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.