Whatever it takes...

Yesterdays 20.5k run was one of the best to my standards. I completed the distance in 1hr 42mins with an average speed of 12km/hr (i.e 5mins/km). When I started the run, I was bit uncertain about maintaining the speed throughout the course. But decided to keep up the pace till my legs could sustain and surprisingly I managed to achieve that. My modified training program is helping to improve my strength and speed. I wish to have this time officially recorded during the pondicherry half marathon which is scheduled on Feb 16th. Whatever it takes, I have decided to train hard and rip myself apart before my next marathon.

"You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming." - Frank Shorter

"It is very difficult to train for a marathon; but it is even more difficult to not be able to train for a marathon." - Aaron Douglas Trimble

Try Again

I keep receiving weekly Bulletin from Better Life Unlimted. This week topic is "Try Again".

By Dr. Chet Zelasko

Did you ever watch a five-year-old try to skate? It doesn’t matter whether it’s roller blading or ice skating, they fall all the time. Then they get back up and try again. And again. And again. They don’t let failure stop them--they try again immediately. There’s a great lesson there.

If you’re going change the way you eat, you’re going to fail many times on the road to a new style of eating. You’re also going to sleep in more times than you should and miss your workout. That’s inevitable--but just like those kids, try again immediately. This is my business and I’m still trying to get it all figured out when it comes to eating. I don’t eat as badly as I used to eat and not as good as I’m going to eat.

We’re all works in progress and as long as we keep trying, we’ll ultimately succeed.

We can apply this theory to anything we try to learn. Don't give up easily, keep trying.

I am going to train until I crack sub 3hrs marathon. There is no guarantee that I could achieve this before I retire at 50, but I will keep trying.

Observations on Treadmill Training

Every time I visit the gym, I can’t resist myself from running on the treadmill. I would work on overall body strengthening exercises combined with core strengthening followed by a fast 5k run. Primarily I make use of the treadmill for correcting my posture and improving the lactate threshold. Usually it takes 21:30 – 21:50mins for me to complete a 5k on a treadmill with an average speed of around 13.9km/hr. Whether its road running or treadmill running I have the style of taking longer strides. The distance on the treadmill is calculated only based on the time and speed but not on the stride length and rates. If my strides are longer, definitely I would be covering more than 5k on the treadmill in sub 22 mins. Recently with less intensity I broke my 5k PR on road in 21:51 mins which again contradicts with the treadmill timing. After doing some research on stride length and speed, I came across a good article on Treadmill Training.

Few interesting points from the article

The first study to evaluate carefully the kinematics of treadmill versus 'overground' running was completed in 1972 at Penn State University in the US, in a study of 16 male members of the university's track and cross-country teams(4). The runners were evenly divided between distance specialties, with five sprinters, six middle-distance runners and five cross-country runners, all of them required to run at three speeds at three different inclinations on both the treadmill and normal ground.

This groundbreaking study uncovered fundamental differences between treadmill and overground running. For instance, at relatively routine speeds of 3.35 and 4.88m/sec (119 and 82 seconds per 400m respectively), the athletes' stride lengths were absolutely identical on treadmill and firm ground; but when velocity rose to 6.4m/sec (62.5 seconds per 400m), treadmill stride length was about 5% longer than overground strides. The same situation occurred during uphill (10%-grade) running, with strides equal at moderate paces but about 8% longer on the treadmill when velocity rose to 6.4m/sec. During downhill running (10%), stride lengths on the ground and treadmill were equal at all speeds.

Not surprisingly, stride rates were lower on the treadmill during fast running both uphill and on the level: since stride lengths were longer on the treadmill, stride rate would have to slow down in order to keep speed at a constant level. Predictably too, 'support time' (the length in milliseconds of the stance phase of the gait cycle) increased significantly on the treadmill for all speeds during uphill and downhill running - and at the very highest speed during level running. Basically, the runners were trying to create more stability for themselves on the unstable, fast-moving and/or inclined treadmill by keeping their feet on the belt a little longer than usual. In fact, this effect may have been the cause of both the lower stride rates and longer strides: with the stance phase elongated, more propulsive force could have been created, broadening strides but trimming stride rate.

