A Run-filled Year

After about two months of lethargy, this morning got me laced up and hitting the road for an easy, short 3K run. It was perfect. Great run-weather, quiet roads, my favourite shoes and music in my ears - the perfect run to cap off an awesome year of running.

Six half-marathons and three 10Ks with several training runs in between, this year has been packed to the rim with running. And of these, four were PBs and one a 2nd place podium finish - I think I've earning my bragging rights.. ;-)

If I had to pick a favourite of all these, it would have to be the Auroville Half Marathon - not just because I broke my earlier PB by eight minutes, it was also my first trail marathon and I think running in nature is just bliss for me. During this run, I didn't feel exhausted or get to that place of O-M-G-why-am-I-doing-this-to-myself. The finish line in fact came as a surprise. It wasn't perfect though. Running out of town has its own set of cons.

The Trivandrum Marathon too was pretty memorable to me - only because I came in second (at 2:33 - ridiculous by normal race standards). Of course running in my home-town was pretty cool in its own way. However, it is probably a race I wouldn't do again in a hurry.

Picking my least favourite is way easier. It goes without doubt to D2D Night Marathon. Mid-June in Chennai, dead-at-night, sweltering hot, tiresome, and just pure torture. People should not be running 21.1 kilometres when they are meant to be asleep in bed.

Come to think of it, even the CTM was pretty torturous but that was torturous in a challenging way and though it was my longest ever HM, it is not a race I would write-off. In fact, had the race start been earlier in the morning, I dare-say it would have beat the Auroville HM to favourite spot.

Lots of people assumed that my running bug would be a short-lived phase in my life (I am prone to such phases). After achieving my 2016 goal of 6 HMs, it was expected that I would retire my running shoes. I am far from that. Now here comes 2017 with it's loftier goals and brand new races.

Bring it!

Whats been happening?

It is quite shamefacedly that I write this for since the last post, I haven't been sticking to my goals at all. Sure, the plan was awesome - work on my problem areas and develop more strength, power and flexibility mainly through Yoga and weight training sessions. On paper the schedule was perfect and had I followed it, I'm sure I would be seeing some results by now. But other than for a handful of days when I practiced some basic Yoga, my workout schedule just shows a bunch of bright red crosses.

This is the trouble right here, as long as there is no running in my schedule, there is zilch discipline. On run days, I wake up at 4:00 am and the rest of my day just flows along smoothly. I just seem to magically find time for all my chores before I have to head to work, I have lots of energy throughout the day, I tend not to eat junk or binge on my favourite foods, I tend to be in a great mood all the time and I automatically go to bed early. And since I am getting up at 4:00 am on four out of seven days in a week, it just makes sense to do that consistently on all the days and in doing that, my days are just perfect.   

I figured if I can get up at 4:00 am for a run I can get up at 4:00 am period. Wrong! When the alarm goes off at 4:00 am, my sleepy brain rationalizes in a variety of different ways - "Sleep for another hour and work out a little later" (this goes on till there is no time for later) or "You don't have to go anywhere why torture yourself? Sleep-in some more" or "Whats the major need to work out?" or "You can workout in the evening can't you?" or "mmmm sleep!". And in the end, sleep has always won.

The result? I snooze till about 8:00 or 8:30, get all my morning duties out of the way and scramble to get to work on time, trudge through work sluggishly, by evening feeling too tired may work out half-heartedly or just skip it all together (the latter being more common), snack like a crazy person, and lie wide awake in bed till the wee hours wondering why I am not falling asleep . 

December month is the best month (weather-wise) in Chennai and I'm missing out on the perfect run-weather. Got to stir myself and get back into the groove of things. Revisiting the blog has sort of helped - I feel a little more enthused and definitely do feel like it.

Now that the dust has settled

Post the Trivandrum Marathon, I've been taking my "rest" period very seriously. Maybe too seriously even! :) Now that my running goals have been met I have decided to dial back on my running and spend the next two months focussing on improving strength & flexibility.

I have mentioned it before: I am not a fan of weight training. I find lifting weights boring and repetitive but developing strength is a necessary part of fitness and so it has become something that I try to incorportae regularly in my workout routine. Very often I turn to workout routines that have a mash-up of cardio exercises & weights and I feel this allows me to get through the routine better and also burns more calories. But a concentrated approach to weight training where you focus on an isolated muscle or group of muscles is supposedly more effective and goes a long way in improving strength & muscle tone.

My husband, Dominic has become my self-appointed fitness trainer in this aspect and has decided that he will train me to get stronger & fitter. It is always nice to have a work-out buddy to push through the excercises but I am also groaning inwardly since I know he can be a punishing task-master (in a good way!)

My plan is also to focus on strengthening those problem areas that are susceptible to injury - especially during running. For me that will be my feet, and the pelvic / hip area. Strengthening the main leg muscles - the quads, hamstrings & calves - are also a must and the reason goes without saying.

Equally important for me over the next few weeks is to develop my flexibility. I daresay my flexibility is above average but it can be much better. For this, I plan to incorporate a lot of Yoga and stretching as part of my daily routine. I have borrowed this really great book on Yoga asanas (simply titled Yoga) from my sister-in-law (who is an expert on the subject and a trained yoga teacher) and am hoping it will push me along my flexibility goals.

So here goes..

6 down... goal met :-)

Trivandrum Marathon: Done. 6 Half Marathons in 2016: Done.

It was a good day as far as goals go and a grand one as far as runs go. I made a new PB - 2:33:25 - breaking my earlier personal record by a minute and a few seconds. I ran the race with the amazing support of my mom & dad who were cheering me on at the finish line. I had my aunt and uncle with me too at the finish - they had done their first 10k strong and had their very own PBs to celebrate. And get this: I got a podium finish - actually came in 2nd!!! Couldn't have asked for a better run to end my goal with.

The event as such was small with way less participants than the other events I've taken part in but it was well organized, the hydration stations were stocked decently well for an event this size, there were plenty of volunteers along the way to ensure everyone stuck to the correct route and in general it was smooth running. The route was just okay. Though most of it was running along the coast line it didn't offer any views of the ocean. But more than that what disappointed was the constant traffic in the relatively small roads. At one point I had to flatten myself out against a wall to avoid an oncoming public bus...

