TNF100 10k Trail Run; Road Testing Suunto T4c

Last weekend was much fun, I must say. My first trail and my first out of town run. Something that will make me smile for days to come.

We arrived at our hotel on Saturday evening, after some long stopovers and shopping and after touring the red light district with all them girly and "hosto" bars...which suddenly reminded me of a plan i conjured with owen, raissa and mini.

Next morning, we arrived early and saw that a lot of people were even earlier than us. The 20k and 10k started on time and off we went to trudge on narrow trails, lahar lands, the Sacobia (sediment) River, a hill, muddy paths and a long long stretch of bridge with the sun shining brightly above us. Surprisingly, and thank god, I came out without a scratch. I was feeling artista posing for ben chan (and other cameras, hehe) trigger happy along the route, appearing here and there like Ina Magenta. (Sorry, I won't post the unglamorous pics. Hehe.)

So the verdict was, I enjoyed it. The route was fun, bountiful water, and no chance of getting lost. Great! :D

Road Test. I brought along my Suunto T4c. I'm really glad I bought the foot pod instead of the gps pod. According to reviews, the gps pod often struggles in trails. Also, I kept hearing others' Garmins looking for gps signal along the route. Anyway, it was great to have an idea how much more to go instead of relying on marshalls' "malapit na". It was also funny to see actual data on how i slowed down gradually. Haha.

As a training companion, it certainly beats an ordinary sportswatch. With a heart rate monitor and a built in coach, it tells you when to train, how hard you have been training and adjusts the program accordingly depending on your previous runs' intensity. It also introduces the concept of "training effect" which is supposed to be a new and improved heart rate zone training variation. I have yet to understand it though haha. It's cool, i tell you. (See full specs here). However, I feel like I have too many gadgets on me sometimes (parang rambo), which is why I leave behind the nike+ipod when I don't feel like it. Highly recommended, unless you prefer gps.

Sorry, hindi yun si hayden kho

Ang nasa video ay si Jay Taruc.

Karma Pays Up for Sandara

A few years back Sandara was the epitome of kabaduyan. For example: am i in or out?; mama and papa; hero angeles. yuck.

But maybe god said she had suffered enough. Look how she transformed to a pretty korean girl group pop star.

Star Trek (2009)

Genre:

Science Fiction & Fantasy

I'm not a Star Trek Fan and I don't know anything about Star Trek except that the one with pointy ears is Spock, their ship is the Enterprise (like the building in Makati hahaha) and the Captiain is Kirk. Raves about the movie got me interested, Charles brought me to MOA to see the movie in IMAX. No, it was not in 3d, it was just shown in a big ass screen.

4 stars because:
- unlike other saga movies, one does not have to know everything about the characters before watching but the story does strictly adhere to the background stories (they say) and so it is much appreciated by both fans and non-fans alike.
- captain kirk is pogi
- sylar or spock...same effort lang sa acting. but it does fit.

My favorite characters are the Vulcans. No-emotion is just the same as one facial expression. The genuinely amuse me.

Maybe it wasn't a wise decision to watch this in imax, but you do get what you pay for - no annoying kids, no judging lolas, not too cold, good sounds. Perfect! It would've been great though if it was in 3d.

All in all, the movie was enjoyable. Its top spot in the box office is well-deserved.

Ran a 10k at Botak Paa-Tibayan 5.10.2009

I have not much to say about this except that it was a lesson learned not to run while recovering from a flu. I am too lazy to recount the whole experience but to say it in one quick sentence, dehydration was scary and was torture to the abdomen (cramps, aka side stitches). It was rather wise that I stopped moving for a while and gulped down maybe half of the supply in one water station. I later learned that some people were not able to get water, so maybe it was partly my fault. Hahaha. I even felt the water sloshing in my stomach going back. Fortunately, there are is not a single photograph of that unglamorous moment. :D

Road Test. During this race, I was able to road test the running mix i just made. It was a good combination of songs, kept me going especially in the last part of the run. As the playlist was just a little under 1: 30, I panicked when it came to the last songs and sped up. Fortunately my run ended before my mix did. I have a new powersong: Led Zeppelin's Kashmir. I know, I'm so cool.

Semi-reunion. Road races are becoming sites to meeting long lost taekwondo friends. Spotted the ultimate sporty De Los Reyes Family at their booth (Autoreview).

Mrs. Kim. Charles was still in race mode driving back and didn't even realize he drove into the honda civic's bumper he was tailing. Just a small scratch, but the catch was the driver--Mrs. Kim, the Chinese foreigner with no tagalog and little english. Cool! No one was harmed except Roy who suffered a "nosebleed".