No wonder my stride length was longer on the treadmill at higher velocity.

Analysis and Learning

Hydration: I should learn more on hydrating properly before the race. Now the point is to identify what “proper” hydration means. Though I drink nearly 7-8 litres of water everyday and consume sufficient quantity of water before long runs I invariably get dehydrated after the run. More research is required on this aspect.

Running without Walking: Somehow I should develop the habit or running without walking and also work on my mental and physical toughness. Walking in the middle of long distance running really dampens my mental toughness and my legs yearn for taking more walk breaks. Important area to work on.

Weight Reduction: This would be one of my primary goals during the first half of the year. I managed to shed couple of kgs before the marathon, but would have to cut down another 4-5 kgs. It’s really important to feel light when I start training for my next marathon during the later half of the year.

Completing the marathon has really taught me few good lessons. Dedication, determination and sticking to a well defined plan would definitely result in achieving any goal. While doing any work, whenever complacency or laziness creeps into my mind, I think about the marathon finish. “Come on dude, if you can complete a marathon why not this work”. Some people learn things in harder way and I have chosen this way.

After a brief gap I ran 16k today morning. The roads were covered with mist with visibility hardly less than five meters. I enjoyed running in the mist while my mind was humming the song Brothers in arms – “These mist covered mountains….”.

Singapore Marathon - Race Day

Chip Time: 4:54:10
Placement: 2499 out of 9704 and 370 out of 1331 in my age category.

The Chennai Runners group which took part in Singapore Marathon.

From L to R: Ramesh, Shumit, Vidyuth, Senthil, Shahid, Narayanan, Ram and Me (few are not in the picture). I wouldn't have participated if I hadn't joined this running group. Big thanks to them.

Well, I am really happy about completing my first marathon, but not feeling great about my timing. Hoping to do sub 4 hrs, I joined the sub 4hrs group. With just five minutes into the race, I had to take a pee break. There was already a big queue outside the toilet resulting me in losing 4-5 mins and missing the pace setters too. I was running along with sub five hours group for some time and realised that I am running slowly. Then I did a mistake of picking up the pace at around 5k. Worried about over-hydration, I didn’t consume any fluid till 9th km. By then, my hamstrings also started causing some trouble. I think it’s because of the flight travel and some strenuous walking the previous day.

I was looking out for Shumit, found him at around 9k mark and we both were following 4:15 pace setters. After 13k I was unable to keep up the pace and had to slow down. I crossed the 21k at 2:03 and missed the goal of 1:50. I was slowly munching the miles and passed the 30k mark at 3:14. The moment I saw the 30k mark, my legs stopped to take a small walk break and played the spoilsport for the rest of the run. From there on, it’s just a combination of walk and run to complete the remaining distance.

I joined Vidyuth at around 32k and we both walked, ran together till 40k mark with some stretching during the course. At around 35k, I was feeling very hungry and was desperately looking for some thing to chew. I found the banana stall at 39k mark and felt alright after swallowing one. Somehow during the struggle, I didn’t think about any inspiration quotes to keep myself moving forward. Few weeks before the race, I had a thought of dedicating my first marathon to my father and the same thought kept my legs moving during the tougher part of the race. Heart burns and quads were forcing me to walk. What if my heart stops before I touch the finish line, what if I get cramps, will I be able to achieve at least sub 5hrs finish – I was going through lot of emotions which were pushing me to further slow down and walk. It’s a battle between my mind and body in which my body was defeating my mind on most of the occasions. With only few minutes to five hours and couple of kilometres to be covered, I told Vidyuth that I am going to run till finish line. I crossed the finish line with my hands raised in the air. My stopwatch showed 4:54:19. I am dedicating my first marathon to my father.