I stuck to my race plan more or less most of the way. My start was faster than planned and I reached the 5k point a minute or so early. I reached the 10k mark at 1:12:00 as per the plan but by the 15k point I had slipped by two minutes. From the 17.5k point onward I sort of had company. We kept each other's pace up (I think) for I am pretty sure I would have let myself slow down post 18k had it not been for this runner. I didn't learn anything about him because we mostly ran in silence (me listening to my music) except for talking about the remaining distance and time elapsed. I could have finished the last 100 meters in a sprint but I was distracted because I was looking for my power song to finish with and when I looked up I was suddenly at the finish already. Finished 4 minutes later than my race plan but PBed nevertheless...

I'm happy with that!

There weren't many women taking part in the 21K category and while taking the U turns, I didn't see any of them running ahead of me. I did see the winner, Kenyan Jane Mbogo enroute but she was so far up ahead that at the time I thought she was running in some other category. (Her timing is nearly an hour ahead of mine!). The results were out today and woah! here I am at second place!

I'll say it again: It was an awesome finish to my running goal for the  year!

TVMM - Race Plan

I agonized over my race plan for the upcoming Trivandrum Marathon. I usually mentally break down the route into small manageable sections and set mini time targets for each section. Normally these sections are equidistant and I can plan my splits fairly quickly. When I break down a route there will be familiar landmarks that mark the sections so it is easier to plan it out in my head. For example, along my Marina route I know that the Gemini Flyover comes at the 3K mark, the Gandhi statue at the 6.5K mark and so on. So when I am actually running, when I get to these points, I just check to see if I am on track time-wise. The race route being completely new territory, I have had to go by the water stations as given in the organizers map. These are not equidistant so setting time targets going by the ideal pace involved some complex math (and I am not that great with math!). I have arrived at the magic numbers though and here they are:

Hydration Point 1: 2.5K: Target Time: 18:30 

Hydration Point 2: 5K: Target Time: 37:00

Its always a good plan to run the initial half of the run slower than the 2nd half - many trainers advocate this "negative split" because it conserves energy and you are able to finish strong. This is my intention as well. In any case the start will always be slow because it is usually crowded at the beginning. My plan means I will be running at an average pace of 7'25" which is quite a comfortable pace. 

Hydration Point 3: 7.5K: Target Time: 54:30

Hydration Point 4 / U turn: 10K: Target Time: 1:12:00

The next two bits will be run a slightly faster pace of 7'00". I believe this would still be a comfortable pace for me.

Hydration Point 5: 12K: Target Time: 1:25:30

Hydration Point 6: 13.5K: Target Time: 1:35:45

Hydration Point 7: 15K: Target Time: 1:46:00

The middle section of the race is when I plan to run my fastest - a pace of 6'45". This will NOT be comfortable yet it shouldn't be that hard as not to be able to sustain it for 5 km

Hydration Point 8: 17.5K: Target Time: 2:03:30

Here's where I deviate from the negative split plan. I would have to slow down and come back to 7'00" just to ensure that my legs don't fall off during the run.

Finish: 21.1K: Target Time: 2:29:45

The point between the last hydration station and the finish is a long stretch of 3.6 kilometers (a little concerned here). Going by all my previous HMs, I will be running on near empty by this time. This compounded by no hydration breaks, I will be bound to slow down during this last stretch. Keeping a comfortable 7'30" pace for this bit means I should cross the finish line at a neat 2:29:45 - sub 2:30 and PB if goal is met.

Very nice plans all, but everything could just go for a toss in a snap. If the weather is hot or muggy, I will be happy if I can sustain an average pace of 7'45". Too many inclines, too crowded, raining, not able to find my rhythm, not rested enough - it could be anything. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to plan this out so meticulously  - 'coz not once have I been able to stick with it. :-) 

Maybe this time's the charm! (Hope. there is always hope!)

TVMM - Race Week

Finally, the race organizers of Trivandrum Marathon have sent some updates via email. I love reading these because it really amps up my enthusiasm and energy and is an important part of my ritual of getting race-ready.

They've sent the much awaited info on the bib expo venue, the race venue & details on the getting there bit, reporting times and flag-off times for the various events and - my favourite - the route map. I had heard, that last year the marathon was flagged off in the city and was run on a 10k loop that snaked through the city roads. I had been mentally prepared therefore to run the half marathon in 2 loops (extremely tedious & boring!). I was so happy to see, then that this year's route was a 21k loop which meant just a single loop half marathon (yay!). 

On a bonus note, the start point is from Shangmukham beach and the route that they've sketched may be the route along the beach towards veli - which offers lots more hope for a scenic, breezy, pleasant run than the city roads did. 

As always, I pored over google maps, obsessively trying to trace this sketchy route out on the "real" map. I think I've come pretty close to it. The angles of the route on my map is clearly not at neat, defined 90 degrees as shown on the race route map but it is a perfect 21.1k - and it hits all the landmarks shown on their map - Veli boat club, VSSC & All saints college. I'm going to assume its the right one.

Next, I would break the route down point-wise and figure out my ideal crossing time for various points - in case you were wondering, this is why I do this exercise in the first place. (I'm keeping this next task for another day.)

Race excitement aside, I am also greatly looking forward to visiting home - its been a while. I will leave on Friday evening and will have the whole of Saturday to relax with the folks - will have to nip down to the YMCA hall to collect my bib though. Post run on Sunday, I get to chill out and wind down at home and stuff my face with some awesome food - most likely parotta and chilly chicken! :-) Can't wait for this weekend to get here. 

TVMM Training Week 5

Woah! This week I was ON!

On Monday, I did a 20 minute stairwell workout followed by some upper body strength training. Normally you would hear trainers tell you to do weights first and then finish up with cardio - the idea being to deplete all the carbs (glycogen) stored in the muscles first so that when you then finish up with cardio, your body will turn to burning your fat stores for energy. But I find that when I try to do cardio after weights, I'm just not able to get through it... 

