After running a full marathon at Condura, my goal was to peak on my performance.  Hence, after a recovery run the day after Condura, I am back at the oval for Speed Training with the Team Bald Runner.

Last Friday was 5 repetitions of Yasso with 2 minutes rest in between (we didn’t do 10 as some are running at the Century Run).   My goal was to finish each repetition at 4 minutes, I’m batched with Hector and Phillip with Rene Desuyo as our pacer.  (Yes, the Milo Elims champion!)  The other boys were batched together with a 3:30-3:40 goal.  It pays to be Coach’ Unica Hija – may discount sa target.  (Tere just came from flu so she was exempted).

After our first round, where we did 14 sec better than our target, Coach reminded us to relax and focus on the form while running.  Medel of the Elite Team joined us as well and kept on saying “Form, form…”  It was  good Medel did that.  I was able to finish the 5 reps with a good time and with my breathing still normal (not like my previous ones where I felt like each stride was my last).  So, here are my splits, plus for the record a C.R. break in just two minutes before the last reps.: (see a view of the reps from my Garmin below – accurately captured!)

Split Time
1 0:03:46
2 0:03:41
3 0:03:50
4 0:04:02
5 0:04:00

As much as I wanted to see how my performance is on an actual race, I wasn’t registered for the Century Run.  (I should have registered early but I thought I might not be conditioned for such after Condura and I initially had plans to go to Bangkok with my sis).  Turned out 11,000+ registered and right after Condura, you are wait listed….So, we made our own plan.  Make it a long run, start early and Ran ahead of the Superbods….

the Superbods suspects - Nam, Mark & Tin

RACE DAY. I projected to be at the Fort by 4:45am but turns out, my 5min drive to the Fort was slowed down by the heavy volume of vehicles from C5 to the Parking Slots.  Wow! Couldn’t park, and so did Mark and Nam who arrived much later.  So, we started just when the 5kers have left the starting line – just behind the Superbods.

We ran 16k and just missed on the first 5k which went to the British School area.  It was an easy run for us, with chika on the side.  I tried to apply some techniques I learned from Coach- his “takbong tamad” on the downhills which gave me a sub 5min/k pace.  It was good to see our Team BR classmates getting new PRs – all at Sub 2, most of them at sub 1:50.  Way to go guys!  I also saw Capt. Abella, LSD buddy last December (Coach Titus’ student) running his second 21K.  After some chit chats, I asked him to go ahead and hit sub 2.  (He did, I guess).  Then I went back and run faster to find my Superbods buddy.

So, here is our splits – Had we run the whole stretch, with our slowest split of 7, we’ll still finish sub 2:15 (not our target but still good for an average runner like me).

Oh, well, note to self: Register early so you’ll have Tuna at the finish line and so you’ll have rights to grab the cups handed by the Superbods Guys   =)

Didn’t see Derek but we saw the Running Community’s Real Superbod – the Bald Runner!

……Back to training and will see you at the Run for Home!