Let's Go, Buddy!

The Robinsons Supermarket Fit & Fun Wellness Buddy Run is going to be my first official race for 2011.  I haven’t been joining races as much as I wanted to, because it has become a luxury for me ever since this happened and registration fees started to skyrocket.  Good thing we only had to pay a minimal fee for this run, because it’s a company event and so the fee is subsidized.

Our 10K race kits.  Mine is the yellow one.

For those who have to pay the regular price, the good thing about this race is the freebies. Unlike other runs, the Buddy Run gives away grocery items and other finisher treats instead of the usual loot bag.

I’m also very excited, because it’s going to be my first official buddy race with Memots.  I’ve ran a good 4 K with Memots at the UP oval in one of our practice runs for our first 21K run.  It was fun, because for the most part we were chatting about random things. Although we had to stop before we finished the second round--no thanks to my abdominal pain due to improper breathing.

 With my running buddy

Another fun part of joining this run is we get to choose our team name.  It took us until past 6 pm when we finally agreed to our really cool team name.  It’s top secret; but as a treat to those who read this entry, below are some hints:

Good luck!

When Small Things aren’t Small

Early this morning I got upset on my way to work. It’s one of those days when all is well until you realize that someone took advantage of you (I hate being short-changed!).  If you’re one of my colleagues, you’ve heard several stories about my bus-ride horrors and how I dealt with such situations.   This morning,  instead of confronting the issue, I let it pass.  Little did I know that by not doing anything about it would trouble me a few minutes later!  

When I caught myself being upset over something petty, I was reminded of Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s closing words in his book The Black Swan: 

I am sometimes taken aback by how people can have a miserable day or get angry because they feel cheated by a bad meal, cold coffee, a social rebuff, or a rude reception…We are quick to forget that just being alive is an extraordinary piece of good luck, a remote event, a chance occurrence of monstrous proportions.   

Imagine a speck of dust next to a planet next to a planet a billion times the size of the earth.   The speck of dust represents the odds in favor of your being born; the huge planet would be the odds against it.  So stop sweating the small stuff.  Don’t be like the ingrate who got a castle as a present and worried about the mildew in the bathroom.  Stop looking the gift horse in the mouth   --remember that you are a Black Swan…

Indeed, when you think about it, our very existence is a miracle in the grand scheme of things.   The many things I ought to be thankful for--the countless daily blessings that sustain life--are sometimes overshadowed by everyday disappointments and ill feelings; which is why the challenge for me now is to discipline the mind by focusing on happy thoughts, blessings and grace-full moments.  

Self, Happiness, Love

Sharing with you my favorite excerpts from Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground*--there’s so much wisdom in these lines worth pondering.      

In every man’s memory there are things he won’t reveal to others, except, perhaps, to friends. And there are things he won’t even reveal to friends, only, perhaps, to himself, and then, too, in secret.  And finally, there are things he is afraid to reveal even to himself, and every decent man has quite an accumulation of them.  

 *****

People like to count only their troubles, not the good things in their lives.  If they looked properly, they’d see that everybody has his share of happiness allotted to him.   

  *****

Love is God’s mystery and should be hidden from outsider’s eyes, whatever happens. This makes it holier, better. The husband and wife respect each other more, and a great deal is founded on respect And if there has been love, if they are married for love, why should love cease? Isn’t it possible to keep it alive?  It is a rare case when it’s impossible.    Besides, if the husband is a kind and honest man, how can love pass? It’s true, the feeling of the early married days will pass, but the love that will come afterwards will be still better.   Man and wife will grow close in spirit; they’ll share in common all their doings, they’ll have no secrets from each other.  And when children start coming, the hardest times will seem happy, so long as there is love and courage. Work goes like a song, and even if you have to deny yourself a piece of bread once in a while for your children’s sake, life’s full of joy all the same.  After all, they’ll love you for it afterwards; so that you’re really saving for your own future.     

The children start growing up, and you feel that you are setting an example for them; that even when you die, they’ll carry your thoughts and feelings inside them all their lives, for you’ve bequeathed them of your image, and they will grow up in your likeness.  So you see, this is a great duty, and how can the mother and father help but get closer? Some people say it is a hardship to have children.  But who says so?  It’s a joy from heaven!

*Translated by Mirra Ginsburg 

2011 Challenge No. 2044258

This was emailed to me last Wednesday morning.  It made my day.

