Long Long Run

Sunday 11 Oct 2009:
I had planned to do 12 miles today and as per my running speed, I had estimated to complete this run in 2 hours timeframe. Last time I had run 9 miles was 2 weeks back and there was no running in between (a lot of excuses, none worth mentioning). I have only roughly 12 weeks left to complete my training and this also includes 2 weeks of tapering. Hence, I have to push hard. The only way out of this is try to run a little less than long run, but more than 1 hour runs (2 times) in a week followed by my target long run on weekends. I also plan to include speed work sessions later on.

I am always deprived of sleep, more to my mentality of not sleeping more even though I need it. I have in short trained my mind to wake up early in the morning even if I slept very late in night. This usually happens week after week. Hence, I decided on Saturday night that I need proper sleep in order to run efficiently on Sunday morning. I slept for a little over 8 hours and started my run at 9:30 AM. It was very windy with temp around 55 F. It was a good weather for a long run. I took my Garmin forerunner, put on the Nathan Water belt and head out for the run.

The initial 3 miles were very tough as I couldn't find the correct rhythm. I overshoot Heart Rate over 180 even before 1 mile completion and hence I had to stop intermittently at 1.25 miles and then at 2.5 miles. At completion of 3 miles, time was 33:30 minutes, slower than my target by 3:30 minutes. This is the time when I started pushing and to my surprise I was in rhythm. I ran non-stop for the next 3.5 miles, with completing mile 3-6 in 30 mins as per my target. I had to take a walk break for water and a big hilly road. I walked half of the hill and then started running again. On the way back, I took 2 breaks at 8.5 and 10.5 miles mark. I really pushed myself from 8.5 miles onwards and completed the 12 mile run in 2 hours and 9 mins. I was very happy with the total outcome i.e. completing the last 6 miles in close to 58 mins. The run went pretty well, except the high struggling part between 10 - 12 miles.
Miles: 12
Average HR - 172
Average Speed - 5.6

Monday 12 Oct 09:
I had planned to run 2 recovery miles on Monday, but couldn't do it. I am always scared of running in rain for 2 reasons
1> Getting my shoes wet causing problems the next day/run. I probably need more pair of shoes or a spray for waterproofing my shoes.
2> Getting all wet is a totally unknown experience to me. Hence, I am scared of getting sick due to running in rain and I don't want to ruin my other runs as well as long runs over weekend.
Hence, zero recovery miles on Monday evening.
I am desperately trying to switch from evening runs to morning runs, but first I have to learn to get to bed early in the night so that I am fresh for Morning runs.
Miles: 0

Tuesday 13 Oct 09:
I had planned to do a 6 mile run on Tuesday. The weather was perfect, very hot and humid for a run, but perfect since it was not raining. So, out I went. Same old story, initial 2-3 miles were very tough...no rhythm. I need to learn how to cope up with the initial miles. 3 miles completed in 32:50 minutes and the next 3 miles were completed in 30:30 minutes. I was happy with the second half, but first half was pathetic. I was happy to be able to run 6 miles within 2 days of a 12 mile run and confident that I would be able to cope up with the hard training ahead. Lets see how it goes.
One thing to note for sure is that the weather played havoc on me. I usually sweat a lot during my run, nothing new. But I had taken a limited stock of water and I was running low on that towards the end of the run. It was very humid and dehydrating today.
Miles: 6
Average HR: 172
Average Speed: 5.7

Wednesday 14 Oct 09:
As planned earlier, I desperately wanted to switch back to morning running. So, here it was. I had planned to run an easy 3 - 4 miles as I just ran 6 miles the previous day and had plans to run another 5-6 miles on Thursday morning. I woke up at 6 AM, freshen up and was out of home around 6:50 AM. I had thought to do 4 miles if things look good, otherwise settle for 3 miles. I ended up with 3 mile run only because the legs were pretty heavy due to small gap ( approx 10 hours). I completed the 3 mile run in 31:26 minutes and was still happy about it. The weather was very cold, I had to change my T-shirt to suit the weather. I was happy to switch to morning time because it was more colder and raining too in the evening.
Mile: 3
Average HR: 161
Average Speed: 5.7

First Blog

Recently, I have picked up a new hobby (thanks for my friend Santosh A.) in USA and I don't believe that I am already addicted to it. This hobby is running (slow jog ofcourse). I had never ran more than 1 mile before, but once my in-laws went back from US to India, we (me n wife) decided to hit the Gym. I used to do weights during college days, but I couldn't continue later (all silly excuses) and as a result I have always gained weight every month/year. So, this time I decided to focus more on running. I didn't had the patience to mix run and walk, somehow I find walking a lot boring. I decided to run as much as possible on treadmill in YMCA. I always kept pushing and somehow reached a magical 3 miles as my stamina. This was the time I asked Santosh on how come he ran a Marathon when I am unable to run more than 3 miles. He explained methods and suggested ways to increase my mileage and things started to take U turn.
In about 3 months, I increased my mileage from 1 miles to 9 miles and together Santosh and I decided to participate in Full Marathon together (yeah, full on first go). We couldn't run together due to we staying in central and eastern timezones. We also couldn't run together on our first marathon too.
Preparations started in full swing and the max miles I covered was 17.5 miles (once) and 15 and 16 miles before that. With a huge shortfall in my target, I still planned to go for Full Marathon. I took a whopping 5 hours and 40 mins to complete the marathon and I was most of the time walking (even though I hate it a lot) during the second half. I learned a lot of lessons from this preparation and have decided not to stop running for long time so that the stamina and consistency remains. Hence, I registered for Hyderabad HM (22 Nov 09) and Mumbai FM (17 Jan 2010). Preparations are going on very good right now. This blog is about my experiences during this and future preparations.