Countdown to Hyderabad Marathon 2011

The Hyderabad Marathon which will be my first Full Marathon of the season (the last one was at Auroville in February) is less than a week away - in fact by this time next week it will be over. And I will know whether the hard work and training of the past 11 weeks enabled me to achieve my goal of beating my previous PB of 3:52:48 achieved  at SCMM 2011 in January by over 10 minutes. Right now it looks extremely challenging - A couple of my recent long runs were below par, my usual left calf niggle seems to have resurfaced and  a light cold and sore throat has  set in over the weekend. Moreover I realise that the flyovers and gradients on the run route are going to pose quite a challenge !

Whatever the outcome I know that I have trained very hard for the race. While I have generally been following a training regimen of 3 days of running and 2 days of cycling this is the first time that I have trained specifically using the 'Run Less, Run Faster'  training program from FIRST. Though the weekly mileage using this training program has never exceeded 55Km the training has been very intense and specific. With each of the 3 training runs each week , that is, the interval run, the tempo run and the long run having quite stringent time goals. I have usually struggled in my interval runs  to meet the pace goals - the interval training has varied from 10 x 400m to 3 x 1600m with intervals of 800m,1000m and 1200m in-between. On the other hand the tempo runs varying between 5KM for the short tempo to 16Km at marathon pace were very comfortable. And so were most of the long runs varying from 21Km to 36Km. I have never done as many consecutive weeks of 21K+ runs before.

I did have two below par long runs during this period; the 1st one was on 7th August where I ran a 30K  in 2:39 at an average pace of 5:16 versus my goal of 32K in 2:46 at an average pace of 5:14 per Km.  The last 5Kms of this run was quite a struggle and I decided to stop at 30Km rather than completing the planned distance. I was probably both mentally and physically tired due to stress at work and also lack of sleep the previous night. Plus it was the 3rd consecutive day of excercise and I seemed to have had a mild stomach upset. The 2nd one on 14th August was in the hilly terrain of Yercaud. I did not find a good run route and managed a 16Km in 1:31 instead of the target of 21Km in 1:46 . In both these runs my left calf hurt towards the end and these dented my confidence a bit - however a good 20K/1:41 run yesterday has had a positive effect. Whatever the outcome next Sunday I am quite satisfied with the progress I have made using the FIRST training program and hope to make further improvements over the next 12 months or so based on valuable detailed  feedback from Bill Pierce, Scott Murr and Ray Moss - the authors of the book 'Run Less, Run Faster'.  As all experienced marathon runners know there are several factors that all need to come together on race day and many of these are beyond the runners' control.

My strategy next Sunday will be to try and reach  the half way mark as close to  1:45 as possible and sustain the pace to get to the 35K mark in around 3 hours. I have very pleasant memories of the 2008 edition of the Hyderabad marathon which was the 1st one in my journey of running 12 marathons in 12 months. I am once again  looking forward to a great running experience , meeting fellow runners from around the country and having a fun weekend!!

Random July end musings

It has been over a month since my last post. I have been meaning to write every weekend but have not been able to make the time to do so. Finally I decided that I cannot let the whole month of July go by without a single post and decided to combine a number of thoughts into a signle post.

The running has been going well. In preparation for the upcoming marathon season I have managed to do two good 30Km+ runs on consecutive Sundays. Did a 3:20/32Km on 18th July with Rishi,Nari, Amrita, Chandra etc of the BHUKMP gang at GKVK . Running in GKVK after nearly 8 months was a great experience. And of course the weather was fantastic. This was folllowed by a 3:47/35Km run as part of the RFL long run at EGL on 25th July - just a day before completion of one year since my milestone of twelve marathons in tweleve months . I again had the pleasure of the company of several of the BHUKMP runners who made 26th July 2009 truly memorable.  These runners also encouraged me in all my marathons and ran several of them with me. Looking back I am glad I set myself that goal and  managed to achieve it. It has certainly made me a better, stronger and confident runner and strengthened my friendship with numerous runners.

My next 35Km+  run will hopefully be the Nandi hills RFL run on 22nd August. Meanwhile I have registered for the 4rth edition of KTM on 19th September which will be my first marathon of this season. Registrations for Mumbai marathon - SCMM 2011 opened on 22nd July. There are a few changes this year including a new website for registration. See the website or the press release from the event launch for details of changes. Thouh I had a few initial hiccups I completed the registration for SCMM 2011 on 22nd July evening itself.

