Sandrunner's Blog

Today, I stumbled across my old blog and promised myself to get it going again. Since my move to Al Ain in the UAE last year, I have begun to find some consistency with running – when freedom from injury has allowed me. Most of the best races here in the UAE are in the winter season, so to have any chance of completing these events you really need to start your training in late August, early September. I have been doing just that and just started some light jogging again this week after Sinus Surgery 11 days ago. Since then, I have completed 2 x 30 min runs and one long run this morning.

Friday and Saturday is the weekend here in the UAE, so presents the best opportunity for some longer training. The goal today was to match the run I completed two weeks ago before surgery and I did just that. I accidentally left my heart rate monitor at home, so can’t accurately compare the effort but it felt very similar. The time over the same 12km course was the same (about 1 min quicker) than last time. See the run data here:

Run Data

I set off just before 06:30, the temperature just over 25C. One of the great things about running in Al Ain is the massive, long streets which give you kms of uninterrupted running. No junctions, traffic or getting lost to worry about I will post more about Al Ain in the blog later. This was my 3rd long run of the season and so far, so good. I have some races in mind and will reveal which ones I plan to enter very soon.

 

 

My 3 month break from racing came to an end last week when I took part in the annual Cross Island race in Bahrain.

Recently I’ve been avoiding local races and concentrating on building a mileage base in preparing for the upcoming Dubai Marathon. Most of the races I could’ve entered over the last 3 months either clashed with a football match or a planned long run.

When I heard about this race I jumped at the chance. After all, there can’t be too many countries in the World where you get the opportunity to run from one side of the country to the other, coast to coast. It might sound impressive until you bear in mind that the southern area of Bahrain is only about 10 miles or 16 km in width !

I’ve really been trying to stick to the marathon training program closely this time for my second attempt and apart from missing a few long runs due to football commitments, I’ve managed most of the training. On the week of the Cross Island race, one of the planned training runs on my program was 10 miles at marathon pace, so knowing the race distance was similar, I decided to enter. On registration, I hand picked my race number – 007  ‘license to run’.

Even though I planned to treat the race as a training run, my preparation wasn’t ideal.  The few days before witnessed the heaviest rainfall in Bahrain for 10 years. Bahrain is used to 5 days rain in a year and we received that in one week. My weekday runs were completely disrupted and  restricted to sporadic trips to the gym to run on the treadmill as nearly all  the roads in Manama, the capital city of Bahrain where I live, were flooded. Nothing near the rainfall on an ‘Ondoy’ scale of course but enough to flood most Bahrain roads.

The night before the race I also had a tough football match. I had agreed with our manager before the match to play only 30mins. The game turned out to be tougher than expected and we really needed to beat the side our opponents, so I ended up playing the whole game. The good news was we won 1-0 and scored a late goal which I set up. The bad news was I limped off with a groin strain – not good !

The next day when I woke up, I didn’t think I could possibly run that day. Walking was painful and the muscle was obviously strained quite badly. I chose to ignore it as best I could, took a couple of strong painkillers and tried to stretch off as best I could in the morning.

The race was to start at 1pm on the west coast of Bahrain in the south of the Island and finish on the east coast. All participants met at the finish area, a sailing club on the east coast and we were bused along desert roads to the start at a small village on the west coast.

I was expecting about half the race to be on tarmac roads but found out on the bus from a cross island veteran, that the race was completely off road in the desert, with only markers to show the way. The organisers confirmed this at the race briefing before the start. The markers were paint markings at various points across the course to show the way. In fact the only direction rule was to get from the start to the finish on the opposite coast using any route you wanted, so the markers only there for guidance.

The race started with a cheaky little incline on fairly well compacted sand over small pebbles and rocks. I started right at the back but by the time we reached the top of the hill had moved to about half way through the order. The course levelled out for a while over a wadi before the first really steep rock climb. There were two of these climbs in the race, which had most people scrambling up the rock using hands in some places. Some of the rocks were really loose and in some stages at the top of the jebels only enough room for one person to go through at time. This slowed proceedings down quite a bit and the loose rocks underfoot caused quite a few injuries. Once the course levelled out after a couple of miles I found myself running with a pack of U.S. marines based on the Island and as things turned out we ran most of the course together. The next few miles up to half way were tough, through sand that was ankle deep and in places had turned into a quagmire due to the recent rain. Once the joking and banter had died down about ‘where the hell is the road was’ we quickly realised the whole course would be covering terrain like this. We soon lost the energy to share jokes along the way. My quads were already starting to burn on mile 4 and I really felt the groin injury starting to bother me through the heavy sands.