Tuesday morning, I got up well in time and had hit the roads by 5:00 am. I was to do the 18k lsd that I had missed over the weekend. When I started it was strange to see a bright big moon shining down through the trees - it felt very surreal. For the first 45 minutes or so the weather was considerably cooler than last week and the run felt good. My app showed a pace of 5'40" and I was pretty shocked since it didn't feel like I was going that fast. Then I figured that the app had somehow reset itself and wasn't tracking the distance correctly and so it was calculating the pace wrong. By the time I was at 800 meters it was showing that I had done 1 km. But since I was running on my most frequented route, I was familiar with the kilometer marks and stopped when I got to the point I knew to be 18k (though the app said 22.5k). It did not even track my route - which was a nice long one from home all the way to Napiers bridge at one end of Marina beach and back. Going by the more accurate distance of 18k in 02:06:45 put my pace at 7'03" - definitely not as fast as 5'38" but still pretty good.

Wednesday, I spent a good one hour weight training for my lower body. Of late, I have been trying to pay more attention to this part of my training. Strength training is probably my least favourite thing to do. But it is so important for all the long term benefits - stronger bones, stronger muscles, better muscle definition & toning not to mention better stamina and endurance. Thats how I found myself doing a long session of weighted squats, lunges & calf raises, deadlifts & leg extensions ending up absolutely drained.

On Thursday, I wanted to do a tempo run so I joined the Nitros but 300 meters or so into the run, I just wasn't feeling it. Even before I had reached Haddows park (at about 1.5k) I was feeling like I normally would towards the end of a 10k run. Just to keep me intrested in the run, I decided to make it a fartlek run instead and I did randomly timed fast sprints (run like a dog is chasing me) for random distances (from this tree to that lamp post) at random intervals (ok, I'm feeling good so lets start it up again). It was fun and somehow got me through the 6k distance. I enjoy doing really fast runs (5'00" to 5'30") but the trouble is that I cannot sustain that pace for long - maybe 100 meters at the most.

Friday was core day. Like many others, I aspire for nice, flat, toned abs (not six packs but I would like some definition). It is a very tough goal for me becuase it does involve a fair amount of dietary discipline (which I hugely lack) but I diligintely do core workouts once a week with the unabating hope that I'll get there someday (though I don't particularly enjoy doing crunches and planks and what not).

Today too I hit the roads at 5:00 with the goal of doing an easy paced 12k. I turned around at the 6k point and ran into some of the runners from Nitros. I enjoyed a chatty, slow run after that with even a couple of walking breaks thrown in. I turned off into Haddows park cutting my run short by 2 k, did my stretching, posed for the customary group pic, hung out with the group sipping the customary post-run coffee and headed home feeling pretty relaxed actually.

Now if I could queeze in a nice leisurely swim tomorrow then this week will be perfect!

TVMM Training Week 4

This morning, though I was able to get myself out of bed, laced up, on the road and all set to do an 18k, I just wasn't feeling it. I felt sluggish, low on energy, sleepy and the thought of running all the way to Napiers bridge and back felt daunting. 

It was also late (5:50) and something about starting the run in bright daylight seemed weird. I knew it would take me till 8:30-ish to finish and imagining running back throught the traffic and the heat dissipated whatever little inclination I had. But since I was out on the road anyways, I decided to do a fast 2K around Kothari road and call it even (thought the two targets are even the slightest bit comparable).

I completed the 2k at an average pace of 6'28" which was not bad! I put in most of the effort during the last stretch because I wanted to finish the 2k under 13 minutes and I just about managed to. 

Earlier during the week too,  I was not able to get out in time for a run although on Thursday I did manage a pretty intense indoor running drill session. 30 minutes of running in place in 1 minute intervals of fast running followed by 30 seconds of a recovery jog. 

So all-in-all that made for a pretty dismal Week 4 as far as training goes. I've run about 6 km this week and it was supposed to be peak week. Not feeling very proud of myself. To make up, I intend to run my 18k this coming tuesday, a tempo run or interval run on Thursday, and a 1 hour run on Saturday. Come race week, I should try and squeeze in a 12k on Monday or Tuesday and maybe a light 5k on Thursday. My training is far from ideal and I should not even entertain thoughts of achieving a PB this time.

TVMM Training Week 3

The training continues, though the Week 3 plan had to be tweaked somewhat.

Tuesday went as scheduled. I got a 5K tempo run done. Joined the Nitros for that one. Managed to maintain a fast pace and got it done in 33 minutes. Would have been a quicker run if my shoelaces hadn't come undone enroute (twice!! <eyeroll>).

Over the weekend, my social calendar just didn't allow me to sqeeze in an early morning lsd. Today being off, I decided to do my 15k. But I just about managed to get up at 4:00 am and push myself out the door for a run - for today was a record! I went to bed at 2:00 am and did my 15k run with only 2 hours of zzzzs. (eyeroll again)

I am surprised I got through the run - and that too at a moderate pace of 7'22". Again it had rained last night and again, I was looking forward to pleasant running-weather only to be sorely disappointed. It was as hot and humid as ever but with a bit of wind which lent some respite. We are in October! When is the weather going to turn mild?!

Very tired and I think I am sleep-typing this out. But I have to stay awake a little longer and keep hydrating. I may have chronicled this before, but all through my CTM training, post every long run I would get terrible headaches later on in the day which would last a good 8-12 hours - even race day was not spared. I did a lot of reading up on this and lot of what-did-I-do-wrong-musing and eventually wound up at the conclusion that it was caused due to acute dehydration. These past couple of months have been quite strangely hot. I did notice that the runs were sweatier than normal but I did not adjust my water intake accordingly. And mistake number two was snoozing for a couple of couple of hours shortly after the runs which only compounds the dehydration.

Last week, after my lsd, I was very careful with the hydration. I didn't care if I had to run to the toilet every twenty minutes, but for 2 hours post my run I continually kept sipping water (about 3 litres). And voila! no headaches. Apparently this is a very common problem, especially with people who are prone to migraines (as I am). Heres the forum & article that lead me to the answer.

Other than the postponed long run, Week 3 was good. In addition to the tempo run, I got in three sessions of strength training, 1 session of cardio workout, and 1 swim day. Which was perfect. Need to keep the momentum goin - onto Week 4.

TVMM Training Week 2

I'm gearing up for my 6th HM for the year and this one is going to be in Trivandrum on the 30th of October. I'm looking forward to running along a new route and ofcourse the added pleasure of running in my hometown. 

