Din: Hill Training and My First Half Mary

My favorite workout is hill training. Mind you I'm not a masochist hehehe =). I just love the challenge and the exhilarating feeling of being on top of a hill after a hard run. Thus, when I started my training for the half marathon, I immediately incorporated hill training in my workouts. In fact, I even incorporated it in my long slow and tempo runs. I firmly believed if I could be strong in running hills, I would be stronger in "flats."

This belief and training regimen was put to the test, successfully if I might say, in my first half marathon run last Sunday, October 17, when I joined the The Fort Running Festival. I was only aiming for a 7min 30sec / km pace. That's what I have trained for based on my 5K race pace using the FIRST Training program. During the race, even if I was already running at a 7min / km pace, I still felt strong thus I continued with this pace surprisingly until the end of the race with enough juice left so to speak.

A week after the Fort Running Festival race, I ran another 21K at the Adidas King of the Road race last October 24. I was able to get a new PR considering that the route was a lot more challenging and there were hydration challenges in the last 5 kilometers of the race. Good thing I have my Amphipod Hydration Belt which supplied me with enough juice during these last kilometers.

Pictures courtesy of Greentennial Run

Picture courtesy of Adidas Philippines

All these great results, I attribute mostly to hill training. As such, I am planning to incorporate hill training again to my marathon training plan that will start next month. It is my hope that  I will be able to replicate the same great results that I have in my first two 21km races to the TBR Dream Marathon next year.

For more information about hill training, I have listed below some links that helped me. I hope these will also help you out in learning and enjoying this great workout.

Hill Training articles from Runner's World
Hill Training from Runner's World UK
Hill Training from BrianMac

Din: Dynamic Stretching

Ever since we started running, I am in the constant lookout for tips and tricks to improve our run, slowly but surely, and at the same time to prevent any potential injuries. In this regard, the first thing that I investigated on was how to further improve our stretching exercises. As it has always been said, stretching is suppose to be essential before and after a strenuous activity to improve performance and reduce injuries.

Further research on this topic led me to dynamic stretching which was admittedly a new concept for us. After using it for about 2 months now, all I can say is we find it more effective compared to the regular static stretching. I embedded below a video which is the source of the dynamic stretching routines we are currently using. I hope this will help you in your quest to learn more about dynamic stretching.