My 3rd Garmin unit is a Garmin 310 XT..

When I took to long distance running in 2001 I used a regular stop watch to track the run time. I used my car to measure the training route for distance. Based on the advice from Dr. Rajat Chauhan that a Heart rate monitor would help me achieve my potential as a runner both in terms of distance and pace I acquired the  Garmin  Forerunner 305 in July 2007.  Once I started using the device I got addicted to it. While I stopped using the HRM after a couple of years I used the average pace and current pace settings of the device to pace my runs and achieve the timing targets. The first unit lasted a little under 3 years before the buttons wore out and the unit split into two in April 2010. I acquired my second Garmin 305 unit in July 2010. In July 2013,exactly 3 years later, the battery of the device started to die in about 2 hrs 15 minutes. Soon after within a few weeks the battery life reduced to an hour. I trained for the Airtel Hyderabad Marathon 2013 using a Garmin 305 borrowed from Ravi Venkatesam and raced with the same unit.

 The Garmin 305 had been discontinued so I researched on the other Garmin units and narrowed it to either   a Garmin 310XT or  Garmin 610. After looking at the detailed reviews of DCRainmaker and the relative prices (US $ 230 versus US $399) I decided to go with the Garmin 310XT. Its similarity to the FR 305 and the 20 hour battery life was also attractive.Having used it for about 6 weeks now, since August 28th 2013, I am quite happy with it. It does seem to link with the GPS satellite faster than the Garmin 305. The setup was fairly straightforward very similar to the 305.  Being able to specify lap distances in fraction of Kms is a very useful feature for interval training - in the 305 the lap distance can be either 1 Km or 1 mile only. The transfer of data from the Garmin unit to Garmin Training center or Garmin Connect using the  ANT USB mini stick has been a bit of a struggle. I had to download the appropriate driver and install it on my PC. Even then the ANT agent often did not detect the Garmin device and I am having to exit the agent and/or switch the device on/off for the data to be transferred. This seems to be a known issue with the device. I am hoping the device was last for at least 3 years and the battery life will stay over 15 hours as I turn my focus to ultras after Boston 2014.

Garmin Forerunner 305 issue with saving History data

About ten days ago I realised that data was not getting uploaded from my Garmin Forerunner 305 into the Training center application on the PC. On further investigation I found that the problem was actually different - my device had stopped storing data in its memory almost exactly 2 years after I started using it. I used the device for the first time on 4rth July 2007 and the last hirstory data in the unit was for 28th June 2009(my 11th FM in the current series). All data after that date was lost. As per the user manual the unit is supposed to overwrite history data once the memory is full. I tried deleting the history data but was unable to do so.

Having become addicted to my Garmin Forerunner 305 and uploading and analysing my workout data on a weekly basis I was quite disheartened with this malfunction of the unit. In despair I wrote about the problem to Garmin support and got the following response a few days later.

'Dear Bhasker Sharma,

Thank you for contacting Garmin Europe.These problems can usually be solved by updating or reloading the unit software and then performing a hard reset. Please be aware that this process will clear all of your data from the unit so ensure that if possible it is backed up to a computer.To update the software on the unit the Webupdater can be used, which canbe obtained from: http://www.garmin.com/products/webupdater/. Download and install this then connect your unit the computer. The webupdater will then check for available updates and download as necessary ? if theupdater states that you have the latest version then please select the option to reload current version.To reset the unit turn the unit off, hold down the mode button and turn the unit on. When the unit asks if you want to erase all user data, select yes. After resetting the unit, leave it with a clear view of the sky for about 30 minutes to acquire the satellite almanac.

If there is anything else I can help you with then please let me know. Alternatively you can search for a solution here: http://www.garmin.com/support.'

I followed the above instructions and downloaded the Webupdater software using which I updated the Firmware on my device from V2.6 to V2.9. Then instead of reseting the unit as mentioned above I turned it on and was prompted to delete the history data. I was able to successfully delete the history data and thankfully all is back to normal and my workouts are being stored again!

Misbehaving Garmin Forerunner 305

I have owned a Garmin Forerunner 305 since July 2007 - a device with a GPS receiver and a wireless heart rate monitor that has made significant contribution to the improvement in my long distance running over the last year or so. While initially I used the device to monitor and control my heart rate during speed training (tempo or fartlek runs) subsequently I have become addicted to the pace data that it provides on a real-time basis. Now when I set out on a run I break down the target distance and completion time in terms of the average pace(Minutes per Km) required to achieve it. I then fine tune my pace by continually monitoring the current and average pace during my run. eg to finish around 4:30 in tomorrow's KTM I plan to keep my average pace around 6 and a half minutes per Km. (There are several pace calculators on the net - this one is quite cool!). I am so used to the gadget now that I often wonder how I trained and ran my first 7 marathons without one. So much so that I am not too satisfied with a run if I don't have the Garmin 305 on my wrist or if the battery dies during a run.

The main reason for this post is that since the last 2 months or so my Garmin device has started misbehaving. I have experienced a couple of issues:
a) At times it seemed to be losing time ie showing a lower time and distance than actual - this happened for the first time at the Hyderabad marathon in August - the device showed 3:59 and 41.2Km at the finish. Of course, I ignored the distance and was thrilled thinking I had done my first sub 4 hr marathon only to realise later that my Garmin had acted up!

b) The bigger problem is that increasing frequency the device powers off with a message saying low battery when powering it on in the morning even if it has been fully charged the night before. This is irritating as then I have to run without the device. This seems to be a known problem with the device. Checkout Garmin Edge 305 Lockup / Not Powering Up Problems or Power Problems with Garmin 305 . I continue to get the problem on and off even after implementing the suggested solution.

I hope the device works fine during KTM tomorrow - I intend to update the firmware on it soon thereafter.

Moderate race at TCS World 10K Bangalore 2014

Considering that for the 1st time ever I ran a race without a watch and the first time since 2007 without a Garmin and that I had not trained specifically for the event I am satisfied with my finish time. My primary goal was to do a sub 50 and depending on the first half to get as close to 46 minutes as possible.  Few minutes before the start of the race fellow runner Sampath Jayaram tensed up on realising that his Garmin refused to power on. As he was targeting a PB with a goal of sub 40 I could relate to this. Not having a stringent timing goal I had no hesitation to giving my Garmin to Sampath. 

