Thursday, December 30, 2010

2010 Year end Musings (of a runner)

With the last training run and strengthening session of the year 2010 done it is time to reflect on the year gone by and look ahead at the goals for 2011.  By and large it has been another good year of running which includes making some fantastic new friends and strengthening bonds with other runner friends. I ran four full marathons, one 75K ultra and 81K at the Strides of Hope.  I also invested in a Schwinn  Searcher Sport  and did a long cycling trip thereby more or less achieving the goals I had set myself for 2010.

 2010 Highs
2010 Disappointments
  • The transition times at the Duathlon 2010 that messed up my overall timing for the event
  • Not being able to go for Athens marathon due to a personal reason
  • Quads injury in August possibly due to the long cycle ride
  • Missing my target times at ING Hartford marathon (FM)  and Midnight marathon (HM)  by a whisker
2011 Goals
  • Sub 3:59 at SCMM 2011 - it will be challenge to shave nearly 2 minutes of my last year's timing
  • Other marathons
    • Auroville in February
    • Hyderabad in August (target sub 3:55) - hopefully this will happen in 2011
    • Kaveri Trail Marathon in September
  • Bangalore Ultra Marathon in November (50Km or 75Km)
  • Ambitious goal of sub 48 minutes in Sunfeast World 10K in May
  • Stay on feet for 24 hrs and cover 120Km+ at Strides of Hope 2011 in January 

Of course, with a likely new job in 2011(31st December is my last day of work at my current job and I am starting 2011 with a few weeks off) I am a bit apprehensive as to whether I would be able to keep up my running schedule of the last few years. As usual I hope to start the New Year with a run - I have managed to do this since 2003. This year I am targeting 35K with a bunch of BHUKMP runners - my longest since Ultra 2010 and the last long run before SCMM 2011 two weeks away.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

With Midnight Marathon done, the focus shifts to SCMM 2011

After the Midnight marathon on 18th December , where I ran a 'Half Marathon' , the focus now shifts to the Mumbai Marathon on 16th January 2011.  I had a reasonably good run at the MM completing the 22Km Half marathon in 1:52 at an average pace of  5:07 per Km (vis-a-vis an average pace of 5:02  per Km in 2009 and my target pace of  4:58). Yes, the race organisers goofed up badly in calibrating the run loop as a result of which HM runners ended up doing 22Km instead of 21.1Km and the FM runners 44Km instead of 42.2Km! It is ridiculous for such an error to happen in a professionally organised event specially as it was a straightforward road route that could have been  easily measured using a Garmin. What made it worse was when the race director from Crossover (Neeraj Varma) initially refused to accept that there was any issue with the distance calibration. When pressed and told that it was more than it should be he dismissed it casually saying as long as it is not short there was no issue - shows complete lack of appreciation of the training and effort required to run these distances.

The incorrect distance was not the only issue with the event this year which was poorly organised compared to last year. When we reached the bib collection counter around 10:30 PM after leaving our car in the parking lot of Ramagondanahalli School a few hundred meters away we were shocked to find that all HM Bibs were over. It looks like the organisers did not keep asid bibs for runners who had resgistered online in advance. After a long wait and lot of confusion runners were given bibs of other events such as the relay with HM scribbled on the bib. Soon even these bibs were over. And several HM runners ran without bibs - they were apparently given the timing chip free of charge. Collection of the timing chip was another big chaos with a long, slow moving line. Apparently these got over as well and several runners were left to run without one. I, like many othe runner friends, had decided not to take the chip - given that the timings were anyway not accurate last year. I collected my finishers medal and certificate(with time inserted as per my wish) soon after completing the run. Thirty minutes later there was a huge queue for this as well. And (what a surprise!) the organisers ran out of these well and have promised that they would be couriered to the runners. I understand non of the FM finsihers received either the medal or the certificate. With such a pathetically organised event I need to think hard whether to do this again next year. The only positive is the race itself cannot be easily screwed up since the run route is very short and this serves as a good tempo run towards my training fro Mumbai which follows a few weeks later.

The HM and FM were flagged off at about 12:14am after some announcements and speeches from the organisers and a local politician. I managed to pull myself away from the crowds after a few minutes and keep an average pace of 5:03 minutes per Km for the first two and half laps(11Km). The route was on one side of the divided road so there was complete traffic control. There were frequent water stations and thankfully the volunteers wanting to ink the bib at the turnaround point were missing. It was nice to see many familiar runners on the course multiple times - many doing the HM and several the FM. Chandra, Athreya and Manoj were running quite a blistering pace. My pace dropped  to 5:11 in the second half and I finished in 1:52:53. Though I missed my target by 3+ minutes(assuming about 1:48 for 21.1Km) I am satisfied. I was not feeling great either physically or mentally throughout the Saturday before the run and started the run lacking confidence that I would be able to hit my target. In any case I find it difficult to push hard in shorter distance runs compared to maintaining a reasonably steady pace in a longer run. Congratulations to fellow runners Meher and Amrita for finishing 1st and 2nd in women's FM and Arundhati and Neera for the 2nd and 3rd positions in women's HM - all of them have won decent prize money which is great!

My training has been below par the first two weeks of December - due to travel to Chennai in the 1st week of December for a wedding and short holiday(during which I ran only once) followed by travel to Tirunelveli where I had an upset stomach. However, with the 32.2Km run in 3:22 at GKVK this morning my training for Mumbai is back on track. The next two weeks are extremely critical in order to be in shape for a sub 3:59 on 16th January. I plan to do a tempo 10K run this week and next week with a fastish 20-25K in the weekend. And finally a 36Km  run on the 1st of January after which the tapering will start. Also need to ensure that one stays away from sickness and injury which ofcourse is never under one's control.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

48 hours to Midnight marathon 2010


With just about 48 hours to go for this year's edition of Bengaluru Midnight marathon I do not feel as prepared and ready as I would like to be. With 2 birthdays, a wedding in Chennai and a small holiday in Mahabalipuram I have done less running than normal and much more eating than normal in the last 2 weeks. This has resulted in my adding about 4 Lbs of weight since this year's ultra . As a consequence I am quite apprehensive about bettering my time of  1:46:03 from last year. My goal is/was to run below 1:45 , that is, at an average pace of 4:58. It is certainly going to be very challenging. In general my body finds it much more difficult to sustain a fast pace for a longer period of time as compared to doing an average, steady pace for longer distances.  My strategy is going to be to try and do the first half  in under 52 minutes and the second in a bit over 53 minutes.


Hopefully the organisation of the race will be at least as good as last year.  The route is going to be the same. With an out and back loop of 2.1 Km traffic control and aid station support should not be an issue. I hope this time there are no volunteers at the turnaround point wanting to mark the bib of runners with ink. This was very annoying last year and  impacted the momentum of runners which anyway is affected by so many turnarounds. The short loops are also a  bit  boring more so for the  runners doing the FM which includes many of my friends from  RFL .  I have decided to run only HM in this event and use it as a tempo run for the FM in Mumbai in January.  While this event is not as well organised as RFL events it is reasonably popular being only one of two road races in Bangalore(the other one is the 10K held in May). Of course running at night, though not palatable to all runners,  is a unique experience!

Evolving training plan for AoG

My first run after the Delhi marathon   was  a 10Km on Friday, 8th March - after almost 2 weeks break  from all excercise except walking and...