GRM2017 & TWCM Volunteer Run

Last Sunday I had an amazing run at the Goa River Marathon 2017. To be honest, I wasn't expecting it to turn out as good as it did. The 10K race was flagging off at 7:30 and I assumed it would be hot and muggy like it is here. Surprisingly, it was cool and pleasant almost all through the run. The event was organized well. There were aid stations every 2 kilometers and almost at 1K intervals they had volunteers standing and handing out water bottles. I get dehydrated very quickly on my runs so this was a totally blessing. I had planned on just two water breaks but ended up taking a lot more. 

The course and route was almost like a trail in terms of elevation gains & dips and the view. It was a very scenic route and I enjoyed the views especially along the river. I stuck to my pace plan more or less till the 8K point. But from there until the finish line was all incline. Including a particularly steep climb for about 500 meters. I finished the run at 62:36. Though it was 2:36 minutes off my target, I was incredibly pleased with the run... :-) It was still my PB. I bettered my time by almost 5 minutes. I was even more kicked when I got the timing results and saw that I had come 9th...

Running the GRM seems to have given me a whole new boost of confidence and I seem to have gotten over my mental block of running at sub 6 paces. So this weekend when I had the chance to do another timed run, I happily took it up. It was a run in lieu of volunteering at the TWCM. The run was organized by one of the chapters of the Chennai Runners and it was strange route. Almost all of it was run along the highway in Vanagaram in Chennai. I was running with a couple of others from the Nungambakkam Nitros and thank God for the company! Maybe it was my fellow runners, maybe it was because the route was so boring that I was eager to finish it quickly, maybe it was because I had had enough rest the previous night or maybe it was the weather, but whatever the reason, I found myself almost comfortably finishing at around 61:40. My official timing which I received later was 1:01:33. Another PB. Super thrilled! It is still a minute and a half away from my elusive sub 60 goal, but a PB is a PB! :)

Another Race is upon me

December 10th is two days away and its going to be my day of reckoning (to put a dramatic spin on things!:)). This year I had set a running goal for myself to break 10K in 60minutes. To be truly honest, my training hasn't been the best. I could have been way more focused and way more consistent with my runs. Anyhow, in two days time is the Goa River Marathon. I've signed up for a 10K and this was the race meant for me to meet my goal. 

I am not at all sure if I can beat my target. Over the past couple of months, while I have definitely managed to improve my speed, my best training time for 10K is still shy of four minutes from my goal. I am a little hopeful that by some miracle I cross the finish with maybe seconds to spare. In fact, I've promised myself that I am going to give it my all. Still, self-doubt is at an all time high at this point.

The event seems to be well organized and the organizers have given a clear cut route map. I have aid stations at the 3K point and the 7K point which I plan to use and I've broken down the route into 1K segments with the average pace for each segment & the cumulative time at which I should reach each KM point.

Looks perfect on paper. But running at a consistent pace below 6'00" has always posed a challenge for me (not sure if its all in my head) where I find myself tiring out quickly and wanting to stop or at least slow down a bit. Goa at this time might be more humid than here. That is bound to slow me down. I will be staying in a hotel the night before the race and many variables could fail to add up. I may not get proper sleep on a strange bed in a strange place, I might not have access to my usual pre-run snacks, I may not get to the venue on time (God Forbid!), and so many other things. My brain is just full of this. 

Time to take a deep breath and chill out. 

Tales of a Devil Slayer :)

I really don't mean for this blog to turn into a monthly issue.. :( But looks like it's happening anyway. I am going to pick up where I left off and write a (very) belated post on my Devil Circuit Experience from last month.

17th September started really early for me. Even though my start time was given as 8:20 we had a long ride ahead of us to get to the venue. Which meant starting off bleary-eyed at 6:00 am. It had rained all night so we knew we were in for a slushy treat... :-) And as expected, the grounds in Oragadam where the obstacle course had been set up was an icky, muddy mess. Its a good thing that we were expecting this and had worn our oldest shoes.

I had gone with husband Dominic and a bunch of friends from the Nungambakkam Nitros and running the course was that much the better because of the company. It was a tough, tough course made much worse by the slippery, marshy terrain but I enjoyed it all the way through. The course was a 5K stretch run in a maze format with 15 military-style obstacles peppered through it. To say that I was unprepared for the course would be an understatement. None of my training involves the sort of climbing, jumping and pulling that the course demanded. 

