Fail to plan then you plan to fail - almost always what I
live by. Not quite with running
though. I enjoyed biking so much that I
let go of my long runs. (Un)Fortunately
my favorite brand, Devant, gave me a second opportunity to run the New Balance
Power Run 2014 25k distance.
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I didn’t have any plans of joining any races so I am off to
maintenance runs. A couple of 5k morning
runs on weekdays and a weekend bike ride was all I had coming in to this race.
So I decided to push through with my 2nd-birthday
race this year (even with total disregard on my fitness level) – in
consideration of starting something long-term for running.
Race prep
The week prior to this race I had my longest bike ride at
60km. Felt like a long run as I was
#laspag (wasted) on that ride. I had one
morning 5k run that led to taper.
Last year’s chip time was 2:36 – this coming off a 6-week
average mileage of 30 km.
This year’s time was 2:42 – this coming of a measly 10k
average running mileage (with a lot of weekend bike rides instead of the long
runs!). I wanted to do a 6:30/km pace to
be safe.
Race
Gun start was at 4am.
I was at BGC at around 3:30am, picked up my race kit at the timing booth
and went in line along with the 5,000 runners!
Started out slow at around 7-minute pace. Its okay, there are quite a lot of us and
hard to dodge runners. It started to
clear at around kilometer-3.
It was a smooth run and alternated water stations. Took gel at km-9, and km-14. Banana break on km-19 and a lot of hydration
stops after km-22. I felt tired from
km-21 onwards. Had to walk a bit longer
on water stops and declines, but I conquered inclines!
Post-race
Stretched a lot!
There was none of the soreness and blisters that I felt from the
previous races that I ran. I ate another
banana and took a lot of liquid and went home.
Didn’t stay for the raffle or for anything, I just went there for the
run.
So what did the extra 6 minutes cost? It was the enjoyable weekend bike rides,
lesser body aches, a lot of sleep and more quality family time. J If you look at it this way, it doesn’t seem
bad at all.
What’s next?
I have some new developments with my bike – new cockpit
color scheme, optimized shifters and a newly packed wheelset from Betok (no
real upgrade though).
While for running,
I have the worn-out Saucony Virrata shoe that already has 925km of mileage over
a year of ownership (isn't it unfair?!)
I did manage to run a 10k over the weekend which left me
with the chest cold and made me miss my weekend bike ride. But the bike was given its due time with a
few, small visual improvements.
So I guess that’s it – more bike rides and a few runs to get
it going. For now I’ll build up the bike
mileage with a few long rides and sceneries – up next would be the Antipolo
visit and hopefully a Tagaytay ride if I can. J Cheers to
that!
