At the end of my day, I headed straight to ULTRA for my training. My calves still hurt like hell but what the heck. No pain no gain… well, hopefully, it would result in a loss of more pounds.

I did the usual 2km warm-up followed by some running drills. It’s really difficult to start back at square one. I’m building my base but I know that it’s also for the best since I don’t want my body to get shocked. Slow and steady is best and it is more reliable.

When I was doing the running drills, I found myself gasping for air. My body is really not used to doing what I used to do on a regular basis.

The last time I was at ULTRA, I wasn’t sure if I was doing the midfoot or forefoot strike. So today, I tried my best not to land on the area between the ball of my foot and my toes. According to what I’ve been reading, that’s the forefoot. I also consciously tried not to land on my heels. I guess if I did both, I’d end up doing the midfoot strike.

My plan for the day was to do a 5k interval session. This means running at 80% at the straight parts of the track while jogging on the curved portions. Well, since I was starting, I thought that I should run-walk-run instead of run-jog-run. Thinking of the entire workout bored me. It would mean that for every loop around the oval, I’d run twice and walk twice. In order for me to do 5k, I had to do 12.5 laps around the oval and it would translate to 50 run-walk-run segments. The idea of doing 50 just seemed too much and seemed really boring and I didn’t like the idea that it would take so long to finish.

As predicted, I got bored in the middle of the workout and I ended up doing 3.2km or 32 segments of the run-walk routine. Well, not bad if I count the 2km warmup that I did also. Let’s just hope all this work pays off

I’ve been contemplating whether I want to share with the other contestants what I’ve been doing the past few days. I finally decided… NOPE! Hehe

Since this blog has been helping me keep track of what I’ve been doing and writing down my insights, I decided to make it temporarily… CONFIDENTIAL!

I’ll divulge the password after the “Biggest Loser” ends on Dec. 13 or change the settings, but for now… Unless you’re part of my training team or pool of supporters, hehe, you won’t be able to see what I’ve been doing.

I’ll share my rest days though and other stuff I do to indulge

Day 3 was… indulgent! OH NO! I ended up watching a movie, ordering the “Oscar Bundle at NY Fries” which included the following:

• spaghetti meatballs
• chicken poppers
• fries w/ pesto dip
• ice tea

Then I also bought myself 130grams of chocolates from Candy Corner. Uh-oh…

I was going through my old blog posts (http://runforchange.wordpress.com) and I came across this list of things to do.

THINGS TO DO (posted April 4, 2008)

1. Run in Tagaytay
2. Run in Baguio
3. Run on a beach
4. Do a trail run
5. Run in Clark
6. Run in Subic
7. Be able to go through all the roads in my village (almost done with this)
8. Run around Ayala Alabang and finish all the roads there too!
9. Same as #8 but around Dasmariñas Village in Makati.
10. Same as #8 but around Forbes Park in Makati.
11. Fine… let’s list all the Exclusive Makati Villages. Magallanes
12. Bel-Air
13. Then let’s go to Ortigas Villages, starting with Corinthians
14. White Plains (yikes! A lot of hills!)
15. Valle Verde I, V, VI
16. Blue Ridge
17. Then we go to Quezon City… Ayala Heights
18. Run in another country (ie. Singapore)
19. Join the New York Marathon
20. Run in Europe
21. Take a picture with The Bull Runner (haha!).
22. Won’t be complete also without a picture with Bald Runner.
23. Take a pic with my new running group, Happy Feet.
24. Donate my 2nd pair of shoes to the “Donate A Shoe” Program.
25. Get at least 20 members for Run For Change (RFC).
26. Set up an RFC booth at a race.
27. Do at least a 15km run.
28. Do at least a 21 km run.
29. Participate at a full marathon.

Let’s see what’s changed…

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It’s been more than a year since my favorite picture was taken…

[Photo courtesy of Ben Chan]

It was taken during the Nike Human Race (31.08.2008). It was the time when I was at my so-called “PEAK”. It was when I had passed some people I had been training with and it was also when I realized I loved hills! This race was held at McKinley hills. I think it was one of the very first events that used this venue for road races.

Can anyone guess who’s standing next to me in the picture below?  (HINT: She’s now a Nike Human Race Ambassador) Yes! It’s Bards Bathan, the Nike Ambassador of Team BananaRunning. She was actually the person who inspired me to put up my first blog after I had visited hers and read her amazing weight loss story.

[L-R: Passion Runner, BananaRunning, DATC, runner, RunningShield. NOTE: I'm sorry, I don't remember the name of Patrick's friend. Photo courtesy of RunningShield]

[L-R: Passion Runner, JunC, RunningShield. Photo courtesy of RunningShield]

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