After running the Urban Stampede in 2008 and 2009 I will be missing the event this year as I will be out of town the weekend of 7th/8th August. With over 230 teams already registered the Lucozade Urban Stampede on 8th August will surely be the largest RFL event ever and could see close to a thousand runners. It will definitely be a great occassion - I wish all the participants including the 3 teams from Mformation all the very best!

23rd June was the the 98th birthday of Alan Turing - a poineering mathematician, philosopher and computer scientist of the 20th century. Through an alert on google related to martahon running I learnt that day he was also an accomplished long distance runner who ran a full marathon in 1947 in an amazing 2 hours, 46 minutes, 3 seconds! See this scrapbook page for more details of Turing as a runner.  Of course, today we know of several celebrities who are also marathon runners. Among these are :   Oprah Winfrey, 1994 Marine Corps Marathon (4:29:15), Sarah Palin, 2005 Humpy's Marathon (3:59:36),George W. Bush, 1993 Houston Marathon (3:44:52) ,Lance Armstrong, 2006 (2:59:36) and 2007 (2:46:43) New York City Marathon and Al Gore, 1997 Marine Corps Marathon (4:54:25)!!

Finally, tomorrow, 1st August 2010 I am planning to go on  a cycle ride to Nandi hills as part of the July month end ride of BBC(Bangalore Bikers Club). With over 130 cyclists registered to participate  - many of them experienced cyclists this should be good fun. Of course, I am a bit apprehensive as I have not cycled more than 55Km in a day before and that was 3 years ago. I am banking on the strength of my running form and also that I have been cycling 30Kms+ per week regularly. I also hope to get support and tips from the other experienced cyclists!!

12th in 12 months...a great morning!

After a nervous weekend spent hoping that everything goes off well I am pleased that the day(26th July 2009) went off fantastically well. With the help of a very large number of fellow RFL runners running along side and cheering me on and also aided by the wonderful running route at Olde Bangalore and great Bangalore weather I managed a very comfortable 4:29 finish in my 12th Full marathon in 12 months. Thereby I accomplished the goal I had set myself about 16 months ago April 2008. The high point of the day was unarguably the enthusiasm and support of fellow runners specially from the Red Dragon Gang and BHUKMP runners. The two cool and unexpected gifts: a T-shirt and a wooden plaque listing the twelve marathons (see pictures below) left me quite overwhelmed and speechless. I shall truly cherish these mementos for years to come !.

I started from Domlur layout at 430am and after picking up Rishikesh and Amrita at Brigade towers and connecting with Vasu, Nari , Chandra, Prasad and Ram at GKVK we reached the resort just before 530am. We started running at 535 am just as dawn was breaking out. We ran out from Olde Bangalore resort on the route of the Urban Stampede , went past Prakruthi resorts and at the T-junction took a right and ran up to the point of 7.5Km from Olde Bangalore. It was a fantastic route – pollution free, traffic free with chirping birds and greenery all around. We did not see even a dog for a long time. The route so good that had we carried water with us we would definitely have continued on for a few more Kms. However, without water we did not want to take any chances of risking cramps later in the run. On our way back to the resort as we hit the water point at the 2.5Km point we were joined by a number of other runners: Pankaj, Praveen, Meher, Shantanu, Partha etc. So a much bigger gang set off on the second loop from the water point in which we took a different road. This area turned out to be a great area for running and cycling with numerous peaceful roads crisscrossing around. By the time we returned to Olde Bangalore we had done about 22.7Kms in 2 hrs 20 minutes.

Rishi and I then decided to do two loops of 10K and 9.5K respectively to compelte the FM. I was accompanies by Nitin Gupta for these loops. Though the pace slowed down a bit as the weather warmed up I was feeling very comfortable and able to keep the target of a 4:30 finish well in sight. With Nitin and Manoj pacing me I managed to complete just under that time to cheers from A2, Nikhil, Praveen, Pankaj and others at the finish point. Felt really wonderful at the end to have accomplished my goal . Rishi, Prasad and Amrita also crossed the finished line a few minutes after me. After celebrating with the T-shirt, Plaque and a birthday cake for Pankaj Rai and a hearty breakfast we started the return drive around 11:15am with myself pretty much on cloud 9!.