The First of these were the "Triple Threat" - three shoulder high barriers that you had to pull yourself over and across. I must have looked like a complete non-athletic mess as I scrambled & tumbled over the three of them. But whee! what fun... I had taken part in the non-competitive category which meant that the ambiance was one of jolly, high-spiritedness and everyone was helping one another & giving each other a boost where requested!

Then came the "Tyre Trawl" (I maybe getting these names wrong since it's already been a month) where you had to get across a string of tyres suspended on chains. It looked easy enough but it wasn't. Next was the "Push Your Limits" - a vertical wall (maybe 18 feet high) which you had to scale over with the help of a rope. I was mighty impressed when I managed to get on top... but the feeling of elation quickly evaporated when I realized that I had no idea how to get myself down (eventually though, I did). 

The fourth nightmare, "The Devil's Cage" was a Domed Ladder of sorts. Climbing up was easy peasy... At the top however, there was a platform about 5 feet wide with rungs spaced about 9 - 10" apart.. lose your footing and you might just slip through. I have an irrational fear of heights and I nearly had a panic attack here - but somehow managed to clamber across and get down.. The fifth one, "The Dead Ringer" was a suspended rope of a height of maybe 20 feet. It was knotted at about 4-5 feet intervals and you had to climb it all the way and ring the bell hanging at the top. I attempted this but didn't get further than the 2nd knot.

Next up was the "Sideway Plank". You need to prop yourself hands & feet across two support structures (which means you are suspended horizontal - a couple of feet off the ground with your hands & feet holding you up) and make your way across (maybe)15 feet of that. I attempted this one too but the overnight rains made the support structures very slippery and I could barely stay up.

Then came the "Devil's Steps" which was the most fun of all. You had to climb up 4 ascending platforms (each with a person-sized gap between them) and from the final platform you had jump off into a pool below. The pool below was super muddy having seen waves of muddy participants jump in. It made for an icky dive but by this point the mud really didn't matter.

The "Tunnel of Fright" which came next wasn't frightening in the least. These were a nice set of tunnels partially submerged in (muddy) water and you had to make your way through. This was one of the more doable obstacles for me. The next two obstacles were also water-based - "The vertical climb" in which you had to climb out of a pool and onto a sloping panel and jump over & repeat and "The Over and Out" in which two sets of rotating blocks would tumble you through one pool into the next and out. Both of these I bumbled through - rather ungracefully I must add.. :-)

The "Balance Bridge" was another obstacle which I managed to cross without falling into the water or looking like a total fool while crossing it. After this came the "Warped Wall" the first obstacle which I didn't bother attempting even. As the name plainly puts it, the obstacle was a warped wall which you had to scale. The way to go about scaling it is to run a few meters, and allow the momentum to help you scale up. I wouldn't have attempted it even if the land had been dry and smooth. Given the condition of the grounds (everyone was slipping and sliding all over the marshy grounds - some even got their foot stuck in it) there was absolutely no chance of it.

This was followed by the "Torture Trenches" a nice long stretch of barbed wire with about a foot and half crawl space underneath which (you guessed it) you had to crawl through. This wasn't too bad compared to some of the others. I'm sure my crawling form wouldn't have looked very pretty but I did manage to get across without any bodily harm from the barbed wire. I didn't attempt the next obstacle either. The "Devil's Hanger" as it was called had you doing an inverted climb across a pool of water.

The last obstacle was indeed the cherry on top - the "Brain Freeze" was a tunnel / slide on the other side of which was a freezing, ice-filled pool. As I slid down the tunnel, I had no idea what was coming. When the icy cold water hit me, my brain went into shock-mode. It took me a few seconds to even figure out what was happening... Waded quickly out of the water and several minutes and some jumping jacks later, started to feel normal again. But oh, what fun!! :-) :-)

(Head on over to the DC website for some nicely illustrated diagrams of all the obstacles)

It was a super-fun event (if you didn't mind all the mud and water) and the camaraderie with my running buddies made for a memorable day. Would I do it again? I'm not too sure. (We'll find out next year :-))

The Month that Went By

Its only when I logged in today that I realized that its been about a month since I posted.