I started my "chilled-out" training program last week. I call it chilled out because it only entails 2 or 3 runs per week. Mind you, you will never see a professional running training plan that asks for anything less than 3 days of running - so this one is just for me by me. The days that I'm not running, I've got me doing strength, cardio or Yoga. Six of the seven days in a week, I will still be active. Of the two runs, one will be a short, fast one (tempo, fartlek or interval - depending on what I feel like) and one will be a long, slow one.

This week, on Tuesday, I joined the Nitros for a short run. The plan was to do a 6k tempo. The rest of the group were doing an easy run - I just had to keep up with the "easy" pace of the faster runners to maintain my tempo pace. Managed to do the 6k in 41 minutes which is about 4 minutes faster than my average 6k time.

I had my long run scheduled for yesterday. I was intending to do a moderate paced 12k but I knew that was a tough ask last morning given that I had had a long, tiring work day the previous day and had only about 4.5hrs of sleep in the bank. I decided to endure the whole distance by working an easy - slow pace. 

It had rained the previous night and I was expecting it to be very pleasant to run in the morning. I was so wrong. It was sultry, humid and almost breeze-less. I thought that once I got to the 6k point by Marina, instead of turning around, I would run along the beach promenade and back - just for some relief from the heat. But even along the beach it was still and opressive so I ended up turning around after all.

In the end, I did manage the whole distance and because I was going at a slow pace, it didn't feel totally torturous.

Another 4 weeks to go.

Run Update 24.09.2016

Today, the Chennai Runners had organized another Girls Only Run as part of their promotional campaign for TWCM'16. Few of the ladies from Nitros were going and I thought it might be good to run in kilpauk for a change. I ran from home to Haddows Park thinking I'll join the gang running from there to Kilpauk. I was late and there was no one at Haddows Park. :(. I then ran alone to Kilpauk and not being too sure of where the start point for the run was, I had to turn on google maps and figure it out - delaying my run in the process. I ran into a whole bunch of ladies who were just finishing the GOR and ran with them for the last 200 metres or so till the finish point. Met the Nitros ladies, caught up for a bit but since I had only done 6.4k by that point, I decided not to stick around for the cool down & photo sessions & to run back home and complete target (I was scheduled for 9k). 

Was pretty decent weather for a run and I had a relaxed one (what with stopping to figure out where I was and all).

Over the last week, I did register for the Trivandrum Marathon - it will be nice to do my last half for the year in my home town. Not going to stress too much about the training though. Will see this one through with 2 to 3 runs per week of training. So here we go all over again...

Back to Running

Post-CTM, I've had a super-relaxing holiday in Sri Lanka. Swam to my heart's content in the loveliest of pools and the R&R is just what all my muscles needed. Even though I wished for the holiday to never end, it had to sometime. And so now its back to the old grind.

I joined the Nitros today after a long break. It was a sweaty, moderate paced 7K from home to Cathedral road (including the flyover - for a challenge) ending at Haddows Park. It was nice to run with company for a change though most of them were running at different paces. My app froze for a little more than a kilometer of my run which is why the route, distance, time and pace shown is a little off. 

Its time to plan for #6. Initially, I thought I would run TWCM 16 as my final one for the year which meant this year of running would start and end with TWCM. But this year the run has been set for December 11th which might get in the way of my yearly family-time-holiday. While looking for a possible alternative, I came across the Trivandrum Marathon. Its a chance for me to run in my hometown, it would be good to run a new route, the weather would be pleasant and I can relax post-run in the comfort of my home. I haven't registered yet but it is a good option. The only thing holding me back is that the run is just in its 2nd edition and not having heard any testimonials about it, I am clueless about how well it is organized, whether it is runner friendly etc etc.

More on this in the days to come.

CTM 2016 - 5 Down 1 more to go

On Saturday, after picking up my bib at the CTM expo, my husband, Dom and I made one last attempt at finding the race venue before hand. At the expo we confirmed the location given in the updated link google maps link and we were all set to go. Guess what? That pin was wrong as well! We got to a point where google asked us to turn right and there was a big blue locked gate and no discernible path behind it either. Luckily we could ask for directions and some people pointed us in the right way. It was a relief to find the place finally and figure out the start point. While heading back, we took another route which took us right past Dom's parent's place which was a lot closer to the venue than ours so we quickly made the decision to camp out there for the night which gave us an additional half an hour of sleep time in the morning.

Getting ready in an different place threw me off my usual pre-run rituals. I forgot to eat my homemade pre-run granola snack even though I had remembered to bring it from home. But I was just grateful for the extra bit of sleep and the shorter ride to the race venue. (Did remember to have a banana though.)

Got to the venue perfectly in time. (Thank you, Dom!) The flag-off for my batch was at 5:50. I knew I would be finishing around 8:50 and expecting it to be sunny post 8:00, I had carried my shades and cap along. The sun had already risen by the time we started and it was rather bright right from the onset so the accessories came in good use pretty much from the start. 

Five seconds into the run, I felt unprepared for the trail. Even on the flat-ish parts of the terrain, the path was so uneven that I just couldn't find my rhythm and pace. It felt like a trekking trail. The place as such was beautiful and it felt great to be running in nature. For the first half an hour or so, the weather was pleasant. It was breezy and the morning was just light. I even managed to take a few pictures en route. Then the sun came up in all its glory and the temperature and humidity started creeping up. There were several steep sections along the route and while running up them was completely zapping, running down them was death-defying (I exaggerate for effect!:-)). There were also small sections of road and it was such a relief to run on them albeit for a short while.

I was pretty much exhausted by the 12k mark which took me an hour and thirty two minutes. Somehow, I just kept pushing through. The worst part was that most of the trail had no green cover. It was just the land, the sky and all of us running through it. I daresay it would have made for a wonderful experience had the run been during pleasanter weather conditions. But as it stood, it was pretty torturous. Between the 12K and the 18.5k mark I made sure I walked up the incline sections and ran only the flat-ish sections to conserve what energy was left. 

