Wednesday, July 28, 2010

I am humbled...

I sent my first emails out to my friends and family about supporting me for this marathon on March 17th of this year. I sent that out one day after the 13 year anniversary that my dad passed away. My initial goal to raise for the American Heart Association was $1500. Now here I am a little over 4 months later, and we have not only reached this goal, but exceeded it! I absolutely cannot believe the kindness and generosity my friends and family has displayed, and I wanted a chance to thank all of you who have supported me with these donations. What is crazy is that I know that there are still other donations coming in. I still have over 2 months to collect donations. If you are one of those who still want to donate, please visit my donation site: http://www.runningforjerry.org

Thank you all so much!

  • Aiden Vigan
  • Annie Pardilla
  • Arthur Cacayuran
  • Berdee Atanante
  • Bert & Rose Aguinaldo
  • Brian Schuch
  • Chi Li
  • Concepcion Jasmin
  • Diane Zimmerman
  • Eileen Luciano
  • Freddy Oldenburg
  • Haley Vigan
  • Heather Kelley
  • James Luciano
  • Jason and Siou Pugsley
  • Jaymie Miguel
  • Jean Gavina
  • Jeffery Heath
  • Ken Litchfield
  • Kristina Marinas
  • Lourdes Rabara
  • Maria Austria
  • Maria Victoria (Baba)Jasmin
  • Maria& Ferdinand Gueco
  • Michael Potter
  • Michele Yanong
  • Remedios Jao
  • Rick Manis
  • RIKKI MISTRY
  • Robert Mills
  • Roberta Fuery
  • Rodger Decilio
  • Rodolfo Jao
  • Rowena Cera
  • Salavador Gueco
  • Samuel Paschka
  • Sharon Del Pilar-Feldman
  • Steve Manio

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The New Tumang - Elijah!

Welcome to the world Elijah!  Congrats to Erick, Abby, and little Annie for their new addition to the family!  And thank you for trusting me to be Elijah's Ninong!  I am so honored!

We went to see the new Tumang today.  On the way to the hospital I got an email from my boss to work on something since I am on-call.  What timing!  We stopped by my mom's so I could work for a bit, but as soon as I was done we were out the door!  Luckily we still got there with 15 minutes left in visiting hours!  I'm sure Jaz didn't appreciate the fast driving, but I had to see my godson!!

Here are some more pictures from today: Joe's Shutterfly Site

 

Elijah

Thursday, July 22, 2010

"Stages" performing at House of Blues!

I found out a couple weeks back that the singing group I used to sing with back 10 years ago (really has it been that long?) was asked to perform at show at the House of Blues.  Our group was called Stages.  Of course I was excited but then learned that the show was supposed to happen while Jaz and I were planning to go to Hawaii for vacation.  I was sad to turn down the offer, but I knew the guys would be just fine without me.

Well it turned out we are not going to Hawaii but Florida instead, and decided to cut our trip a little shorter.  So now I can make the show! I'm not sure of all the details yet to be honest, but House of Blues?  Pretty big deal to me.  I never performed in anything like that venue before, unless you count my Air Guitar performance at the United Center! Haha.  We will also be graced with quite a few talented artists around Chicago as well as Sway Penala who was from Season 5 of American Idol, but more well known as a member of Drop N Harmony in the Asian community back in the day. Those dudes can SANG!!

Here are the details about the show:

NewImage.jpg

 

...and to give you an idea of what we sound like now....

 

Hope to see you there!

Congrats to Marisol and Marvin!

CONGRATS TO MARISOL AND MARVIN ON THEIR MARRIAGE!

Here's the link to all 100+ pictures from their wedding: Joe's Shutterfly Site

Marvin and Marisol

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Training on vacation

It is week 6 of the 18 week marathon training program for this year's Chicago Marathon.  It also is the week that I had to really prove to myself how serious I really am with this training since I went to the Wisconsin Dells with my family all week.  I have yet to actually run all three runs during the week that I am supposed to be running up until now.  I normally get in one of the two 3 mile runs in, and then the longish run in as well, and then of course the long run during the weekend with the CARA group training.  This week I could have easily blown off the runs during the week and just been ready for the long run this weekend since it was a cutback week of 7 miles.  With the motivation of my two brothers, I have completed two of the three runs during the week and looking to finally hit that third run also tomorrow (later today).

