Workout Monday

Call my crazy but today I walked home from the gym.  I live in the Sta. Mesa/Manila area and the gym is in Xavier School, Greenhills.  Normally, I'd take a bus ride home which is the most convenient way.  That is, if the driver is unavailable for me to use.  I've always wanted to try walking because anyway according to the app Waze, I only live 2.6KMs away.  So in the gym, I did my long run (did not take note of the KMs anymore, just made sure to run 2 hours straight) and did some strength exercises after (lunges, squats, weights, push-ups, sit-ups, etc).

Gym selfie in between weighted squats.  Must work on those arms!

I finished at 11AM and told myself, okay, since there's no work and I'm in no rush, today, I will walk home.  From Xavier, I walked out to Ortigas Avenue and walked straight until I reached Santolan.  Turned in to M. Paterno - where I started to feel hunger pangs! Hahaha.  After all, I just had a peanut butter sandwich pre-run and 2 small bananas while running.  I stopped at a vendor to buy puto and was told, "Naku ma'am, sold out na po!" WHAT?! Ugh.  So I walked some more... and saw a buko vendor! I ordered a glass and was happy (even if that glass tasted more like water than buko.  Sad).  I reached N. Domingo and turned left and walked more... Until I reached Araneta Avenue, the bridge and was relieved.  Malapit na.

After 48 minutes, I finally reach home.  I'm glad I crossed that off my to-do list but will I do it again? Probably not - streets in the Manila simply do not encourage walking.  Plus, I'd die of pollution if I were to do this regularly.

Home sweet home :)

Run United 21km + NB Power Run

Initially I was challenging myself to train for a sub2 half-marathon but I realized along the way that it was a little too ambitious, at least at this point.  I still want to be able to do that but I'm afraid it's not going to be that easy and now is just too soon.  So, I came to this race with just one goal in mind: to finish better than my 21km PR - 2:32 (at Goldilocks Anniversary run, in 2011).  And I did, I I was able to finish at 2:28 which is 4 minutes faster than my PR, at Goldilocks... and 6 minutes faster than the last half-marathon at Condura Skyway just this year. 

For this race, I ran with Dan, a friend of a friend.  I just asked Sharl, my co-teacher, if her running friend is doing RU3.  She said yes and I said, can we run together (since he was also running alone).  So we did and it I think helped both parties a lot.  For him, it was helpful to run with someone who had a GPS watch so his pace could be consistent.  For me, it helped to know he was sort of depending on my to pace him and make sure he wouldn't go too fast, slow, etc.  Although we agreed to start together, we were both okay if either of us ended up leaving the other.  

Dan and I finished strong ;)

I was worried for this run because I skipped 2 weekends of long runs after the last I did which was only 19km.  Thank God for His mercy that allowed me to set a new PR! Dan and I ran together until about 17kms when the gap between the two of us just kept getting bigger and bigger... When I saw that I just had to run 3kms more, I decided to speed it up a bit.  Met Dan at the finish line, 4 minutes after I crossed.  Considering his last long run was only 10kms, not bad.  I was happy to set a PR and he was also happy he didn't cramp up (as was the case in RU2) and also set a PR.  

So I thought I was done running long for now, I decided I would register for only 10KM for New Balance PowerRun.  But when I got to their Shangri-la branch, I was told that they had run out of 10KM race kits! What to do.  They asked other branches and I was told that it was still available in some (but not branches convenient for me to go to, proximity-wise).  While at the NB store, I bumped into some friends who sort of cajoled me into doing 25km nalang.  When it comes to running, mabilis lang ako mapilit.  Hence, 25km it is.  Dan also registered so I won't have to run it alone ;) It's going to be in the Fort so I'm going to have to anticipate those hills! :S

Was planning on only 12kms tomorrow but since I registered for this run... I think I will have to increase that.  Lalalalala.

The things I get myself into.  #fortheloveofrunning