Running Without Music

Spin, Spin, Spin

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under training

Spin class, known as 24Cycle, has been one of my weekly habits. Mondays at 7:30pm in the Santa Monica 24 Hour Fitness led by Katyia. It’s pretty much all up to you because the instructor isn’t going to tell you what resistance to put, neither is she going to tell you if you’re going too fast or too slow. It was all about feeling what’s most comfortable but challenging at the same time. I definitely feel the burn each and every class. I can use this kind of training to help improve my leg muscles and conditioning for my running. It’s a tiny bit easier now than the first class, but still very challenging.

What I like most about this class is that the instructor varies the patterns and workouts. What helped me the most was the interval training where we would do intervals of sprints and hills for 5-10 minutes. Sprint as fast as you can, then when you’re done, up the resistance and then repeat. What a workout! I was sweating so much that my shorts got wet from my shirt’s sweat. I know, I know, too much information, but that’s how intense it is. I’m already interested in buying the special shoes for it that clips on to the pedals for a greater leg workout plus more efficient power handling with each stride.

MyActive

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under websites

A year ago, Active.com was a so-so website for all things activity-based, from swimming, running, to team sports. I first learned about it when I registered for my first marathon. It was a wealth of information, especially the running articles I subscribe to via e-mail, but I never really used it because it was too slow, and the UI was clunky. I’m a visual person, and I understand and appreciate well thought out design. I noticed a few redesigned elements a few months ago, but never really dove into it.

Today, I decided to go back to Active.com to look up old marathon times, and also to get more inspiration for content for this site. I logged into my account, I was caught by surprise. I thought, “Nice! This would have been so useful during my training season!” It’s MyActive, their personalized portal for your athletic interests.

What do I mean? Let me tell you about the features I was exposed to. Depending on your location, it displays the upcoming events based on the activities you’re interested in. You can search and claim all your past race results. Yes, ALL. I searched my results and it showed my old Nike Run Hit Remix 5Ks and my other marathons. Active Trainer is another feature where you log your daily training stats: how you feel, your health vitals, how far you’ve run etc. You can also map your runs, share it with the Active community, and also search for other people’s routes. There’s some social aspect to the site too, where you can interact in the forums and ask whatever questions you may have about your favorite activity.

I’ve only touched the surface of what this website is all about. I’m sure most of you who are in Team in Training already have an account with Active.com because of your fundraising pages, but I invite you to roam around MyActive, I know I am.

Check out my MyActive profile (yes, it’s still bare… I just started)

Vanae

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under fundraising

It’s really great to hear that one of my good friends, Vanae, has recently joined Team In Training up north to train for the Hawaii Full Marathon in December. She told me that my friends and I were her inspiration to give TNT a shot. Are we really that inspiring? Maybe because they know we didn’t like to run or work out, let alone run a marathon? Whatever the reason is, TNT has that viral marketing effect because so many great experiences come out of it.

She writes:

Hey guys, it’s Vanae.

You know me. I don’t run. Heck, I don’t even remember the last time I excercised! But I was really inspired by close friends who recently completed the Team in Training.

Vanae is also the founder for Rock Your Awareness, and I met her a couple years ago at her “Date a Rockstar” fundraiser, so she’s no stranger to philanthropy. Since then we’ve gone to NY with friends, and we try to make the LA / SF connection time to time. I’m really excited for her since this is her first ever marathon, so check out her fundraising page here:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/honolulu08/vtran

Sponsor A Mile

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under fundraising

Here’s a good idea from a friend from New York, Michelle DeForest. Her season is coming to a close for the October 19th Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco. Another push to get some donations is to donate $50 to sponsor a mile. Genuis! Your name is listed on any mile you choose, along with a URL. That’s $50 well spent on donations, plus additional marketing of whatever site. She has a pretty good list of people she promotes to via e-mail, Facebook, multiple blogs, so It would be a good idea to promote your own TNT donation page, your blog, etc.

From her donation page, she writes:

The Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco is ****28 days away!!!****

More importantly, my fundraising deadline is in (OMG) ****10 days**** away.

So, here’s my last fundraiser: I’m raising money for each mile. It’s going to work like a sponsorship. Each mile is worth $50 (because if I “sell” all 26 miles, then I will reach my fundraising goal of $5,000.00!!

Rules: Donate $50 here: http://tinyurl.com/runwithme AND tell me WHAT MILE and LINK to whatever you want (your blog, startup, your cause). I’ll publish it anywhere and everywhere I can (my blogs, fundraising pages, thank you emails, twitter).

This is such a great idea, that I wanted to document this (for future use), and to spread the word. It’s a great cause, so check it out – http://tinyurl.com/runwithme

Nike+ Human Race

Posted by Marvin Tabangay under events

Yes, we took our sweet ass time on this one. I mean, c’mon… we did 13.1 miles that morning. The Nike+ Human race was a nighttime run in Los Angeles (near the USC area) which was another 10K (6.2 miles). The main motivation for this run was to watch Kanye West perform at the end. To our surprise, we found out that Common was also performing.

Some of us were sore from the morning, or just plain ol tired, so we did 3:2 intervals. If you thought we were kicking back in the Disney Half Marathon singing songs, we took this one to another level. Some of us had drinks (yes, alcoholic drinks) in our water belts. Bad idea? Yeah, maybe, but we had our fun! We continued the singing, the taking pictures, and the games. We all started together, and we all finished together. No matter what pace group you’re in… we did this as a team, which was the most rewarding. We finished just in time because once we crossed the finish line, the Kanye West performance just started. He was amazing. He played most of his hits, and Common came in for a song or two.

You can view the photos and videos from this event here.