Post race I collected my medal and finishers T-shirt and went on to take a massage at the massage centre arranged for full marathon finishers. The entire race was organised to perfection with water and isotonic drink stalls every kilometre, cheering groups, bands playing and supporters clapping all through the race course from start to finish line.

My body was coated with thick layer of salt and I was badly dehydrated. I went back to my hotel room, tried to eat food and immediately puked after taking two spoons of rice. I slept like a log for few hours and felt better after waking up. Met couple of friends that evening and celebrated with few pints of beer near the river side. Overall the experience of completing a marathon is wonderful. Now I know my shortcomings and have to figure out to correct those before my next marathon.

Check out my pictures here and here.

Expectations

4 days to race day and 2 days of training remaining. Since last three weeks I have been practicing speed workouts which resulted me to think about an over ambitious goal of sub 4hrs marathon. Sunday I ran 21.5k in 1hr 55mins. Sub 4hrs marathon goal will become realistic if I could cut down my half marathon timing by another 5mins. During the race I hope the environment, people and the company through out the race might help me in achieving the 21.5k timing and subsequently the remaining distance in another 2hrs. If I fail to manage it, I would be satisfied with finishing the marathon. It's the day on which all my training would be put to test and I am desperate to clear the test.

I was browsing through a triathlon blog site and found this wonderful clipping which states "Achievement is largely the product of steadily raising one's level of aspiration and expectation". Check out Bevan Docherty (in black dress) of New Zealand sprinting from behind to clutch victory from the grasp of compatriot Kris Gemmell at the 2005 New Plymouth ITU World Cup triathlon.

Running and Brain

French "mathlete" Alexis Lemaire broke his own world record after working out in his head the 13th root of a random 200-digit number in just 72.4 seconds. Lemaire, a 27-year-old doctoral student in artificial intelligence sat at a laptop computer that randomly selected the figure and displayed it on the screen. The number was so long it ran over 17 lines. He took just over a minute to identify two quadrillion, 397 trillion, 207 billion, 667 million, 966 thousand, 701 as the 13th root. In other words, the number multiplied by itself 13 times produces the 200 digit number originally generated by the computer. He uses an artificial intelligence system on his own brain instead of on a computer. He says sometimes when he does multiplication his brain works so fast that it would require him to take medication. He practices regularly and jogs every day, doesn't drink coffee or alcohol and avoids foods that are high in sugar or fat to help him think faster.

What caught my attention is that he runs every day to keep his brain active. I have also read articles mentioning running helps in development of brain cells. Read this article. Now what's your opinion to start running?

Tapering Starts..

I should have approximately ran 35-36k yesterday, i.e. my peak distance before Singapore marathon. I ran 7.1k lap five times. My idea was to complete the run in 3hrs 30mins maintaining a lap time of 40 mins. In fact, I completed 28k in 2hrs 50mins and which is almost on target. But, as usual the last 7-8k was quite hard, with sun burning my skin, I managed to complete the remaining distance and my run in 3hrs 46mins. Good part is I managed to be on the road for long duration under hot conditions. Last week I suffered from IT band syndrome and was quite annoyed as it prevented me from running for couple of days. Few stretches and tips from my running group helped me to hit the road again in quick time. Now I am pretty confident of completing the Singapore marathon under 4:30(high hopes). Tapering starts from this week and has started counting days for the D-day.

31k in ECR

I was drenched in the rain even before we started the run. There is nothing more annoying than running with wet clothes and soggy socks. At least my clothes got dried after few mins of running, but my socks were wet till I completed the run. At around 22-23k mark I felt like removing my socks and throw them away. I completed 31k in 3hrs 22mins, and felt just ok. Somehow on Saturday night I was very anxious about completing the run in 3hours and wasn't able to sleep properly. I found last 5-6kms to be very hard; I spoke to myself "You are a tough guy and not going to give up easily". I was following Ram for long time and managed to run behind (with a gap of 400-500mts) him during the later half of the run.

