Did not enjoy most of the runs in June and July - in fact they felt like drudgery both physically and mentally - a feeling I have never had before in 24Y of distance running . So much so that the nervousness and tension the night before and the morning of every single run was palpable . With this state of affairs it was clear that a FM in Sept was impossible to pull off. Therefore, switched race category at the Wipro Bangalore marathon coming up on 21st Sept from FM to HM in mid July. A consultation with Dr G (his positive attitude was very impressive- that , a good treating doctor and his strong faith should hopefully cure him )again in July end led me to get in touch with R who I knew of as a yoga teacher from my Ranka days. Dr G surmised that there was imbalance in my muscles and the glutes and hamstrings were not firing causing lack of rhythm and putting higher load on the quads and lower legs . And as this needed focused attention to correct he advised I consult R who was now doing such work with a number of people(mostly in Dubai and Singapore) . As per R the left hamstrings and gluteus medius were the culprits though these muscles on both legs needed to be worked upon.
After two weeks or so of consistently doing the excercises suggested by R (to help the hamstrings and medius fire ) and also to correct the right shoulder warp towards the left hip, I sense a turrnaround in the quality of my runs - albeit all slow and interspersed with some walking. Could be the physical or mental affect of R's exercises. Either way it does not matter. I am once again looking forward to the runs. The quads are getting strained much later in the run and not as much specially when running up gradients and the numbness in the left foot has not been as bothersome. The left ankle/calf strength has also improved (this may have nothing to do with R's exercises and may be due to the elapsed time since the surgery and the calf raises that I have been doing regularly) as the range of motion in the single leg calf raise is slowly but surely getting better. As a consequence, the last 3 weekend runs of 17K, 21.2K and 14K ( 85% run and 15% walk) went well and have boosted my confidence of doing a sub 2:30 half on 21st Sept. If I manage the first half in under n 67m and the quads and the left foot sole hold up then I will try and get as close to 2:15 as possible. Regardless, I am looking forward to the run - only my 2nd event since the aborted one in May 2024.
Meanwhile, have registered for the HM at TMM 2026 with the goal that, after returning from the travel, a decent 27-28K run can be managed between Oct 20th and Nov 20th, then I can upgrade to a FM . The last date for doing that is 28th November. That is of course, looking too far ahead . The focus for now is on a good run on 21st Sept!
