32KM Peak Long Run Done! ✅ My experience, a miracle happened to me, realizations from training

A miracle of provision.

Una sa lahat, salamat, Lord, dahil sinustain Mo ako. I woke up at 3AM, got out by 4AM, and got home around 10AM. Hahahaha grabe ngayong iniisip ko, That's already 7 hours of my day gone just for the marathon training...tapos nag-shower pa, kumain—para na pala akong nag-full time work just for the training.

But thank You, Lord, more than anything, especially dun sa miracle na ginawa Mo kanina. Dabes Ka talaga.

Let me share with you now what happened.

I brought 200PHP cash with me as I usually do kapag long runs. That's for buying water, pocari, etc. Unfortunately, nung more than halfway na ako, nawala yung 100PHP ko. Baka nalaglag kung saan kasi yung maliit na bulsa nung running belt ko, maliit talaga. Cramped yung money doon so iniisip ko, baka nahulog nung may pinasok akong barya, or kinuhang ibang pera. Natira sa akin, barya. Limang piso.

At talaga namang nangyari siya in my longest run when I decided to run to a place I know na makakasakay ako pauwi—ibig sabihin, hindi siya round-trip run tulad ng usual kong ginagawa na matatapos ako malapit na sa bahay.

So ayun na yung pinakamalaki kong problema. I was more than halfway through with my run and I was going to finish it nowhere near sa amin. Syempre, ayoko namang maglakad ng napakalayo on top of the 32K I'm already running! So I thought of ways kung pa'no magkaka-cash habang natakbo.

Ito yung mga naisip ko:

1. Maghanap ng BPI na may cardless withdrawal ATM—kaso yung isang nadaanan ko, wala
2. Magpunta ng Villarica para mag-cash out via GCash—lowest cash-out nila ay 100PHP. Kaso nung nagfi-fill-up na ako nung form, need ng valid, physical ID! Hindi raw pede digital. Edi wow. Sawi na naman.
3. Approach a stranger and ask if they have cash at kung OK lang na mag-transfer na lang ako sa kanila in return—hindi ko na 'to nagawa kasi...

GOD DID A MIRACLE OF PROVISION!!! HAHAHAHA SOBRANG SAYA KO TALAGA NUNG NANGYARI 'TO PRAMIS.

Lumabas na ako ng Villarica. Naghahanap-hanap na ako ng malalapitang estranghero...

When all of a sudden—yung isa kong kasama sa ministry, bumaba ng jeep dun sa kanto kung saan ako tatawid. HAHAHAHA natatawa pa rin ako 'pag naaalala ko na napakagaling ng pagkakagawa ni Lord dun sa plot twist ng dilemma ko.

Agad-agad akong tumakbo sa kanya, nagulat pa nga siya at ang una niyang tanong, "Uy! Ano ginagawa mo rito?!" Hahahahahaha. Gusto ko pa makichika ng onti pero gusto ko na kasing matapos yung run at makauwi kaya ang nasagot ko na lang, "Pengeng pera." HAHAHAHA

Sabi niya, "Seryoso ba?" Sabi ko na lang, "Oo, nahulog kasi yung pera ko. Need ko ng pamasahe."

Tas ayun na. Buti may barya sya, tapos meron na akong cash uli. My goodness, ANG GALING MO TALAGA DUN, LORD! IBANG-IBA KA!

So ayun. Ang galing ni Lord. Praise God talaga! ☝🏼

Ang aking takeaway:

Even in the smallest things, God knows what you need. 

And because He cares for you, He'll help you.

Kumusta naman yung takbo?

