Posts Tagged with: "Jim Saret"

To celebrate International Women’s Month this March, Under Armour invited women for a day of workouts and massage at EDSA Shangri-La’s Chi Spa last March 21. (more…)

On The Heels of a Dream is a weekly column by guest writer Obbie Suguitan who is currently training for his first marathon, The Bull Runner Dream Marathon, on February 16, 2014.

The highlight of this week is me not being able to stand up from a sitting position. It wasn’t funny then (well. It was a little funny), it’s not funny now.

– Coach Jim Saret talks about strength conditioning, balance, and core for runners at Bull Circle 3 –

– TBR on TBR ULAH Dream Marathon –

At the Bull Circle last Wednesday, one of the things coach Jim Saret had us participants do was to do a move to show just how weak our bodies were – are still.  All I needed to do, with a certain body position, was to stand. My weak, non-marathon-ready knees did not perform. Good! It was a rude awakening to how much muscle balance and strengthening I need, along with dozens of other batchmates.

This on a night that I had a knee taped by a charmingly professional Rock doc named Ms. Carmela. At least I think they’re called Rock Docs because they’re experts at applying Rocktape, the best kenisiology tape around.

– Getting taped with Rocktape at Bull Circle 3 –

This time around, Coach Jim shared a lot of tips and exercises on how to achieve a marathon ready body – precious information on my way to the Dream.

– with TBR and fellow Dreamers –

This talk by Coach Jim, was sandwiched by my two maintenance runs for the week – both 45 minuters – which I did on Tuesday and Thursday. For both, I had relatively little trouble completing them with a few bursts of faster-than-my-usual speed. Due to being obedient to the program, I found that what little progress I’ve made is starting to build up in terms of endurance. Even in tiny, almost imperceptible increments, improvement is still improvement. Just a couple of months ago, 45 minutes running was unthinkable for a morbidly obese Obbie. During this week, a lot of talk went around about who and how the upcoming Sunday marathon was going to go. In my ‘un-readiness’ for that, I had to stay the course of my own training.

My new experience for this week was the 2nd of my maintenance runs because it was the first time I tried running in compression shorts AND a Rocktaped right knee. As much of a newbie as I am, I felt the difference the right equipment makes. As a try-athlete (I know this is not my original coined term but I’ll use it anyway), any advantage afforded by something as simple as the right shorts is a big thing. I know I’d still hurl chunks at the sight of myself in a compression shirt and pants but, fortunately, I have a few months more to achieve a better shape (‘in better shape’ is different from ‘in a better shape’). Plus, serious runners (of which I think I can count myself as right now) prefer performance over aesthetics.

My weekend LSD was a different story. I had chosen to do it on a Saturday night in the vicinity of my wife and her friends having a night out. This week my marching order was to do 90 minutes and my chosen pace is my uniform slow 2:1. Running around a big circuit around the neighborhood, I went up and down on a relatively hilly course and completed it, surprisingly, fairly fatigue-free. I know it was the case because I didn’t have the sun bearing down on me. What made this run different though, was the aftermath. I cooled down, post-stretched properly, then rested. But, as I got up from my seat barely an hour after finishing my run, I felt pain in both knees which continued well into Sunday. Maybe not pain per se but a peek-a-boo kind of ache. After I had congratulated the participants of the Sunday morning marathon, I received tips, advice, and offers of treatment from doctor batchmates. Yes! The group is coming together in support of one another! So now, after a soothing Sunday night cold compress and hopes of it being nothing serious, the pain has virtually disappeared even as I have two new Doc friends waiting in the wings to help – everyone needs help, yes? Now as I prepare to retire for the night, me and my knees will go to bed safe in the knowledge that I will not go this alone. I’m with friends. I’ll say my prayers, follow my training program, then ask yet again: When’s the next run?

My good friend Coach Jim Saret sent me this. Looks like a great program coached by a powerhouse team! I sure could use more speed, agility, or quickness…or all of the above!

The hottest sport training program in the US is finally here! Join the first ever SPEED, AGILITY and QUICKNESS (SAQ) CAMP in the Country.

Get your young athletes to GET FASTER, MOVE QUICKER and REACT BETTER! U.S. Speed and Conditioning Specialist Coach Jim Saret and our country’s Top Olympic and Asian Games Athletes will teach participants how to be extremely Fast, Quick and Agile — the foundation of every superior athlete!

Launching on April 5 at ADMU. Open to kids 7-18, varsity and pro athletes. This special camp is powered by MILO and A.P.E.X. (Athletic Performance Enhancement Training) Sports Training!

Call 0906-387-5058 (Cookie) or 0920-952-1979 (Coach Jen) for details!

Our 2nd Bull Circle packed the corner of R.O.X. again last March 10 as over 150 runners arrived for Coach Jim Saret’s talk on “Getting the Body Marathon Ready.”

– One leg up! Coach Jim teaches runners some balance exercises –

– We were honored to have one armed super runner Isidro Vildosola… –

– Wonder tri mom Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan… –

– and Jun Bisnar, GM of Nuvali who celebrated his birthday that evening, and his wife Ofel in the audience –

Our 1-hour session extended to over 2 hours as Coach Jim caught the runners’ interest with his interactive discussion and demonstration on balance and core training for runners.

What I learned in this session:

• BALANCE is important for runners!  With each step, one foot is on the ground and another in the air. One leg is at work to carry your body weight and keep you balanced. If you lack balance, one leg will have to work harder just to keep you balanced.
• HOW TO DEVELOP BALANCE: single leg stabilization drills


– Why is balance important for runners? Click on the video to find out –

• Runners should focus on strengthening the CORE. Focus on doing more core training rather than crunches, weight training, or plyometrics.
• HOW TO ACTIVATE THE CORE: suck your belly button in!
• HOW TO STRENGTHEN THE CORE: stability ball exercises, balance disc, planks

– with Coach Jim Saret –

– with Sid and Coach Jim –

* Thanks to Armie for some of the photos!

For those who missed the very informative talk, we have more videos coming up on youtube. Search for The Bull Runner.