Need to Workout!

I tried to sneak to gym today to train my legs to be fit for running. I've packed my bag with my gym attire and the running shoes that had partly caused me to have injury, but I bought with me thin socks this time unlike the cotton socks which I would usually wear before.

But there is a warning buzzer in the form of my sister reminded me that I should not go, for my nails might not grow anymore if I did.

7 days had already passed wherein I have zero workout. The last time that I went this long without a workout was when I went to tour in Hong Kong, that period was about three weeks, and I was several pounds heavier when I returned to Manila. I do not want that to happen ever again. But how could I risk going for a workout now with the threat that the nails might not grow back if I did? I certainly do not want to risk that. Because as per last night's inspection, I still could not see or feel any sign of my two toenails growing yet... I was trying to persuade the nails to grow and that my workout would not affect its growth. But that is just too risky.

So here I am now, going home again with my untouched gym attire and trying to think of a good workout scheme I could do while my toes were still having their vacation. Belly Dancing? Yoga? Both of them need closed shoes on. Taekwondo kicks? It might pressure the toes much. Swimming? My toes might get infected for I am not all too sure whether the injury is now closed or not. What more can I do? I definitely do not want to go out of shape!

Change of diet to low fats, which meant no more ice cream binging, no more unlimited pizzas, no more delicious chocolates, no more fried foods, and fewer rice servings. One thing I could not give up yet is my daily cup of milk tea, I know it's not healthy and has some fattening contents, so would need to think of ways to fight the extra calorie intake.

Someone please give me ideas as to how to be fit without pressuring the toes. :)

Neutrogena "Chase the Sun" Run 2010

I went to join the Neutrogena "Chase the Sun" fun run...as a photographer. I was really tempted to run, but since I had given my Bib number to another person who was supposed to run (but I discovered today that he did not), I could not anymore. I still got to nurse my injury (losing 2 toenails due to not heeding the warning signs that my running form was wrong last Wednesday when I was training myself to go for 18km, and still run another 7km last Friday when it was still hurting, then this week on Tuesday from 11km run and Wednesday from 16km run but after the run on Wednesday when it was still hurting very much I decided to look carefully into it to check out what's keeping it from returning back to its normal color, because a week had already passed and it is still violet/black, I then discovered that they were really bruised or dead when I was trying to take out the black blood clots so I had no choice but to cut it off entirely, it sentenced me to not being able to run for at least 1 whole month. That meant I would have to give up at least 2 runs which I had already registered: Neutrogena "Chase the Sun" for 15km and Nature Valley for 10km.

Since the approval from my boss to move my work time that day to an hour later than usual had already been granted, I decided to still go to work at 0830, also so that I could picture my sister on the race using a DSLR and not my old baby Canon Powershot A510.:D

I woke up at around 0320 that day, while my sister was even earlier than me. I did not have the usual jitters like what I usually would have whenever there would be a scheduled fun run that day. So I had a hearty meal with 4 slices of bread rather than the usual 2 slices and downed it all with a cup of coffee. My things to bring for today was only 2 sunblock lotions, a bottle of water, a fisherman's hat, jacket, office locker key, DSLR, shades, handkerchief, and kikay kit. Guess that's enough to be a photographer there. :)

We left the house at 0425 and took a cab to the venue. We were almost late, but good thing runners for other categories were not that early so not much traffic onsite and still some time left before the start of race for 5km. As it was my first time to take photos of such kind of event, I chose only a few subject, which was mainly my sister, Rod, Earl, Cris and company, and some people from Takbo.ph that I know of. I took photos of Earl at the starting line and he slowed down a little for me to take his photos when he was about to finish his 3Km, Rod at starting line but almost missed him when he was about to finish his 10Km so had to run a little to be able to catch up with him, some people from Takbo.ph, some others I do not know of, and lastly was my sister at the starting line and when finishing the run for she had texted me when she was on her last Km for the 15Km run, I run with her till the finish line to record her while on the run. I kept on waiting for my bib number to appear then but it never did...so I was really sad then.

