Run Update 21 & 23.03.2017

Had a great couple of runs this week with the Nitros. Both were challenging and left me quite zapped at the end of it. Zapped is good.

On Tuesday, I joined the group for my dreaded flyover repeats. I dread these for two reasons. 1. because the first time I attempted these, I injured the peroneal tendon on my right foot and that injury took about 3 months to fully heal. 2. well because they're tough! :-) 

Flyovers are the city runner's solution to hill repeats. Running on inclines are a good way to build stamina and they're also strengthening. We did a warm-up run upto the cathedral road flyover and 4 stretches across & back along the flyover by which time I was totally done and jogged / walked back to haddows park. Ofcourse the pace suffers a bit during these runs but as long as the form doesn't, its totally ok.

This morning I joined them again at SDAT. Ran 6 fast 200 meter stretches. I felt like I really pushed myself and the timing was super! Managed an average time of 52 seconds per round. I don't think I've ever seen my pace at sub 4'00" before. So yes, giving myself lots of pats on the back.

Going away on a holiday today. So this would be my last run for the week. Unless I decide to do some barefoot beach running. :-)  I am looking forward to lots of swimming though!

Weekend Run Update

Usually I never run on two consecutive days but this weekend was an exception. I got out on Saturday as usual for my hour-long run. But it was late, the sun was already pretty high up and it was too hot & extremely humid. Every step felt tedious and I felt dehydrated to boot so I turned my hour-long run into a fun fartklek incorporating random bursts of speed into a rather fast-paced 2K loop. The short bursts (I'm talking 50 meters - maybe less) of full-speed running kept it interesting and maintaining a good pace and consciously not slumping down into a jog coming off that speed burst made it challenging enough. Finished the loop in a little over 12 minutes making it my fastest 2K ever. Thats enough to keep me content and happy with my run.

Today, the Chennai Runners were celebrating their 11th anniversary. It was a by-invitation running event - no expensive registration fee there! - put out to all the different chapters and members of Chennai Runners. It was quite a decent turn-out and runners could do 10K, 5K or 3K as they wished. The start and end point was the Anna university and the 10K route looped through the university campus, sardar patel road and the boat club area. Though I had rsvp-ed yes, I was in two minds to go but since I had only done a 2K yesterday, I thought it would be a good idea to run a longer distance today. I made car pool plans with some of the runners from Nitros to make sure that I didn't change my mind in the morning.

I'm very glad that I went. The 10K route was a nice one and quite enjoyable. The boat club area is a favourite among runners in Chennai for its quiet lanes and shady green cover but I had never run there before and so it was rather refreshing. Although the start time was late (5:50) and the weather quite hot, since most of the route had green cover, the temperature was pretty tolerable. 

I stopped my clock at 1 hour so I could track the distance & pace (following my training plan). But as usual the app was on the fritz and wouldn't show anything. The route being unfamiliar I have no clue what the actual distance was but I estimate it to be about 9.4K judging by the remaining distance to complete the 10K.

Post-Run there were general festivities (a cake was cut) and I hung out with the Nitros for a while. A good start to Sunday I would say.

P.S - my app is really starting to bug me know. Must figure out how to fix it.

Run Update 16.03.2017

I had planned on a speed session earlier in the week but that didn't pan out. Instead, I did a stairwell workout on Tuesday. Though these functional training workouts are excellent, I was craving a nice fast running session. So when I found out that the Nitros had planned a speed training day at SDAT today, it sounded perfect. I am joining them after what feels like eternity. As always, it was nice to run with company and it was even nicer to run on the track. 

Did 6 laps of 400 meters around the track with about a minute RI between laps. Target time was 2:00. The first lap was inconsistent. I was running too fast and was sure I would't be able to sustain 5 more laps at that speed. From the 2nd lap on, I sort of got the rhythm right and managed a steady 2:06, 2:04, 2:01, 2:00 and 1:57. By the end of the session I felt zapped. (But good zapped!)

The SDAT track is a dirt track. My grey shoes were caked brown at the end of the workout. :( Cleaning dirty shoes - now thats the not so fun part.

Run Update 11.03.2017

Summer is officially here! This morning was hot and humid at 5:30 in the a.m. And I mean HOT. Which made my hour long run feel like a massive effort. I've got to start my runs earlier than 5:30 now... sigh!

My app is back on the fritz. Today it wasn't tracking anything correctly I think. At the end of the run the screen returned blank. No route. No distance. And ridiculously claims that it was raining! Checked my run distance on google maps and had to manually enter the distance. Which put my average pace at 6'16" - even though it felt like a high effort run, I don't think I was running that fast. And being so hot, I took several hydration breaks too and so in all I must have taken about 1 hour and 10 minutes to cover the distance.

The runs are gonna get sweatier from here.

Run Update 08.03.2017

This morning I ditched my scheduled Tempo Run and opted for interval runs of 500 meters instead. The idea was to see if I could do these short bursts at my goal pace of 5'55" (the pace I need to maintain if I want to complete 10K under an hour) and to accustom my body to running at that pace.

Well that was the idea. The execution was another story. I started the first 500 meters as a warm up and managed that at a steady pace of 6'05". Then followed 3 sets of 500 meters all of which was inconsistently paced, done at inconsistent efforts and way faster than 5'55". It was definitely fun but as a training run goes, I'm not sure if it was very effective towards my goal. I think I should stick to my original plan of doing tempo runs where week-wise I gradually work my way up to goal pace. I feel like I am in better control of my pace that way.

The good news is that my app seems to be back to working well. Routes are being tracking correctly now. :-)

And once in a way you have a bad run...

This morning's run was pretty dismal. 

I got out to do my usual hour long run but absolutely wasn't feeling it. It could have been that the intense cardio session I had with Dom just last evening had tired me out too much. It could have been the lack of a restful sleep last night. Maybe it was because I had swapped my usual banana pre-run snack for an apple instead (though I highly doubt that). Or maybe it was because I had started really late (6:00 am) and it was already hot and humid. It could have been all those things or the fact that I just wasn't in the mood. 

I had completed a little more than a kilometer when at the turn into Sterling road from Kothari lane, a bunch of  bored stray dogs decided to get their early morning kicks by barking and chasing me for a slight distance. It was annoying and a litle worrying but I continued on. A little later my fuel came undone and fell down by my feet. I just about avoided a trip-up-and-face-plant situation and a potentially embarrasing scene. Nothing seemed to be going right in the 10 minutes that I has been on this run. I decided that I had had enough, picked up my pace a little bit and headed on home. Sometimes you just have run days like this. It can't be helped.

Wednesday's run was a different story though. I had a nice 3K session with Dom for company. Though it was meant to be a slow recovery run, managed to do it at a nice fast pace of 6'05". The first km was at a steady warm up pace of 7'00"ish and the next 1.8 km was at a tempo pace of 6'15"ish and the last 200 meters was a flat out sprint. It was good, quick and intense.

At the Marina Rinnerz event, I got quite a few "What happened to you? Why are you only doing a 10K?" Other than an injury-related excuse no other response is accepted. I realized that people view running 10K events as a step-down after you've run Half Marathons.  But I find that doing these shorter more intense runs are far more beneficial for my muscle strength and overall fitness rather than the 2+ hours of continuous running. The latter will develop your endurance, for sure, which is also important in fitness but I think a balance of the two will lead to better overall development.

I'm looking at signing up for another 10K in April/May, DRHM 2017 Half Marathon in July and maybe 2 more 10Ks after that - one in Sept/Oct and one in December. The last one should have me meet this year's goal.

Here's to more running, better running and faster finishes.