Running: In Big Trouble

Posted on by dimsumandsiomai

20 days left until the dreaded Smart Subic International Marathon and I haven’t had any good training for two weeks already. The recent hellish weather has reduced my mileage to zero. Storms have ravaged the land and it has left our house in a big mess. I had to clean first and run second which really left me out of breath for running.

I am seriously hating myself right now. I ran a 16k race yesterday. I finished it but I walked half of it. I started out pretty good. I blazed through the first 5k with little effort. At about kilometer 7 or 8, from a completely good outlook, things made a complete U-turn to head straight down the road of hell. I was breathing heavy already. I was panting like how my pug pants every time I walk her out, noisy and loud like a diesel engine. I had to slow down to catch my breath towards the end of Lawton road. I was only able to run and breath comfortably at around Bayani road. That’s when things became so bad, even worse than that Marky Mark movie The Happening.

I had a bad case of side stitches. The sides of rib cage felt like they were going to burst. I bet the feeling of a chest buster Alien bursting out of you felt like what I was feeling yesterday. I felt like I housed a big balloon ready to burst in me. I had to slow down again to catch my breath. It was a walk run walk run affair for me last Sunday because of my heavy breathing.

To alleviate and intensify the road down to hell I had yesterday, every strike I landed on my midfoot felt like I was landing on broken glass. Every step I took felt like I was walking on a bed of nails. To add to the irony, my iPod suddenly cued Sting’s Every Breath You take. I love the song and the bass line but that Sunday was the only time I hated the song. Imagine running in cadence to a song that really lifted you up with its lyrics but you felt the opposite because of lousy socks.

Going back up Bayani road was ok because I walked 70% of it. Most of the takbo peeps passed me already. I saw EO going down Bayani road, he was having fun in his LSD. Good for him.

I continued to walk and run on Lawton ave. To add insult to injury, EO caught up with me. We chatted a bit. Asked if I was ok. Made a lame excuse that I wasn’t in a good condition to run. Truth is that I didn’t have breakfast that morning and I was really low on mental fuel to drive myself to run. (That was what I wanted to believe but truth of the matter is that I really wasn’t in shape and I didn’t want to admit it.)

I need to run more. With only 20 days left until my first marathon, I am in bad need for mileage and training. I need a miracle.

  • http://www.wmtan.net wilson

    you might consider taking it easy though. you have to prioritize getting to the starting lines healthy and strong, even if unprepared. better undertrained than overtrained, or worse, injured. anyway, good luck!

  • bong

    you shouldn’t be surprised. you lose a lot of endurance by stopping for two weeks. re-start your training slowly try a 5k, then 7.5k then a 10k work up to your last highest distance prior to stopping before Ondoy came in…. your last long run should be 0ct 17 then start tapering… will be there on the evening of oct 21…

  • eo

    good luck on your training program and see you in subic.

    eo

  • http://www.therunningninja.com Sam the Running Ninja

    One cause of side-stitch is when there’s a sudden change in breathing pattern. If you check my latest blog post, there’s something about “shallow breathing” which I briefly discussed.

    I suggest you start slowly, then gradually increase your pace when you run. Check your breathing. If you have heart rate monitor watch, it helps during training to ensure you are not jumping too quickly from one zone to another (e.g aerobic to unaerobic zone)

    With 20 days left before Subic Marathon, do interval repeats (hopefully you do this in oval) to quickly develop your endurance fast.

    Goodluck and stay healthy man!

  • http://sheerwill.blogspot.com/ ricov

    Gerard, it can still be done. Just focus on those past moments of greatness. No matter what happens, we shall have fun in Subic. :-)