Shoe Review: Nike Epic React

I bought this shoe last December while vacationing in Japan. The Nike Harajuku store had it on sale at about 5,600.00 PhP (or roughly USD 105.00) which was a steal as these were sold at 7,600.00 PhP (or roughly USD 144.00) here in Manila, Philippines. The only color available in my size was the grey one as shown above which looks good for my taste.

Scanned the 'net for reviews and tried it on before my purchase and it felt alright. A Christmas gift for myself, I thought, which hopefully will have me running more miles in 2019.

True enough, I have already logged 60kms with it (alternating with my racing shoe, the Saucony A4) with a 14km long run made yesterday as proof of how much I am liking this shoe (I have only been running 10-12km long runs sparingly for the past few months so yesterday's 14k was a big morale booster).

This shoe is very comfortable with the patented Nike flyknit upper and the soft sole. No hotspots experienced in my first few runs thanks to the flyknit that comfortably "embraces" my foot. Can't trust it fully though to wear sockless, especially for long runs, as I might run into hotspots in the latter kms. One might think at first that the heel cup is not secure, but after several runs I am glad to report that it held up well in securing my heel from any slippage.

The sole has a cloudy/springy feel into it as it helped make those Z2 medium/long runs comfy. The 10mm heel-to-toe drop is slightly above my natural running gait causing me to heel strike (slightly) but I am able to adjust it to make the runs very pleasurable.

This is a (teeny weeny) bit heavier than my Saucony A4 racing flats so I doubt I can achieve a PR on this one nor use it for those fast training days. But still, it's a great shoe that I plan to use extensively for those slow/relaxed medium/long runs.

A great shoe. Thinking about it now, I should've bought 2 pairs. Hehe.

Jan2019 Recap

It's a cold Sunday morning and I have just finished cleaning my bike. Skipped the planned long run as I was too tired from yesterday: coffee ride with friends in the am and then drove the fam to Sta Rosa to meet with old friends in the pm.

Weight is still at 172lbs and I am expecting it to go a notch higher by tomorrow am, no thanks to the weekend binging that I might have on a regular Sunday. Diet meals on weekday lunches help lower it but when the weekend arrives....wala na finish na.

TP CTL improved a bit to 40 but nowhere near my peak fitness....yet. I signed up at the gym near my office to hopefully make up for skipped morning workouts via lunch runs and lunch rides. That'll help me manage the CTL line flat until the weekend workouts kick in although today, on a cold Sunday morning, I chose to just sit out my long run.

I joined the PF Virtual race last month, target of 50k in 2 weeks but I only managed 41k. It didn't cost me anything but it surely made me run....except for the 9k that I successfully debated myself that, "Nah, it's ok. Sleep is better."

Failed.

Tsk tsk.

Really need to get myself motivated this Feb. An increase of 40 to 45 CTL by Feb28 would be great, so let's see how this month goes.

I signed up for two PF Virtual races this month (free reg on their app which is quite cool of PF to do) so that'll keep me running.

And oh btw, I signed up for my first dua this year. I'm not telling you where and when (yet), but I am definitely training my balls out for that. That'll add to my motivation, I hope.

As always, let's see.....

2019 Season Plan

So it's another year and I'm still here training and blogging away. Hehe.

Weight: 172 lbs.

Ugggghhhhh!


All that eating and couch-potato-ing in the off season are to blame. But here I am again, off to set my goals for the year which I hope to grade better than last year.

And so, here we go with my 2019 plan:

A Races:

1. Milo 21k. Still at the top of my MUST list, a yearly "panata" if you will. Hoping to achieve a better time than last year (2:28+).
2. BikeKing Dua. Another "panata" race. This is where I will concentrate on all of my Trainerroad workouts for. 
3. National Dua Championships. I hope they get this to push thru this year (as 2018 got canceled).

B Races:

1. One Pilipinas Duathlon Leg. The organizers have released the 2019 sked and it seems that, all permitting, I will only be able to sign up and race for 1 leg (Leg3). 
2. A 10k race. This is just to set things up for my duas.
3. A 21k race other than Milo. Same objective as 2, but for Milo 21k preparedness.
4. Join a Virtual Race. Probably one or two should be good for the year to keep the mileage up.

Fitness Goals:

1. Lose 15 lbs. Yup, still aiming for that. Hope to eat and train smarter this time for this goal.
2. Bike FTP of 200 watts. 
3. Ride for 100km. Even just one ride with this distance should be good enough for me.

Well, almost all of the goals above are very similar to my 2018 set. Rightly so as I failed in most of them last year. Looking forward for a better review of these goals come Dec 2019.

And so...…..here we go.....yet again.....

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. ;-)