32K Long Run | Progression/Race-day Simulation

0-10KM @ Z2

10-24KM @ Z3

24-32KM @ Z4

Personal Evaluation

• Nasunod ko  lahat 'yan
• Medyo maaga lang tayong dumating ng Z4 (lol)
• This is so much better than just pure Z2 LSD kasi kung ganun lang yung takbo ko, baka naglalakad na lang ako nung dulo
• With this, kahit ansakit na ng paa ko, easier pa rin sya kasi mas maikli yung ground contact time, kaya bawas din yung dagdag stress sa paa
• Fastest 5K split ko was at 25-30KM
• Actually really proud of this one dahil maintained ko yung pace that enabled me to finish quicker
• Run was mostly based on feel
• All of my training, and I think kung hanggang kelan man ako tatakbo, I would base my running on heart rate and RPE instead of pace
• I just think it's a healthier way of gauging your progress in running kesa sa puro pace yung hinahabol. For me, pace is the output of current fitness, training, and progress. Walang masama kung pace ang basis mo. But for me, HR and RPE is the key. 🔑
• Nakarating ako ng Valenzuela
• First time ko ata makapag-ikot sa Valenzuela, kahit hindi run sa city proper. Pero nadaanan ko yung plaza nila, yung museum, tapos ang hinahanap ko kasi talaga e yung boardwalk nila! Ang ganda nun. Sana lahat ng bayan, may ganun. Baka ang saya lalo tumakbo kasi andaming pedeng ikutan.

Taper begins next week!

Tapos na yung peak long run natin. It's time to go down in mileage, recover, and give the body time to adapt or supercompensate para mas malakas tayo sa race day more than we've ever been this whole block.

Lord, let there be supernatural recovery sa katawan ko para pagdating ng race day, yung 30km e maning-mani. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Napakalaking tulong nung fact na I just broke the 30km mark, may plus two pa on the side. It somehow gives me confidence na in the actual race, 10K na lang in that condition, matatapos ko yung marathon—which is exactly what I'm aiming for.

To be honest, ang gusto ko sanang maabot ay sub-5:30. If hindi, ang goal B ay sub-6:00. Kung may mangyari mang hindi inaasahan, the last goal is to just enjoy the whole thing and finish.

At the end of the day, the reason why I even joined this marathon was because I wanted to do something hard to challenge myself... To develop discipline, resilience, and have a healthier and fitter lifestyle. If you're going to ask me kung may natututunan ba ako so far?

I would say, marami na.

Lessons learned so far:

Running, fitness, and health

About running, health, and fitness, ang dami ko nang natutunan at natututunan pa as I put them all to practice. One of the key things I learned is:

Recovery is essential for the training to be effective.

If there's no recovery, your body won't adapt to the training stress—hindi ka bibilis at lalakas—and you might burnout (physically, mentally, emotionally, all three) or worse, get injured. When you get injured, yung tatlong aspect sa burnout, lalala lalo.

Discipline and resilience

For me, discipline, alongside with resilience, is the ability to just keep showing up. 

Showing up to a VO2Max intervals session coming from a threshold session the day before is hard. Your legs are still heavy, you feel tired, and the hot and humid weather doesn't really help. But you still show up.

Running the last 2KM of my long run earlier wasn't easy. It was the longest 2KM of my life. And that's funny because when I see 10K Easy Run show up on my training block, I go, "Ah oki. Onti lang." And I forget that it's distance dysmorphia (o ha, sabi sa'yo ang dami kong natututunan eh).

Pero kanina, knowing that after 2KM was all that's left, mas lalo ko pang pinush yung sarili ko. I said to myself, "'wag mong titignan yung watch mo kung ga'no pa kalayo. Basta takbuhin mo." Because I thought to myself, kapag tinignan ko nang tinignan, baka ma-discourage ako kasi "Bakit ang konti ng inuusad?"

And true enough, when I did it in the final kilometer, that's how I felt. Kaya hindi ko na inulit. Haha.

That's for running.

In the past days and weeks, I sometimes found myself in situations where I didn't really want to do something because of low motivation, unfavorable circumstances, or even good ol' laziness—but this showing up thing keeps on showing up at the back of my head. See what I did there?

And I think the teaching from P. Jason Avanzini from a few weeks ago is slowly embedding it deep into my heart.

Just. Show. Up. Keep. Showing. Up.

Wrap-up. 

I couldn't be more grateful to God for all the things He's teaching me in this season before getting married. I did ask Him to prepare me for the married life. There's a lot more to learn about and to develop... there are many things that come to mind, some more specific than the others—but I know You're working on me everyday, Lord. I just need to lay down and give way to what You want to do with me. 

Osya sya, ang dami nang kinaing oras nito. I can't believe this actually took an hour to write, but it was good to write these things... And happy ako na nakakapagsulat ulit ako kahit paandap-andap. No one might be reading it, but I'll keep on writing.

Malay natin, may matulungan 'to somewhere down the road... 🎵

Bye!