Around mile 4, we started to climb the highest point in Bahrain, jebel Durkhan a towering mound of rock in the middle of the Island now used as a military base. The climb up there was probably the hardest point in the race and at one stage I slowed to nearly 10min mile pace. The view at the top was fantastic – it was a clear day so we could see the Formula 1 racing circuit below us to the right and an even better sight – the east coast finish around 5 miles into the distance. The descent of that jebel was great knowing it was mostly downhill. Although easier on the legs, there were many loose rocks and two of the military guys went flying at different points. One of them really gashed his arm and hand badly but carried on – he required stitches after the race. With around 2 miles to go I gave an all out effort but by this stage my legs had a mind of their own, the pain in my groin was now intense and my exertion from the football the night before had sapped every last bit of strength in my leg muscles. Luckily the last part of the course was on compacted sand, easier to run on and more what I’m used to training on. The last half mile we finished on a road leading into the sailing club but I opted to keep on the sand on the side of the road. In any race I have entered I always finish strong but this time there was nothing left to give at the end and I simply could not accelerate at all. I finished at the front of the pack I had been running with throughout the race, despite a few of them trying to catch me at the end.

I finished 50 something out of 160 runners in a time of 1 hour 15 mins. My average race pace was just outside planned marathon pace but I had to work at all out effort over 10 miles to do that and know I would not be able to maintain that effort over 26.2 miles. Considering the terrain and injury, I was quite happy. Like someone that shares my race number 007, you could say I was ‘shaken not stirred’. I went home with mud all over me and a smile on my face. My trainers needed a good wash also, many runners threw away their running shoes after the race.

The winner was in a different class, a local runner who finished in 54 mins, 4 mins ahead of second place. Quite amazing over that terrain. I suspect he knew a lot of short cuts across the course as well to get to the other side of the Island in a muc faster time.

The injury sustained in that football match turned out to be a grade 2 groin muscle tear. It has slowed me down in my marathon training quite a bit and most of my miles have had to be at an ‘easy’ pace. The Doctor’s advice was to rest completely for 3 weeks but that is out of the question with the Dubai marathon round the corner. I’m planning to rest from football until after the marathon now and complete my training with easy pace miles.

Injury aside, the race was a great way to end 2009. I definately plan to enter this race next year and hopefully keep my race number !

It was always my intention highlight some of the best parts of my recent running experience in the Philippines.

To start with some stats. I arrived in Manila on July 16th and left August 30th, some 7 weeks later. During that time I ran 124 miles or 200 km in total giving a weekly mileage of about 18 Miles or  . Of that distance, roughly 90M/144K were spent training and 34M/56K were raced ! Most of those miles were sweated out in Holy Cross Memorial Park, Q.C., some in the hills close to Laoag, others barefoot on the sandy beach and many were raced around Manila roads. It wasnt so much a ‘running’ holiday but running is my way to relax so I did a lot of it while on vacation !

So, here’s my not so serious look at the Good, Bad and Ugly sides of my running experience in the Philippines this summer;

THE GOOD

1. Choice of races. By that, I mean having the choice of sometimes 3 or 4 races each weekend in the Manila area. As our house is in Q.C. and I’m not much of an early riser, I usually opted for the closest race options such as U.P. or Ateneo. Those were both great places to run with the picturesque scenery and undulating paths. However, there were races both sides of Manila every weekend to keep everyone happy.

