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!!

Countdown to Bangalore Ultra 2009

It is just about a week left for  the 3rd edition of Bangalore Ultra. I did a reasonably OK 38Km run in just under 4 hours at GKVK on 31st October - my longest run since the marathon in July. It was not a great run as I struggled a bit in the last 2Kms. Today I ran a 1:56 20Km at EGL. Will do two short runs probably on Tuesday and Thursday this week leading up to the Ultra on 15th November. With close to 600 runners slated to participate,  this year's event is going to much bigger compared to last year. Though a bulk of the runners are going to be running 25K or less it is amazing that over 20 are doing the 100K!  The 50Km event that I am running has over 100 runners this year. The last two years I have clocked 5:51 at this event. This year I am targeting to do closer to 5:30 which I should be able to achieve barring any last minute injury or sickness. I hope the weather is as perfect as it was last year. Of course, like the last two years I am not going to worry too much about the timing - I am looking forward to enjoying the comraderie of fellow runners and the wonderful ambience of the route and the race!

Solo weekend 'long' run

There is probably no standard definition of the long run. Personally I consider any distance greater than the Half marathon distance of 21K as a long run. Long runs need some preparation in terms of proper hydration the previous 24-48 hours, greasing up to avoid chaffing and water during the run. Even during the cooler months in Bangalore it is difficult to run beyond 15Kms or so without drinking water. I needed to get in a 25K run this weekend (midway between my April and May marathons). Due to personal constraints I was not able to drive over and join other runners for a run during this weekend and decided to do a solo run locally in the CV Raman Nagar area. Since joining Runners For Life over 3 years ago one has got used to having company on long runs - solo runs of over 20K have been very rare.

I set off with a couple of bottles of water in my hand at quarter past 5 on May 1st(a holiday for labour day)- it was still quite dark and not great fun running down Old Madras road towards BEML road. I was quite relieved when I crossed the railway track into the CV Raman Nagar area. I hid the water bottles in the bushes behind the statue and had a very decent run keeping pace around 5:55. I went upto the HAL walkers park next to the HAL hospital, did a couple of loops there and came back and did the usual loops around Bagmane Tech Park. Was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few runners out there- running is definitely picking up in Bangalore. I was quite satisfied in doing a comfortable 25.5K in 2 hours 30 minutes and happy that I could still do solo long runs if I needed to- though unlikely that I will ever be able to do 16 loops of 2.5K again like I did when training for my First full Marathon in 2002. I am as ready as I possibly can be for the next marathon two weeks from now in the RFL run on 17th May. Once again the weather will be a big factor and hopefully this time I can start around 5:15am.

'Cubbon Park' Weekend

FOTS run on Sunday 8th March 2009

Beautiful shot from Cubbon - borrowed from Peter in the RFL website

Cubbon Park in the centre of Bangalore is quite an amazing 100+ acres area of greenery with diverse flora. It is probably one of the most popular locations for runners and walkers in the city. On any Saturday or Sunday or public holiday, one can find a number of RFL runners running here - some are members of Cubbon Park irregulars and others not. Many of them also end up at Airlines Hotel for a hearty South Indian breakfast after the run. I am an occasional runner at Cubbon Park - I generally prefer running a maximum of 20K there. At Cubbon one can do loops of between 4Km and 5Km - either completely road or completely trail or a mix of the two! The trail is very nice, though uneven in sections - its quite incredible to have such a, green, pollution free, traffic free, running track in the centre of the city!. What I don't like about Cubbon is the fact that one cannot maintain an even pace here (due to the nature of the route and also the breaks every loop) and also that the gates open to road traffic at 8am. Last weekend, however, I ended up running at Cubbon on both days and it was fun!

