Sunday, August 15, 2010

A windy day, a shoe review and my first road run in the city.

Last Friday, August 6 marked my "real" comeback to windsurfing. Eight months post-op and I am already cleared for big-sail surfing. The day was perfect: it's a holiday, windy, slight overcast, no lightning, no basketball game and I have nothing to do!

The forecast was windy in the afternoon and high tide in the morning. I was still at home at 9 o'clock when the wind started blowing. Since my legs aren't ready yet (I was doing interval run the day before), I was only able to go at noon. The beach was equally perfect, offshore winds around 12-16 knots, tide was still high enough to launch near the shore and only few beach-comers. Today, I will also have the opportunity to try my new Garmin 305 which can track my speed via GPS.


It was a very enjoyable day beam-reaching. At one point, I planed for about 5 minutes registering a maximum speed of 36kph (19 knots) so the wind must have gusted for more than 20. Cooool!




The not-so-good thing about Habagat is that the wind tends to be gusty, shifty and stops without warning. I had a hard time going back to where I launched. Sailing upwind while maintaining course is difficult but I enjoyed the tactical part of it. Wind became zero at 3pm so we called it a day.

Saturday was still windy but we only stayed at home to rest those legs as Sunday is fun run day.
The run was organized by VSMMC for the benefit of the congenital club foot babies. Since we have lots of friends at VSMMC, we did not want to miss it. The race was organized perfectly: lots of marshalls, abundant hydration, early start time, aerobics after the run and most importantly: FUN!

It was also my first race using the recently-acquired K-swiss KONA. My review? AWESOME! I got them purely because they look sexy. But apart from aesthetics, my feet loved them. They are very light, adequately ventilated and with real good cushioning. I tend to pour water on my head late in the run and the holes at the shoe's bottom drained the water well keeping my feet dry. They also fit like a glove after only two training runs.
I also tend to rotate between mid-foot and heel striking to rest some muscle groups and the Kona have no problems dealing with them. I was hoping to finish the 10K in less than an hour but fell short by a couple of seconds! Though my time was 1:00:35, I was glad because I was able to catch-up with Kingking, something I can only dreamed of in the past. (Thanks to Katol V. for the picture)

Did I mention that the shoes really look good? Here's the proof:


The next week found no wind and no low pressure in sight so we proceeded with the scheduled long run in the city with Kingking and Ted. We started at IT Park and since there was a race that day, we just went with them all the way to Carbon Market but turned back half-way at the South Road Properties due to lots of speeding vehicles who had no clue that there was a foot race going on.

We proceeded to the North Reclamation Area and found that the "other" race was still on-going. We were able to cover 15.5 km that day, just enough for our training. This run also marked the first time I used a hydration belt, the Fuel Belt Helium. They fit perfectly at my waist and the 4x8oz bottle is more than enough for me. The extra pouch holds the keys and spare cash well.


But the best part of the hydration belt is the color: RED! They go together well with my shoes! I think I need a new pair of RED singlet then! (and maybe red sunglasses too)


A training partner/girlfriend/lady in red completes the picture.

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