Author: crisn

I'm Cris Nacionales from the Philippines.

Daylight Runs

I seem to start liking the idea of running when and while the sun is up. For almost a year I have preferred doing my runs very early morning while it’s still dark and cold outside and when there are still few curious onlookers along the way. The lesser people, the better was among my motivations.

Things have changed lately however. I began to realize that I couldn’t take vitamin D supplements forever to compensate the lack of exposure to sunlight. My wife seems to have also accepted that we can’t wake Marcus up early to attend Sunday mass (and expect neither me nor him not to be grumpy in the church) thus leaving her doing it on our behalf. She goes to church, I stay in bed and look after Marcus until he wakes up. So there goes my dark weekend runs.

Besides dealing with more people, pros of running in daylight does outweigh its cons. Visibility for one is a big plus. I now have lesser chances of stepping into animal poop, tripping over invisible potholes and uneven road segments, getting side swiped by sleepy/drunk drivers, and being chased and bitten by rabid stray dogs just to name a few.

More running options have also become available. Like this morning my wish to try going uphill close to the foot of Mt. Makiling materialized. I soon discovered that it was tougher than I first thought. Few months ago I was with Marcus pushing him in his wheelchair but it was more of a leisurely walk. This time I was running, albeit stopping every now and then, and I had my nose flaring, my throat drying up halfway of my run.

How high did I get? Well, my Garmin says that in about 15 minutes I achieved the equivalent of 26 floors. On average, I do 10 floors a day spread over 8 hours.

First time I got this high.

Going downhill also posed another challenge. If I were on a bike would have been all fun but running was different. I stayed focused and controlled my strides so that I don’t become the old version of Jack ‘n Jill. It was tempting to go fast but it would have been a stupid idea. Nursing a fresh black toenail didn’t help either as the negative slope means that I need to land on the ball of my feet thus putting more pressure on my toes.

This new route was short yet not easy. But would I do it again? Definitely. As the the mantra goes “Know the whys so that you could endure the hows.” Next time again Makiling once the sun is up.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Ready for work?!)

Black Toenails

Ugly. That’s for sure the answer if you ask most people how they find black toenails. I had the same impression myself, of course, until I populated my social media feed this year with more stuffs about running (and fitness).

I read from several articles that black toenails would normally occur, at some point, to those who run. Either due to bad sneakers, bad fall, bad form, fungus included (ok, this is gross) or due to longer runs. It just could happen.

Last December I registered for my first run in 2018 but no thanks to a bad bug that made its way past our door (despite our extra consciousness not to expose Marcus to the common flu) I had to lay off practice runs while I and Marcus spent our last week of the year blowing our noses. This month, my patience paid off and a week ago I saw myself in running form once more. I made 10K on my first run against strong cold winds especially originating from Mt. Makiling.

This weekend was warm and run started as a struggle. All of a sudden I would rather have either strong headwind or tailwind regardless of drag. But I picked up the pace and soon I was looking at my Garmin showing another 10K finished in an hour and some minutes. Not bad except for one thing. Toes hurt.

Removing my running shoes confirmed my suspicion. A black toenail–runner’s woe . I wasn’t alarmed though. In fact, its sight got me excited–I’m becoming weirder, am I? I might, however, need to minimize wearing flip flops in public in the next few days unless I want to wear it proud like a trophy as I’ve read other runners would do. Cheers to black toenails, yes?

***

A year ago was when I started running outdoors with a Garmin Vivoactive HR. I racked up 5K on my first day even if I was about 160 lbs fresh from vacation. I credit my endurance to the regular treadmill sessions which usually happened after we raid my sister’s pantry. I’m now 135, FYI.

Only gym I’ve used that needs a room heater.

***

How do you become better at running? You run more. Writing? You write more.

Now let’s see if the time I set aside my regular Netflix session so I could write would see itself posted on WordPress.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (My turn to watch after Marcus in his room. Air-conditioning is extra perk.)

Test Post

Ten years. It doesn’t drive like so but mileage and bodywork confirm it has seen better days. Yup, the car I never thought would be with us past five years is now ten years old and counting.

So today it deserves some sort of pampering. I’ve learned to DIY it in the last two years but today it goes to the nearest car dealership for maintenance. Honda Cars Calamba was surprisingly comfy than the last time I was here. Besides free coffee and free test drive, the place has free Wi-Fi. No big deal but this is when I confirmed what WordPress replied on my desperate tweet–our ISP could indeed be blocking WordPress.com.

I can see the technician is almost done with my car so I’ll have this test post count as this year’s first. Let’s see if my car’s pic would appear.

Just kidding. That’s one of the displays. I got tired after two episodes of Stranger Things and checked out some of the brand new cars. That one is a Civic Type R.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Found a new route with the test drive.)

Domino 

Weather remains bad for almost a week already but so far Santa Claus has braved heavy rains and strong winds, unload some toy cars, and a dominoes set. Marcus must have been that nice. 

Marcus used Sketch to achieve this.

***

The rain let up somehow to let my father-in-law celebrate his 80th birthday today and every family member was there except for a few.  Marcus too hasn’t dropped by lately due to wheelchair access concerns but come rain or shine we committed to being there. Good job to everyone who made it happen.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (It’s starting to rain again but we’re warm and cozy at home.)

Hang

I finally got myself a pull-up bar which wifey paid for as an early birthday gift. No more waiting for good weather just so I can go out of the house to do my pull-ups using our window’s coping. 