Well, that's all I have to say for this semi-adventure. :D

The Scientific Way of Building a Running Mix

For those like me who are very hardheaded and anti-social, earphones and mp3 players are necessary partners during workout sessions. I don't make playlists for specific purposes like this. I just play an album i feel like listening to. The advantages are, well aside from gym buddies/fellow runners not bothering to talk to you, you choose the music/artist unlike canned gym sounds (akon, jai ho and Flo-rida), it would go on until you press stop, and you wouldn't have to deal with fellows watching tv full blast (makes you think twice why they go to the gym in the first place). The disadvantages however are a lot, you are confined to one artist, the beats per minute (bpm) vary extremely and randomly, the playlist does not run long enough for those long sessions which means you have to listen to the some songs twice, and lastly, because of the second reason, you may get tired of the songs or the artist prematurely. The only exception to all these, in my experience is...Lady Gaga. Haha.

Now that I'm re-emerging from my recovering period post-injury and after reading a few running books i've picked up in a Booksale spree, I've decided to take on a training plan and at the same time do this as scientifically as possible in order to prevent more injuries. After all, I am only 24 and it would be extremely embarassing if i look like i already have arthritis at this age. For years, I have been a pampered athlete, with a good coach always at my side to tell me what I'm doing wrong, whether it's my form, technique, or whatever. I get the reinforcement when needed. Now, it would take time for me to get used to being independent.

Aside from buying the ultimate training companion, which is another story, I figured I should incorporate my ipod in my development. Athough my nike+ toy increased in accuracy after a a few tries in calibration, maybe I could do more with it like thing is to play music at a certain bpm rate for "propulsion".

As much as a geek I am, I pretty much treated this task as a mystery-solving scooby doo adventure. Getting ready to play mixes in podrunner.com gets tiring at one point, although they do cook up some nice tracks.

The first task is to find the ideal bpm, and this chart which I got in run2r.com (run2rhythm) proved to be quite useful:

10 min/km	9 min/km	8 min/km	7 min/km	6 min/k	5 min/km	4 min/km
16 min/mile	14 min/mile	12 min/mile	10 min/mile	9 min/mile	8 min/mile	6 min/mile
150bpm	153bpm	156bpm	160bpm	163bpm	166bpm	171bpm

As for me, I found these suggested rates too fast for my taste. Most of my trance/techno collection are way too slow (130-150) but anyway, i chose to keep a range instead, and scavenge my mp3s for songs matching the range. One can find out the song's bpms in database sites like bpmdatabase.com or if you have much time to spare, you can check the bpm of your current mp3 collection using downloadable applications or an online tool. The iTunes BPM software (Mac) is especially helpful because you just tap your mousepad to the beat and click the set button to embed the data automatically in your mp3 file, much like when you edit the mp3 file info via command+i.

Funny thing though, I didn't know it would take me hours just to build a playlist which is only 1.5 hours long (and i'm even 4 minutes short) notwithstanding the comprehensive mp3 collection I have eating up my hard disk space. And now, realizing that it's just much too tedious, I would have to go back to playing albums during runs/workouts instead and bringing along a watch. But on the other hand, it was a nice exercise because through this I discovered non-dance music that I can play for runs, like for example, Led Zeppelin and The Ramones.

So here's my own mix, arranged from slowest to fastest (150-165 bpm):

• Jason Mraz - Make It Mine
• The Killers - Mr. Brightside
• Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl
• Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
• Massive Attack - Tear Drop
• The Killers - Spaceman
• Toni Basil - Mickey (Yes! Mickey!)
• The Cure - Just Like Heaven
• Fatboy Slim - The Rockafeller Skank
• Jason Mraz - I Melt With You
• The Cure - A Forest
• Offspring - Come Out and Play
• Devo - Whip It (Haha!)
• Michale Sembello - Maniac (more Haha!)
• Led Zeppelin - Dyer Maker
• Led Zeppelin - Kashmir
• U2 - Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
• The Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated
• Led Zeppelin - Black Dog

Til the next useless project. I shall use the playlist while running Botak (10k) on May 10 and see what happens.:D

Stephanie Meyer - Twilight (2005)

Rating: 1/5 stars

This must be the only book that took me 6 months to read.

• How clingy, helpless, bobo and OA can a heroine be? So much for empowerment.
• My god, do i need to know what the character does in the bathroom or what she does before going to bed?
  
• I roll my eyes on every mention of "how un-humanly beautiful he is" or how they were in love "irrevocably and unconditionally". Wala na bang ibang masabi?
• The whole book was like word vomit. Paulit ulit and a lot of unnecessary details. Or at least, the side stories should have been placed elsewhere and not as it is done (perhaps a prequel novel separately written?). Poor writing. Do not attempt to compare with JK Rowling. Please.
  
• Hindi na emo yun e. OA na.
  

If you ask me why I continued reading/finished the book, well the answer is I'm on vacation and I can waste my time however I want. From now on, I will confine myself to watching anything written by Stephanie Meyer, at least should I decide to waste time, it would only be a max of two hourse each.

Verdict: Stephanie Meyer, never again.