Running Without Music

Resistance Is Your Friend

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under 24Hr Fitness, Training

This morning was the FIRST time I’ve ever gone to the gym before work. I slept early with the intention to check out a Turbo Kick Box class they offer at the Santa Monica 24 off Ocean Park and 31st. Only two people were in the Kickbox classroom, so I opted to try the 24Cycle Spin Class instead. It sounded fun, with some house music playing in the background, why not?

I picked a stationary cycle near the entrance, trying to be sneaky. About 15 minutes into it, I was drenched in sweat. Then the instructor said, “Ok, that was the warm-up. Time to step it up.” What the?!? Mind you, this is my FIRST spin class. I’ve always observed the class from the outside, and I’ve always thought that I’m never cut out for this kind of training. Never say never. I’m not sure what the intervals were, but at every interval before the rest period, the instructor would tell us to turn the dial to add more resistance. We would simulate hills by cycling standing up with more resistance, then have one arm behind our back, switching hands. The last part was sitting down with high cadence. She would repeatedly say “Resistance is your friend!”, because she said that low resistance could injure our knees.

Working out in the morning definitely gave me more energy throughout the workday, and I think I will make this a weekly thing for me since I don’t have TNT training anymore. It’s every Thursday at 8am in Santa Monica.

Top 10 Pub Crawl Mistakes

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under Events, Fundraising

It’s finally here. Pub Crawl is in a few hours.
Remember, if this is your first Pub Crawl, whether you’re an alcoholic or a lightweight, you should focus on completing the event and not on your speed. For many of you, this will be an incredible personal milestone. Repeat with me now:

1. Not resting the day before.
I’ve already broken this rule, staying up late to do this, but we hope you got some rest. Get your mind off the pub crawl. We know you’re nervous about the big event because there’s so much alcohol. You’ve been training all year. You got this!

2. Eating too much the night before.
Don’t overload on pasta! You don’t want to be in the restroom during the pub crawl. The party may move to another bar while you’re in there!

3. Trying new equipment/food/drink on race day.
Nothing worse than finding that the new beer you’re trying gives you gas, that new shot gives you a migrane, those new jeans chafe, or that new drink makes you sick to your stomach.

4. Going out too fast.
The #1 biggest mistake. Don’t let the adrenaline take over. If you take too much alcohol early on, it can take a long time to recover. No sense getting to bar 2 really fast then struggling for another 2.

5. Not taking your walk breaks early.
If you trained with walk breaks, take them from the start and regularly. You’re going to be excited, so use your mental discipline. Walk around the bar, and meet people!

6. Drinking too much/too little.
Drink as much as you can in an hour. JUST KIDDING. You know your limits. We want to see you at the end. Fill up at the bar and keep tabs on how much you’re drinking.

7. Not maintaining proper form.
Don’t slump over when you’re drunk. Don’t pass out, or else we’ll pose behind you and take pictures.

8. Getting down on yourself if you start to hurt.
You will hurt at some point. Expect it, and know you’ve put the time in to get through it. It’s ok to admit that you’re weak sauce.

9. NOT Drinking with a stranger.
We encourage that you meet new people! There will be a lot of people at the event you don’t know. Feel free to introduce yourself. There is at MOST 3 degrees of separation of the people there. We’ve invited nothing but wonderful people.

10. Forgetting to enjoy the day!
Have fun! Remember why you’re here! To have fun!

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Pub Crawl Details

1:00 - 2:00 pm Hooters (Half off on all appetizers. $3.99 domestic beer)

2:00 - 3:30 pm Ye Olde King’s Head (Happy Hour rates including $2.50 beers, price varying by beer, $5 margaritas and discounted pub snacks.)

3:00 - 4:30 pm Yankee Doodle’s ($1 off on beer, plus they’re hosting us downstairs in their special party room with dance floor and pooltables. People who want to play pool must pay for their own game,though.)

4:30 - 5:30 Barney’s Beanery ($1 tacos - beef, chicken or veggie - $9 Blue Moon and Coors Light pitchers or $3.50 per glass, $17 for 15 wings and a pitcher of beer. They will reserve the whole downstairs area for us.)

Almost Go Time!

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under Experiences

I can’t believe that the season is almost over. Four months have past on my third consecutive season with the team, and I’ve loved every minute of it! I’m actually pretty sad to see this season end, but VERY EXCITED for this weekend. I’m almost done packing, and my marathon checklist is almost complete. The remaining pieces will be bought at the Health Expo, which is only just gu, and maybe some running sunglasses.

At the beginning of this week, I was a little nervous, but not anymore. I was overthinking and overanalyzing what kind of strategies I should take, when I should drink my water, when I should take my Gu, what’s a good pace, etc., but you know what? I shouldn’t change anything from my normal training routine last minute. I trust my coaches, and I’m going to stick with whatever I did. I’m just anxious just as I was my first marathon. I already know what to expect, but this time some of my closest friends will be there at the starting line with me, and it’s awesome. I really want to see them complete their first marathon, to really understand why I’ve been coming back for more TNT.

Run For Fun

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under Photos, Training

Week 16 Sunday Run - The FINAL One
A year and half ago, I wouldn’t have thought of even saying the following: “Today, I ran 8 miles for fun.” Since it was our last Sunday training for the San Diego Marathon participants, and since it’s a taper week to “take it easy”, we thought it would be fun if we made this a “Run For Fun”, where the Westside TNT Team invades the streets of Santa Monica and Venice with some shenanigans and costumes!

