TCS 10K 2013 : Decent run despite a torn right calf muscle

Considering that a week before the run on 19th May 2013 I was unsure of making it to the starting line due to a right calf injury, I am satisfied with my 46:56 performance  (bib# 578) in the race with an overall ranking of 189 out of 8137 finishers. The icing was the 3rd place finish out of 191 runners in the 51 to 60 eyars category behind awesome runners Pani and Sid. Running through right calf pain for the last 2 Kms was quite tough. The wonderful capture below around the 9th Km by  Shantanu Singh shows this well.

I literally limped over the finish line with severe right calf pain - thanks to friend and fellow runner Ravi Venkatesam for getting the volini spray from the medical tent in the finish area. After spraying that generously the calf felt much better. 

Ravi and I left Domlur Layout at 6am by car and after parking at UB city we reached Kanteerva stadium by 620am. There were hardly a handful of runners in the category A section(finisher in less than 50 mins within the previous 2 years) at that time. At 630am the World 10K men racers took off at a blistering pace. Soon thereafter the area was buzzing with runners - many of them familiar. After using the restroom one more time I went down the steps to a position close to the gate to the tracks. At about about 7:19am (by my Garmin) the gate was opened and all runners rushed out tot he start line. The pushing and jostling was much less compared to the previous two years - though it was still there specially with the corporate challenge runners also joining the category A runners at the same time. (I understand it was much worse for the category B and Category C runners - their gates were opened a few seconds later). The race started at 7:21 within a few seconds of my getting to the start line. I was able to get a good start and clocked the 1st Km in 4:07 much faster than planned. Ran at a good pace till Km 4  clocking an average of 4:16/Km - the gradient after the turnaround at Ulsoor slowed me down considerably and the pace gradually fell. By the half way mark I knew that sub 45 was not going to be possible and soon thereafter also vanished any thoughts of a beating my previous PB of 2011. The last 4 Kms were really tough as the right calf pain steadily increased. Surprisingly, my usual left calf and left glutes niggle did not show up this time. I have always found it difficult to sustain a fast pace in the shorter races - My goal was to ensure that I finished sub 50 and as close to 47 mins as possible. I was doubly relieved to cross the finish line around the 47 min mark. As has been my practice at the 10K race I consumed water 3 times during the run all in the 2nd half. I felt the weather was quite ok.

After hanging around in the finish line a bit - stretching and getting photographed - drove to Konark for the wonderful breakfast hosted by Nagaraj Adiga (aka 'godfather'). It was great to exchange thoughts with fellow runners and also an opportunity for more pictures. Got back home around quarter past 10am - well fed but a bit worried about the right calf.

A day after the race I discovered that the right calf had swollen quite a bit. In general the right leg was quite sore even more so than after a typical marathon. Next day when I found some internal bleeding below the ankle it had me really worried. The ultrasound scan of the calf area (recommended by Doc Gladson of Attitide Prime) revealed ' a partial tear of the proximal muscle fibres of soleus with associated hematoma'. The soleus is one of the 3 muscles that form the calf muscles. A hematoma is defined as a collection of blood or a clot that has accumulated outside of a blood vessel. The blood has leaked from a ruptured artery, vein, or capillary and then seeps into the surrounding tissue. 

The only solution for such an injury is to ice the area and stretch lightly frequently and stay off from running for a few weeks. After a complete break for 5 days I did some cycling over the weekend. After a week the swelling in the ankle has gone but there is still a dull pain while walking or going down the steps. Depending on how it goes I hope to restart running the week of 3rd June and after a couple of weeks of light training start the formal training for Hyderabad marathon towards the end of the month!!

Start of FM training for the new season

The new running season,at least in South India, usually starts with the 10K race organised in Bangalore by Procam  in late May/end June. See here for the 2012 India running calendar. This year's TCS open 10K event happened last Sunday on 27th May. Since my main focus is marathon training and I had planned a short vacation just prior to this race I set myself a modest goal of 48:30 for this event. I fell well short of this goal - see my next post for more details.