The 18.5k mark had the last aid station of the route. It was around 8:30 by this time and I knew I had atleast another 20 minutes of running to do. I looked around the place - flat, grassy grounds dotted with some 50 odd ponds and the sun shining merrily on the whole scene. I could see the path to the finish line winding away in front of me with not a scrap of shade anywhere along it. I attempted running - and I am not sure if it was the actual heat or if it was in my head but I felt faint within 10 seconds. I decided I would be better off walking to the finish line. Several times after that I attempted resuming running and each time I just could not. 

In what seemed like eternity I finally came to the turning where I could see the finish line. I could vaguely hear the announcements at the finish desk as they called out the bib number of each of the finishers. I still could not bring myself to run. Finally when I knew I was about a 100 meters away I just had to draw on every tiny drop of energy left and make a dash for it. 2:52 something was the time shown on my app. (Still awaiting the official time). 

Done! Thrilled that I did it. Glad that it is over. :-)

Only one more to go.

CTM Training - Race Week

So it's finally here. After weeks of waiting (actually a year and some more) I finally get to run the Chennai Trail Marathon (in three days time). 

On Monday, my husband and I took a ride down to Red hills to figure out exactly where Gojan School of Business & Technology (the start & finish venue of the race) is. A faulty location link sent in the CTM mailer took us to a butcher shop somewhere on 80ft road in Red Hills. A second google maps search led us to the middle of nowhere. Imagine my dismay on hearing the words, "you have arrived at your destination" after the route had led us to an empty plot with a algae filled pond on one side & a settlement of huts on the other. Nobody that we asked had even heard of this college so after riding around the area for a bit, we decided to turn around and head home.

After contacting the race officials, I was informed that the location link they'd sent was indeed wrong and a couple of days later an updated link pointing to the right location on google maps was sent. This is marked at a point about 6 kilometers further than the place our google map search took us to. I don't want to be hunting around desperately for the venue on race-day morning so come Saturday, we're going to be making another dry run to this elusive start-point.

The official route map along with some dos and don'ts and some trail images has found its way to my inbox raising my anticipation levels even more. I just hope I'm not over-hyping this run in my head.

As work-outs go, I've been keeping it very light this week. Today, I ran my last run before the race - a short and easy 3K run on the terrace of my building. 30 laps around a 100 meter loop was definitely boring but served its purpose. I will be continuing with light exercises, some yoga, some strength and lots of stretching until Saturday. 

I'm so ready for this!

CTM Training - Taper Week

Most training programs have you reduce your running volume by 50% or so in the week before the race week. This reduction is referred to as tapering and it is so your body can recuperate & heal and be as "fresh" as possible for race week. Apparently lots of runners have problems dealing with this reduced running volume because they feel it its detrimental to their feeling "race ready".  So typically in a training program you will have your peak week followed by a week or even two of tapering.

This week was my taper week. Just as well since work travel meant I didn't get to squeeze in even a single run. Got by with some swimming, yoga, walking, strength training & indoor running drills. Ideally this is what race week should have been like and I should have got in at least a couple of runs this week. Well.

Finally heard from the CTM organizing team. Had an email announcing the bib expo day and details about the running venue, getting there and more. The venue is roughly an hour away from home.The 21k runners have been divided into 3 batches based on their previous finishing times. I'm in the last batch which will be flagged off at 5:50. I have to report half an hour ahead of that which makes for a comfortable leaving home time of 4:00 ish. I was afraid it would be a scary 2:00 am wake-up come September 11th. 3:00 am is sooo much better! :-)

Still have the route map and the bib collection to look forward to. Yay! Race week is here.

CTM Training Week 5

Well, so much for "Peak Week"!!! Other than my 18K LSD which I did today, I did not manage any of the runs scheduled for the week. Late nights, work - the usual culprits. I did however get in an indoor running drills session, 3 strength sessions & a stairwell workout to make up for it though.

Today's run was very pleasant. A couple of unexpected showers in the city yesterday has managed to cool things down considerably and the stuffy, hot weather we were having over the last few weeks seems to have dissipated. I hope it stays this way till the end of the year. (Or at least till CTM). 

I managed a good steady run at an easy pace even though I was pretty low in the zzz's bank. (Yes, yes, this is pretty standard for me). Ran via cathedral road - even took the flyover this time - till Marina beach and then along the promenade all the way till the MGR memorial and back. My pace dropped a bit while on the flyover but I figured the CTM trail is going to be anything but flat so why not throw a flyover in for practice.

It was drizzling pretty much all through the second & third segments of my run which was fun, but other than that it was a rather uneventful run again like last week. I think it is time for a change of scenery - maybe I should consider changing running routes for a bit.

My friendly, neighborhood tender coconut guy was open by the time I finished my run so got my fill of natural electrolytes post-run... I think I'm going to be making this a habit on every long run. Tomorrow is rest day - I shall be recuperating after this long run. I am sure I will develop sore points by the end of today.

Race week is almost here - just another 2 weeks to go - and I'm surprised that things on the organizing-front have been very quiet. Normally other races would have been bombarding you with emails on race prep, or filling your newsfeed with race details by now. Last year they had organized a couple of training runs along the race route to help runners accustom to the terrain but I didn't see any of that this year. Anyways, my enthusiasm has not diminished. Bring on Week 6!!

Run Update 21.08.2016

Did a very hot and sweaty LSD yesterday. Managed my 12K at a steady, moderate pace of 7'07". It was hot but windy along certain parts of the route. Quite an uneventful long run till the beach and back home.

That concluded Week 4 of my CTM training - 3 run days, 2 strength days and 1 day of yoga. Now its just two more weeks until race week. Next week will be peak week with 4 days of running & 3 days of strength training. It will have my longest LSD at 18K. Absolutely have to keep this momentum going.

Run Update 18.08.2016

Week 4 of CTM training is well on it's way and today was my Tempo Run. Till date I've never been very successful at maintaining a tempo pace so to make things a little easier I decided to do a 2K x 3 Tempo with a 3 minute rest in between sets as opposed to a 3K x 2 tempo. I figured I should get my tempo pacing right for a shorter duration and then I could slowly work my way up. Today's attempt was by far the most successful. I didn't always manage to stick to tempo pace but at least all three sets were run at a pretty consistent pace.

                    

          

The target pace was 6'30" but my first set took me 12:34 (26 seconds too fast), my second set took me 12:55 and the third set took me 13:01. The last two sets was pretty much on target although the last one took a lot of effort to complete in good form. 