It has been pretty humid here in the Dells, but I took it as an opportunity to get some heat training in too.  You never know what kind of weather will hit on October 10th this year!  I also took the opportunity to do a little bit of hill training today during my 5 mile run.  Just before the end of mile 2, I hit various levels of inclines and declines for the remainder of the distance.  Being back home, I normally just hit the same flat land.  This was a little tougher for me and I found myself huffing and puffing more than usual.  Again, I don't know what the conditions will be come race day, so I gotta have some different kinds of training out there as well.  We do our fair amount of steady incline/decline runs during our weekly long runs with CARA, but nothing like some of the hills I hit today.  It was hard work but also a nice change of pace too.  I kept thinking about my ankles and my achilles through these inclines, and it seemed to hold up, not pushing too hard off it.  I still do my proper stretching and extra cold shower after each run to cool off the body.  In addition we have been hitting the water parks everyday so I get a little more "swimming" in as well as a nice little hot tub session every now and again.  The sleeping has suffered a bit, and I just don't feel well rested in the morning.  It might be because of the small, not entirely comfortable bed we have been sleeping in the past few nights.  Also that night we hit the casino till 3:30 in the morning probably didn't help much either!  I know it definitely did not help my pocket!

Tomorrow (again, later today) I plan on running 3 miles, some of it with my oldest brother to finish strong this week to get into the 7 mile run on Saturday.  I can't believe I'll be a 1/3 of the way through this marathon training.  I will admit I am worried about next week's mileage of 3/6/3 during the week then 12mi long run on Saturday (GASP).  Remember, the mileage of the long run scheduled for next week is what did my achilles in a few months back.  I've been waiting for this distance for some time, so I can't wait to hit and then move on and up!

I plan on getting a VLOG out there again soon.  There are about 5 people who like them, so I gotta keep them happy! :)

Happy training!

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Blogging from above

No I didn't die.  I am currently on a flight to Vegas for my cousin Rodell's wedding.  I am pretty excited about getting to see all of my relatives that I have not seen in a while. Obviously all of Rodell's brothers and sisters will be there.  I don't even know the last time I saw all NINE brothers and sisters together.  It must have been one of their weddings or something.  I have no idea who got married last...too many to keep up with!  I haven't seen Rodney, Rodger, or Jun in it seems like forever! It will be a great family reunion with TONS of pictures.  I brought my 75-300mm lens so I should get better than usual shots of the wedding.  When I am so far the normal lens doesn't help a lot.  I'd like to buy a new camera body, as this one just doesn't do all I would like, but that will have to wait until I strike it a little rich.

Chloe gave Jaz and I some good luck smurfs for our trip.  Legend has it that when Chloe had these smurfs in her bag at school, she got 100% on her test.  I like to think it was just that she was smart enough to earn that 100%, but I guess that lesson will have to be taught a little later on in life.  I will still bring them with me when I hit the tables, because quite honestly, I can use all the help I can get!

Now onto the important task at hand for the year: The Marathon!  Training has been going pretty well.  Take a look at the past couple of posts, I have some VLOGs up on youtube talking about some of the training, trials, and tribulations.  This weekend would mark the end of week 4 of the marathon training.  I will admit, I have not been doing as good with the runs I am supposed to be during the week as I had hoped.  I have only been doing two of the scheduled three runs during the week.  According to the schedule, I am supposed to run each day Tuesday-Thursday with varying and progressively increasing short runs and then Saturday I do my progressively increasing long runs (which I have been running with CARA).  This week was kind of screwy because of the vacation we had scheduled to Vegas.  I originally was going to run my long run as scheduled in Vegas on Saturday.  After checking the weather was going to be over 100 degrees, I quickly changed my mind.  I ended up running the long run today of 9 miles.  Problem is that I had a pretty good 3 mile run yesterday as well. Normally the long run is preceded by a rest day.  Since it was "only" 9 miles, I figured I could tough it out, and I did.  This run did make me want to scrap my Polar HRM and footpod though.  It just appears that the Polar is making me "faster" than I really think I am.  I am pretty sure it has to do with the fact my laces are diagonal on my new Asics Nimbus.  (Oh I didn't even take a picture of my new shoes!  Remind me to do that!)  Again...gotta strike it a little rich to score a Garmin. :)

The CARA group runs have been very helpful and motivating.  My normal pace is about 12 minutes per mile, but the slowest pace at the group is 11:30, so I have been running with that pace group.  It hasn't been so bad running a little faster, but I guess we will see what happens when we really turn up he mileage around 15 miles and such.  I'm dreading it, and looking forward to it at the same time.  I should really get that third run during the week, maybe that will help me out even more during the long runs.