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Saturday, July 28, 2012

What's Your Power Song?

I've been running for almost 3 years now but my power songs have remained the same. They just revolve around these two:

Ash's BURN BABY BURN



and GOO GOO DOLLS' BIG MACHINE



Do you run with music too? What are your power songs?

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Thank God For Trees

The Milo Marathon elims in Manila is nearing close and having decided (sort of) last minute to sign up for the half-marathon, we had to follow a tight schedule on our long runs if we wanted to be confident enough to make it to the 2.5hr cut off.

Unfortunately for me, having gone through a really rough week at work and being sleep deprived to boot after tending to a sick little girl this past 4 days (thank God she's better now), my body just sort of crashed last night. I had a bad asthma attack. But despite that, all I could think of was losing another training day. And we only have 2 more weekends to prepare hard so I badly needed this weekend run. I slept early and was praying hard I'd be better in the morning.

Come morning, guess what? My prayers were answered. I was better with nary a trace of that asthma bout. Tibs and I got ready at 5am hoping to start by 530 in the hopes that we could avoid the torturous heat. I took a few more puffs of my dear lifesaving inhaler (which I named Symbi wahaha I really suck at giving names) before we left but yes when we got to Daang Hari at 545, Mr Sun was already up and shining. No choice but to go on anyways.

We were aiming to cover at least 12km today. Two kilometers into the run and going through 2 hilly climbs I had to stop, catch my breath and rehydrate as I was sweating profusely. I let Tibs run ahead of me since he was looking good and pacing well. I walked for 30 seconds and felt there's no way I could cover 12km today. Not in this hot day. But a nagging thought told me I might as well try anyways. I'm here. And I'm still breathing well.

So I started running again. When I checked my speed, I was surprised to see I was running quite fast (paced at 5.30/km) for my normal pace (of usually 6.30/km). After about 5 mins, I could already see Tibs running ahead and in no time I caught up.
one of the lower climbs (but longer) we had to pass through while running this course
This route used to be hellish for us. With all the steep climbs on every kilometer. But today, the terrain didn't seem to bother us at all. We were running easy and light. Although we had to take a couple of water breaks (sooooooo hot, i tell ya), our pace didn't fall behind 6.30/km for which I was very very happy. I am now confident I can make a better finish than my previous half-marathon. 

We decided not to take our usual route when we got to the Daang Hari-Daang Reyna intersection. We chose to go straight through Daang Hari and just make a turnaround once we hit 6km. The nearest turn was short of 300m but I decided to make the turn anyway since I didn't want to strain myself hard (I reckon the next u-turn slot is probably more than a kilometer away).

Tibs and I took another water break at this point. And paused to enjoy the breeze in this area. I took a deep breath and whispered a prayer of thanks.

"thank you God for these trees."
thank you for the shade. thank you for filtering the air so they're cleaner on this side of our running route. 
When I usually reach my final turnaround point, I am always confident I can finish a race. It's probably the familiarity of the road that makes me feel like the route back is always easier. It was extremely hot at almost 7am when we headed back to our starting point. It took me longer to go back but it wasn't because of breathing problems or leg cramps or just lazy bones. It was for the lack of hydration (our 4 water containers were drained dry after the 9th km). And again, I'm pretty confident I could go even faster than today. Next week, we're up for 16km then we'll be tapering off for the 2 weeks prior to the race. We'll be ready.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

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I used to take birthday celebrations for granted. I don't even take a minute to thank God for it. But all that changed after my PT diagnosis. Now on every birthday, I never forget to give thanks. For another year to spend with my loved ones. For another year to play Mommy to my adorable daughter. For one more year to show (and not just say) my husband how much I love him. 

It's always in my birthday month that we experience being financially strapped the most (used to be due to our summer spending and now because of school season. I know we can do better. We do need help to be financially wiser). But these past few years, I didn't seem to feel like we are. And we always try our hardest to celebrate. Even in the simplest way. 

This year (thank God for group buying sites I was able to get us vouchers for Cyma), we celebrated by dining out. It's a rare treat for us since to my husband's discriminating palate nothing will ever beat my homecooking so what's the point really of spending much on dining when we can actually enjoy it in the comforts of our home. But then again, I tell him, sometimes it does help to change the ambiance. So once in awhile we do indulge (albeit, only on very special occasions). It was timely that my Mom was also over for a visit and was able to celebrate with us. My birthday was a wet and stormy one but I felt the warmth by having the people I love the most around to celebrate it with.

rare photo of tibs and me. thanks to my mom for taking this photo
Maia and Lola hamming it up (a rare photo op too for these two)
enjoying their food with great gusto!
she loves resto trips now that she thinks she already has the authority to order food for everyone (and she did that day lolz)

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Hello July!

I planned to clean up my drafts folder this week. But a sick little miss didn't give me the excuse to do that this weekend. So those post will have to sit there for quite awhile again. No issue there really. I know where my priority lies.

Yesterday the little miss went to my office to get her annual flu shot. She never had any side effects on the flu shots she got in the past 3 years so I had a lot of things planned for us this weekend. I never expected the side effects will show up this time around. But unfortunately for me and Maia, they did. At first I felt like someone was out to ruin my pre-birthday weekend, but I was quick to realize that it's a reality that I have to learn to accept. Without question. Life's little humps and bumps are just of the inevitable nature. And I will just have to DEAL with it. And with that, I shall end that negativity here.

Moving on, despite all my planning efforts going to waste, it still turned out to be great weekend after all. I have been wishing for more and more lazy weekends at home and that's exactly what I ended up with. I was in a win-win situation after all. And even in Maia's feverish state, she made sure we had our day-long supply of laughable quotes for entertainment. 

In the end, it's always the simple joys that matter. Little pockets of happiness that create lasting impressions on our memory.

Sharing you some photos of how we spent the first day of July:

started the day with a breakfast of yummy chicken arroz caldo c/o the hubby
made some review materials for maia's math quiz this coming tuesday
After a long siesta, we went out to the garden to check our plants and take some weeds out. 

my dad thought this tamarind tree was already dying after it got submerged in water for weeks.
but thanks to tibs' green thumb, it was 'revived' back to life. it has even started to flower!
it's nice to see these tiny pepper seedlings sprouting too. we've been waiting for them to come out for a week now.
and these by the way weren't store bought. they just came from a rotting red bell pepper that ate inday decided to put on this pot instead of throwing away :)
After saying hi to our plants, Maia also did a story telling session with a caterpillar that we found on our Calamansi tree/shrub. We capped the day with an actual bedtime story session that lead to an early bedtime for me and Tibs too. Our weekend turned out to be one restful one instead of the originally planned busy one but I'll take that over anything fancy anytime, everytime!

How did YOU welcome July?
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