As part of my compulsory running related reading, I subscribe to Jeff Gaudette's newsletters and funnily enough this week's newsletter included some wisdom on Tempo runs and why it is necessary for a runner. Below is an excerpt.

The great part of today's workout is the after-burn I felt. My heart-rate was elevated for a good 45 minutes or so post-workout and I felt awesome! All set to take on the day.

Granola Balls and Pre-Run Snacking

I'm not very disciplined when it comes to my running nutrition. While I understand the importance of eating before and after a run, I don't always put it to practice. On shorter runs more often than not I skip the before run snack and I have been known to skip the occasional breakfast post work-out (tsk, tsk right?). On my long runs, I almost always have something to eat before I get going and afterwards I'm usually so famished that I eat whatever I can lay my hands on. On a couple of rare days when I have had nothing on hand at home to use as a pre-run snack, I have run my LSD on an empty stomach (bad, bad idea!)

Anyways, a while ago, I had come across this really cool recipe for home-made granola bars. (Click here for the original recipe). Packed with energy, these bars are an ideal pre-run snack and quite yummy too. I had made it once using the exact same recipe only substituting the almond butter with peanut butter and it came out nicely. It refrigerates well so you can make a size-able batch of it and keep it for a week or two. Yesterday, I suddenly recalled this recipe and decided to make it so I would have something to nibble on before my workout today. Turned out I didn't have a couple of the ingredients so I tried out a stripped down basic version of the same recipe and the result was still quite good. I also didn't have the patience to lay it out, compress it and cut it into squares like the first time so instead I rolled them into little balls. (Just as effective)

All it takes is:

Instant Oats: 1 Cup (I used Quakers plain instant oats)

Peanut Butter: 1/2 Cup (I used an unsweetened, organic, chunky kind)

Honey: 1/3 Cup (Also organic)

Cinnamon Powder: 1/2 tsp

Salt: 1 pinch 

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Pinch little chunks off and roll it into a ball. Put in container and refrigerate it overnight. Ta-da! (Now you understand why I called this recipe cool.) This recipe yields 14 granola balls (about an inch in diameter - which is bite-sized for me) and each one is approximately 90 calories which makes for an ideal pre-run mouth-popper.

Week 3 CTM Training

Given that I worked myself pretty hard during week 2, I decided to go a little easier in week 3. I sort of had to, since work travel made it necessary to cut down a couple of days of running.

Monday's Upper Body Strength + Cardio schedule got altered to just Upper Body Strength. I work with light dumbbells usually 2K to 5K per hand depending on the type of exercise and at around 8 to 10 reps per set. Thats where my upper body strength lies at right now. With more consistent training, I should hopefully be able to progress.

Tuesday's Interval Run got switched to 12 rounds of Surya Namaskar because I felt my sore muscles needed a good stretch and this way I also got in a bit of cardio. A full round of Surya Namaskar (from yoga) works on a total body stretch and depending on how fast you move through the poses, you could get a light to intense cardio out of the session.

Wednesday's Lower Body Strength + Cardio got replaced with a day of rest since I was away on work. Although, I was on my feet almost the entire day (in heels that too) and I felt pretty drained at the end of my "rest" day.

Thursday morning's tempo run got swapped with an evening Indoor Running + Cardio drill session - again thanks to work travel. If you recall my post from a few weeks ago there has been a drill session I've been wanting to try out which involves a half an hour on the spot jog incorporating 6 different cardio moves. The cardio moves I wove in are burpees, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, pop squats, lateral jumps & jumping lunges. Half an hour of these spaced with 10 seconds of jogging over a span of 5 minutes per exercise left me pretty much huffing an puffing by the end of the session.

Friday's Abs & Core workout went as planned with a 20 minute Pilates workout for the abs. I also did a 10 minute Pilates mat workout for the legs to make up for the missed out session on Wednesday.


Yesterday I went on my first proper run for the week. It was a 15k lsd and though I was running at an easy pace, it felt very, very, tough (bad weather, low on sleep and no pre-run snack). Managed to maintain a steady pace almost all the way through but after 9K I had to really push myself through the rest of the run - mentally & physically. Felt great at the end of it but I had multiple why-am-I-doing-this-to-myself moments throughout the latter part of my run.

I learnt the importance of pre & post run nutrition the hard way yesterday. I don't know why I skipped my pre-run snack. I usually make sure I eat something - a banana or a few dates - especially if its a long run. It was bad enough that I skipped the pre-run snack but after my run, I was feeling pretty tired and so instead of having breakfast like I usually do, I decided to snooze for a bit. I had had some tender coconut water after my run and I decided that would suffice.

I woke up from my snooze at 10:30 but didn't get down to eating till about 12:00. So after a long exhausting run, I kept my body low on fuel for what must have been a torturous four and a half hours. By evening, the slight headache that I had felt prior to my nap had blown up in to a bad migraine.  After it passed, I figured this was why.  So whether I am bone tired or not, let this be a reminder not to scrimp on nutrition pre and post run.

Today has been a day of proper rest. Good food, lots of sleep and generally a rejuvenating day.

Thats week 3 done. Three more weeks and its race week. :-)

Week 2 CTM Training

CTM training is going full swing and its been so far so good. Pretty high on motivation and I'm trying to keep the momentum going. I am also being very careful not to injure myself - making sure I don't skip my warm ups & squeezing in a lot of stretching throughout my day. Here are my run updates for the week. 

Monday was Fartlek day. Its been a long while since I've run a Fartlek. For me, running a Fartlek routine is as fun as the name sounds. The running term is derived from the Swedish word meaning Speed Play. Basically you break up your run by incorporating short bursts of high-speed sprints. There are no specific rules, you can go as fast as you want for whatever distance you want. For example, full-on speed from this lamp post to that tree or super-fast till I catch up to those two walkers over there... :-)

I broke up my 5K distance by adding approximately 200 meters of fast running for every 800 meters run. I did this because very conveniently Kothari Road has a nice "box" of lanes with each leg working out to around 200 meters. After the fast stretch, the next 600 meters was done at a relatively slow jog to allow me to catch my breath. 5 rounds of that plus a 700m warm-up run and a 300 m cool-down jog made up my 5K and very neatly dropped me off at my door step. Despite of the fast bursts where I was going at around a 5'30" pace, the average pace of the run wound up at a moderate 7'09"

Wednesday was supposed to be a Tempo Run 3K x 2. I always seem to get these wrong. A Tempo run is meant to be run at an effort or pace slightly higher than race effort. Basically fast, but not too fast. So a light effort 3K for me would be run in 22:00 - 23:30 minutes, a medium in 20:30 - 22:00 minutes and a high in 19:00 - 20:30.


