Marina Runnerz 10K

My first running event for the year done & dusted.

It was a pretty decent event. Reasonably well organized and most importantly for me, not too crowded! It was a flatish route almost throughout except for a 500 meter stretch over the flyover both on the onward & return loop. I started my running app a little late into the run and so I wasn't entirely sure of my time. Throughout the course, I had the feeling that I was keeping good time and thought I might finish close to 63 - 64 minutes. I had managed to keep a steady consistent effort (at no time was I straining) and so I was a little disappointed to see the clock at 69 minutes as I crossed the finish line... A little later though, my chip timing came in at 1:07:01!! (Theres always a difference between the gun time & chip time... Gun time starts as the race is flagged off but the chip is activated only when you cross the start line to make things fair for people who are at the back of the lineup). Anyways! Thats still a PB for me. :-)

So this is the baseline for me this year. By the end of the year I should shave off that 7 minutes & 1 second. Today's run was at at average pace of 6'42" (inclusive of all hydration breaks). Need to quicken my pace to 5'59" for a sub 1 hr. Got to train, train, train.

Happy Birthday to me!!! :)

For the past couple of years I've always made it a point to run on my birthday. I just find its a great way to ring in a new year. Puts me in a good mood and sets me up for a great day (and hopefully a great year). So instead of running on Tuesday, I pushed my run to this morning and instead of a taxing tempo run, I gifted myself a comfortable, easy run. No pace to worry about. No set time. No target distance. Just run. 

I had a good run for about half an hour. Didn't push myself but kept going at a steady, comfortable pace. Ofcourse, at the end of it I did have a look at the distance covered, pace, time etc etc and I was happy to see that my "comfortable pace" clocked at 6'59" - a far cry from 7'45" (which was roughly what my easy pace was last year).

Happy B'day to me!

Run Update 18.02.2017

Another 1hr run done! I'm slowly inching my way towards my goal. Today I managed 9.4k in an hour. It was just 110 meters further than last week but in terms of effort it felt much harder. The temperature is slowly creeping up as well and throughout the run I was feeling thirsty. Took more breaks than normal just to hydrate though the plan was just 2 breaks - one after each 20 minute interval of running.

Again, my location services was spotty and again it seems to have gone off after about 300 meters into the run. so it shows my whole route as being from home to halfway down kothari road. I need to investigate. I cross-checked the tracked distance on google maps and 9.4k seems about right so the spotty route is really not a big deal I suppose.

I know 9.4k sounds like I'm only 600 meters off my goal. But this is not counting the break time. By race standards, the actual time (or gun time or chip time) I took to cover today's distance of 9.4k would be more like 64 or 65 minutes. Next weekend's 10K race will tell me exactly how much closer I've gotten to my goal. 

Run Update 15.02.2017

Had my 2nd speed session for the year today. These speed sessions are intense! They're very short (maybe 20 minutes including the RIs) but at the end of it you're like "Phew! I did it". Completing today's speed session felt like a bigger achievement than what I felt at the end of my last half marathon. 

Today's workout was same as my last speed session (200m x 4 + 1 min RI) x 2 + 4 min RI between sets. (RI = Rest Interval). When I started out with my warm up jog, I didn't think I would complete one set let alone two. For some reason my legs felt like lead even during that slow-paced warm up jog. But once I got started I found the energy to push through all 8 reps. Completely washed out at the end of it but so worth it. Oh! plus I was within the target time of less than a minute. :-)

My location services was spotty again. Didn't measure the route exactly on 3 of the runs and didn't work at all for one of the reps. Ideally speed / interval training should be done on a track. A standard track measures 400m around 1 lap so you can be exactly sure of how much you are running. For me, SDAT is an option but I will need company.

Alright, till next time.