2. The people I met. Right from the first race I noticed a real ‘buzz’ in the atmosphere. The races I attended didn’t have the elitist feel I have experienced in races in the U.K. for example. There seemed to be a much wider range of abilities taking part in these events and most people are just genuinely happy run with other people and finish the distance, not necessarily to gain points for their club, break a P.B. or gain a podium finish. That was really refreshing to see and be a part of. It was also an honour to meet some of the people promoting running in the Philippines. Even though there are so many runners now, there seem to be a handful of people in love with running and their enthusiasm alone encourages other runners. Some of the people I bumped into were Que from Takbo, team Logan, Natz (i2runner), Sir Jovie (Baldrunner), Hector from second wind plus many forumite runners from the takbo.ph website. I made many friends at the races and hope to stay in touch with them. I also used the same training ground as some local Boxers from Quezon City and it was great to meet those guys (and sometimes run with them) every morning. Most of the time I was on my second lap of my 8K training run when I saw them and some of them used to race me. We always had a good laugh about it when stretching afterwards. They were all lean and hungry like a pack of dogs running first thing in the morning and I believe the prize fighter from that stable is now in Canada representing the Philippines. See you next year guys !

3. My most enjoyable run while in the Philippines was a 5K easy, barefoot on the sand at Fort Illocandria beach. As I was running the sun was setting and the waves crashing in at my feet. I could’ve run all day on that place.

4. Family bonding. Most of my training runs were done with my stepson, Kristian, who now loves running. Quite often my wife and nephews also came to the races or took part themselves. So, because of running we all spent some happy times together and have good memories of that. My wife Joyce took part in her first ever race, the 5K at Urbanite and my nephews joined some other 3k races, which they really enjoyed.

5. 6 races, 3 P.B.s ! It was great just to take part in the events but even better to see an end product to all the hard training I did before in Bahrain

THE BAD

1. Pollution running in some areas of Manila

2. Missing the takbo LSD. I missed the opportunity to join the only takbo.ph LSD run while I was there ( Manila – Tagaytay ) Driver let me down last minute. I really must run more outside Manila on my next visit. Everytime I go outside Manila I find another new beautiful place to run.

3. Dogs chasing me on public roads. Had a near escape on a country road near Laoag one early morning. That was a new type of speed training on the way home ! Forget intervals, just get a hungry rotweiller to chase you home.

4. Spending more time vomiting or going to the toilet than  running while in Heritage Park on the Urbanite run 15K. I felt a bit dodgy before the race then later found out I had food poisoning. It came to its full force right in the middle of the Urbanite run and wasn’t my most pleasant running experience. The stomach cramps also made me double over in pain. This lead to me getting treated in an ambulance for dehydration after the Urbanite race and not being able to meet loads of people I had arranged to party with. I still finished though.

6. Losing too much weight. Not a normal bad point but my wife has complained any muscles I previously had on my chest, shoulders and arms have gone. My friends have noticed also and said I’m skinny now. When I checked my weight I am down from about 73.5kg to 70kg. Even lighter than my fit football weight the last few years. This was despite going to the Gym 2-3 times per week to do weights as well as running. Guess I must consume more calories. The good thing is I’m a lot faster over 5/10k now !

7. Waiting for official race results of certain races ( sometimes 3 weeks ! )

8. Missing out on marathons coming up. I really wanted to join the QCIM. Well, I have to get back to work and earn a living unfortunately but would love to have stayed and take part in some of the October marathons.

THE UGLY

1. Men running in tights haha. Sorry guys, only joking but they look so much better on a nice set of toned female legs ! Anyway, what’s with those tights and knee length socks ? I’d get arrested for wearing those things in Bahrain ! I might consider using them when my legs are turning blue from cold in an English winter though ! Sorry, shorts for me but not really short shorts of course.

2. Errrm, I think that’s about it. Oh yes that Rotweiller chasing me in Laoag was pretty ugly.

Well, that draws an end to my series of blog entries on ‘Running in the Philippines’. I hope to be back next year, around Easter time. I think the final word to all the running friends I met i the Philippines is Ingat ! Or cheers for now as we say in England. In the meantime, my running experiences continue in the blazing heat of Bahrain in preparation for the annual marathon here. More of that later.

Alarm goes off 5.15am, out of bed, change into running gear and time for a quick coffee. Wake up my stepson Kristian, then off we go out the door on a short jeepney ride to Holy Cross memorial park, Q.C. Start watch, break into an easy trot to warm up and the training begins. 45mins to an hour later, covered in sweat, tired but content, the sun is now beating down. 10 mins break afterwards to stretch in the shade and chat to some of the other runners / boxers just finished training in the park. Buko juice on the way home, maybe some taho. Shower. That was pretty much my start to the day for the last 7 weeks I spent in the Philippines. I miss it, although the training continues.