For last few kms, I was repeating the quotes from the movie "Rocky Balboa" in my mind to keep myself moving forward.

It ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done.

Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that!

You can find the briefing in Ram's blog and the pictures here.

Need Endorphin Rush

I messed up my training this week. It all started due to heavy rains during the weekend. I woke up at 3AM on Sunday morning and waited for nearly two hours for the rain to subside, but it decided to take some breather only in the evening. Rest of the week went on with accompanying relatives at home, attending friend’s marriage and some personal work. The week, in which I should have run approximately 60k, I ran just 19k. Not sure if I could cover up at least half the targeted mileage for the week. Training for a marathon requires lot of focus and dedication, even if a person loses his focus for a week or two while peaking mileage, can lead to laziness and complacency. It’s been quite a while since I have focused on my career and personal issues. After the Singapore marathon, I would take couple of months break from the hectic training schedule and explore my other interests before I train hard again for my next marathon.

I badly want to experience the endorphin rush and probably will run 12k tomorrow.

Thursday to Tuesday

This is how I trained from last Thursday to Tuesday

Thursday: I had to pick up my aunt from the railway station on Thursday morning and at the same time didn’t want to miss my weekday LSD(Long Slow Distance) running. The railway station is just 8k from my home and as per my schedule I had to run 13k. I figured out a longer route which was around 12.5k and ran till the station. Though I reached the station on time, the train was delayed by an hour. I called my sister and asked her to come and pick up my aunt. Came back from station to kodambakkam by train and ran from kodambakkam to home, which is another 2k.

Saturday: I cleaned my bicycle (bike) on Friday evening for cross training on Saturday morning. I hit the snooze button at 4 AM and the next time I saw my watch it was 4:50AM. For a moment I thought to skip my training hoping the cycling group would have left before I reached the starting point (which is 7k away from my home). I decided to give a try and left my home at 5:10AM. Rammed my bike pedals really hard, but just 600-700mts before the meeting point my bike chain slipped. It took nearly five minutes to fix it and concluded the group would have already started. Fortunately I caught them in the last moment and it was a pleasure riding with the group. We rode even in the heavy rain before finishing our ride with a good filter coffee at saravana bhavan. I would have pedaled around 30k.

Sunday: It was drizzling when I met Shumit at 4:30 AM. We did some stretching and started our run at 4:36 AM. The weather was very pleasant and it rained almost till we completed the run. Shumit runs fast, but I didn’t want him to slow down because of me and ran at a pace faster than I run long distances. We ran 30.2k in 2hrs 59 mins and both of us felt really happy about the timing. In fact I wrongly assumed the distance to be 32k and wanted to celebrate with beer that evening. Nevertheless it was a great run.

Tuesday: I did fast uphill training with Hari and enjoyed the chat with him. It’s good that I am slowly getting used to the habit of chatting while running.

Fillers – Friday and Monday I hit the gym for upper body training.

Fixing Me

How did we come into existence? What have we done to our lives? Why is it so complex to break the shackles of worries? As everyone say, does life becomes very boring if we are always happy?

Time will cure. But time also brings new things into our life. It becomes hard for me to get answers when I think these types of questions. It gives me a strange unpleasant feeling when I think that I can’t see my father again. Before I repair others, how do I purify my thoughts and be positive. What do I do now?

I Listen to Music. Music is my energy booster. It’s an awesome feeling I experience when I hear the strumming sound of guitars, melodies from piano and poetic lyrics. Bands like Coldplay and Pink Floyd will never tire me. I am not sure how many thousands times I have listened to them and still listen. Currently my ipod is playing “Fix You” by Coldplay. Very inspiring lyrics and music. There is so much to get from the lyrics and many things I can relate to. Personal loss, day to day worries or even when I try to give up in the middle during my long distance running, remembering the lyrics from this song helps me a lot.