Run Update 10.02.2016

The down side to upping my strength routine is that I find myself permanently sore. My muscles are getting worked out like never before as my husband and self proclaimed trainer has me lifting heavier and heavier. (Well not that heavy but he does tend to pooh-pooh it when he sees me working with 2K and 3K dumbells). The soreness doesn't help with my resolve in waking up early and going for a run. Its also a viscious cycle - I was fatigued on Tuesday after my Upper body strength routine from Monday so I decided to skip my early morning tempo run and do it on Wednesday instead. But I ended up doing a lower body strength routine on Tuesday evening (to make up for skipping my run) and so was too fatigued on Wednesday to go for the post-poned run... (You see!!?) I did a very thorough stretching routine for the sore muscles on Wednesday but that got me nice and relaxed so I slept in on Thursday and did a core routine later on. Finally, this morning I decided I absolutely had to go for a run so went out for a nice fun fartlek (also fun to say!).

Fartlek (Swedish for Speed Play) is a run type where you incorporate short bursts of high speed running into your regular run followed by a slower paced run as you recover. There doesn't have to be any set pattern  or pace. It can be random (like from this tree to that lamp-post) so it is a lot of fun. I took some of the fun out of it by doing one corner to another on my usual run route (which I know to be exactly 200 meters) for 4 sets - very structured! Finished 4K in roughly 27 minutes but the 200m dashes were a super workout which more than makes up for the slower average pace.

Somethings wrong with the location services on my phone and the app's not tracing my route properly. The last couple of runs has it showing a truncated route of 100meters though the overall distance is tracked correctly. Well. Once upon a time we all just ran. No apps, no pace tracking, no heart rate monitors. Simpler. But I can't even think of stepping out without my gadgets. I need to know! Every few seconds I have to check my distance, my pace and my time. And music! I need my music! Every now and then I do toy with the idea of just running free - just me and my thoughts. Then I freak out and drop the plan! :-)

Not going to be doing another run this week. Next week I guess I should be back to my usual running schedule. More then!

Faster & Faster

Did my weekend hour long run today and it was spectacular!!! :-) Managed a 9.3k run in an hour and I'm super excited with the progress. My last hour long run had me at 8.7k

After a long time, went running along cathedral road all the way up to Marina. The weather was perfect. When I reached the beach, felt very tempted to run alongside the beach and so did exactly that. Finished my run and then took a cab back home. :|

Throughout the run I felt it was a good steady effort but at no point did I feel like I was killing myself. My average pace was 6'28" which means I would have finished 10k in about 63 minutes. :-) Ofcourse I didn't time my breaks which won't be the case at a running event. Like with every other time, I broke the 1 hr into 15 minute intervals with a short (probably 1-2 minutes) break between the intervals. Race timings would include any pitstops you make so that would put my estimate 10k finish time at 66 - 69 minutes - which is not great! My next step would be to reduce these intervals to 3 20 minute sections and run 3.1k in each 20 minute interval (to start with and build up from there).

I registered for my first event for the year with the Marina Runnerz Marathon. I ran the 10K at this event last year and it was a pretty decent event. Not too crowded and reasonably well supported for an event it's size. This year it's on Feb 26th - thats 3 weeks from today. I'm not going to specifically train for this event - just continue what I am doing and use the run to test my 10K timing.

Looking forward to this one!

Run Update 01.02.2017

"Sore today, Strong tomorrow" I came across this inspirational phrase somewhere on the vast worldwide web and it has stuck in my head. Its what I repeat to myself when I'm feeling all achy from the previous day's work out and need to find the drive to get through whatever new I have scheduled for myself for that day. It came in handy today.

I was coming off two pretty taxing strength routines from Monday and Tuesday and was rather sore all over. I was this close to getting back in bed after switching off the 4:00 am alarm. Anyways, mustered up my energy levels and hit the roads for a pretty terrific tempo run. 

I always seem to be surprising myself during these tempo sessions. The last time around, my tempo pace target was 6'35" and I ended up doing 6'27" instead. Was pretty excited at the improvement in my pace. This week I had accordingly set myself a pace target of 6'25" for the same distance. So for 2km, thats a target finish time of 12:50. 

I started off the first set at a zippy pace. It felt like a moderate effort so I decided to keep at it. To my surprise, I finished the set in 12:20 - 30 seconds faster than goal and at a pace of 6'10". I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to sustain that same pace in the following two sets and again I surprised myself by doing set 2 in 12:23 (6'11") and set 3 in 12:37 (6'16"). Woo Hoo!

Looks like consistency in training really works!