My Running Madness

During our holiday breaks, I decided to do something different. Instead of the traditional "pound-gaining" days, I chose something crazy. Yep, I did a running madness streak of 9 days straight. WTF! 9-days of running? Why the hell would I do that?!

For those who saw my FB updates, they saw 16 km, 32 km, 10 km runs during that period. And yes, I was flooded by messages like "Siraulo ka ba? Bored ka na ba? Anong naisip mo? yada-yada..." in my inbox. But I didn't mind them, it was a goal that I set before my vacation started and I was determined to finish it

So why the hell did I set a crazy goal like that when I should have been resting and relaxing in my vacation? First, I was inpired by the post from BR regarding the "mile-streakers". These guys have a goal of running at least one mile per day, 365 days a year. I want to get back to my fitness level and I think this is one of the fastest way to do it. Of course, I need to cope up with resting by sustaining sleep of at least 6 hours per day and eating! (since it was the holidays, this should not be a problem). I want to see if their method will work if I alter between long runs and short recovery runs during my madness period.

Second, I want to get back to my original fitness level. Prior to the vacation days, I roughly have enough time for my training! Add up the several days of parties which resulted to a low fitness level. I was still recovering from a hamstring injury due to a trail run so I really have no time to train. If this streak will continue over christmas, good luck to me then! I would probably bloat to my post-Australian self upon return from the holidays.

Lastly, it served as my training for the upcoming BDM 160 this end of January. If you think that my stint was crazy already, wait till you hear about this race. A few hardcore souls chose to do a non-stop run from Mariveles, Bataan to Capas, Tarlac to commemorate our fallen war heroes.I will attempt to finish this race within the cut-off and as part of my training will be increasing my endurance and running under stress. The best way to simulate it: Be crazy enough to do runs in simultaneous days!

Here was my Running Madness Log:

December 24, 2011 - 30K (Bahay -> Katips -> Tiende -> Katips -> Bahay)
December 25, 2011 - 16K (Bahay -> Commonwealth -> San Mateo -> Commonwealth -> Bahay)
December 26, 2011 - 30K (UP Diliman loops)
December 27, 2011 - 16K (Bahay -> Commonwealth -> San Mateo -> Commonwealth -> Bahay)
December 28, 2011 - 40K (Bahay -> Km. 00 -> Bahay)
December 29, 2011 - 11K (UP Acad Oval Loops)
December 30, 2011 - 33.1K (3rd RDR)
December 31, 2011 - 32K (Fort -> Mckinley -> Rescue Run -> Lawton)
January 1, 2012 - 13K (UP Diliman loops)

Total Mileage: 221.1 km


This madness provided me with the following results:

1. Increased my endurance running under the full heat of the sun (12 noon long run along Commonwealth) with minimum hydration.
2. Minimized soreness thru strategic walking in between the run intervals
3. Practiced galloway pacing! 4:2
4. Simulated running under stress and fatigue
5. Faster recovery time in between days
6. Feet are sore after the long speed runs (I thought I will have plantar fascitis)
7. No speed sessions were included so I'm not sure if I can still maintain strong with a faster pace

This is not the optimized training plan for runners and ideally, there should be a rest day in between the training sessions. The results I observed were almost all positive and probably this is because I tried to analyze the effects after each session then re-apply my learnings in the next run. Also, you need to listen to your body; in my case, I guess I was lucky because I didn't get any injury during my sessions. I'll stop immediately if I feel any sharp pain as I don't want to risk getting injured before the big day.

Madness made me do it. I'm thankful that I survived it and regained my sanity :))