Fix You – Lyrics (Coldplay X&Y)

When you try your best but you don't succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

When the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

And high up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
But if you never try you'll never know
Just what you're worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face
And I

Tears stream down your face
I promise you that I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your face
And I

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you.

Running Thoughts

Feeling quite strong mentally and physically after the 30k run yesterday. I took nearly 3hrs 15mins to complete 30.5kms. Tackling the stray dogs during my early morning long runs is becoming a pain. I hate them to the core. Even though I run in the middle of the road, I prefer to walk at certain stretches of densely populated areas to avoid these creatures chasing me. But still couple of chasing incidents happened yesterday. Leaving the dog stories aside, I am able to complete the run quite strongly. Except little bit of soreness here and there, I have recovered pretty fast. Run followed by heavy breakfast and 3 hours or nap was sufficient for me to recover completely. Though I wasn't carrying my fuel belt, I was hydrating throughout the run at regular intervals.

Couple of week’s back I lost my fuel belt somewhere. I went to spencer plaza in the evening with my friend to check if it’s available in any of the sports store. As expected none of the stores had fuel belts. One sales guy in Nike showroom said they don’t sell belts in their shop (thinking that I was inquiring for a leather belt). Later I went to landmark to check if they had any books on running, but no luck. Still lot more to catch up.

Nowadays I am thinking more about running and completing the Singapore marathon. Moreover, except running I don’t have anything interesting happening in my life. Looking at the recent posts I think it's apt to change my blog title to My “Running” Thoughts.

5k in 24:16

I competed in a 5k race yesterday and finished it in 24mins 16secs. Considering that I ran the race after a slow 15k run, I feel happy about my timings. Initially I was bit hesitant to participate hoping that I would miss my weekend long run. On the other hand, I also didn’t want to miss the 5k race. So I thought of combining my weekend long run with the short 5 k run and decided to reach the race venue running. Throughout the race I maintained good constant pace. But towards the end I started competing with a guy for the third place. I wrongly assumed that I was nearing the finish line, started sprinting and ran out of steam very quickly. I gave up, decided to slow down and jogged the last 500mts. I finished 5th or 6th in the race and really excited to know that I ran at an average speed of 12.4kph.

Disconnected

For almost a week I was physically and virtually disconnected from the external world. I attended a residential workshop on project management conducted by my organisation I am currently employed in. It was an exhaustive workshop with sessions starting at 7AM and ending after 9PM with some short breaks in the middle. Our day starts with a session on breathing techniques, followed by seniors sharing their experiences with some interesting role plays and activities. The participants were all budding managers working in different projects at different levels. Except one colleague, everyone was a stranger to me and it was nice to spend time with them. We seldom get opportunities to meet the people who have been with the organisation since day one and made it grow and see it growing to this level. The vision, thoughts they shared with us was very motivating and amazed to see them still working with lot of zest and hunger to make the organisation grow. With so much of packed activities I still managed to run on couple of days. The resort (Pleasant days resort) we stayed was maintained very well with wonderful landscapes and greenery. Only drawback is the suites doesnt have internet connection. I also utilised some free time to plunge in the swimming pool. Overall the experience was fruitful and the time just flew away.

ECR Run 3

This time I completed the ECR run without any problem and really feel great about completing with very less walking. Yesterdays run is a big morale booster for me. Last time I stopped at around 22km and took an autorick. to reach the destination. But this time I approached the run with a different mindset and managed to finish the run in 2hrs 45mins.