Bib Number	834
Name	BHASKER SHARMA
Gender	MALE
Category	50 to 60 years
Overall Rank	296 out of 10913
Category Rank	12 out of 241
Gender Rank	289 out of 9081
Split@3.9 Km	00:17:56 at an Avg Speed of 13.05 Kmph
Split@6.1 Km	00:28:20 at an Avg Speed of 12.92 Kmph
Split@7.5 Km	00:35:51 at an Avg Speed of 12.55 Kmph
Split@8.5 Km	00:40:39 at an Avg Speed of 12.55 Kmph
Net Time	00:47:30 at an Avg Speed of 12.63 Kmph
Gross Time	00:47:37

Irina and I left Domlur at about 525am and after parking the car in Lavelle road we reached the stadium around 550am. There was a long queue of runners to get into the stadium. I joined Shilpi and Rishi in the front of the queue. Once inside I rushed to use the loo. The port-a-loos had long  lines of people waiting. However, the stadium toilet close the coral A entrance was pretty much empty. Reached the corral a little after 6am and went down the steps close to the exit gate and mingled with the other runners. At about 6:17am the gate opened and the corral A runners moved to the start line on the tracks. The race was flagged off by John Abraham and Carl Lewis at 6:20am.  I started at a brisk pace with Shilpi and just behind Amrita. Looking at the Timing India splits above I reached the 3.9Km point at an average pace of 4:35/Km. Like every year the pace started to drop after about 5Km and I reached the 8.5Km at an average pace of 4:47/Km.  By this time Amrita had pulled ahead. Though I pushed myself I was a bit wary of pushing too hard due to the iffy left leg. So crossing the finish line at an average pace of 4:45/Km was quite satisfactory. Though given that I had done a solo 10K training running in EGL a few days earlier in 47:54 I should have done at least a minute faster. This is where the average pace on the Garmin would probably have helped. Due to overnight rain while it was a bit cooler it felt humid towards the end of the race. Near the High court at the entrance to Cubbon park there was a huge puddle of water covering the road (this could possibly have been cleared up by the organisers) due to which runners had to get on the pavement. This was also the first 10K race in which I ran without stopping at all for water. 

Overall the race was well organised at least for runners starting from corral A. For runners starting in the later corrals specially D, E and F the initial few Kms was very congested due to the sheer number of runners many of whom were slow and probably 1st timers. While it is great that the running movement is growing rapidly the organisers needs to make it smoother for the runners starting later to try and achieve their time goals. The Km markers along the route were clearly marked. Also there were huge trash bins a few metres from the aid stations for runners to throw water bottles in which was a major new feature of this year's race. Another addition was pacers for 1 hr, 1:15 and 1:30 finishes. The post race medal and refreshments collection process was smooth. After hanging out in the finish area for some time we walked to the car(s) in a group. The finish area became extremely crowded by the time we left.

Near UB City on the way to the cars

And drove for breakfast to Konark on Residency road- Nagaraj Adiga hosting a fantastic breakfast after the 10K race has now become a tradition. This year there were  a huge number of runners at breakfast including many from Hyderabad and Chennai!!

Post breakfast at Konark

Disappointing TMM 2019

After a very good 1st half and being reasonably on target till 32K( as per my Garmin)  the toes of the left sole started acting up making it challenging to move the legs. A short walk break just before the Peddar road flyover gave second wind enabling me to run a few kms. However, I bonked around Km 38 and thereafter it was a real struggle both physical and mental to continue running. With sub 3:48 out of the window and sub 3:50 looking tough I tried to press on but it tuned out to be one of those days when the mind and the left leg just did not co-operate. So I ended up crossing the finish line just under 3:51. Finishing 4rth in my age category and 404th out of 6700 runners is certainly nothing to sneeze about ;however having trained well for and being in sub 3:48 shape and not achieving it was disappointing. Given that the left sole felt pretty much normal just half an hour after finish,  I will carry the thought that perhaps I should have tried harder in the last 5Kms till TMM 2020!

For the first time in 16 years I arrived in Mumbai on Saturday morning (rather than Friday evening) . 

I drove to the airport (picking up Pankaj at Cubbon park) and parked my car there - also a first for me. The flight from Bangalore was delayed by a couple of hours due to weather. After landing around 12 , Patil and I went to the expo in KBC(spent quite some time locating it). Being the  afternoon before the race the expo was packed. Though we met a few runners we did not hang around much. We grabbed a sumptious G ujarati thali lunch at Rajwad thal and shared a cab to our respective hotels in the Fort area. Though assigned one of the better rooms hotel New Bengal was more rundown than I had expected.  After a nice dinner with bunch of friends at Ustaadi next door to the hotel went to bed by 10pm.

Woke up at 3:35am , as usual, before the alarm rang , got ready, had a couple of bananas and some nuts and was down in the lobby by 4:40. 

We walked to Azad maidan in about 10 minutes and though the entry gate was crowded with runners the process of security check including the scan of the bag was smooth and we were inside by 5:10 or so. Entered the holding area 15m later and walked towards Coral B. There definitely seemed to be larger number of FM runners than ever. It took almost a minute and a half to cross the starting line and a couple of Kms before I could pick up pace. It was warm but not quite as humid as Mumbai can be. As per my Garmin (310XT) I ran between 5:05 and 5:20 per Km till the 30Km (about 1:50 at the halfway mark). However, the official splits above tell a different story. It is intriguing as to how the times between my devices and the official splits could diverge right from get go - something that I need to take into account better in future races.  