When I first arrived in Manila 7 weeks ago I started to blog weekly about the races I joined only for the first 3 weeks, so have some catching up to do. Here I am 6 races later, nearly 7 pounds lighter and 3 PBs under the belt. Along the way, I was fortunate to meet some great people and ran in some beautiful spots.

I was really excited about my holiday this time. We visit the Philippines every year on holiday and to see my wife’s relatives. This time it was different as I planned to join races most weeks. I’ve always done some jogging while on holiday but never trained properly or raced in Manila. Frustration at a lack of races in Bahrain, I was hungry to test my progress since starting serious training earlier in the year. I found takbo.ph website, found out there were some races in the summer and started training. There was nothing complicated about my preparation, I followed this plan to the tee Hal Higdon 10K advanced plan, hitting the 8th and final week just before I travelled to Manila. Once in Manila during the week, even when travelling around the Philippines, I just stuck to 5-8k easy runs inbetween the races at weekends and some light weights in the Gym. The plan includes all the basic ingredients of a balanced weekly training program, intervals, tempos and a long run. The only difference (and major drawback as I was soon to find out) was that the final 4 weeks were done inside a gym on a treadmill due to the heat in Bahrain.

The results I saw from using this program speak for themselves. I basically hit a new PB each week at a different distance. There were only 2 occasions I did not. One was at the Kenny Rogers Urbanite where I really struggled through 15K with dehydration due to food poisoning and the 10k Dean’s Cup when I set out to pace someone for 50 mins. My previous times were 21.30 for 5K and 47.30 for 10K. This is what happened…

Week 1: M.O.V.E. Manilia Run. UP. 10K. 43.09 P.B. 17th place
Week 2: M.E. Ateneo. 10k. 44.48 19th place
Week 3: 5K Ateneo 5K. 18.59 P.B. 8th place
Week 5: Kenny Rogers Urbanite 15K. 82.00 68th place (24th in age group)
Week 6: BOTAK Paa-tibiyan U.P. 5M. 33.52 P.B. 20th place
Week 7: UP Law Dean’s Cup. 10K. 50.14 20th place

Upon arrival, it took me a couple of weeks to adjust to running on road surface again and also the climate. I felt I was peaking around week 4 as I became fully adjusted and this can be seen by the 5K P.B. I would recommend the Hal Higdon plans for 10K to anyone. It’s the first time I’ve really formally trained for any race, following the paces and mileage each week for the full duration. If I could offer any advice to anyone just about to start a training program, I would say to follow the whole course of the plan to judge it’s effectiveness. I mentioned in a previous post my views on taking shortcuts in training. Most 10K plans are around 8-10 weeks in duration and marathon plans at least 16 weeks. Past experience of jumping into week 8 of a marathon program was a painful one. Apart from running a risk of injury while playing catch up with the paces and mileage, you are also setting yourself up to fail mentally in terms of disappointment with your final race time.

With regard the published times from these races, two particular results caught my eye. Firstly my stepson Kristian, off one month’s training managed to produce a 5K time of 25 mins. He is 16. Even more impressive was the Dean’s Cup result of my nephew J.J. 5 mins before the 2.2K fun run, we registered him and with no preparation whatsoever, he finished 4th running in his sandals. He ran 13.47 with an average pace of 4.36/km. His age……..12 ! Amazing huh ! Those results excite me more than anything else and I hope I can help maintain their interest and develop the obvious talent.

In my next blog installment I hope to conclude the ‘Running in the Philippines’ series talking about the good, bad and ugly sides of my running experience in the Philippines !

For me running is an outdoor sport and one of the great things about it, is that you get to do it in all conditions. The more severe the conditions, the more you are tested. This week has seen a lot of rain in the Philippines and I’ve loved every single run. It brings a welcome change from the sweltering heat of the Arabian Gulf but I’m also used to freezing conditions and lots of rain in England. I was brought up that way. At school P.E. was never taken inside because of the rain, in fact we welcomed the rain as it softened the ground for taking big hits in football and rugby. So, I’ve never really had a problem with severe weather conditions, you just learn to deal with it.

