be tough.

As usual, we'll see....

And Here I Go Again

Three weeks left until another A-race, the BikeKing duathlon, and my training logs indicate that I am very UNDERTRAINED....again.

Much to blame are the usual suspects: the rain, family priorities, late night gatherings, bass guitar practice, and just plain ol' lack of motivation to get up in the morning to run or bike.

I've been in the same state in preparation to my last race, the Milo Manila 21k, in which I suffered badly midway but squeezed out a sub-2:30 time to get that medal.

I really NEED to change my morning outlook in order to just "get up and go" so to speak. Probably keep myself away from my phone to prevent opening up my social media apps to lazily pass off the time.

I still have time left, I think, but I need to REALLY get this going A-SAP.

Tsk tsk....

Milo Manila 21k: Barely Made It

Pros:

1. Great race org that is always expected from Runrio

2. Unique finisher hoodie for 21k and 42k racers

3. Medal cutoff time for 2.30 made it challenging. Gorgeous medal btw.

For Improvement:

1. Less rain (hehe). Although Runrio can't do anything about it obviously.

2. Disorganized at the 21k finishers area as no organizer made the participants to queue, making it look like a marketplace just to claim the loot bag and hoodie.


My race

I was coming into this, one of my A races for the year, terribly undertrained. Having only a lone 16k long run 4 weeks ago with several 10-12k runs on weekends made me worried if I was gonna finish it, but I was able to mentally condition myself that "I will finish this, and I will be holding that coveted medal by race's end."

That was my mantra for this one.

I arrived about 30mins before the gun went off, with just enough time to prepare my gels and walk to the starting corral which had a lot of 21k runners.

Gun went off at 3.30am as scheduled and I was running.

I was doing quite well from the start (as every runner there was), pacing between 6.40 to 6.55 per km for the first half of the race. The route was relatively flat and, with the rainy weather cooling us, it was made for a perfect Sunday morning pikermi.

Took my 1st gel inside km7 btw.

The problem started by the time I reached km12 where the Makati avenue turnaround point was. To put it simply, I started to have difficulty running. I felt a slight pain on my stomach and some tiredness in my legs ---probably a result of being undertrained--- which started my purgatory for thid race.

It was a battle of wills from then on back to Roxas blvd where I found myself taking walk breaks several times. I took another gel at km13 but it took a while before it had a short effect, as I was continuing to walk run heading back.

Good thing I had a spare gel and took it at km18, just to mentally calm myself from issuing a bonk alert. My shoes and socks were soggy and wet, Macapagal avenue road was full of puddles and loose asphalt, and my legs just hurting all over made it a struggle.

I was running but taking 10 second walk breaks whenever I felt I can't run no further. My body was failing but my mind was still mentally strong as I debated myself from walking completely. My confidence was also boosted as I was computing my estimated finish time for almost every km mark or when I chose to walk. I was still gonna make sub 2.30 I thought, so I just embraced the pain and forced myself to run.

By the last turn to the finish, I was just thoroughly out of it physically but my mind kept me going, running my all as I went to the finish line.

2:28:40 in 21.1kms as per my Garmin.

Sub 2:30 accomplished.

It was one of those races that I would rather forget due to my poor performance brought about by poor training, or the lack thereof.

But this was Milo. A race that I have come to put my upmost respect due to its 42 years of tradition. Having finished it within the cutoff time was still something I should celebrate about ---even when my training was lacking.

I fell in line after crossing the finish line. Bowed my head in front of the organizer as he donned that finisher medal on my neck.

I looked at it with a smile as I walked for the loot bag. Looking at this race positively, it just meant that at my age now, I am STILL able to complete 21k races AND at sub2.30 time ---something that other guys in my age may not be able to do.

Yup, still happy overall on this one, but I hope to train better for future 21k races (yes there will be more, but not anytime soon) so as not to encounter a similar bad experience on the race as this one did.

Congrats to all finishers of the Milo Manila leg!!!