of routes, dogs & apps…

after much procrastination…  im going back to running… been wanting to get back to running… even bought a pair of merrel last december… but i didn’t have any real motivation to do so… there have a lot of running events i wish i could have joined… but it has always been too late join… ive signed up to run five kilometers at the “10.10.10. run for pasig river” event… i havent been running ever since i moved back to manila… which was roughly two years ago… i havent engaged in any physical activity since then either…  and ive learned from my experience in mountaineering that preparation is everything… back in subic there were two oval tracks where i use to run… there are advantages  when running on a oval track… but my problem with oval tracks is that i tend to lose track of the number of laps… and since there are no nearby oval track in fairview… i decided to plot a route from my house to lamesa ecopark...  which when i measured via google earth… the total distance is just over five kilometers… which is exactly the distance that ill be running… i decided to do a diagnostic run last saturday… just to gauge how out of shape i was… i selected some songs for the “on-the-go” playlist in the ipod… it was supposed to be my driving music but i think it would be appropriate for running… i started jogging with the theme from the “a-team”… i was just jogging for about 5 minutes when an old injury came back to haunt me… my right knee which would sporadically ache when i was hiking or running reared its ugly head again… i slowed down a bit until the pain eased… the ipod helped ease the pain when “drops of jupiter” piped thru the earphones… i picked up my pace as the song reached the chorus… it was then that i came near the trees that surrounded the ecopark… one of the reason why i choose the ecopark as my destination… the fresh smell of the morning dew invigorated me… but then i encountered something that I didn’t account for… dogs… ive been running/limping/walking for about ten minute and have passed by some dogs… but most of them were docile and non-territorial… but the dog that I faced was different… it was barking at me and seemed to be defending its turf… i noticed how thick its neck muscles were… complemented by the rows of sharp teeth…  it was five meters ahead and i was measuring its resolve… it started to kick back its hind legs (as if preparing to charge)…  that was when i decided to back away slowly without taking my eyes off of it… i turned around started to head back to where I started until i came upon an alleyway… my spirit was low having been intimidated by dog… i followed the alley for two blocks to make sure ive pass thru the dogs territory… i came back to my route when the freddie mercury began to sing “princes of the universe”… it didn’t take long for me to get back to jogging again… i finally reached the ascent to ecopark… this was something that i forgot to factor in when i was plotting my route… but the soundtrack from the movie “ninja kids” motivated me to jog up that hill… at this point i was delirious from exhaustion… i was expecting white-clad ninjas jumping out from the trees… by the time I reach the entrance to ecopark i was spent… i walked the route back to my house… it was relatively easier since most of it was downhill… i started at around six & came back at seven thirty… i ate and immediately shut down afterwards… when I woke up my body was aching… it was my fault I wasn’t able to pace myself gradually… when I was running on an oval you can alternate laps with running & walking… on the route I have no gauge if ive walked enough or not… i browsed thru itunes for trainer apps… i came across an application that has training plans for different lengths of runs… i started its eight week training plan for five kilometers last monday… the app will set your pace by prompting you when to run and when to walk… for the first day it alternated between running for a minute and walking for two minutes… the whole training took about forty minutes… including warm ups and cool downs… and I was very much pleased with day one… i avoided the area where the territorial dog was… my encounter with the dog broke my momentum… and i did not strain my knee this time… since i didn’t went up to the ecopark this time… i didn’t want to add unnecessary complications… my goal is just build stamina to maintain a steady pace for 5 kilometers… maybe near the end of my program ill set the ecopark as the goal… but for now im quite happy with finding my way back to running… J