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.