I sighted Vishy(who had a similar goal as mine) ahead of me while going down the Peddar road flyover around Km 7 and kept a steady pace behind him. I caught up with him just before the sealink at Km 14 and we ran together till about Km 25 at which point he bonked. While my pace reduced slightly and I did not feel great I managed to plod on what I thought was a reasonably steady pace. However, I seemed to have slowed down more than I thought after the 1st half. This and the struggle in the last 4Kms cost me my goal time. And maybe the mismatch between my Garmin and the official clock. My Garmin showed I had done 42.82Km at 5:24/Km. And the Tomtom(which was in my pocket) 43.37 at 5:20/Km!! The temperature and humidity were  was surprisingly  steady through out the race.  Apart from periodic farting there were no major after effects of all the hogging of the previous day. As I reflect on the race maybe some amount of negativity crept into my mind between Km 27 and 30. As the physical and mental aspects feed into each other  it was probably triggered by early signs of numbness in the sole. And the only reason I can think of for this is inadequate tapering. 

The walk from the finish line to Azad maidan and the collection of the medal and refreshments was smooth. Met Satish and a few other Indiranagar runners there and Jai of Bhukmp. Jai and I headed back after some rest to reach the hotel at 11am. After checking out around 12 a bunch of us took a cab to get some beer at Leopold. However, as the traffic was very heavy and most of us were feeling very hungry we ended up for lunch at Samrat. Nari and I got to the airport fairly early where we were joined by Pankaj and others. With the ifs and buts still going through my mind I reached home close to 10PM dropping Pankaj enroute. With no hard race in the next 6m  there is plenty of time to continue to mull over what could have been and plan and execute better!!

More on this year's Ultra experience

The past week since the Ultra I have been pigging out with a couple of buffet lunches at the Unwind Island and dinner at Jalsa on Outer Ring Road(all official as my Manager from the US was visiting).

Last Sunday, Vetcha Rajesh (who stayed over with me on 15th November) and I left home by city taxi at 3:30am to ride with Dharam in his car from Cubbon at 4am. On Old Madras Road half way to Cubbon Park I felt quite low on suddenly remembering that I had forgotten my Garmin 305 at home. Having got used to running with one I was despairing that I might not have such a great run without it. The ride to ONV was very fast and when we were there by 5am I regretted not having pushed Dharam to take me home to pick up my Garmin. So when Dharam offered me the use of his Garmin I took it up. Even though the unit did not have the Average pace as one of the display settings I am quite certain that, without it, I would not have managed as good a run. Dharam - thanx very much for letting me use your Garmin.

About 70+ runners started off at 6:30am after a motivational speech from Madhu - the race director and visionary behind the Bangalore Ultra. We havce certainly come a long way from the time in September 2006 when Madhu first posted the idea of organising an ultra in Bangalore. This time there were 4 aid stations which were well stocked as expected. Almost 4.5 KM of the 6.25 Km route was open. Though the trail was beautiful, had the weather god not been so kind and provided the perfect running weather , all the runners would have had a much tougher time. The last 500m or so to the turn around point was a real magnificent stretch. At the turn around point in the first loop one of the runners from the opposite direction shouted to me saying I was in the 43rd place. I was not surprised - at the pace that I run I am usually middle of the pack in the first half of a race. I completed 2 loops (25Km) in about 2 hours 45 minutes. And then of course the pace started to drop. In the first 3 loops I ran quite a bit with Gopal and Lingraju . I am very satisfied with my 5 hrs 50 minutes completion time which gave me an overall 9th place among the 50K finishers. While I felt quite strong at the finish , with an average pace of 6 minutes 55 Secs per Km and average heart rate of 153, I don't think I can ever push myself to run beyond 50K or so. The one problem I have is I cannot pick up my running rhythm if I talk a walk break of more than a couple of minutes. And I believe it is almost impossible to go beyond 50K distances without walking for fairly long stretches. Hats off to Jacob Bhoopalan and Mukesh Singh for completing 100Km and several runners who did the 75K : Sunil Chainani, Manoj Bhat, Athreya etc. And the amazing achievement of Santosh Padmanabhan of Asha Foundation who ran 156Km in 24 hours with Doc Rajat and Shumit Vatsal giving him with 127Km and 100Km respectively. Shows there's no limit to which the human body can be pushed with the right physical and mental training. Check the complete results of this year's event and the pictures. Also the pictures from Sabine and Anita. Overall, the event was well organised and I look forward to the most runner friendly race in India going from strength to strength.

Momentum week with a bad ending

After a long while I managed a 55Km +  week with a 20Km  run with BHUKMP and Red Dragon runners on Saturday followed by a 18Km solo in  EGL. Add to this 12Kms of cycling and two strengthening sessions at Manipal hospital department of sports and excercise medicine. This is the highest mileage in a non marathon week in a long time. While the next event is the Sunfeast world 10K 2010 it was important for me do a high mileage week after a break of nearly two months after the Strides of hope. I also decided to resume strenght training again after a break of 2 months. While I have found it quite comfortable to do a 2 hour 20K run (have even managed a few 50 minutes 10Km solo runs recently) I found strength training to be much more challenging. Even though I re-started the excercises with weights of less than 15-20 pounds it has been a struggle to do sets of 2 minutes on most machines. Hopefully next week should be better from strength training perspective. Of course, next week will be a low mileage week running-wise as I am travelling to Chennai for a couple fo days for a wedding and I do not plan to run there.

A decent week was ruined with my Garmin 305 dying this morning. I have been having trouble with the buttons that change the display pages for the last few weeks. One of the buttons stopped working and the other has gradually worn out completely. As a result I have been unable to change the display to the page with the average pace which is my favourite parameter when I am targeting specific finish times. So I tinkered a bit with it this morning after the run and the power went off on the device and now I am unable to power it on again. Am extremely sad about this as for the last three years I have been so used to running with the Garmin that I felt quite lost whenever I had to run without one. I am going to try and get the device fixed in a local watch repair shop. However, if that does not work out then I will have to order a new device soon. I am not sure what the average life of the Garmin 305 is or should be. I have used my device for over 5400Km of running and 1600Km since July 2007.