Now Marcus can do his own set.

The bar is tough. It can be fitted between door jambs and manual says it could hold 100 kilos without screws. I’m several notches past 60 now and it can hold me without any problem. Anway, I still installed the screws that come with the kit to add 30 more kilos to the weight margin. For 1500 pesos this pull-up bar from Decathlon Festival Mall is so worth it. Thanks again wifey and Marcus for this great gift.
***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Will likely set my weight goal to ‘maintain’ this week.)

Bury

Thor: Ragnarok stands up to its hype. By far, it’s the best movie I got the chance to watch after Deadpool. It was fun, it was entertaining despite cheesy scenes and other flaws. Ask my son and my wife whom I knew were betting if I’d snooze before the popcorn hits the bottom of the bucket. I didn’t.

I want to write further about the movie but I won’t. I don’t have time. I would rather run or skip rope as what I’ve been doing for months in my ongoing quest to lose weight plus there’s this new goal to get near Thor’s physique. Or sleep is the next best option–as always. Go read the movie reviews on Google.

If there’s one message though that Thor: Ragnarok tells its viewers, it is the need to accept defeat and move on. For defeat is temporary. Yes, it is a setback but it is something that once we learn to accept makes us think better and see the next steps clearer. Thor knew Hela was just too powerful and recognized that Asgard  isn’t the end of the game. He made the right choice.

Loss is never easy to embrace. Our ego will always get in the way and that ego is often a tough adversary that could only be overcome if we look beyond any predicament at hand. Ego makes it hard to say sorry. Ego makes it hard to move on. Ego makes it hard to bury the hatchet.

Last ones to leave the cinema and before we almost did our GTA moves.

***

I’ve read that kids are great imitators and this why controlling my expressions and temper in front of our son continue to be a challenge. While I claim to have gotten better, there’s still that room for improvement–big room. Being a parent made me learn to curb my emotions and say sorry whenever appropriate. This usually saves the day.

***

Like parenting, and writing, driving is also a work in progress. Maybe it comes with age as being behind the wheel for years have made me gather my composure faster. Last night was another test.

 

Right out of the last screening of Thor Ragnarok, while happily talking about how we like Korg, a vehicle rear-ended our car. It was the hardest hit it ever had. The culprit made a run for it and I tried to pursue while Marcus freaks out in the car wanting to get even with the guy. Realizing how upset he was made me snap out of my own road rage fast, me and my wife instead consoled Marcus that a dented bumper is not worth the chase. I didn’t even bother checking our dashboard camera when we arrived home and wifey said I slept smiling that night. Nope, I didn’t dream of doing a successful pit maneuver.

***

Surprisingly, the bumper was fixable. I was able to align it back after breakfast today. There’s only a minor crack on the backup light but I can live with it.

***

Then there’s pets to bury. One of the dogs in our compound that wifey started to take care of for weeks passed away. For some reason it was in pain for days so I’m just glad that it’s finally over. Same goes with another white kitten that also left us on the same day. Rest in peace furry friends.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Trust me, I’m fine.)

Magic 10

It’s a great day despite the overcast skies. Just had a 500-calorie breakfast after my usual second run of the week which is the routine I’ve tried to stick to for months already. You see I have never been committed to running, not to mention waking up early, in my entire life. Now I hit 5 km on average and this week I broke my personal time by clocking below 35 minutes and with a best pace of 5.5. 

I hit plateau in August and since then I decided to take actions. It was a personal challenge I took seriously just to test if everything I read about losing weight while staying fit is one that I can also achieve. So I jumped into the fitness bandwagon–extra weight in tow.

Measurement is key. Everything almost done by the numbers. In fact, I’ve caught myself doing things just so I would know the calories I take. I’ve called waiters to ask how many grams my serving has. I used the kitchen weighing scale more often than before–and was worried when the ones seven segment display broke. I would take time reading nutritional labels at the grocery isle. And I would log on my MyFitnessPal app, if not scan the barcode of any food packaging,  any food I consume every meal. It’s a strict routine but fortunately not in vain.

On this tenth month of 2017 I now hover close to the magic number. I just stepped on the bathroom scale and it shows I’m 0.6 away from being exactly 10 pounds lighter than when I first started my calorie watch regimen and trend shows that it’s a matter of days when I breach 140. 

Controlled descent.

It doesn’t end here though. According to basal metabolic calculator–my age, weight, height all factored in–my ideal weight is 4 pounds farther. That means more restrictions ahead but I know I would hit it soon anyway. MyFitnessPal predicts five weeks which is just a couple before my birthday.  I think that by then I would have earned the right to celebrate it with my favorite 200-calorie Krispy Kreme.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Running light.)

Balloons

One that got away.

Timehop continues to amaze me with what it can pull up from my past posts years ago today. Some cringeworthy, some funny, some sad, and some funny kind of sad like this one from eight years ago. This was the last balloon I’ve ever bought for Marcus which got away from his grip just before we left MOA. Few years later though we’d buy balloons again for him, this time only red balloons–the symbolic red ballooons we released on our first celebration of Duchenne Awareness Day.

Duchenne awareness day symbol.

***

We don’t have balloons today but the significance of this day remains in our hearts as we remember everyone with DMD. God bless all these children and anyone–especially their parents–who commit in making sure this progressive condition doesn’t stop them from enjoying life.

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Mood: 2/10 Honks! (That ribs for lunch…)