Running Log: Dec26 - Jan1

"Need a little patience, yeah..." ---Guns N' Roses

Dec26:
7km. 54:56mins. 7:51/km average. Bikilas.
Ave HR 130. Max 142. Didn't walk at all.

Dec28:
8km. 1:05. 8:07/km ave. Green Silence.
Ave HR 134. Mac 150. Walked the uphills.

Dec31:
18.44. 2:37. 8:30/km ave. Green Silence.
Ave HR 140. Max 152. Required a lot of patience to keep HR below 142, especially during climbs. Green silence. Gatorade/water alternate every 2k. Peanuts at 1hr mark. Banana at km13. No GU needed.




TOTAL KMS: 33km

Patience is the theme of this base-building phase as I'm still holding on to Maffetone-paced training after almost 2 weeks. I keep reminding myself to slow down when my HR exceeds 142. About 10 more weeks before I put back speedwork and tempo runs. REALLY hoping this type of slow-run training pays off dividends for 2012.

Happy New Year everyone!

Running Log: Dec19-25

Dec21:
7km. 55mins. 7:38/km average. Green Silence.
Attempted a 5k mock race with a target time of sub-28mins. Crashed, ran out of gas at km3. Settled for a 17:52 for 3km. Added extra kms during the cooldown to make up for the short "race."

Dec22:
5.2km. 40:10. 7:43/km average. Bikilas.
First Maffetone run. Target HR <142. Ave HR 135. Max HR 146. Walked the uphills whenever HR exceeded 142.

Dec24:
17.06km. 2:18:26. 8:07/km average. Green Silence.
Long run. 10k with an officemate around Ghills to Ortigas Business District and back. Pitstop at km14 for a choco drink. Had fun, as usual. GU at km9. Gatorade all the way.

TOTAL KMS: 29km

10% weekly mileage increase met. Hope the trend continues in the following weeks. The race ads all over the local running blogs are very tempting but Maffetone training limits running pace not to exceed a target HR (in my case, 142). Still feel slow at the 135-142 HR range but I'm looking forward to the results after 6 weeks, entrusting myself to the science of this type of training (Mark Allen better be right about this).

I've signed up to myfitnesspal.com, a free online service that requires you to log in ALL food that you've eaten for the day and then shows the corresponding calories. Finding it tough to resist food, which I believe should be lessened since the lbs I've lost to exercise solely have been maxed out.

Yup, Christmas weekend feasting didn't help my cause, but in a jolly way. Hehehe.

Iten

Kenyans have been topping most of the local races since the running boom started. It has its pros and cons towards our Filipino runners. On one hand, it puts the level of racing into new heights as local runners need to up their game whenever they toe the line with these Kenyans.

On the other hand, prize money has been dominated by Kenyans as well much to the chagrin of local runners who are not well to do and use racing as their source of income.

How come these Kenyans are so darn fast at running?

The movie "Iten - The Town of Red Dust" might be able to answer this question.

ITEN - The Town of RED Dust Teaser Trailer from Erik O'Neill on Vimeo.

Running Log: Dec 12-18

Dec15:
6km. 50:14. 8:22/km average. Bikilas.
First run in 11 days (after QCIM3). Sluggish, but great to be running again.

Dec17:
14.8km. 1:56. 7:50/km average. Green Silence. GU at km3.
Had fun since officemate joined me in the middle 7.6km at chillax pace. The choco drink and fried lumpia pitstop at Greenhills weekend market was energizing.

Dec18:
5km. 36:51. 7:22/km average. Bikilas.
Ran in BGC on a drizzling day. Ran easy then tried the Hadd method HRmax test (800m sprint, 2mins rest, 400m sprint). Max HR recorded at 171.

TOTAL KMS: 26km


I found it weird to have logged only 171 HRmax on that last run since last year I remember having logged a 181HR at the end of a 15k race. I'll try to test it again but this time I'll run a mock 5k race around the neighborhood (on a 1.7km loop that I've mapped out). Hope to log a higher HRmax then.

Hadd training begins this week, assuming I get a more "preferred" HRmax.

Gettin' Better

Out of curiosity I came up with the table below which averages my race times across different distances from 2009 to 2011.



This is encouraging since it seems that, on average, my race times are getting better each year. My race times in 2012 is definitely something to look forward to (provided that I put in the miles).

Oh, and yes, I started running again yesterday.

Yup, finally. :)