York Marathon

 Three weeks ago, on 15th May, I crossed the finish line of an FM or Ultra for the 55th(*) time at the York, marathon and half marathon ,PA in 4:27:33. It was in line with my expectations based on the struggle of the 34K run in Bangalore 3 weeks prior to the event.  I started the training cycle in January with a target of 4:10 and quite stupidly switched to a plan for 4:00 in Feb and struggled to hit the goal in all 3 runs in any of the weeks. April was even worse probably caused by a sciatic nerve after the solo drive from Tirunelveli on 30th March. Due to this and the plans for travel and sightseeing in the 2 weeks prior to the event I abandoned any timing goal and decided to enjoy the race and complete it between 4:15 and 4:30.  I managed to get in some training runs during the week of 2nd May and 9th May in Arizona and NY respectively. Also did quite a bit of walking/hiking  in Bryce canyon national park, Grand Canyon , Sedona, and Flagstaff.   Fell a couple of times during these runs - tripping on the uneven footpath of Tempe, Arizona, and gathering some skin scrapes on the legs and hands, slipping on the pathway in  Bushmaster Park in Arizona. Did some of these runs without my Garmin 310XT device as it started taking an enormous amount of time to catch the GPS satellite. And just before the race the Garmin strap broke - so I hardly looked at it during the race. (normally during a long run or race I try and adjust my pace based on the cumulative average pace ). Though I turned on the Garmin and ran with it in my pocket the race data did not get recorded in the device(or maybe I inadvertently deleted it when fiddling with it to fix the data upload issue post the race). So I was glad that I carried my phone in the race and turned on the Racejoy application suggested by the race organiser . This is the first event that I ran with a headphone listening to the audio of an edition of The Economist magazine.

(* the 55 finishes include 6 RFL-supported runs during the 12 marathons in 12 months spree in 2008-09 and a solo self-supported marathon during Covid-19 in May 2021.  )

The 350Km drive from Brooklyn to York on Friday 14th, May took about 8 hours with a couple of breaks including  3 hours in Jim Thorpe enroute.  We checked into our Airbnb around 6PM. On 15th morning walked down to the YMCA building close by and collected the bib. There was hardly any buzz about the race in the area - just a handful of runners who had come to collect their bibs. 

Walked to the beginning of the Heritage railroad trail after collecting the bib. While the route was very green it did not look as flat as I had expected.  

After walking around downtown York and taking in the various plaques with nuggets of American history ,ate pizza on a bench along the trail and returned to the Airbnb. Decided not to do any sightseeing that afternoon and relaxed in the room. Had early'ish dinner at Hamir's Indian fusion restaurant. 

Went to bed around 10:15 and woke up at 5am after a reasonably restful night. After imbibing the usual banana(large one) , almonds, and pumpkin seeds left for the start point at 5:55am. The first of the runners were to start at 6am and my slot to start was 6:30. It was a partly cloudy morning with a  temperature of around 15c The start area was low-key with a bunch of runners warming up, few spectators, and not much other activity - the dullest I have experienced in an official event. After warming up and using the porto loo , turned on the racejoy app and started the race a little after 6:20am. 

Ran the first mile quite fast in less than 9 minutes - the half-mile road part was all downhill. The trail had several gradual gradients especially when crossing the railway track. I ran at a pace of between 6 and 6:15 per Km completing the first half in about 2:09 at a pace of 9:49/mile(6:05 per km). The trail was lush green, slushy in parts due to overnight rain. Encountered light drizzle on and off.   One or more runners were in sight most of the time though I ran alone throughout(again a first that I hardly chatted with any runner before, during or after the race) . There was a mile marker every mile and an aid station every 2 miles. Though there were volunteers at most turns/vantage points I did get baffled with the route at one point and almost made a wrong turn. The Racejoy application called out my mile splits , cumulative pace and expected finished time which started with 3:54 at the end of the first mile and then moved from  4:05 to  4:15 for the first half and then upwards of 4:20 on the last 10Km. The kudos sent thru the app by various family members and the 3 songs were welcome motivators.  As usual, the pace dropped quite steadily between 6:20 and 6:40  after 25Km. Managed the 2nd half in about 2:20 at an average pace of 10:36 per mile or 6:35/Km to finish at an overall pace of 6:20 per Km. Pretty much the same pace as the Goa river marathon in Dec 2021 which had a much tougher route and higher  humid conditions. 

The post-race snacks were nothing to write home about - chocolate milk, potato chips, pretzels, apple etc. Foam rolled and stretched on an exercise mat in the finish area for a few minutes before walking back to the room. Overall happy to have completed my 10th international full marathon - 8th one in the US (others: New Jersey marathon twice, Richmond marathon, Suntrust Washington marathon, Hartford marathon, Boston marathon, Western pacific marathon)  in spite of injury woes, below par training, and the travel/sightseeing before the race.  Based on the recovery runs so far, including the slow 21K on 4rth June will need to get my right hip/sciatic issue fixed before getting into the next training cycle to target a sub 4:15! 

Sunfeast World 10K 2010 Report

I completed the 3rd edition of this 10K race with my (borrowed) Garmin showing  49:46(gun time). I expect the chip timing,which will  come out in the next few days, to be about 20 to 30 seconds faster probably close to my timing of 49:32 in the 2009 Nike Human Race. In any case my timing this year is likely to be about 45 seconds slower than last year. I can think of lots of factors to justify this: the cluttered, chaotic start with hundreds of runners jostling to move from the holding area to the start point, the stomach upset since Friday night, too many U turns in the route, niggle in the left calf and ofcourse the more than expected heat. However, the bottom line is that I am not cut out for running at a fast pace , that is, I have dominance of the 'slow twitch muscle fibers' vis-a-vis 'fast twitch muscle fibers' . Which means I can run at a decent average pace for a longer distance rather than run at a very fast pace for a shorter distance. Therefore I think it will be near impossible for me to better the 10K personal best of 48:24 that I achieved in last year' s race.

The elite men's and women's winners finished in 27:54 and 31:58 respectively. The complete results should be available here  in the next day or two.