Thanks for sharing, Memots!

It's an invite from Memots to start training for our first 21 K run this year.  Although I still don't want to leave the 10 K comfort zone, this gave me something to look forward to.  

Memots and I want to make our half marathon run as fun and safe as possible, and so cutting corners is not an option.   With this goal in sight, we've decided to run regularly and do things gradually.  Not to mention our intention to religiously do our warm up/cool down routines every run.

Tomorrow I will start my training.   On Wednesday night, we are scheduled to run in UP.  We are also planning to register for our first 2011 race this March.  I'm so excited! 

Now I  have a very good reason to start sleeping early.

Season of Love

Wow!  It's been more than three months since my last entry!  Time indeed flies when one's preoccupied with so many things.   But it's never too late to revive the blog. And what better way to start the 2011 blog calendar on a February than to have a (drum roll please) --vday special!

Vday surprise from (in alpahbetical order) Anna, Bavs, Ms. Dana, and Sir Gene.  Thanks for the love! 

Slowly but Surely, I Hope

I injured my right knee last May as I trained for my first 10K race. Come the day of the race, my right knee was still injured. Although I was lucky to finish the race, I do not want to experience the same kind of physical pain—not to mention the anxiety of the moment—in my future races.

As I prepare for the Adidas KOTR run on the 24th, I was able to evaluate my training habits  in light of what happened last May and tried to correct the training don’ts that I employed. Looking back, my first 10k run taught me that there are things one cannot rush—and that includes preparing for a race. It is just that I sometimes get too excited in trying out something new that I overlook constraints that matter.

By Stuff No One Told Me
For more illustrations, click this.

Let me share with you some techniques that I have learned (the hard way!) from my previous race experience. It has been over a month of training, and so far the following methods are delivering results—no signs of my previous right knee condition with prolonged jogging (i.e. 50 minutes of non-stop running, the longest so far).

1. Long Hiatus – I had to refrain from running/jogging for over three months to give my right knee sufficient time to recuperate.

2. Warm Up – My pre-injury warm up routine includes the five/ten-minute walk and not-over-two-minutes stretching exercises, if it happens (I skip doing stretches whenever I wake up a few minutes late). After the injury, a serious warm up routine is now obligatory. I also adjust the warm up routine depending on the target mileage/jogging time on schedule.

3. Light and Slow – There is a need to resist the tendency to speed up when the adrenalin rush kicks in (it is usually at the start of the jog for me). Sometimes I do not realize how fast/slow I am going, especially when I am jogging  alone. After the injury, I have learned to pay attention to my body and to adjust my movements accordingly.  This technique also best applies to uphill routes.

4. Stick to Schedule – When I started to train for the KOTR run, I followed the five-minute-run-on-week-one routine—pattered after Sir Gene’s Recovery Attempts from ITBS—that has a weekly five-minute progression for the succeeding weeks of training. Although I had to modify my weekly progression after a month, the incremental change is based on how my body is catching up; what is important is that the weekly increase is not  too drastic. The difficult part comes at the end of the running session, because one might feel that the body could still handle a few more rounds/minutes but one has to stop nevertheless. The other difficult part is foregoing other running opportunities scheduled before the race.

5. Cool Down – The temptation to change clothes, prop the legs up, eat, and bathe is so strong after a long run. This is why before the injury, cool down meant walking for not more than five minutes before heading straight home. Only recently have I incorporated proper cool down into my routine, which includes a ten-minute walk and stretching exercises. This probably explains why I no longer feel dizzy and sore after a run.

6. Change of Route – There are two uphill routes in our neighborhood. When I trained for my first 10K run, I always took the one that has a steeper and longer uphill route for two reasons: it is a longer route and I feel safer—home owners wake up early in that side of the neighborhood. This route, being the more challenging one,  must be avoided without due preparation. During the first five weeks of my (KOTR) training, I managed to avoid the longer route. It was only last week when I was forced to take the longer route—thanks to the dog that greeted me on my usual route as I was warming up. The next time I take the longer route, I just have to make sure that my steps are light and slow.

7. Gait Adjustment – I still do the impromptu remedy that I discovered during the Nature Valley run. This technique eliminates the need for new shoes and knee band.

You're Only a Day Away

 

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3: 22-23