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.