Rahul and I, along with Adam and Vidhya from our appartment community, took the bus to Kanteerva stadium this morning. We left home around 6:55am , caught a bus around 7:10am and were comfortably in the holding area around 7:30am just a few minutes before the first of the elite men's finishers came into the stadium. The holding area started to fill up quite rapidly and by the time the women's event flagged off at 8am the area was jam packed. When the gate in the fence separating the holding area from the tracks in the stadium was opened at about 8:05am there was a mad rush to get out of the holding area. I was scared that I might get injured while being shoved down the steps. Several runners just climbed over the fence. So before I could even get to the starting line the race was flagged off. The whole arrangement in the holding area was highly disappointing for a race that has the IAAF gold label and is apparently one of the most prestigious 10K races in the world! Another standout was the absence of restrooms in the holding area - at least there should have been signs pointing runners to the nearest restrooms.

I turned on my Garmin as the race started and it was about 20-25 seconds before I crossed the starting line. With an estimated 6000 runners in the open 10K I found the first 1.5 Km to be very crowded and tough to break away. The first few hundred metres was at an average pace of 6:15 per Km - my target average pace today was 4:45 in order to finish below 48 minutes. I was never able to achieve this average pace. After about 2Km I managed to get to about 4:47 per Km and stayed around that past the half way mark. Around the 5Km mark I passed Amrita - a brilliant women's marathoner while Vasu another runner from BHUKMP surged past me soon after.  I started to slow down again after the Kamaraj road U turn which BTW was the 4rth U turn in the course and had a upward gradient on the return leg. The heat was also beginning to have an impact. My goal now was to keep my pace around 5 mins per Km and the average below 4:50. I did not stop by at any aid station except once. Nevertheless, the average pace crept upto 4:53 by the time I touched the 8Km mark near Vidhan Soudha. I pushed as hard as I could for the last 2Kms - around this time Neera , a fast women's runner, surged ahead. I managed to complete with my clock showing an average pace of 4:51 and a distance of 10:25Kms in 49:46!! Heartfelt thanks to Meher for loaning me her Garmin - if not for  constantly monitoring my pace via this device I would have probably finished 3-4 minutes slower. See here for this year's route.

Of course, I met up with a lot of familiar runners in the finish area.  Some like Honda-San seemed to have done extemely well - he finished in about 40 minutes. Many did their PB timings while a few people I met were slower than last year's timing by a minute or two. My brother Chandru completed in 1:04 while Rahul and my brother's son Akshay did their first 10Km race in a very creditable 1:20! While this event is here to stay as a premier road race in Bangalore and the season opener I hope the organizers do better in terms of facilities and infrastructure to cater to the growing number of participants.

Mohawk Hudson River Marathon race report

Taper and obsession with weather

The 3 weeks taper leading up to race day is usually a challenging period for most runners. Despite most of the training going as per plan self-doubt always creeps in during this period. The phantom aches and pains do not help either. In addition to the usual stress in the  left glutes and left calf and occasional  numbness in the left foot I started to feel a little tightness in my right groin and right hamstring. Also sensed light blisters/roughness under both my big toes.  Having  had the best ever training period of  16 weeks   including rigorously focused stretching and strengthening during this period my main concern was race day weather.
Unlike most other runners my body seems to be able to handle warmer temperatures better than very cold  weather. I became quite obsessed with the weather and started tracking the Albany weather from over a month before the race. Of course meteorological science is not advanced enough to accurately predict the weather weeks in advance. And the forecast kept swinging between being sunny and rainy with temperatures varying from 16/8 to 11/0 Celsius. As a result of this I also started tracking the registration and weather forecast for the Wineglass marathon  in Corning on September 30th which I had identified as an alternate/backup race. Till 22nd September which was the last date of registration for this race I was too psyched up about the weather and  in two minds as to which race to run. However, after discussing with my coach Bill Pierce and close  friend and running coach Dhammo I decided to take my chances and stay with the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon on 7th October. While at the beginning of the race week the forecast for Albany was rains and cold temperatures from the 5th of October - 48 hours before the race- the forecast changed to cloudy (13/2 Celsius) with rains in the afternoon. I was highly relieved that the dreaded rain was likely to stay away even though the temperatures were still going to be too cold for me.  The weather in Southbury, CT also started to cool down the week of 1st October.  I became overly cautious and  wore additional layers of clothing to stay extra warm this week. Also gargled with salted warm water 2-3 times a day  and drank mostly warm water to protect my sensitive throat.  During this period I also agonised over my race day attire - whether two wear two layers or one and if two layers which one to discard and which one to keep for the entire race(between short sleeve and long sleeve). I did not consider running in warm up pants as I have never ever trained in them. 

Race Strategy

My training using the 'Run Less, Run Faster' training program was customised for a  per mile pace of 8:19 with a target marathon time of  3:38:03. Based on my last long run on 15th Sept ,when I managed 13.1 miles in about 1:47 and 23 miles in 3:14 ,my race strategy was to get to the half way mark between 1:47 and 1:49 at an average of between 8:12 to 8:19 per mile. And then get to 22 mile mark between 3:02 and 3:04 and run the last 4 miles as fast as I could to finish as close to 3:38 as possible. The goal was to stay ahead of the 3:40 pacer (8:24/mile) and within sight of the 3:35 pacer(8:12/mile) while keeping  a close watch on the average pace on my Garmin and not letting it slide beyond 8:20/mile.  It is very challenging to run even or negative  splits in a marathon as is recommended by coaches and experts. I have been unable to maintain even splits in most of my training tempo and long runs. During the long runs the per mile pace kept varying between 7:45 and 8:45 or so. Often I found I was running faster than target pace. On slowing down the pace usually fell well below the target pace.  My goal  for the race was to run the 1st half slightly faster than the 2nd half keeping the difference between the two halves to less than 3 minutes. The ideal split I was looking for was 1:48/1:50. In preparation for the race I deleted historic data on my Garmin and also arrived at the most comfortable strap position(5th hole).  Of course, whatever the training and race strategy everything needs to fall in place on race day - weather, stomach, rhythm, mental strength, shoe laces etc 

Day before the race

The last few days leading up to the race were fairly relaxed - short, less intensive workouts and a lot of World cup T20 cricket on the TV - streamed from Cricinfo. I managed to get about 7 hours of reasonably good sleep on most nights. My last aerobic workout was a 4 mile run on 4rth October. On the evening of the 5th I walked for about a mile and a half with my sister and brother-in-law in Kettletown State Park.  On 6th morning I did some light foam roller and stretching exercises. My sister, brother-in-law and myself left Southbury at 1PM after lunch and reached Hotel Albany at 3:30PM. Withing the  2.5 hours drive the temperature had dropped by over 10 degrees. The hotel lobby was buzzing with runners - waiting to check-in or heading towards/from the bib pickup at the expo. We checked in and headed to the basement to the expo. The bib and T-shirt collection took a minute. I confirmed that I had a reservation on the bus to the start area and enquired about the possibility of a train coming at the railroad crossing around mile 17.

