The 4 months since my last post have been characterised by a lot of self doubt and consultations with orthos/physios. The knee X-ray done as part of the health checkup at Sparsh showed nothing abnormal except for age related wear and tear - perhaps a tad more on the right knee compared to the left. The NCS and US tests too did not reveal anything except that there could some degradation in the nerve signals going down to the foot on the left side. the physio B suggested mouthguards to correct misalignment in the jaw which apparently can cause imbalances in other muscles such as the hip. In a desperate attempt to get out of the slump or else just hang up the shoes , spent quite a bit on two visits to a recommended dentist in JP Nagar and, got the mouthguards done. They did'nt really help with the issue. Gave up on consulting physio B - as did not really vibe with him, his way of working and lack of responsiveness. . In paralell I kept bugging R for a session. After considerable chasing managed a few sessions with him in May including one in-person. Focusing diligently on his excercises with minimal running in June I managed a decent 10K after a long time in mid July. Followed that up with a 15K in July end and a 18K in early August- the longest run since TMM 2026. The 18K made me hopeful that there is still some gas in teh tank and I can manage a slow FM in Janaury if I can get in a couple of 32K runs leading up to it. Meanwhile, TMM 27 registrations opened on 31st July and despite the price hike from Rs 3600 to Rs 5000 all the spots got filled by 6th August. Fortunately, I saw the messages saying places were filling up fast and registered on 2nd August night while on travel in Tiruneleveli. If I had waiting till my customer time of mid/late August I would have missed the boat.
Based on discussions with R the tighness in the right hip and the hamstrings and glutes not firing possibly seem to be the root cause of my problems. Due to the tight hip flexor my cadence is a pathetic 156-160 vias-a-vis 170+. This is causing pain below the right knee. Hoping to put in some regular sessions with R and work on correcting the issue sufficiently to be able to do a 5-5:30 FM in TMM 27. The quality of the runs is very variable - the 15K last Saturday was a a real struggle even at a 6:40 pace. The legs did not get the rhythm and the mind kept asking me to quit. Making me question whether I had done the right thing by soldiering on for another TMM FM finish. Life would definitely be less stressful and more relaxed if I had decided to make peace with the end of my long distance running instead of trying to limp on for a few more years. Now having decided to go forward at least for this year, it is critical (both from physical and mental points of view) to get a couple of 20K+ runs in before the next travel break in 2nd week of Sept. The monthly mileage since TMM 26 is : Feb - 34Km, March - 74Km, April -24Km, May -83Km, June -15Km, July 72Km, August 110Km(estimated) . This is very low for someone purporting to run a marathon in 6 months. Cannot recollect when I have had a such long gap between two 20K+ runs (2024 being an exception). Nevertheless, hoping to repeat the success of 2025 with just 2 months (Nov and Dec) of over 150Km of monthly mileage.
