2012 Year end musings

With a nice 35.5Km/3:05 run at IRR/EGL this morning the last long run of 2012(and the last one before SCMM 2013) is done. And it is now time to look back at 2012 and put down the goals for 2013. In general it was a good year though the total mileage for the year was about 1900 Kms - after 3 consecutive years of 2000+Kms in 2009,2010 and 2011. This was mainly due to the 6 weeks complete break from all cardio exercises in Feb-March - my longest break from running since Janaury 2004. Also compared to the last 3 years I participated in fewer events - the focus was on improving the FM. I did two full marathons - SCMM in January and MHRM  in October; besides half-marathon in Auroville, the TCS World 10K, a 5K race at Puma Urban Stampede and  50Km at 6th Bangalore Ultra. I more or less met my goals in all in these events so there was no real low in 2012- though not meeting my goal of a sub 3:39 in MHRM i was a bit of a disappointment. Of course, I was elated at being fortunate enough to sneak through to BQ. 

Here's a summary of the timings of my 2012 events:

1. FM at SCMM : 15th January - 3:48:57
2. HM at Auroville : 19th February - 2:15
3. 10K at TCS World 10K : 27th May - 51:11
4. 5K at Puma Urban Stampede : 5th August - 21:51 (PB)
5. FM at MHRM : 7th October - 3:39:57 (PB) 
6. 50K at Bangalore Ultra :10th November - 5:07:29 (PB)

As in 2011 I trained for the FM  using the FIRST 'Run Less,Run Faster' training program leading up to MHRM in October.. The difference from 2011 was the rigor - I was able to do over 90% of the 47 training runs and 32 cross-training cycling workouts over 16 weeks between June and October.  Another big change was the stretching - I made it a point to spend at least 20 minutes post a workout on most days and longer on rest days. The twice a week strengthening sessions at Manipal was also beneficial.

In August I switched my shoes to Brooks Defyance 5 after using 7 pair of Adidas Supernova Cushion/glide and found them to be very comfortable.

Goals for 2013: 

1. Sub 3:38 at SCMM  in January

2. Sub 1:43 HM at Auroville in February

3. Sub 45 10K at TCS world 10K in May

3. Register for Boston 2014- of course this is not completely under my control

4. 50K/75K/100K at Bangalore Ultra

Above everything of course the goal is to stay fit and injury free and enjoy the running  - if the timing goals are met then of course it would be great! As usual I hope to start 2013 with a run on 1st January - either a 8K mid-tempo run at 4:46/Km or 10 x 800m at 3:17 or an easy run depending on how 31st evening goes!!

On Running Shoes

Running is a fairly simple sport with very little gear needed. However, as one gets serious about the sport  in terms of distance and/or timing the right shoe becomes a very crucial element. Or at least this used to be the case till a few years ago when running barefoot or with minimalist shoes took off soon after the publication of Christopher Mcdougall's 'Born to run..' in 2009. I used Adidas running shoes since I took to long distance running in 2011. Being a fairly neutral runner(that is neither a pronator nor a supinator) I picked a neutral , cushioned shoe namely Adidas Supernova cushion. And I stayed with this shoe for 10 years working through    a new pair every year.  In 2008 I did try a Asic Gel Kayano 13 - but this did not work for me and I switched back to my  seventh pair of  Supernova.  Supernova cushion then got replaced with Supernova Glide 3 which in turn got superceded by Supernova Glide 4 in 2012. In June I started my training for MHRM on October 7th 2012 with my new pair of Adidas Supernova Glide 4.  Though in the previous years I have felt very comfortable with the Adidas Supernova cushion/Glide shoes and have run all my marathons/ultra marathons in them, this new pair was not as comfortable. During the longer runs I was feeling a very distinct discomfort in my  right outer ankle.Later, on researching I realised this was a known issue with this shoe.After confirming with a gait analysis at a JackRabbit store in Manhattan that for my running form  I need a neutral cushioned shoe I switched to a Brooks Defyance 5, another neutral shoe, more than half way through my training in late August. And now I have become a fan of this shoe. Not just because I had a good MHRM and met my goal - the shoe feels very comfortable for me. My older Supernova which is a supernova Glide 3 and  quite worn out does not have this issue of irritating my ankle. In fact I ran the 2012 Bangalore Ultra with this shoe. It is kind of frustrating that shoe manufacturers release new models of the same shoe almost every year and while doing so tweak the show. This means one can never be sure that a model that worked before will still be comfortable after the tweak. Anyhow for now I plan to stay with the Brooks Defyance 5. I am pretty much a one shoe guy using the same shoe for training as well as racing. Many runners use a lighter shoe for racing called racing flats. These are flatter with very little or no cushioning and hence weigh less - 4 to 9 ounces as compared to 8 to 12 ounces for a cushioned shoe. My Defyance 5 weights 10.8 Oz while a racing shoe such as Asics Piranha weighs 4.3 Oz. The very light racing flats such as the Asics Piranha are meant for shorter distance races say a 5K or a 10K - though runners have started using them for HM and FM races as well. Since these shoes have no cushioning , in order to avoid injury, the racing flats are not used during training long runs. To get used to them they could be used in speed or interval training runs. I may consider using a racing flat in 2013 - need to research options(there don't seem to be many in India) and try them out.

Interest in running barefoot or with minimalist shoes has definitely picked up worldwide. In India also a lot of runners have now taken to running barefoot or with Vibrams or minimalist shoes. A few of my running friends recently completed  50Kms at the 2012 Bangalore ultra barefoot and using minimalist shoes.  While running in minimalist shoes or Vibrams is generally considered beneficial and reduces chances of injury one needs to make careful transition, over a period of time, from using cushioned shoes to non cushioned ones. As one's running form has got used to cushioned shoes and transitioning out of it involves some changes in running form.  There  is a lot of information on this topic on the net- this is one of the hottest topic of discussion in running and fitness forums. A lot of information is available on the Vibrams website as well as at this Runners world link and this NY times blogpost. 

I am personally not tempted to switch to minimalist shoes or barefoot running - as cushioned shoes seems to be working for me so far- why change something if it is not broken -unless one is going barefoot investment in shoes whether cushioned or minimalist or Vibrams is anyway similar. 

Skipped the 2012 Bangalore Midnight marathon

After having participated in every edition of the Bangalore Midnight marathon since 2007 I decided to miss this year's event that was held on 15th/16th December.  In the 1st edition held in May 2007 I did the full marathon. The 2008 edition was held in January 2009 - just a week before SCMM  -due to the Mumbai terrorist attacks in November 2008. So I did a 5K in this edition. In the 2009 and 2010  editions of the event I ran a fast HM as training  for SCMM. Last year in December 2011 I ran a 32K training run as part of the event.  However, I did an excellent 32Km run  on 15th (sat) morning rather than doing it at the midnight marathon thereby breaking my streak of participating in this event. Many of my friends who ran yesterday night had excellent runs partly helped by the cold weather.