Tag: running

Altitude training in Peru

thehungryrunnergirl1 Comment

10000 ft high up, I ran hard.

The program offers an opportunity to high school runners all over the country for community service and altitude training every summer to Peru and Kenya. I was one of the lucky ones to go.

When I flew into Cusco (where I stayed for 3 weeks) from Lima (capital of Peru), as soon as the plane landed, I felt the thinness of the air. My lungs couldn’t get enough oxygen and the heart rate was so high. I thought to myself, I am going to stay here for 3 weeks… How am I going to survive? I’m at 10,000ft high. I didn’t have my oxygen inhaler, so all I could do was to get used to it.

On the first day of altitude training, we ran 30 minutes which supposed to be nice and slow, but somehow for the last mile, the pace went up to 6:30 minute mile. I was dying…

On the second week, I started to work out on track. I felt really fast, because the air is thin but the burden on my lungs killed me. My legs are moving really well but I felt like someone was pressing on my chest. I was dying… But the pain felt good after all. I really can’t wait for track season to start although its like… 5 months away.

Well, three weeks of high altitude training ended and I got back home. I went for a run on the next day, and… OH MY GOSH I felt nothing. I did a 6 mile race pace and I literally felt nothing, and wasn’t out of breath at all. It was just so amazing. BUT…it only lasted for 5 days… and those were the best 5 days of my life.

Next year, I’m planning to go to Kenya. A lot of my friends went there last year and met world record holders and world champions in running. Gosh, I can’t wait. But I also would love to go back to Peru and stay little bit longer than last time.

I want to write a lot more about Peru, but I have too much thing to say.

MUCHOOO LOVE PERU.

Marathon

thehungryrunnergirl2 Comments

September 12th BC 450, a Greek messenger was sent from the battlefield of Marathon (name of the city) to Athens to report that Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon, which took place in August or September that year. According to the Greek messenger, he ran the entire 42.195km(26.1miles) without stopping.

He exclaimed, “We have won” before he collapsed and died.

In 19th century, the marathon became one of the Olympic events. The marathon is one of my favorite events in Olympics. The most memorable marathon I saw on TV was in the Sydney Olympics in 2000. I was in first grade. An amazing runner from Japan Naoko Takahashi won the first gold medal in marathon. She said,” It was the most enjoyable 42.195km I’ve ever ran.” She smiled and waved at the crowd. Why is she not tired? Didn’t she just run 26 miles? It was very inspirational. I wanted to start running.

Today, many marathon races are held all over the world. I see many people run and train for races.

The marathon is one of those rare events related to history. Marathon is associated with the Ancient Greeks in the name “marathon” and the distance that is run still remains the same.

Ran for Japan

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Today I partook in a nice run along Santa Monica‘s beach in the rain with a few friends. We ran for two miles and hung out for a while afterwards with all the snacks possible available to us. Why were we there you might ask. The title explains it all.

The Tokidoki relief run took place this morning and I wanted to partake. The funds from the 10 dollar entry fees went to the relief effort for the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. We would have bought T-shirts but thanks to the beaten up anime characters on them, we thought “yeah, a simple white t-shirt will do just fine.” They were cute little drawings though. The power rangers were there, and we took pictures with them. For more information please visit my Facebook account.

Josh Duhamel was running it which is the main reason why my friends and I ran into Fergie. Why Paris Hilton was there, well, we won’t argue with another good thing. For us, it was a good incentive to keep running. We wanted to catch up to them. Honestly, they’re well put together, but look the point is it was all in good fun for a good cause.

The day turned beautiful, we enjoyed the beach and chilled for a while afterwards, and got to see the hottest of the Black Eyed Peas. It was a good day to go to the beach, and we all walked away feeling like we had accomplished something special.

If you pay 10 dollars, you might have helped a small piece of Japan, but if you tell your friends and they tell theirs, then you have saved a nice chunk of it.