I decided to do a 30Km+ run at Cubbon Park last Saturday(7th March) mainly to run in the company of fellow RFL runners. This meant doing 6 loops or so.I had expected the company of some of the Cubbon Park(ir)regulars – Ashok, Pankaj, Prateek, Shantanu etc. I was pleasantly surprised that over 15 of us started the run at about 5:35 am. Since it was still dark we ran the first loop on the road- running in front of Vidhana Soudha. Second loop onwards it was mostly trail – we ran a 5Km route devised by Rishikesh. It was great fun chatting and catching up with fellow runners. In the third loop Praveen Singh and Satsang joined us. Unfortunately, in the fourth loop, at around the 22Km mark, I tripped on a stump of root or stone and fell pretty hard. I normally keep a cautious watch on the terrain that I run on but I guess being engrossed in good conversation caused a misstep and a stumble. Luckily, I escaped with just skin scrapes in both my palms and below my left knee. I decided to be safe and abandoned the run. Accompanied by Praveen and Satsang went to the Sanjivani ambulance and got the bruises in my hands washed and dressed. Returned home disappointed that for the first time in many years(after the first marathon attempt in Pune in December 2002) I was unable to complete the targeted run distance. Also, this will be the first time that I would not have done a long run of 25K or 30K+ distance between two marathons. Doing a long run between marathons has more a psychological impact for me than physical benefit given that I have been running marathons regularly . Anyway, I hope this does not impact my performance in the next marathon which is within 2 weeks.

Sunday, 8th March, was the 1st edition of Feet on The Street(FOTS) a 5Km run organized by Runners For Life with the goal of getting more Bangaloreans to run with a portion of the registration fees going to Dream A Dream - a Bangalore based children that works with children from vulnerable backround. As an active and enthusiastic supporter of both these organizations I Had to be there. A little over 200 runners took off at 7am doing 2 loops of 2.5Km. I had a nice leisurely run at 6minutes 44 seconds per Km–the event had a lot of new runners – apparently less then 10% were RFL regulars. Though personally, with all the media coverage, I had expected at least 300 runners, it was a great start to a new monthly event!. Hopefully it will grow in leaps and bounds during the course of the year and we will see a FOTS with 1000 runners!. Click here to see more pictures of the event. It was good to chat with Vishal, Bobby, Sangitha and others from Dream A Dream. I really love the employees of this organisation and I must add I had a wonderful time being part of the first day of their 3 day annual retreat at Manthan Farms of Banjara Academy on Monday 9th March.

Below par training week including the long run

My plan is to do one training run of 25Km or more between two marathons. If the gap between the 2 marathons is 4 weeks then I will limit the long run to 25Km or so. In case of 5 weeks gap the long run will be around 30Km. So the plan was to do about 30K on 7th September.

The week leading upto the Sunday was not been great in terms of running and cycling. After a reasonably good 20K in Cubbon Park on 30th August I did 10K of cycling on 1st September at a below average pace. I took Tuesday 2nd of September off hoping to run on 3rd(Wednesday) and 5th(Friday) and cycle on 4rth(Thursday). However, I woke up on 3rd with a slight sore throat and also it was raining quite a bit around 6am. So I ditched the idea of a run. I continued to feel tired with a bit of a cold on Thursday as well. On Friday I somehow pushed my self to do a reasonably fast 10K despite the roads being wet with overnight rains. I took rest on Saturday but continued to feel a bit tired and very apprehensive about the long run on Sunday. Was planning to join the RFL run at EGL. Though convenient to get too EGL is not a great running route compared to Bellandur and GKVK. Specially if it rains the route gets slushy and even has huge poodles.

The turnout for the Sunday RFL run was moderate - probably about 35 or so runners. The first 2 loops (turned out to be a 9.4Km loop instead of the 10Km that A2 announced) were very average for me -somehow did not get the right rhythm. Also the niggle in the left calf that I get on and off bothered me a bit. Somehow, the third loop was much better albeit a bit slower than the first two. I ran 1.2Kms beyond the RFL turnaround point in order to get to 30Km. Towards the end my hamstring also started hurting a bit. Am quite worried about this as this is still very early days as far as my mission to do '12 in 12' is concerned. While I completed 30.2Km in just under 3 Hours I did not feel great at the end of the run. Maybe for some reason I did not hit the 'Runners High' today? Need to do more research on this later.

The weather was ideal for running - mostly cloudy , temperatures in low 20s as is quite common this time of the year in bangalore. Inf act, training in Bangalore makes it challenging to run in other cities in India where the weather conditions are not as runner friendly.

Dur to this long run I missed my volunteering session for the Dream A Dream Computer 202 session for Ananya children. This got moved from Saturday(6th) afternoon to Sunday(7th) mornign at the last moment.