In fact, I believe it makes you a stronger runner to head out and face whatever conditions are being presented. Severe weather needs respect though. If it’s sweltering heat then you cover yourself to avoid sunburn, smother yourself in sunblock, head out at a sensible time before the Sun gets too high and drink lots of fluids. In freezing conditions, you are more careful about footwear and wrappng up well. In rain, visibility, footwear and quickly drying off after a run are important. As well as feeling great after a normal run, you’ll feel even better having battled and beaten an extra obstacle.

I must admit to cheating last month when I ran on a treadmill in a gym for the best part of a month. It was simply too hot in Bahrain (+45 celcius) to complete any quality training. I may have been able to jog for a little while outside but intervals and tempo runs were certainly out of the question. However, I adapted, got on with it and benefitted from my hampster sessions.

It could be your next race is in the rain, so what better preparation than to train while it’s also raining ?

Next time it rains and you’re thinking twice about heading out the door, just try and get started and I guarentee you’ll feel great afterwards.

Last week, my third since arriving in the Philippines, I was planning to join the LSD to Tagaytay. Unfortunately my bodyguard and driver pulled out last minute so I found myself on Takbo forum late on Satuday night looking for a place to run…..then I found there was a 5K fun run in Ateneo, where I raced the week before.

I’m more trained for 10Ks right now, my favourite distance but thought why not give it a go. I only really had one plan from the start this time. Firstly, unlike last week get there in time to have a proper warm up. Secondly, turn off my Garmin watch, enjoy the race and try to pace by feeling rather than looking at the virtual partner.

Knowing the route I was able to enjoy the scenery and atmosphere a but more during the race, even though I knew 5K would be flat out. The two most eventful things that happened during the race were 1) Passing some of the marshalls dressed in yellow ‘IamNinoy’ t shirts on about 3K one of them must’ve recognised me and shouted ‘Go DJ’. I was hurting at this stage and that was a great lift. I guess someone must have recognised me from takbo.ph and shouted my name. 2) In the last km I had caught 1 runner and was just about to overtake 2 more when I had to slow right down to vomit. This has happened before due to a really dry throat and running anywhere near traffic where I must be sensitive to exhaust fumes or something when I’m breathing hard. I had to slow up while I had this coughing and those 3 runners flew away from me to the finish line with about 500m to go. I regained my stride to the finish line but it was too late.

Final time was 18.59. My first ‘unofficial’ sub 20 5K, a target I’ve been after for a couple of months. I say unofficial because I think the distance was more like 4.6K. However, at my finishing pace, I’m sure I would’ve hit sub 20mins. So, ‘official’ sub 20 might have to wait a little while till next time. I also came 8th in the race and noted there were some collegiate / club runners in the top 12-15, so was quite pleased with that.

After the race met some more takbo.ph friends, Marga, Mark and Timmy were amongst them and we took some photos. It ws nice to meet them and good of them to give up their time to marshall. Races don’t happen without marshalls ! Refuelling was done courtesy of McDonalds as is becomming habit after these races.

This week, not sure whether to enter a race. My head says no because 4 in 4 weeks is too much for the body in middle distance running. My heart says yes because I’ve had such great fun the last few weeks at these races. One thing for sure is that I will be running with a smile come rain or shine !

The 10km Run with M.E. was to be my second race event in the Philippines since arriving 8 days ago. The race offered the chance to run around the campus of another famous University in the Philippines, following the run at U.P. last week. This week, the proceeds of the 500pesos entance fee would go to the Mechanical Engineering scholarship fund and the run was being organised by the faculty and alumni of the M.E. department.

It had rained quite heavily the night before making the roads slippery but fortunately had cleared up by the time we arrived at the campus. A late night on Saturday led to me getting up late had meant we arrived at the race at 6.20am about 10mins before the start. The 5km team event was scheduled to start at 6.30am with the 3km fun run and 10km event starting 5 mins after.