I started off my first 3K too fast. I was supposed to have targeted 19:30 but I would have finished it in about 18:00 minutes had I been able to sustain that pace for the whole distance. I realized my folly pretty soon and so mid-run decided to switch my tempo workout to an interval workout of 1K x 6.

I did 1K at 6:02, 2K by 12:02, 3K by 18:09 and 4K by 24:09 with about 3 - 4 minutes of rest between each interval. I was depleted by 4K but decided to attempt the 5th K. I had to cut it short at 4.5K. Was still a pretty good work out. Managed to maintain a pretty consistent pace averaging about 6'02" and am pretty pleased with that.

For some technical know-how here's an article describing the difference between a fartlek, a tempo & an interval run.


Friday was meant to be a hill workout. Hill workouts add resistance and push your endurance. You are forced to run at a harder effort while running uphill though your pace will probably drop. There aren't any hills within the city so most of the runners use the fly-overs to incorporate hill workouts in their training - which there are plenty of. Hill workouts are especially important for me right now since the CTM run is definitely not going to be on a flat terrain and it would help to add some elevation to my running route.

The last time I did a Hill work out was with the Nungambakkam Nitros last year - post which I had my peroneal tendon injury. Safe to say I never attempted flyover repeats after that. Come Thursday night I had a brainwave to do a stairs workout instead of the flyover repeats which would also save me the trouble of running the 4K distance till the cathedral road flyover.

My building has five flights of stairs and my workout simply involved sprinting up and down these stairs for about 30 minutes, resting for a few seconds every time I felt winded (which was very frequent). I felt that it was a good workout judging by the effort I had to put in and how soon I felt tired. Given that it was the first time I was doing this, I was very cautious and didn't try anything tricky. There are many benefits for this type of workout and lots of variations you could try as a quick internet search will reveal. I liked this one stairs workout which I might try the next time. I also found this pretty in-depth post on using staircase workouts to condition your body in different ways which I'm linking for future reference.

Before I started my staircase workout, I ran a fast 1K  up and down Kothari Road as a warm-up.  My "fast" run took me 6 minutes - I didn't push myself very hard. Plus this 1K "dash" was also meant to serve as a break-in run for my new shoes.

Earlier in the week I had bought a pair of Puma shoes especially for the CTM run because I'm very "my-precious" about my other On pair and don't want to ruin them on the trail run. This time I made sure I bought a size larger than my previous Pumas which had given me those terrible toenail woes.

This new pair seems good - has reasonable cushioning and flexibility. There is enough wiggle room in the front for the toes. Not tight nor pinching anywhere. I will have to take it on a couple of more runs before CTM to fully break it in. I'm hoping that switching between two pairs will not lead to any complications.



Today (Sunday) I was scheduled for a moderate-easy pace 12K lsd. My legs were all kinds of sore from Friday's stairs workout and I knew before I started itself that it was a tough ask. The plan was to run till Marina and back. When I got to Marina it was very pleasant and breezy so I decided to continue along the promenade. At the end when I came to the MGR memorial I decided to go in and explore the gardens there. It has always looked pretty but till date I had never ventured in. I had completed 9K at this point at an easy to slow pace. I had decided to finish the balance 3K with a walk/run combo. So after exiting the memorial gardens I was walking back along the promenade when impulsively I decided to get off the walkway and make my way back across the beach.

The Marina beach is wide. From the walkway to the water is about 300 or 400 meters of beachiness. I very quickly learned that my On shoes were not made for walking on the beach and soon "my precious" was filled with sand. I tried to get as quickly as I could to the water where the sand would be more packed and easier to walk / run on. Even on the wet, packed sand it was tough to run along since the beach sloped down to the sea so you were running at a weird angle. To make matters worse, just a few seconds after I reached the waters edge, a nice little wave lapped up my shoes.  Such a bad idea!

So I took off my shoes (and socks) and ran/walked along the water's edge barefoot. It was so much fun! Definitely the most relaxed "run" that I've ever had. Then it came time to put my wet feet back into my shoes. Did. Not. Think. This. Through!

My shoes look a mess now but I'm sure they'll clean up well. Post Run, I iced my feet and all my sore muscles. I feel good and relaxed and ready to take on week 3.

Run Update 30.07.2016

(Saw today that this post was lying in my drafts folder from Sunday. Posting it belatedly)

Theres no stop button. You've got to keep on running! 

I've got another six weeks to go until my next half marathon (Chennai Trail Marathon) and though I just ran 21.1K last week, there's no time to stop and indulge in some lazy, sleep-till-12-in-the afternoon-weekends. This week I ran two easy recovery runs. A short, relaxed 3K on Thursday and a longer relaxed 8K yesterday. Both days the weather was muggy and the run felt tough.

I do want to put in a bit more effort into my training for this one and I'm hoping to increase my running volume from 1 run a week to 3-4 runs a week. I'm going to be continuing my strength sessions on the other days and make sure I finish strong.

CTM being an off-road run, the terrain will be tough and the weather will probably still be muggy so I am not expecting to do a PB. However, I am hoping to finish under 3 hours. I missed this run last year due to an injury (you can read about that here) and I'm really, really looking forward to it this year.

Ewww Gross!!

Many times I have come across articles & posts about runner's feet - most of them accompanied by nightmarish pictures of unsightly toenails and jammed up toes. Not pretty. (Go on! Just google runners feet and see - I dare you!). Having never experienced any such issues with my feet, I have never had much sympathy for the suffering owners of the feet in the pictures - that is until now!