There were lots of perks in this run, the finisher shirt and another singlet, lots of freebies, bungee jumping which I would really want to try if I was with the right attire, but I was not, was only wearing a dress and sandals so good luck to me if I did haha. There was the foot massage too, but my sister did not try it out...and there was Red Mango! I was not the type of person who would run after new things and try them out even if lots of people were giving good reviews about them unless the opportunity was placed right in front of me, so believe it or not, it was my very first time to have a cup of Red Mango. I chose Kiwi and Peaches as the fruit blend, was expecting much more with it coz there were lots of people giving their thumbs up about the product, but to my disappointment, it was just like any of the yoghurts out there... Anyways, there were still lots more to the event, I got to have a photo taken with Coach Rio! :)

When the results came out for the races, the names were all familiar, they were still the same people who had topped the race results. What had stucked me most was their finish time. If I still pushed through with my 15Km disregarding my toenail injury, the best time I would have would only be at around 1 hour and 25 minutes or so. But the finish times of the top 3 females were way far ahead of me...1 hour and 10 minutes third place? Woa... I have still got a long way to go! But, I am still in the resting stage now, could not wear toe-covered shoes, should not give much pressure to my toes, and could not run yet for more than a month! ;( I am really missing running!

Why I am into Running Now..

Quite a number of people were asking me why I am into running now...

Well, it started with a necessity and now it had became a part of my fitness regimen. But how did I get started with running? As far as I can recall, the realization that I would need to run faster started when two men attempted to snatch my bag away from me while on my way to work.

At that time, I was still working in a contact center and had a graveyard shift schedule. I had to cross a bridge near my house as usual to the place where the public utility vehicles passes by for me to catch a ride to work, when suddenly a man came forth attempting to snatch my bag, I held on tightly to my bag then and tried to struggle with him and even attempted to bite his hands. But I still could not push him away.

Then another man came forth, I thought then that he might be a good Samaritan to help me ward off this snatcher, but found out to my dismay that he was a snatcher as well. I struggled for sometime until all I could do was fell to the ground in an attempt to gain more strength to hold on to my bag.

Good thing at that time there were a number of vehicles coming our way making the road not deserted anymore, so all the snatchers had grabbed then was my bag handle.

But after that incident had taken place, I still could not change my route to work, because there was only one way to catch a ride, which is to pass through the bridge, so as long as I was still working with the same schedule, then I got no other choice but to brave the bridge.

From that day on, whenever I was going near the bridge in the middle of the night, I would run all the way down the bridge to the place where I could catch a ride. Sometimes there were some who had tried to follow me and it made me really frightened whenever I had reached there and still waiting for the right means of transpo to arrive, so I had fully realized then that I would need to learn how to run faster and take good care of my body so I would become more fit for running from the ones who lurks in the darkness.

To train my body to become more fit, I had started to go to gym for workout. But as I did not ask for the assistance of personal trainer there or even ask around for tips, I was just doing my own workout routine whenever I went to the gym then.

The call for me to start running was after my sister had joined the 2010 Century Tuna Superbods Run. It was her first run and she shared to me what had happened on that event and it sounds like fun. She asked me then if I would be interested to join her for the next one she had planned to join which would be the 2010 Unilab Run United for Wellness.

The farthest I had gone then on treadmill was around 2K I think, for I did not want my leg muscles to become bigger, so I was just spending my time in gym playing around with whatever machine was vacant there. But still I agreed to the challenge of 5K run in the Unilab Run for Wellness.

After deciding to join the run, I then started to get serious with learning how to run, for one other reason why I did not like running before was that I would get side stitches whenever I tried to run for more than 5 minutes. So with the run just a week or two away, I had began to ask around and reading some basic info for running, and thanks to the Slimmers World Personal Trainer in Binondo Anthony Ian Alvendia and from my sister's friend Kenley Go's indirect advise to me, I was able to improve my running bit by bit. And just recently, I had started to join a run group adiNation Takbo.ph, through joining the group, I felt that running had became more fun.:)

Starting from 5K run @ 2010 Unilab Run United for Wellness then 2010 Globe-Ayala Land Run for Home, I had already moved on to the 10K run @ Mizuno Infinity Run 2010 and 2010 Greenfield City Sunset Run, and is now going to try the 15K run in the upcoming Neutrogena Run 2010: Catch the Sun. Really hope I could try out the 21K soon! :)