Dispatch #9: Work, Work, Work

Last week for training was a bit crazy due to events like the Nike Leap Year Day as well as the launch of the Nike Run Club the next day. I found myself in so much soreness by Wednesday that I had to dial the training back; I just couldn’t keep good running form.

Naturally, if I’m writing this on a Monday, the events of the weekend will be foremost in my mind. I covered the Century Tuna Ironman 70.3 Subic Bay for witsup.com, providing race-day Twitter commentary about the professional women’s competition. I’ll be writing about that a little later this week.

Oh, I was also at the Century Tuna Superbods Underpants Run the day prior to the race:

You know those nightmares you get about suddenly finding yourself nude in a crowd of people?

It was kind of like that, even while standing with others similarly dressed. Every flaw seemed magnified, especially since we were running with the Superbods finalists who were all specimens of physical beauty and perfection.

The exercise anorexic in me wants to increase mileage in everything I’m currently doing. I remember being skinny in 2013 and in 2014 and it just annoys me that I’m carrying around more cushioning despite eating better and exercising more healthily. But then again, I’ve only just begun my training blocks and I’ve already lost some weight since last year. It’s important to see that I am still progressing. I’m happy to have regained and retained my run speed, and because I swim more regularly for recovery I have found myself going faster in the water as well.

The shoe I’ve been training in for the Phuket Marathon started shedding parts of its upper last week, prompting me to look at its Amazon review history. Apparently, despite the brand’s good reputation, this particular model seems to have slipped past quality control with shoes falling apart far earlier in their life cycle than they should. I was really super sad because that was money wasted. I didn’t want to continue training in those shoes only to fear they’d fall apart before or during the marathon!

That prompted a search for a new shoe. I’d been looking at the Under Armour Speedform Gemini for a while now, and found out the Under Armour Philippines online store has put them on sale! That’s because the Gemini 2 has hit their brick-and-mortar stores, so of course they need to sell off dead stock. It was a good opportunity to snap up shoes within the same family as my Speedform Apollos, which I love and race in.

I took the Geminis out on my weekly long run and was impressed at how it balances comfort without sacrificing its ability to respond to changes in speed. I will need to put a few more kilometers into them before I can write a proper review, but I think overall it was a good shoe change for me. I can definitely see myself running a marathon in them.

As human beings we can be remarkably shortsighted and forgetful, and when results don’t come fast we get frustrated. It’s always good to remind ourselves that if we just put in the work and trust in the training, we will eventually get where we want to be.