In the 9 weeks since I started training after a 7 weeks break I have built a reasonable foundation to launch the formal training for my next marathon - Mohawk Hudson River marathon on 7th October- one of two Full Marathons I plan to race in the 2012-13 season(the other being SCMM 2013). I have done a few weeks of 40K to 50K weekly mileage including my first 30K+ run of the season. With two easy  weekday runs and the weekend long run my mileage build up has been as follows:

2/4  25K

9/4 35K

16/4 35K

23/4 40K

30/4 41K

7/5  50K

14/5 40K

21/5 25K

28/5 45K

During this time I  signed up for runyourbq - a website focused on helping runners run their fastest marathon and qualify for Boston. While there is lot of useful information on the website, the training plans there have me confused. Like many other marathon training plans available on the net their training plans advocate 5 days of running per week and high weekly mileage of between 40 and 55 miles per week. This is quite in contrast with the 'Run Less, Run Faster' program from FIRST where the max weekly mileage is about 35 miles consisting of 3 runs per week - an interval run, a temp run and a long run. Of course, the 3 runs need to be complimented with 2 intense cross-training workouts per week.

At least for now I plan to stay with the FIRST program. I plan to do a practice interval training run and tempo run next week and  start the formal 16 weeks marathon training program the week of 11th June. Given that my next race is in the US I have changed the setting on  my Garmin  to show the distance and pace in miles rather than Kms. I plan to have a trial of  this as well next week. I will have a buffer of a week at the end as well - that is, it is exactly 18 weeks to the Mohawk Hudson River marathon. Incidentally this marathon got sold out on 12th May - nearly 5 months before the race!

The training plan is for a target FM time of 3:38 at an average pace of 5:11 per Km or 8:19 per mile. This target time/pace assumes that I can do a HM in about 1:44 - which I did at the Mysore Half marathon in October 2011. Since then I have put on some weight and have had some major issues on my left side - glutes, calf and numbness in the toes. After consulting with a couple of different sports medicine professionals I have realised that probably the only way to get over this issue is continued focus on strengthening and  stretching. I have been doing strengthening since February and plan to continue this through the year. I have not given sufficient importance to stretching after a training session - I plan to address this now on. This might mean spending longer hours on my weekday training session as well -something that is going to be a challenge to achieve with my current work schedule.  I also need to manage my weight and bring it down by a couple of Kgs to under 60 - for this I need to manage my diet better which is another challenge.  In order to test my progress with train I would like to run a fast HM in the July timeframe(I have a  13 miler scheduled on 29th July). There is no race scheduled in the area during that time - so this will have to be a training run on a flat course. Or I have to look at a event in the US in late August/early September (I will be in the NY area starting 22nd August till the race date) but that would be too close to the FM date.

As mentioned in my previous post my goal is try and BQ between September 2012 and September 2013. I am looking at a maximum of 3 attempts for this - Mohawk Hudson River marathon in October 2012, SCMM in January 2013 and possibly another race in the US in 2nd half of 2013!

TCS World 10K preview

By this time next Sunday the first event of the running season 2011-12 would be over. This is the 4th edition of the  (TCS) World 10K in Bangalore on 5th of June. While my goal is to do my fastest ever 10K , I am not as well prepared as I should be for this event. With continued hectic work schedule my running has been quite erratic. While I have not been able to put in consistent weekly mileage and have struggled in some of my training runs, I have  got in a couple of very good tempo runs including a solo 9K in about 42 minutes. Therefore, I am still hopeful of completing the 10K in under 48 minutes and possibly close to 47 minutes.Apart from inconsistent mileage my left leg calf niggle is another concern - usually I sense the niggle in the middle of the running season. This year I am alleady feeling it maybe due to the larger number of faster,albeit shorter runs.

In the last 3 editions my performance has been as follows:

2008            50:39

2009            48:24

2010            49:05

The route for this year seems to be the same as that of  last year. The website shows a start time of 8am for the open category 10K race exactly 5 minutes after the start of the Women's World 10K - I am very apprehensive about the chaos this is likely to cause at the starting line. Last year with 10 minutes gap between the Women's World 10K and the open 10K event there was a mad rush to move from the holding area to the starting line in the stadium. I hope this part is managed better this year.As a lot will depend on how smoothly I am able to start the race and breakaway from the high density of slower runners. My target is to try and do an even paced raced at about 4:45 per Km which will be quite challenging - this will give me a 47:30 finish which I will be quite satisfied with!! If the 1st two Kms are done at a slower average pace then it will be tough for me to make up. Towards the end of the race it also gets quite warm. In any case it would be disappointing if I am not able to keep my time below 49 minutes!!