The running has been going great! I am super thankful that I'm completely injury free and that I've been able to consistently get in three runs a week. I'm on course with my #runninggoal2017 training and every week on Tuesdays & Thursdays I have been joining the Nitros folks for incline runs & speed runs. On the other days I continue to work on my strength training. So all in all I have been pretty well behaved. :-)

Tomorrow I have a 5K obstacle race event - The Devil's Circuit. The distance is nothing but I have never run an obstacle course before. The 5K course is peppered with 15 military style obstacles which involes a lot of climbing and crawling - moves that I'm unfamiliar with. I'm participating in the noncompetitive segment which means I'm allowed to skip obstacles if I choose to and just run for the fun of it. Thats just good sense.

Though I had decided that I would not sign up for any more events this year, when I came across a notice calling for registrations for the Goa River Marathon, I couldn't help it and I signed up for a 10K. Its in December and if my training continues as it is, I might be ready to cross 10K-in-60 minutes off my bucket list.

Till then, I just got to keep on running! :-)

Keeping up with goals

This week has been about getting over vacation blues, overcoming inertia and getting back into the groove. I enjoyed a brilliant vacation in Meghalaya over an extended weekend and got back four days ago. While vacationing, though I had to skip my long run, I more than compensated with hours of trekking, hiking, climbing and cave explorations. I even managed to do a short, brisk run in pouring rain around Shillong's Wards Lake which felt great! But it's been a whole different story since I've been back.

I've managed to be borderline active. Have been doing some yoga and some weighted walking but no running and no strength workouts. Set well-intentioned alarms three times during the week all of which were instantly shut down and ignored. And finally today was the day. Mustered all of my self-motivation, laced up and hit the roads for my 60 minute run.

Remember my running goals for 2017? 10K in under 60 minutes? In my last post I described my training plan of progressive 60 minute runs. Each week, I try and push the distance covered by a little bit and as per my plan, I should be at goal pace & distance by Nov 5. Heres the 14 week map...

I'm on week 3 and its so-far-so-good (despite skipping week 2). Sticking to this consistently will be key. As I progress beyond my PB pace (Week 6 onwards) it will be crucial not to skip any week. To supplement this weekly 60 minute run, one day during the week I will be doing a tempo run at goal pace of 5'55" for shorter distances with the aim of getting accustomed to running at this faster pace. More on that later...

I'm pretty optimistic about this plan. Here's hoping...

Just keep on running

After running & trekking in Yercaud over the weekend, it felt pretty torturous to get out for a run in the hot, humid & clammy Chennai morning. Yercaud had the perfect run weather. Enjoyed a really great trek on Saturday morning and a quick short run up the slopes on Sunday (sans music and running app). In total contrast, this morning saw me run up & down the sloping Cathedral Road Flyover. The chirping birds replaced with the harsh honking of the morning traffic, the lush green with concrete and glass and the gravel & dirt trails with asphalt. I'd swap road running for nature trails any day.

Now that all my events are out of the way and that there aren't any new ones on the horizon, its time to get back to my running goal for the year. At the start of 2017, I had set my sights on running a 10K in under 60 minutes. I had given myself the whole year to train, develop and progress towards the goal. I must say, I was making some good headway until my ankle injury in April. From April to now, I haven't been following any specific plan and have mostly been winging it with the Nitros. Meaning which, I am no closer to my target than I was on Jan 1st.

To put it very simply, in order to run faster,  you must practise running faster. (If that makes any sense!). To run 10K under 60 minutes (even 59:59) I have to be able to run at a pace of 5'55" for the entire distance. My current 10K pace is about 6'55" to 7'05". I can run at a pace of 5'55" but will only be able to sustain it for 1.5K or 2K at the most. My training will therefore involve increasing that distance slowly through Tempo runs. Ultimately its about training my body to get accustomed to running at that faster pace. 

Well here goes!

Run Update

I got back to running on Wednesday after my half marathon on Sunday. I got out pretty late in the morning (6:00 am) for a 30 minute, easy, "recovery" run. Recovery runs are meant to be light, short distance runs to ease you back into your training. Being able to get back to running 3 days post the half marathon has to mean that my run was a strong one. Its a good sign.

The recovery run went well enough. Covered 4.3k in the time of 30 minutes at a relaxed pace of 7'00". The morning heat is always a bother but just something that you have to deal with while running in Chennai.

I have a weekend of hill running and trekking with my running gang coming up this weekend. We're taking a trip to Yercaud and the weather is supposedly much more pleasant there. Looking forward to some good running.