Collecting the bib and T-shirt

Checking on bus,railroad crossing and weather

I talked to the 3:35 pacer Scot as well as Larissa the 3:40 pacer and based on the discussions decided to start with Larissa and stay ahead of her while keeping Scot in sight.

In the evening we walked a bit in downtown Albany and had a Pizza dinner. After checking that all my gear was ready including the  fully charged up Garmin  I read a bit and went to sleep at 9:45 PM. Slept reasonably well though I woke up a couple of times during the night. As usual I woke up at 5:30AM before my alarm rang. 

Race morning

With the outside temperature around 4 Celsius I decided to keep myself extra warm for the bus ride and the pre-race period. I left the hotel room a little after 6:30 am wearing warm up pants, a full sleeved running shirt,a half sleeve shirt, a half sleeve sweater , a windcheater, gloves and two layers of socks with sandals. I had my usual two bananas and a handful of pecans and almonds for 'breakfast' and carried 2 Gu gels with me.  At the lift waiting area I met Sri Bodkhe - an accomplished runner from MA who was running the MHRM for the 4rth time. We walked down together to board the bus to the start point. The ride to the start point seemed fairly short as Sri and I were busy chatting. We got there a little after 7 am.  In the start area the race organisers had thoughtfully arranged for fire in the four  fireplaces in the pavilion to enable runners to stay warm.  Sri and I hung out near the fire for some time. Soon after I changed into my shorts and shoes and removed one layer of socks and the half sleeves sweater and we joined the port-a-potty queue.  Apart from the target race time the main topic of conversation among runners was the number of layers they were going to wear at the start with the temperature still around 45F/7C. I was getting a bit psyched up as most runners were talking about timings between 2:45 and 3:30. Anyway at about 8:15 am I removed my windcheater and checked in my bag. After taking a leak again, this time in the woods, Sri and I went to the start line. Sri was in the front as he was looking at a time between 3:25 and 3:30.  I stood shivering along with Larissa the 3:40 pacer - it was a bit too cold for me. There seemed to be about 1000 runners at the start. Many runners were wearing full sleeves shirt as well as gloves. Just a few minutes before race start I decided to run in a single (full sleeves) layer and discarded my half sleeves shirt  There was not much fanfare at the start and it reminded me of  Runners For Life races. This race is indeed organised by Hudson river runners club. The race started exactly at 8:30 am.

The Race

As I took off I felt good despite the cold. After just a couple of hundred meters I decided to pull ahead of the 3:40 pacer and try and keep the 3:35 pacer in sight. After going through the flat city roads we entered the bike trail at mile 4. With a small field the race picked up pace from the get go. My first three miles were at 8:16 , 8:14  and 8:02 pace which means I was in touching distance of the 3:35 pacer. Just before mile 5 we plunged down a big hill and then entered the best part of the course - with the Mohawk river on the left and a canopy of trees on the right. I had to be a bit careful running over the damp fallen leaves which we encountered many a times on the bike trail. At this stage I was running a pretty steady pace as the mile splits below show. Though a fairly narrow bike trail the runners were sufficiently spread out so I did not feel crowded out on the route. There were aid stations every 2 miles with water and Gatorade. These were organised either by local high schools or running clubs. The volunteers in these aid stations were very enthusiastic in cheering and encouraging the runners as they held out their paper cups. I generally slowed down at every alternate aid station after mile 6 to take either water or gatorade. I had my first Gu Gel around mile 10 and the second one around mile 16. Miles 5 through 11 were fairly flat with some minor rolling hills. At mile 11 there was a steep downhill which led to the only big uphill in the course around mile 12.4. The hill took a bit of effort and it had an impact on mile 14 pace as well. I hit the halfway point pretty much on target at 1:48:xx. By this time the 3:35 pace group had pulled ahead and I could no longer sight them. Nevertheless I ran very well till mile 18 - in fact mile 18 was my second fastest mile of the race as I wanted to get on the other side of the railroad crossing at the earliest. While the race organisers had a timing mat at the railroad crossing to account for the delay in case runners were stopped by a passing train. I was thankful this did not happen on this race day - stopping for a few minutes  during a run usually impacts my rhythm and momentum. The possibility of stoppage due to a train crossing was one big disadvantage of this race due to which I thought very hard about selecting this race. Miles 19 through 21 were through town  - in this stretch we had to dodge traffic cones which is the only separation between runners and oncoming traffic. Though this stretch was flat this is where I began to lose it both physically and mentally. With no trees and open roads I began to feel cold even though the temperatures had risen. I  was glad I had not discarded my gloves something I considered doing half way through the race. I somehow lost focus and was getting bothered with the narrow area for runners and my pace began to drop considerably.  Up to mile 18 I ran faster than 8:20 miles except miles 13 and 14. From mile 19 onward the pace was slower than 8:25.  From mile 22 onward we were back on the bike trail heading to the finish at the riverfront park in Albany. Though I was keeping an eye on the average pace and reached the 22 mile mark in my target time of 3:03  I seem to have somewhere miscalculated the time/distance/pace and did not quite realise how close I was to 3:40  till the time Larissa - the 3:40 pacer -overtook me half way between  mile 25 and  mile 26 egging  me on to speed up to meet the 3:40 goal. I figured  at this point that my Garmin was probably a bit off. Though I knew 3:38 was not going to be achievable I was running under the impression that I would finish close to 3:39. However, the toes of both my legs were numb - not quite sure whether it was due to the cold or whether they were cramped. In any case the last mile and a half was a tremendous physical and mental struggle . The finish clock was just past 3:39:30 when I first sighted it and made the last frantic push to the finish line completing a few seconds behind the 3:40 pacer. And the display monitor just behind the finish line showed my (gun) time as 3:40:11. I was slightly dizzy and cold - so I was glad when a volunteer gave me an Aluminium foil wrapper along with the finishers medal. My sister and brother-in-law welcomed me enthusiastically a few meters from the finish line. As the detailed results were being printed and posted on a wall close by I waited anxiously for the sheet with my name to go up hoping fervently that I had managed a chip time within 3:40. I was mighty relieved and thankful to my stars when I saw my chip time of 3:39:57.  I had indeed met my goal of BQ'ing!! Albeit by the smallest of margins of 3 seconds.  Shaving exactly 9 minutes off my previous best at SCMM 2012 was a great achievement - however I was disappointed that I could not finish closer to 3:39 - it could so easily have been a few seconds on the other side of 3:40!!