The problem (not really a big one) actually began several weeks ago post my D2D night run. If you recall, that was a particularly cumbersome run - it was also my longest. After the run, I felt an unprecedented soreness in my toes. I found it strange at the time but didn't really give much thought to when after the usual resting and icing, the soreness went away. A few weeks later I noticed that the toenail on the second toe on my left foot had stopped growing. It was grey and dull while the others looked pink and normal. On closer examination I realized that the nail was not really attached to the toe any longer. Just a bit of it clung onto the skin at the base but the rest of it could be lifted right off and clipped away if I liked. This discovery came about a week before DRHM and I was afraid that if I clipped it or removed the whole thing away, it might hurt or worse bleed and prevent me from running the HM. So I left it.

Its finally been trimmed down now and theres a little stub of a toe nail that remains. I'm not sure if it will ever grow back. I've also noticed that three of the toenails on the right foot are also dead. Gosh! I guess this means no more sandals for a while!

The down side to running.

4 Down 2 more to go

Phew! DRHM 2016! Thats done!

It was a pretty good run as Half Marathons go. Could I have done better? - Sure! But I woke up at 3:00 a.m. on a Sunday and ran 21.1K!!! (And did not die enroute) and that is awesome in itself. After every run where I did not PB, I nitpick post-run on how it could have gone better - I could have pushed a little harder, I should have slept earlier last night, should have done this differently, should have done that another way - but I did not, so its pointless, so I shan't.

Prasad from Nitros had kindly agreed to pick me up on his way to the venue and so I had company to chat with and exchange running notes up until the flag-off. I also got a few selfies in at the start line (which I never do otherwise) thanks to him. 

The flag-off was at 4:30 and the weather was ok-ish at the start. The humidity was at about 55% when we started which although bad was manageable. Was pouring with sweat just a few minutes into the run. The first half of the run went really really well. I was going as planned. I finished the 1st 3K at around 21:30 (a minute and a half ahead of time), 6K at around 43:45, 9K at around 1:05:30 (still ahead) and then it went all downhill. At the 12K mark I was behind by 2 minutes but I was still feeling good and running at a steady strong pace between 7'00" and 7'15". It was around 6.00 a.m. and the humidity had climbed to 70%... From the 12K point onward my pace started slowing down a lot and I was behind by 6 minutes when I reached the 15K point. 

The humidity was still climbing and I found it a huge effort just to keep running even at a slow pace. Between the 17K mark and the finish line I had to take quite a few walking breaks. 18K point was passed at 2:17 and I was so looking forward to seeing the finish line. At around the 19K point when we reached the tree lined Besant Nagar avenue I knew the end was so close but I didn't have it in me to push harder. It was 2:24 something and I knew I couldn't PB so I chilled. :-) Slow jogged and walked to the finish from there. 2:41:12 was my official timing. Not my best but also not my worst. I'll take it!

For the first time ever I stayed at the race venue post-run. I had breakfast and hung out with some of the Nitros Runners, and my buddy from D2D. It was nice not to have to rush off. Another first during this run was a random stranger asking me to pace him (this happened at around the 7K mark) and insisting that I maintain my current pace so he could follow suit. I didn't want the responsibility of managing his finish time along with mine so I politely declined. Plus (and more importantly) is this really a done thing??? Can you actually go up to a stranger and demand to be paced that too when there are plenty of official race pacers around?

Overall, it was a good run. The event went off smoothly - I am happy to report that the scare about the blockades being lifted post 6:00 a.m. didn't materialize in the end. I felt good at the end of the run. Not sore or achy (or injured). Immensely looking forward to #5.

All Set...

Less than 12 hours to go before my 4th HM for the year. I had been to the DRHM expo just earlier today - collected my bib and my "race-kit". I really wish organizers would put more imagination into these give-aways. I think a race kit should have helpful things for the race day. This time it was a small duffel bag and a water bottle. Both nice but you're really not going to be using either of those on race day. 

Met a couple of fellow runners from Nitros and also happened to hear that the traffic blockades along the race route would be removed at 6:00 a.m. Which means unhindered-by-traffic-running for an hour and a half and watch-out-for-that-car/bike/bus-running after that. If what I heard is true. then it is really bad form on the part of the organizing committee and will definitely put a damper on the race experience for a large chunk of the participants. We'll know tomorrow.

Anyways, my bib is ready, my running gear is ready and my shoes are cleaned. All thats left is a good stretching session, an early dinner, some foot grooming & massaging, and to bed by 8:00 at the latest.

Getting set for the next one

Around this time last year, I was gearing up for my first half marathon. I still remember how excited & nervous I was at the same time. I just read my post from 26th July last year after finishing my DRHM 2015. A year and 3 more half marathons later, here I am, feeling pretty much the same way as I did before my maiden HM. Ofcourse, today I chalk the trepidation down to my un-preparedness rather than the distance as such. Looking back at last year's training plan that I went through, it is no wonder that I was able to finish strong with no aches and pains. 

The sad truth is that in terms of my running ability, speed & stamina I haven't progressed much. The last half that I ran in June (again with very few training hours in the bank), I finished in 2:45:51 - about twenty seconds slower than my first HM and the whole run was a battle to the finish line. I was sore & achy for two days post-run. I am in exactly the same spot as I was last year - hoping to get on the 2:30 pacer bus and finish in that time. Last year I lost sight of the 2:30 bus pretty early on... will it work this time around?

The race route has changed a little from last year. We will not be doing the IT expressway stretch this year but the rest of the landmarks seem to be intact. 

As ever, I checked out the route on maps and did my own little analysis. I'm trying to mentally break the route down to 7 segments of 3 kilometers each - so somehow it seems more doable. Each 3k segment has a very "undaunting" time target attached to it which should help me in getting to the finish line in the targeted time. 

I've given myself a leisurely start with the first 3K being done in 23:00 minutes. That is mostly to allow for the inevitable crowded start. The next 3K is at 22:00 minutes which is also a comfortable target. The idea is to conserve some energy at the start. The balance sets of 3K can be done at a steady, moderate paced 21:00 minutes which should allow me to finish within 2:30. 

I ran a quick 3K on Wednesday to limber up - that would be my last run prior to race day. At a good effort, it took me 19 odd minutes to finish. So at a moderate effort I ought to be able to do 3K in 21 minutes and sustain it for the entire run.

I remember having mapped out such well-intentioned race plans before, but I do not recollect ever being able to stick by it. :-). Sunday will tell.