As you can see in the right sidebar, I have tow more races under my belt: Corrida 1º de Maio and Meia Maratona dos Palácios, both with new PB.

My 15k PB is now 1:13:37 and the Half-marathon PB 1:49:33.

Improvements lately are the race starts, in a more brisk pace and the fact that I’m getting more tolerant to general discomfort during races.

As always, you can follow Pernas de Gafanhoto’s racing team blog

My second half and it went well. This time, racing with a team - Pernas de Gafanhoto (Grasshopper’s legs in Portuguese).

Overall, the race was quite comfortable, always focusing on a balance between a steady pace and saving energy for the last kilometres. I did not had to wait too long in the starting line as in Portugal Half-Marathon. A mere 10 minutes, which we spent stretching and doing some jogging, and off we went. I race the whole course by myself, but feeling strangely accompanied. The course itself was pretty straiight, with no significant hight and lows, so, getting to the firts 10 k was a breeze. I made it in 56 minutes, so, by that time, I really knew that braking the 1 hour 50 minutes barrier was out of question as race time.

Staying in a comfortable pace was the only goal I had in mind then… until the last three kilometres, when I really started speeding up things. Ended in 1:58:15, a bit more than a minute slower than in my first half.

High points:

• The gathering earlier
• The comfortable pace I took
• My effort management
• The zulus

To improve:

• Get to manage a better start
• More confidence and risk taking during the race
• Improve my muscular strength with weight lifting exercises between race workouts

OK, we’re here, the final week before the half-marathon.

I must confess I’m having mixed feelings about this. On one side, I’m focused on not overtraining and my working schedule led me to be unable to run as much as I wanted (or as I wished). There’s a drawback: I’m not sure if I packed enough miles for a 21 k race. For a 10k, for sure. For a 21k… maybe.

Enough of doubting… what’s granted for now is:

• I’ve developed a nice smooth endurance pace, something I was not achieving since last October.
• I’ve got more careful about food and drink. Drinking much more water and fulling with carbs, veggies and cereal bars. Without doing a revolutionary diet this week, the key elements will be pasta, rice, poultry, fish and, as they say, “one apple a day…”.
• Last half-marathon was a bit painful from the 15th kilometre onwards for two reasons: climbs and lack of fuelling at the start. To minimize that, I’ll pack a cereal bar one hour before starting and a gel before race start, as well as some sports drink.
• For this week, a slow 10k tomorrow, muscular exercises here and there, another race (around 6k Wednesday) and a 5k Thursday. Two days of rest will suffice.

25 days for Lisbon’s Half Marathon and I’m getting in shape now. So in shape I’ve actually broke my 10k PB, now in a 43′59” mark.

Last couple of weeks resulted in some improvements, as I shifted from some painful workouts to more balanced and enjoyable ones.

Stretching and abs played a role here, as I am opting for a more balanced training scheme, more like a “total fitness” thing.

in the next couple of weeks, I’ll get some extra miles under my belt and try to tune up my pace and build a consistent base, to speed trainning in week 3.

See you and enjoy the sunny weather!

Portugal 9^th Half Marathon was my fourth competition, taking place at the 28^th September. The race started at ponte Vasco da Gama, and, since there was no possibility of getting there by car, I had to woke up pretty early (7:00 a.m.) in order to get into an event bus and not end like a sardine in a pack.

I got to the starting line at 8:45 a.m., which means 1h45min of before the starting gun. I drank water, walked, laughed about the frenetic movement around the toilets, read abandoned newspapers… everything served to kill time, really.

One nice feature was that, since there was a half marathon and a mini-marathon (8km), the organization divided the runners. It was nice to benefit from some space for the half-marathon runners, like me.

As for the race itself, I was really impressed how quick the 10km came, despite my slow rhythm (57:28). Things only started to get a bit painful in the 13^th kilometre, with a not so easy climb. A long one… some people quitted right there. The rest of the race was made in pure effort management, with plenty of water and powerade being drunk. By the 20^th kilometre, I made a final effort and ender the race in a really fast sprint: 1:57:02. A bit slower than I expected, but waiting almost two hours for the start of the race played a role here.

Here are some photos:

A view from the half-marathon starting line. Pretty early, so, few people yet

My Nike Dryfit t-shirt, which I used for this race. Perspiration issues are overcome with this garment. Nice piece of gear

And my classification screen shots

General classification - 1737^th out of 2758 runners

Men’s classification - 582^th out of 881 runners

And now, one week off and then… Corrida do Tejo 2008 trainning!

Ok! Finally I ran a full half-marathon. 1h50min in a course from Guincho to Cascais, returning to Guincho again.

I was particularly pleased to feel no pains or discomfort until the 16^th kilometre. Until then, the pace was almost near the 5:20 mark, and I resisted the temptation to speed up whenever I felt I’ve got everything under control. That was a really wise investment, from the 12^th kilometre onwards.

The battle really started there, and I think things got not so easy because of my lack of powerade and water by that time.

My refuelling schedule was as follows:

• 6km: water
• 9km: powerade
• 12km: water
• 15,4km: powerade
• 18km: four sips of water

Then I ran out of liquids. That wasn’t a serious problem since I had water nearby, but it might played a role here.

Post-workout I drank a lot of fluids and ate a cereal bar, and in ten minutes I was driving my car back home with no problems except feeling my knees (no pain, although).

Overall, I was happy with the workout, ten minutes bellow my goal for the race… I might have to lower the expectations here. First, finish, then, we’ll see.

Next week, a moderate workout (10k maybe ) Tuesday of Wednesday, a small one by the end of the week, but above al, plenty of rest, sleep and a proper diet.

The Portugal Halfh-Marathon is just in the end of this month, so I started doing longer workouts. A 12k and a 15k this week. As a matter of fact, I ran today my farthest ipoded race. 15,24k in less than 1_h15_min.

I’m focusing more on mental aspects lately (setting my mood, running relaxed…) and, I’m pretty sure that if I had to run a half-marathon today, I’ll finish it.

The mental aspects got me making a link between workout and race strategy and meditation. I’ve recently rediscovered meditation, and it’s being a good way of keeping the mind clean while running, which might have also a physiological advantage: blood might flow less to the brain. Going beyound a rational way of running and really not “being there”, makes me feel less pain, and at least I feel the miles passing by with less discomfort.

Since my goal is to finish the race relaxed and maybe in a fast pace, the mains aspects to be aware in the forthcoming days will be:

• Eat carbs, fruits, and schedule meals frequently;
• An apple a day…
• Avoid fadigue, running long workoputs followed with one or two days rest;
• In the days of rest, do some light muscular workouts,

P.S.: You can now register to the Corrida do Tejo. 2008 - 10k race in Lisbon area!

After browsing around for some competitions in September, I found Meia Maratona de Portugal, in the 28^th. I am going to run the Half, only to finish it. Since it requires some extra preparation, I started today making longer runs, doing a 5k in the morning and a 10k in the afternoon. As I am on vacatoins makes this easy.

I’m not going to get focused on time issues and on breaking any PB. Monitoring myself and running relaxed is my goal for my first Half Marathon.

Registration: (limited to 35.000 runners):

Till 15/02/2008:

• Half-marathon: 12€
• Vodafone’s Mini-marathon (8km): 12€

From 18/02/2008 until 15/03/2008:

• Half-marathon: 17€
• Vodafone’s Mini-marathon (8km): 17€

More in meiamaratonadelisboa.com

I’m going! And you?