Mukhang Guilty’s BLOG

After completing my morning run, I was off to do some shopping in the afternoon.  I have been on the lookout for a nice laptop case for my Macbook Air, most of the ones on sale in Power Mac and iStudio are either neoprene sleeves, or hard shell cases.  I was looking for something more unique, so I googled the Mac Store in Beijing, got the address and planned to check it out.

The Mac Store is located at The Village at Sanlitun, the place is easily accessible by Bus or Subway.  After downloading all the pertinent subway and street maps into my phone, we headed off to the Village.

We didn’t have much trouble in getting to The Village, the Beijing subway system is tourist friendly, the ticketing machines were bilingual (unlike Shanghai), and so were the station signs.  

The North Face 100 Ad in one of the Subway Stations

When we got there, I was pleasantly surprised to see Adidas, Nike, and Mizuno stores.  Note that these stores weren’t just regular stores, they were multi level super stores.  Somehow, I forgot that I was there to shop for a laptop case and eventually ended up wandering into those three stores.

4 level Adidas Store

The Adidas store had everything, running stuff, basketball gear, Y3, casual wear, accessories.  But what caught my attention was the Adidas Footscan station

Why can't we have something like this here?

The footscan system analyses a runner’s gait pattern through a pressure sensor mat.  The runner runs on the mat, the sensor records the weight shift of the runner’s foot from heel strike to toe off, and the accompanying analysis software (by RS Scan) prints out a graph of your strike pattern, and a shoe correction recommendation.

Barefoot running

I did have a hard time understanding the specialist’s explanation of the results, he was speaking to me in Mandarin.  I was alright with conversational mandarin, but technical terms such as over  pronation, supination, gait were just too complicated for me to understand.

The image above is a graph analysis of my gait, it plots the roll of my foot (pronation / supination) vs time .  The green colored graph represents my left foot, while the red colored graph represents my right foot.  The graph divides the time into three sections…. 0.00 to 0.15 second (heel strike), 0.15 to 0.70 second (midstance), and 0.70 to 1 second (toe off).  The white shaded area represents the mean values of those who tried the footscan system.  What this graph implies, I couldn’t understand anymore, the language barrier had me lost… I HAD NO CLUE as to he was saying.

Footwear Adviser Screen

The footwear adviser screen above shows that both my feet are normal.  However, the Mid Sole Correction proposal at the bottom half of the screen says that I need shoes that have (2) Rear foot motion control or (3) rear foot anti pronaton wedge… I’m not sure what that means but based on my limited understanding, your feet may be normal, but once you run, gait analysis will show that normal feet can supinate or over pronate too.

The Adidas store is not the only store that had kick ass analysis equipment, the Mizuno store also had a proprietary analysis system

Two Floors!

It’s called the Precision Fit System, and unlike the FootScan system where you have to run on a mat, the Precision Fit System first asks you to fill out a questionnaire on your running habits, then it goes on to capture instances of your feet and legs while 1) standing with both feet, 2) standing on one leg, 3)  squatting.

It prints out a shoe size recommendation.

My left foot is bigger than my right foot.

Then it prints out the analysis, together with the size and model of the Mizuno Shoe that best fits your feet.  I don’t really understand what’s written because it’s in Chinese, so all i can do is hope that the Mizuno stores here in the Philippines would bring in the Precision Fit System.  I’ve tried on Mizunos before (Wave Precision 8), and I was quite satisfied with it, they make good running shoes… and having this Precision System in their stores will definitely add to their credibility as a running shoe manufacturer.

Other than the Mizuno, Adidas and Nike stores, there were others like Puma, and The North Face as well..

Multi-Level Nike Store

Puma

TNF

BUT WAIT… isn’t this supposed to be a post about my trip to the APPLE STORE ?  Going back to Apple, I didn’t find anything interesting or unique, I just liked the store layout, and the facade.

... Giant Macbook

As mentioned in my previous post, running shoes are the most important investment a runner should make.  Understanding one’s foot biomechanics should be a prerequisite in choosing the right running shoe.  Having the right pair of shoes could spell the difference between getting a PR (Personal Record) or visiting a PT (Physical Therapist).  If you are a newbie runner, and you want to learn more about finding the right pair of running shoes, you can start by reading this or this.  These two articles should be informative enough for you to make an educated decision in the absence of the high tech analysis equipment.

It goes without saying that the opportunity to run is always part of a runner’s agenda when traveling to a foreign country.  The idea of running in a foreign country elicits a sense of excitement on one hand, as one looks forward to see the famous landmarks described in travel books or shown in Nat Geo, and caution on the other, as one may get lost in translation (especially when the locals do not really speak english) which could eventually lead to getting lost literally.