Our late arrival meant we had to go straight to the start, so no chance for a warm up or toilet stop before the race…..first mistake of the day ! My stepson Klem was taking part in his second race ever in the 3km event. He is only 16 and I have just started training him. I told him to aim for 5.00/km over this distance based on his training.

For me the plan was to go for P.B. of sub 45 mins in a 10km. I had this in mind last week at U.P. and ran 43.09 but refused to take this time as the distance was well short of 10km by half a km at least. I also felt better and well rested this week so why not go for P.B.

It was difficult to judge how you were doing in the first third of the race with so many runners from the 5km and 3km on the same course. I would guess there were about 200 10k runners alone in total without the 3km and 5km. I started off very slowly and patiently as I hadn’t warmed up and found myself weaving in and out of runners who had gone off too quick and were now slowing up. After that I found my target race rhythm of about 4.30/km pace. The course itself was 2 laps of the Ateneo campus, taking in the main roads, paths and a loop around the high school football field. The first half of the race I had to stop for a pee at around 4km slowing me down about a minute. Kicking myself for not arriving in enough time to prepare for the race I plodded on thinking a PB. was out of the question and just started to take in the surroundings.

On the start of the second loop 3 runners passed me on a steep incline and my hopes dropped further. I decided not to even look at my Garmin watch after that and just enjoy the race. I found myself concentrating on running form rather than anything else and began to feel comfortable for the first time in the race. That tactic seemed to work as I quickly caught and passed the 3 runners in front again. It was now easier to judge how the race was going on the second loop with fewer runners on the course. It seemed there were a pack of about 10 elite runners way out in front with perhaps 10-15 runners behind in the distance quite spread out, includng myself. Encouraged by that, my pace then increased for the remainder of the race and managed a faster run over the flatter ground with about 2km to go. My time at the finish 44.46.

According the the official race results I came 19th in a time of 44.48, so was pleased to break 45 mins ‘officially’ on my second attempt. The first 50 finishers were given t shirts. I thought the run was fairly well organised although I understand there was some confusion over some results at the end. It was good to see your position and time on a board within an hour of the race finishing unlike at U.P. last week, who still haven’t published the results over a week after the race.

Kristian, my stepson managed to finish 5th in the 3km fun run in a time of 14.30, so achieved the goal I set him of sub 5.00/km. He was over the moon with that result but thought he could’ve run a lot faster ! I told him his time will come, he is still young.

After the race I met Sir Jovie, Baldrunner and Hector of second wind. It was good to meet those guys and talk about running in the Philippines. I will be stopping in at secondwind some time in the next few weeks to buy a new pair of trainers. My NBs have already covered 500 miles. After the race I also stopped to watch the football training at Ateneo. This was the first time I’d seen any organised football here in the Philippines. I met one of the coaches, Randy who told me he played for the national team for 10 years and invited me to join a game next month, so I plan to do that.

Well, overall it was another very enjoyable day of running at my second event. I made some ‘schoolboy’ errors, like turning up too late for a warm up and toilet stop before the race but the time is now official….sub 45 ! Next target has to be a faster 10km and keep chipping away at my 5km and 10km times.

Not sure what runs are on next week but I will be sure to join whatever is going on !

This week I finally took part in my first running event in the Philippines and it definately lived up to expectations. The M.O.V.E. Manila run 10km was my introduction to racing in the Philippines, chosen mainly because of U.P.’s proximity to where I am staying and also to support a very worthy cause.

The early start really wasn’t too much of a problem as I didn’t sleep the night before anyway. I never sleep on flights and Jetlag from arriving the day before the race and time differences gave me about 4 hours sleep over two nights. At around 4.30am on race day, I got a taxi to U.P. and got out at the main entrance. It was no trouble at all to find the race start and registration from there as I just followed some people walking and jogging in the general direction for about a mile.

A throng of runners has already gathered at the start and the theme tune ‘I like to move it, move it’ blared out from the sound system. The registration process was straightforward and I found myself with about 30 mins to spare before the start, so had a good warm up. The 10km event was to start first at 6am and when I lined up, recognised some people from the Takbo.ph forum. I introduced myself to Dr. Edebelen, Dr. Pinks and Team Logan at the start. It was great to meet them and to put faces to names on the takbo forum.