The day before I went to Wal-Mart and bought some golden boxers for only $5. I originally planned on wearing some mesh T-shirt, neon shorts, and neon wristbands, but I didn’t have much time, and since 80s style is a bit trendy at the moment, I would have paid a bunch. $5 gold boxers will do. I mixed it up with some aviator sunglasses I used for my “Dick In A Box” costume for Halloween, and a funny afro wig. What was I? I had no idea, but it looked silly. Most of the team were in a costume-wearing mood as coach Kevin was Bleeker, Coach Christy was Juno, many of the girls wore 80’s spandex, some wore bee outfits, Joe was Indy Jones, and much much more. I’m sure spectators along the beach were amazed at 75 or so runners being silly. It was our final run. Why not, right?

Photos from the run!

Never Gonna Give You Up

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under Events, Fundraising

Tonight was Karina’s Mentor Group’s fundraiser event at the Santa Monica Bar & Grille, in yes you guessed it, Santa Monica. They are usually closed on Mondays but with some TNT pulling some strings, they opened it up for us. It was Karaoke Night, and it was so fun! From songs by The Killers, to 80s Rock, to Pop, all the performances were amazing, and the crowd getting into all the performances made it that much better! Whenever our team gets together for social events, there’s never a dull moment!

Pictures and Videos from the event

Hot Hot Hot

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under Training

Week 15 Sunday RunThe weather this week wasn’t as hot as our 17 miler, but it was definitely a huge factor with how much I struggled this week. It has been a while since my long run mainly due to being out of town, but I still decided to run with pace group 3. I started out with group 3, but ended with group 4. Running along the residential area of San Vicente Blvd with all the flowers and pollen made it really difficult to breath. I had a choice between running in the heat, or in the shade with the pollen. Luckily, towards the end of the run, the breeze came in and cooled us down a bit. There goes my negative split runs again because I did so much better during my second half of the run!

In The Habit

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under Training

I woke up VERY early this morning to check out some strength cardio class at 24 Hour fitness, but when I got there the class was full. What the? Oh well, so I just did a little cardio on the elliptical machines and some weights. Wow, this is good. 6 out of 7 days this week I did something cardio-related. I came to the realization that I’m in the habit in all things active. Shaweeet!

Santa Monica Friday

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under Training

Who runs on a Friday night instead of going out? I do. Tonight I decided to keep my running habit and ran 45 or so minutes along Santa Monica. I started at our usual running spot, “Shutters” (which is a restaurant along the beach), nearing the time of a beautiful sunset, and headed to the Venice pier and back. It’s definitely a lot more active along Venice as I ran past busy bars and restaurants. I really love the sights and sounds of many people walking, biking, and running along the beach. I also ran by the usual smell of marijuana from random people on the sidewalk, and ran by some weird looking people who just give you a crazy stare like I shouldn’t be running at this time of night.

I recently bought some new shoes which I was trying to break in, but it posed a problem during my run. I started to have shin splints which I never had, and only started to get them ever since I used these shoes. The pair that I wore were the same model as my previous ones, but it was a newer model. Not even a mile into the run I was aching. I walked for a bit until the pain went away, but I was motivated to get back to my car before it got too late. I really think something is wrong with my shoes because that’s the only variable that has changed for me ever since the pains came. We’ll see how it goes.

Keeping Pace

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under Training

I’ve been very good this week in keeping up with my mid-week runs. Monday at the gym, Tuesday in Brentwood, and then last night we had the second session of Track Training at Santa Monica High School. It wasn’t as tough as last week because this time around was all about keeping a consistent pace, for 20 laps. Coach asked us what our target marathon time is, then he calculated what kind of pace we should keep during our run. I want to break 5 hours for the marathon, so he suggested I finish each 2 lap set in 5 minutes. We did 10 total sets at that pace, with decreasing rest times. The first 5 sets were 3 minute rest peroids, to 2, to 1.5, to 1 minute. We didn’t realize how long were were running for until the end, because we got out of there at 9:45ish. So a total of 24 laps, including the warm up and cool down laps equaled 5.6 something miles. It probably went under the calculated 6 miles because I took the inside lane most of the time.

Since we are tapering until the event, this will be our final track training, which I will truly miss. It’s not too far from where I live, so I plan to run here now and then, just to keep up my cardio workout. This is the final stretch folks… can’t wait!

Brentwood Mid-Week

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under Training

It’s already near the end of the season and the majority of my mid-week runs have been on the treadmill at 24 Hour Fitness, with the exception of one Saturday run in Hollywood. Last night was my FIRST mid-week run with the team. I never went to any of them in the past because I lived in Pomona, commute was far, or I would just get out of work too late to go. I finally decided to go, and I’m glad I did. It was a pretty good turnout, at about 10 people, most of which were of the faster pace groups. My mentality during the run was the same as track training. Since the distance is much shorter, I’ll give it my all to go a little faster. The scheduled 45 minute mid-week run was right on schedule, lapping the Brentwood Country Club twice, and just finishing a few minutes over.

The Brentwood 4.3 Mile Run