I was hoping to be able to do some running around Beijing.  Being ’severely OC’ about my weekly mileage, I made sure that I’ve completed all my required tempo and long runs prior to my trip.  That way, if my plan to run gets derailed, I would have at least hit 90% of my required distance.

We were booked in The Raffles Hotel Beijing, the hotel is located along the historic Chang’an avenue.

Photo courtesy of raffles.com

Chang’an avenue is around 50 to 100 meters wide, with ample sidewalks for running.  Quite a number of important architectures, such as the Great Hall of People, the National Museum of China, the National Grand Theater, Tiananmen Square, and the gates to the Forbidden City are located along this road.

The hotel is roughly 1.5 kilometers from the Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City, so it’s but natural that I plan my run around that area.  In my hotel room, while looking for a pen to draw the running route I created while referencing Google Earth, i saw this inside the desk drawer..

The JOGGING MAP… (errr, not a jogger, but a runner) says that the route is about 3.46 kilometers.  The route distance was too short for me so I decided to run the recommended route and extend it further by running around the walls of the Forbidden City, the estimated distance should be around 10 to 11 kilometers.

Actual route as mapped by Polar RS800 cx GPS pod

In front of the hotel before the run

My not so little brother and I started our run by heading towards the Forbidden City before double backing to Tiananmen.  The run along Wangfujin Street (A) was quite chaotic, the street was filled with retail shops, and running on this street was like running an obstacle course, there were lots of people.

We ran a distance of about 0.7 kilometers before turning left towards the east entrance of the Forbidden City (B)

The road that leads to the east entrance of the Forbidden City is roughly another 0.7 kilometers, the side walks are much narrower, and one should take special care when crossing the street as Beijing drivers can be quite unruly, be sure to look on both directions before crossing.

.... stop look and listen before crossing

East entrance Forbidden City

The run around the walls of Forbidden City was around 5 kilometers, a moat surrounds it, and this is the highlight of our run, I really enjoyed this part of the run.  The park-like environment felt calm and peaceful.  The photos don’t really do justice, you have to be there to experience it.

The moat that surrounds the Forbidden City

25 degrees, nice and cool... Priceless

I almost got run over here... head on with an incoming car

After completing one round around the Forbidden City, we headed back towards the hotel to Tiananmen. The crowd grew thicker and thicker as we approached Tiananmen.

@ Tiananmen Square... wide pedestrian lanes, but too many people

There were just too many people so I decided to turn around, and head back to the hotel.  We finished the run in about an hour and six minutes, with a distance of about 12 Kilometers.   The average pace was around 5:30 / km.

“He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man.”  

 Mao Zedong

With the most accessible section located in Badaling, roughly 2 hours away from Beijing, the Great Wall of China was our Day 02 destination.  Built by the first Emperor Chin to keep the northern invaders away from his unified empire, it spans across several provinces with an estimated length 6,400 kms.  

The Badaling section of the Great Wall recieves an average of  62,000 visitors a day, this makes it impossible for a runner to run the Great Wall without having to weave his way around visitors posing to have their pictures taken.  However, once a year, a portion of the Wall is closed for runners running The Great Wall Marathon.  Runners have the option to run 5k, 10k, 21k or the full marathon. Running the Great Wall is no joke, it’s quite challenging, but with proper training, one can finish the race.

I was there not as a Great Wall Marathon participant (hopefully someday I will run it with T2 ), but as a tourist to appreciate the Wall’s 2000 year history.

Runner’s perspective…. Little to no flats, mostly uphills and downhills

 45 Degree hill behind me

Hill Repeats anyone?

At the first watch tower…

At this point, we found it hard to take solo pics of ourselves… so we decided to have some fun and share our moments with random tourists…

It would be nice to run The Great Wall Marathon, but I don’t think I’m ready for that yet….

I took a few days off to travel with my family to Beijing for a brief R&R, the weather was a cool 24 degrees… ANG SARAP!!! 

First order of business was to visit the Bird’s Nest Stadium and the Water Cube.  Seeing it on TV is one thing, but getting to see the REAL thing was just awesome….

Entrance to the National Aquatics Center (Water Cube)

The Beijing Super Pool, where Phelps snagged 8 Olympic Gold Medals

With the National Stadium (Bird’s Nest) in the background.. Harvey, Me, Jennifer, Vanessa, Stepmom, Dad

The Oldest with the Youngest =)

SPEEDWORK anyone? =)

Brothers and sisters, Harris, Vanessa, Hubert, Me, Jennifer, Harvey… I should get them all to run para fun =P