Despite being very tired my plan was to aim for sub 45 mins and my recent training indicated I should reach that target with ease. Plan B was just to enjoy the event and treat it as a training run with a view to try for a P.B. in another race.

The wheelchair racers were placed at the front and encouraging to see so many entrants. At the Bahrain marathon earlier this year I met two wheelchair racers who finished around 3.15….amazing. They had also won that category in the Dubai marathon. I have nothing but respect for these guys. I noticed that most of the entrants were also in normal wheelchairs, not the adapted racing type which would only make things harder for these guys. More power to them !

My race had three parts really. The first 3km, I kept to race pace of sub 4.30/km but it was around 3km that it became clear I would not maintain that over this course. Although I’m used to running in heat, all my training for the last month had been on a treadmill, it’s simply too hot to train outside at this time of year in temps. of more than 40 degree celcius in Bahrain. With this, my tiredness thrown in and the fact I had been unprepared for the undulating hills of U.P. I decided to switch to plan B and settle into a pace of about 4.45/km. I really started to enjoy the scenery of U.P., what a nice change from running in the deserts of Bahrain. The setting reminded me of my University campus in London with the layout and all the trees. As we looped round the 10km course we started looping the 5km runners and 3km fun runners, so I also enjoyed the feeling of camaraderie. At one stage I was overtaking a few fun runners up a steephill and I kept at the same pace as a wheelchair athlete. His arms and shoulders were like lumps of granite and pumping away, at the top of the hill I just turned and gave him a high five of respect. That guy must have won the wheelchair race. It was at this stage I started to notice so many bandit runners on the course.

The only time I was overtaken in the race was by two bandits running together around the 7km mark, both wearing Milo marathon t shirts. One of them was a cute girl who was cruising at a nice pace, I’ve no idea of what distance they were running but their form was great and they bounded away from me. Inspired by that (and perhaps running after the girl? haha), I decided to try and finish as I started the race. I actually ran the remainder at around 4.00/km pace and was surprised to see the finish so soon at around 9.1km on my Garmin ! My time 43.09, which I’m fairly happy with, given the circumstances.

After the race, I had a quick chat with some the of the takbo guys. Also met Shel and Queenie. Unfortunately didn’t have my camera but some photos were taken with Team Logan and the takbo. gang, which I’ll try to trace and include on the blog. I also met Zorro after the race, I don’t think it was Richard Guitterez though ? Zorro’s lack of English and my lack of Tagalog ended any form of sensible conversation straight away.

I headed off for a bite to eat at SM North Edsa after the race. On the way back I was amazed to see so many people jogging and running around U.P. and this confirmed my thoughts that running has become so much more popular in the Philippines, even during this last year. Even my local running route at Holy Cross memorial park, QC, is now packed with runners every morning. Only last year, there were a small handful of runners including myself running at Holy Cross. I used to get strange looks from passers by asking me if I was training for the Military or something. Very few are now playing badminton and I suspect are now running.

Before I fell into a deep sleep that day, I enjoyed a hearty breakfast at Mc Donalds opposite the Trinoma and SM North Edsa. When I walked inside to what you would expect a sleepy Sunday morning kind of atmosphere, I noticed the place was also packed with runners wearing race vests from the U.P. event and also from the Globe run at Fort Bonifacio and there was quite a buzz about the place. Has this place gone running crazy I wandered ?

I’m planning to enter a race most weekends over the next few weeks, starting with another 10km event this 26th. The M.E. Ateneo 10km. Please say hello if you see a running foreigner guy in a race soon, it will probably be me !

Next week I will hopefully take part in my first race for months. I am planning to enter the M.O.V.E. Manila 10km run in UP. I will treat the M.O.V.E. run as a test of my progress rather than a PB effort as I will be jetlagged from flying the day before. Also, most of my runs the past month have been on a treadmill due to the heat and duststorms of Bahrain. I will need to adapt to road running again. I would be happy to get anywhere near 45 mins on the 19th and perhaps try to PB one or two weeks after in another 10km race. So that is my aim for this summer, to smash sub 45 10km and I am determined to do it. I should be able to because my best time is around 50 mins with no specific running training. This time I have done the training and the good news is there are plenty of races to choose from while I am in the Philippines.