We (ChennaiRunners) started the run at 5 AM. Hari, Shumit, Vidyuth and Rupert the fastest runners in our group took off with a blaze and set the road on fire. Unlike last time I didn’t do the mistake of running fast initially. I started slowly and ran continuously at an average speed of 9.5kph for 1 hr 15 mins. I took a small walk break for 2 mins and at 1hr 17mins, I again took off. I set the next target of taking a break at 2hrs. I approached the 2hrs mark and didn’t find any discomfort with my body or mind. After a 5 mins walk break at 2hrs mark, I knew that only 7-8kms are left to be covered. I took the piecemeal approach for the remaining distance and moved my legs again. A fellow runner joined me and started conversing. I somehow wasn’t comfortable having a chat while running and told him “let’s not speak until we touch the finish line”. Till now I was running alone and suddenly when someone joined me my concentration started to get distracted. I stopped for couple of minutes and waited till he advanced for 300-400mts. From there on I didn’t stop until I reached the end point. It took 2hrs 45mins 17secs to cover 26kms. My next target is to complete the same distance in less than 2hrs 30mins.

You can find more briefing and pictures from the fellow runners Ram, Hari, KK (organiser) and Shumit.

Article in India Today

Last month the ChennaiRunners team gave a photo shoot to India Today for an article to be published on our running group. They took the pictures after one of our weekly Sunday run. I did a 26K that morning and was very tired during the photo shoot. The photographer asked us to do few 50m sprints for taking the pictures. She would have taken at least 20-25 pictures, but after the photo shoot, we came to know that one of the chip got corrupted (lost half the pictures) and had to redo again on Tuesday. Check out for the article below which came out on the edition dated Sep 17th.

Ponder

Few important things I have experienced and follow (at least try to) in my life..

1. There are always people intelligent than you, so never, ever underestimate anyone.

2. Everyone is reasonable from their own perspective, so value their views and opinions. Take it if you like or make them understand why you didn't like, but don’t ignore their views.

3. Whether interesting or boring, be dedicated and honest to whatever task you take up. Don’t deliver an unfinished low quality work.

4. Time will provide a solution for the sad and bad moments you are experiencing in your life (I miss my father very much).

5. Today is a gift from yesterday and tomorrow is a gift from today. Use today wisely and create a wonderful gift for tomorrow.

6. Always think big or at least try to think big.

7. Stay fit and lead a healthy lifestyle.

8. Respect humans, elder or younger, poorer or richer, dumb or intelligent and never humiliate anyone.

9. Think for a moment before you react but there is no point in regretting after you react.

10. Dream and chase your dream.

Push, Push....

Push, Push, Push…is what I tell to myself while running long distances. Legs move pretty freely for 22-23k, but from there on it’s purely a mind game for me. While running, apart from concentrating on my breathing, I also have to consciously make an effort on stopping pessimistic feelings creeping into my mind along with lot of self talking. Controlling my thoughts when my legs are tired and weak is a tough job. When I am exhausted and feel like stopping I try to think about people like Carol (a normal person who started training for triathlon at the age of 40 and went ahead by participating in competitions) and fellow runners from my running group who push themselves hard to keep myself going. But one thing is guaranteed, during long runs I get ample time to think about everything and anything. All my pain would vanish when my mind wins against the body and when I achieve the target I have set to myself.

I am planning to do 30k runs over next three weekends and a 36k on fourth weekend (which also means waking up at 3:15AM on Sundays). If I manage to complete the 4th week run then it won’t be a great task for me to finish the Singapore marathon. I also have 3 months time to increase my fitness level too. Ahhhh, this month I am shelling out some money and joining a good gym which has got 7-8 treadmills and spacious enough for circuit training. Wanted to try out a 30 day schedule shared by a running partner Shumit. Nowadays I think more about running than anything else, at least 5 to 6 hours in a day. Hope it doesn’t become an addiction like depicted in this article to me.

How Big & How Small

Last weekend I watched a program in Discovery channel on Planet Earth's evolution. Became bit curious and was surfing the net for some related information and accidentally found the pictures below. Check out the size of Earth and Sun in the 3rd, 4th and 5th pictures.