Few seconds after the finish

Wrapped in Al foil - speaking to the wife

The mile splits as per my Garmin  which showed 26.35 miles and finish time  of 3:40:07 :

1. 8:15.54   7. 8:14.32  13. 8:20.79 19. 8:24.72      25. 8:35.25
2. 8:13.65   8. 8:17.28  14. 8:22.97 20. 8:34:47      26. 8:42.63
3. 8:01.43   9. 8:10.82  15. 8:15.87  21. 8:39:02   . 35  2:56:12
4. 8:15.53  10. 8:17.54 16. 8:15.21  22. 8:42.86
5. 8:13.52   11. 8:19.92  17. 8:13:02  23. 8:33.35
6. 8:11.76   12. 8.14.12  18. 8:07:33  24. 8:38.03

Official results:

• Place: 239/922
• Division:  18/74
• Splits:   1st half  - 1:48:27,  2nd half - 1:51:42,  17.7 mi  - 2:26:36,  Net  - 3:39:57 , Gun - 3:40:11 
• Pace:  8:25  (versus goal of 8:19)

Aerial view of the riverfront finish area

Post-race 

I had some chocolate milk and chips from the refreshment counter - did not feel like eating a whole lot. After a bit of stretching I walked up to the baggage bus and collected my bag. Then had some hot tea and slowly walked/shuffled  back to the hotel room (half a mile away) with my sister and brother-in-law. I had a quick shower before we checked out of the hotel room - I had managed to get 2 additional hours beyond the normal check-out time of 11:30 am for no extra charge. We then went for a 'celebratory'  buffet lunch at an Indian restaurant in Albany before heading back to Southbury. I spoke to  a few people during the drive including my coach Bill and a couple of cousins living in the US. While I was fatigued and quite sore I could not sleep during the drive. A lot of ifs and buts kept going through my mind - Did I not push hard enough in the last 5 miles? What if I had lost a few more seconds at one of the aid stations ? Did I run the first half too fast? Or should I have run the first half slightly faster - knowing that I would inevitably slow down in the last 5 miles?  It is normal for any runner to go through such what ifs post a race - in this case it was more so due to the narrow margin by which I met my goal of BQ. We celebrated in the evening with a couple of home made margaritas- nevertheless I could barely sleep that night. I kept tossing and turning and the race route, the aid stations, the finish timing  etc kept going through my mind the whole night!!

Closing thoughts 

Overall it was a well organised point to point race with a net elevation loss. There was very little spectator support during most of the route though a few people did cheer us on at various points despite it being a cloudy and chilly morning. The aid stations were well stocked and the volunteers there were very enthusiastic. Except for the road portion through the city between miles 18 and 21 the route is very pretty.

When I set myself the goal of BQ'ing in  2010 the qualifying time for 55-59 age group was 3:45. When the qualifying timing for 55-59 age group changed to 3:40 as a result of the changes made by BAA in February 2011 I pretty much gave up the thought of BQ'ing. However, during the retreat at Furman University in July 2011 after observing me for 4 days coach Bill Pierce stated that with  the right  training and focus on fewer races I should be able to achieve sub 3:40. I formally trained for the Hyderabad marathon August 2011 using the 'Run Less, Run Faster' training program and hit 3:51:48 - my PB at that time. I further reduced it to 3:48:57 at SCMM 2012 the second time I used this training methodology. Thanks to the constant and prompt guidance and inputs from Bill in my 3rd(and this time I followed the program with much greater rigor compared to the two previous times) I was able to go sub 3:40. I certainly could not achieved this without the constant encouragement and guidance from Bill. I do feel confident that I can better this time by 1-2 minutes over the next 11 months. The low-mileage, intensive FIRST training program works for me - so I see no reason to discontinue it and move to one of the numerous high mileage training programs that are available.

Training for this race has been the single most area of my life's focus since June 2012 and  I tried my best to balance this with other aspects of family life and not impact spending quality time with the family members. I am extremely thankful of their implicit and explicit support and encouragement towards this endeavor.

My sister and brother-in-law who hosted my for 7 weeks at Connecticut and put up with my maniacal work and exercise schedule had a big role in the success of achieving my goal.  My sister took great care of my dietary needs during this period. Plus they sacrificed watching the finals of the T20 world cup to drive me to/from Albany and were there at the finish line to cheer me and take pictures.

Others who definitely helped me along this journey are good friend and running coach Dharam who promptly responded to my mail and phone queries with his inputs, Dr Gladson of AttitudePrime who patiently taught me about 15  stretches which helped me get over the stress of my left calf and glutes and last but not least the numerous friends from the running group BHUKMP who were encouraging of my efforts all along.

I now look forward to a few weeks of easy training and enjoying a relatively relaxed 50Km race with no timing pressure at the Bangalore Ultra on 10th November . After the Ultra I hope to start a 7 or 6 weeks training program for SCMM 2013 the week of November 19th or November 26th with a target of a sub 3:38 again!!. 

