Running Experience in India

This has been a long pending blog. I landed in Mumbai, India 2 hours late from the scheduled time and the company vehicle was already waiting for us. Once out, we started for Pune and reached there at around 3 AM. As expected, we spent almost 2 hours talking and I was not feeling sleepy at all. So, decided to utilize the jetlag to my advantage and since 1st Nov was Sunday, I planned for a long run.
Searched for all my long running gear in my bags after throwing a lot of clothes here n there and I headed outside at around 6:15 AM. The kind of stare people gave me while I was running was very interesting. Most of the people were staring either my Garmin Forerunner or my fuel belt and trying to figure out what the hell I am doing. Ignoring such glaring eyes was not easy but I somehow managed it.
I started out from my home towards Aundh, reached Bremen circle, then thought to continue till University circle. I had planned to run around 12 miles and hoped that I would be able to cope up. This was not the first time I was running 12 miles, but running in India is totally different. Even though I was running very slow, my heart rate was always above 180. One of the main reason could be that I didn't had proper sleep to keep the heart rate down. Somehow I was able to find strength to continue and reached University circle. There was a lady selling wierd (for me atleast) on a bicycle. All juices of different types like Karela juice, guava juice, carrot juice, Ginger+lime juice, kokum juice to name a few. She told me that none of the juice has sugar and salt added which most of the people might find very good, but not for me. I was looking for something refreshing with lots of salt and some sugar and all I could find was exactly the opposite. I finally decided to go ahead with Ginger + lime juice, somehow gulped it down and headed back. University circle is exactly 5.95 miles from my house. The juice option was not good in the sense that Ginger started kicking shortly. I was feeling uneasy while running back. With all the negative things happening, traffic also started with full speed. It was soo bad that I had to stop running to get out of the CO2 the vehicles were generating at the Sangvi Phata. With sun already up, I somehow managed with lots of walking breaks, to reach home. It took me longer than usual to complete 12 miles, but I was very much satisfied with my performance of completing the target. Mainly, since this was a totally new experience. Also, all the time I was running against wind, polution and heat.
I hope to get accustome very fast to this weather as the weather would be more humid and hotter in Mumbai during the marathon. With the way things are progressing, completing the marathon in less than 5 hours looks distant dream for now. But, I will still keep my fingers crossed and keep trying.
1st Nov - 12.2 miles
3rd Nov - 6 miles
4th Nov - 8.5 miles
5th Nov - No run - Mumbai trip
6th Nov - Return from Mumbai
7th Nov - Rest
8th Nov - 12.6 miles
I had earlier planned to run 14-15 miles on 8th Nov, but I didn't pay proper attention to the carb loading the earlier day and proper hydration as I had done in the past. So, I didn't had the energy to run more than 12 miles on 8th Nov. As i did on 1st Nov, this time I got Guava juice from the same Lady for Rs. 10. Guava juice was better than the earlier one, but not good enough for me. Next time I will skip this option and instead carry some power gel with me.
I have the following plan about running for this week -
9th Nov - Rest
10th Nov - 7 miles
11th Nov - 9 miles
12th Nov - 3 miles
13th Nov - 6 miles
14th Nov - Rest
15th Nov - 16 miles ( in Dapoli, I hope its not that bad)
Lets see how I am able to manage running these miles while attending office in India. Good part is that I am able to wake up at 5 AM in the morning.