I am also looking forward to meeting some runners from the takbo.ph forum and it will make a nice change from running on my own ! Two of my non running friends from the Quezon City have also agreed to join me in the run for their first 3km on the 19th ! They normally are my bodyguards in Manila but not sure if they can keep up with me now haha ! It will be great fun.

If you’ve read the last few posts, I’d like to thank the regulars on takbo.ph for keeping me going, while I was training on my own. It provided some motivation knowing there would be some races at the end of the training and it was valuable feeling part of a group when logging my miles on the today’s run. Thanks guys and look forward to seeing you soon !

As with most sportspeople when they are injured or suffer a setback it’s an excellent time to reflect and reassess their training. During this time, I came up with a list of rules from lessons learnt that I thought might help me recover quickly and improve. Although I never wrote these down, they have heavily influenced my training over the last few months.

1. Train specifically for one distance.

With no marathon available to me, I noticed there were many 10km races in the summer. Looking at my training times 10km also appeared to be the best suited distance for me. My shorter race times always indicate a higher standard then my age predicted scores in longer races. I am certainly built more for speed than distance. I have also run a few 10km races for fun during summer for pre season football fitness and was interested to see how I could improve on my times actually doing some proper running training. I started following program 10km Hal Higdon plan. I would recommend this program to anyone with a few 10km races under their belt. I was also football training once per week / playing a match on the rest day which is not ideal. I do believe that playing football helps speed though but not the kicks all over the legs haha !

2. Don’t take shortcuts in training

This was a painful lesson learnt from the marathon. This time I would follow the whole course of the training program (12 weeks). With the marathon, I started training 7 weeks before the race, which was no way near enough time to do myself or the race justice. I had also followed a full 6 week 5km plan leading up to the Bahrain Triathlon, in which I smashed my 5km PB., further proof your body needs time to adapt to racing at a specific distance.

3. Listen to your body.

Leant to adapt training days or swap an easy/hard day depending on demands at work and family. Also if you have a minor muscle strain, which I often do from football then take a day or two off and have a light swim.

4. Train at the right intensity

By using one of several race time predicators, you can determine training paces accurately. There are several calculators that will do this based on recent race times. Here is a link to the RW training pace calculator

Since I started this blog I haven’t written too many entries on running despite the fact I have been training quite hard, sometimes five ir six times per week for the last few months. I had planned at some stage to record my progress in running in my lead up to the next race. Quite simply, I haven’t been racing at all but that should change this week when I travel to the Philippines and I now finally find myself with the time to record an update.

It really started with the question ‘what next?’ after my first full marathon in February. As the dust settled, my initial sense of achievement turned to frustration and dissapointment and a new question ‘what if?’. The dissapointment of not achieving my target time bugged me but was not really surprising considering the lack of preparation. I had also caught a fully blown dose of the disease known as ‘running bug’ following this marathon. I had to run another marathon and the time had to be beaten and smashed. I knew it would be getting too hot in the Middle East to run a marathon this summer, so started to look further afield. I usually visit the Philippines every year so what better place to look for my next race ? During my search I came across an excellent website called takbo.ph, the running community in the Philippines. This is a really informative site and I was very happy to find out there were other runners in the Philippines where I would normally run on my own. This seemed too good to be true, especially when I noticed a marathon in Manila at the beginning of July. I started training for that event in March, follwing a full 4 month program.

SETBACKS

My training suffered three setbacks early on after the marathon. Firsty a grade 2 calf tear suffered during a 5km race in Bahrain 3 weeks after the marathon. This would set me back in training 5-6 weeks. Secondly, finding out I would not be able to run the Manila Marathon after all. Work would be too busy at that time and realistically I wouldn’t be able to get away until mid July. There were no marathons at this time in the Philippines. Thirdly, the heat in Bahrain meant our club were only running shorter distance events such as 3/5km races and soon it would be too hot to train outside as we experience every summer in Bahrain. I would be training completely on my own for whatever event I would now be entering.

After these setbacks, I needed to reassess my goals and while doing this decided to reflect and give myself some training guidelines and targets. These will be discussed in the next entry.