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The Perfect Run

Saturday night is a time to relax with good food, family and friends and some good Vodka, beer and wine. A peaceful sleep knowing no work is scheduled on Sunday.

Sunday runs are the best. I start out at 5am and there are running clubs and regulars in groups that are out on the roads early every Sunday morning. From running in Baguio City for more than 6 years, I’ve come to know almost all these running groups. Sunday is my long easy social running day. I am an above average runner especially for a 55 year old, so I stay to run and talk for maybe 15 to 20 minutes at a time with these various groups. I usually run for two hours or more. Baguio is hilly so an easy run is still a great workout. People on the roads who run in groups have fun! At approx 7:15 AM, I am done and feeling great and i go to my family condo and drink fluids, have a little light weight training and the wonderful hot shower. What a perfect run followed by a nice peaceful family day. So Sundays for me are my perfect runs because the nature of these runs is to have fun. Plus, it makes the rest of my day so relaxing after a long fun run. Enjoy your perfect runs!

The Blow Out

I think most of us have our normal routine which may be a 15 minute run, or a one hour run a day depending on how serious we are, how much time we have, or how much we can physically take. For me, it’s forty five minutes to an hour daily of fairly repetitive runs. I usually try to change my routes and also have many days each month where I have a second run on any given day. If I know I will run a second time, I might cut down on the distance of my first run.

Then there are days of feeling sluggish that might lead to a shorter run by listening to your body. If you are an addicted runner like me, you need to run every day.

So one day one might run slowly and the next day faster and the next day faster with a desire to put in some kind of speed work which are usually referred to as surges.

But then comes the weekend or a weekday where one needs a blowout of a nice time in the country or by the beach, a long relaxing run. For me it’s approximately 2 hours of running at a very comfortable pace, and wow this is my favorite run.

First comes the sense of accomplishment, not to mention an intense runner’s high. Equally as important is these runs are fun. I try never to push it but just to have fun. So I call this a blowout and always try to get one blowout in a week if possible.

Tell us about your experiences!

Running and Sleeping

I do not want this to be a cliquish book as I am sure you all have read that running helps for a good night sleep. The fact is sleep is one of the most important aspects in a healthy life as is exercise and diet. All of these are important aspects in health and they usually just fall in place naturally as kind of a domino effect in a positive direction. If you are running daily, one tends to eat more carefully in preparation of how food affects your runs. Sleeping with a good daily run and a healthy diet just comes naturally.

The key element I want to put across is sleep time becomes a time of just unbelievable pleasure for me and most runners I know. With my two daily runs, my water consumption and my light meals during busy hours, I am loaded with energy and my night time leisure hours of a few drinks with a good show or DVD becomes a very peaceful event. When my head hits the pillow, I curl up like a infant and just relish in the good feeling of the comfort and in no time, I’m in that peaceful zone of sleep. And wow is the sleep quality good. Very few daily runners that I know do not sleep well. Some take a nice relaxing early evening run to unwind and that works best for them. For me the morning runs are to wake-up and focus and a late afternoon run to unwind. And wow does it work. So throw away the sleeping pills and get out your running shoes.