On Interval training

It is 5 weeks since embarking on a 16 weeks structured training for the Sriram Properties Bangalore Marathon on 16th October 2016. The only formal training program that I have used the Run Less, Run Faster program from FIRST.  The program is quite intense and controversial in terms of effectiveness - however it has worked for me and helped me progressively improve my FM timings and qualify for Boston in the 2012-13 running season. The program consists of 3 specific runs and 2 days of cross training every week and is also referred to as the 3 Plus 2 program. The 3 specific runs are Intervals, Tempo and the long run. I plan to do a post on each of these 3 runs in that order.

The first training run of the 16 weeks program was a 3 x 1600 m interval run with 400 m rest between intervals which I did at Kanteerva stadium. The last time I had done intervals was in March 2014 - It had  been such a long time that I  forgot the usage of the auto lap feature of  my Garmin 310XT  for tracking the time of the interval. Apart from the fact that it felt great to run on the tracks of the stadium after such a long gap , I was pleasantly surprised to find, when I uploaded my Garmin reading, that I ended up running  6:35,6:43,6:48 versus a target of 7:07(probably due to slow walking between intervals resulting in a fairly high rest interval)!!  Of course, the program recommends not to go all out in the early intervals and to try and maintain a uniform time across all the intervals.

Of the three runs prescribed by the FIRST program the interval training is my least preferred. About 5 years ago when I first started doing them I used to hate and dread them. After a couple of years of consistent training I got over that and felt comfortable but never fell in love with it. And now at the beginning of another such cycle I am thinking is it really important to do intervals? Will the additional effort (and self flagellation) result in much better timing? These thoughts led me to re-read about the benefits of interval training and document them.

Interval training is also variously referred to as speed training and track repeats. This consists of running relatively short distances of between 400 m and 1600 m at a pace typically faster than 5 Km pace on a repeated basis interspersed with brief recovery periods of walking or slow jogging. This helps improve VO2 Max, running economy and speed. As an example run at an intense pace for 1 Km followed by a recovery walk/slow jog for say 2 minutes and then run a hard 1 Km again.  This could be repeated 5 or 6 times. The recovery phase is a really important part of interval training.  The stop-and-start pattern trains the body to recover quickly between bursts of faster running, which, over time, will gradually increase the ability to run faster for longer. This provides a mix of both anaerobic and aerobic training. During the high-intensity phase, the body burns mainly carbs for energy, but during the recovery, it burns mainly fat to produce the energy needed to help it recover from the intense effort.  It is important to establish a good running base before attempting interval training as it would otherwise increase the chances of injury. It is also essential to warm up before and cool down after intervals training for about 10 minutes .

Runners use these terms repetitions and intervals interchangeably, but there is a difference between the two. In both cases you run over a specified distance and the runs are broken up by a recovery jog or walk. The distinction between intervals and repetitions relates to the jog or walkbetween each run and to some extent the length of the run.In an Interval session the time spent jogging / standing rest is kept constant ranging from 2 to 3 minutes — usually too short to allow complete recovery. Therefore a session could be expressed as: 5 x 1000m with 2 minutes recovery (walk or jog)

With a session like this you would have your recovery near the start of the next run so that runners can do their own recovery in preparation for the next run. As the fitness level improves  one would look to reduce the recovery down and maintain the pace until you got the recovery down to 60secs as a minimum.

 The goal for interval training is to “accumulate” time spent running at a very high level and increase the body’s ability to adapt and eventually run at a sustained, higher anaerobic pace for longer periods.

For interval workouts, a general guideline for the amount of recovery time between runs should be equal to or less than the time spent running. For example, if we’re running  800m intervals in  4 minutes, then the recovery time would be 3 minutes. The lower the recovery time the greater the benefit if the interval training if the time goal is met in all the interval repeats.

In the case of track repeats the recovery time is higher so that there is sufficient time for recovery and the interval distance time goal can be hit for each repeat.

This article and its follow up articles give details of the physiology and science behind interval training.

Fartlek which means 'speed play' in Swedish is an unstructured form of interval training. Unlike  interval work, fartlek is unstructured and alternates moderate-to-hard efforts with easy throughout. After a warmup, you play with speed by running at faster efforts for short periods of time (to that tree, to the sign or for a few minutes) followed by easy-effort running to recover.  The goal is to keep it free-flowing so you’re untethered to the watch or a plan, and to run at harder efforts but not a specific pace.

Contours International Adidas Women's day run

I was pleasantly surprised with the turnout for this run last Sunday organised by Contours International in support of Intenrational Women's day. There seemed to be over 500 runners participating in either 5K or 10K at Ulsoor Lake. Probably the convenience of the central location was one contributing factor. The run conducted by Runners for Life required 10K participants to do 3 loops around the Ulsoor lake starting and finishing in the Home Guards ground. I rode to the venue in the Red Dragon - we reached there just in the nick of time. The run started a few minutes after 630am before my Garmin could link up with the satellite. It was nice to run around the Ulsoor Lake after a long time specially with traffic blocked on one line. A few years ago RFL used to conduct its long runs quite regularly at this venue and I have actually done 11 laps around the lap ie 39K  in preparation for a marathon. This run reminded me of those early days of RFL runs.  I ran at a easy pace. My Garmin started working towards the end of Loop 1 after about 2.5Km. I ran a bit with Rishi and quite a lot with Srinivas. En route in the 3rd loop I saw my cousin Raji walking and also ger daughter Indu jogging. I completed the 10 K in approximately 53 minutes without sweating at all - this is 4-5 minutes slower than my performance in the 2009 Sunfeast 10K. Met with a lot of runners in the ground at the finish point and also my cousin and her daughter. It was great to see so many new faces there as well. Congrats to Ravi Shankar, Amrita, Neera and Pani for their podium finishes! Returned home after a hearty and boisterous breakfast at Konark. Overall it was a nice enjoyable morning. Click here for some photographs of the event.

Post run group photo