Category: running

2017 was admittedly not a good year for running. Mumbai is a great city, but I couldn’t find the time or the space to get my running in the rhythm it used to be in the previous season. I loved the long runs in Mumbai. It was amazing to run on Marine drive or to run with the Mumbai Road Runners. But the daily easy runs never happened and I fell off the wagon. This year, the first book I finished reading is Daniels’ Running Formula. If you’re starting out running or somewhere in the mid-level where you feel stuck, I fully recommend you read this book. It’s oriented towards fast runners as well as beginners. It gives you a great amount of foundational knowledge of running and workouts. For instance, it explains what the different kinds of workouts do and how they help you become a better runner. This means you know exactly why you’re doing a specific speed workout.

I’m resetting my running training from this month. I’ve gained weight almost to the exact point when I first finished the C25K plan. Instead of restarting C25K, I’m starting with Jack Daniels’ White Plan. It’s meant for people who’re absolute beginners. I’ve checked my VDOT and I’m starting with a VDOT of 25.6.My goal this year is to build this up. I’m going to be running ADHM, but I plan on racing very little otherwise. I’ll be doing 10Ks if I’m racing. I plan to work through a few of the beginner plans to build up my mileage and VDOT. This year, I’m focusing my running on actually being fitter and less to do with running running races or pace. I want to build a habit of waking up every day with a run.

The White Plan has me running easy for the most part with walking breaks in between at a pace that’s getting more and more comfortable as I keep repeating the workout. This year, I have a modest goal, set a habit of running every week 🙂

After 2 years, I ran ADHM again this year. This is the one time I nearly dropped because of alarming levels of pollution the week before the event. If Procam does not change the dates of the event in 2018, I don’t see myself running this event again. We got lucky this time with the air clearing up the week leading up to the event.

Delhi has been the best city for my running. This is where I went from C25K to running my first marathon over the course of 2 years. When we moved away, I almost stopped running completely. Bombay was not conducive to running for me. Running in a park with a radius of 200m gets old fast. It takes 25 loops to get to a 5K and the monsoons are a constant threat. I haven’t run more than 400 km this year. I went into the race with little to no training. I was hoping that this would kickstart my training cycle for the next big race.

I met Bulbul at the start line and we started about together. I was in C group given that my last ADHM timing was 2h 11m. Last time I prepped for cold weather forgetting that it warms over the course of the race. This time, I was wearing my trusty shorts and T-shirt, which I wore in Brno and Prague in sub 10C weather. Given my lack of training, I started slow and let people pass me over the course of the race.

I picked up a timing chart for finishing in 3h during the race expo. That was near perfect for me. I started the race with a mask as well. The mask was uncomfortable because I hadn’t trained with it. At around the 7 km mark I gave up on the mask. I banked a few minutes because of the speed in the first 5 km or so. I kept going faster than the plan, but slower than a 2h 45m finish. Until about the halfway mark, I was running with occasional walking breaks to drink water. After the 10.5K mark, I started maintaining the goal pace that was on my chart, which means I slowed down. At around the 16K mark, my back was giving me trouble, so I decided to walk for a bit and then run. I walked most of the way back after that picking up pace only after turning into the stadium. Procam had the aid stations well staffed and there was water and ORSIL till the very end.

As I expected, this has kickstarted my training. It’s a little challenging to go out in the winter to run. And it’s not very motivating when my performance is below where I left it off. But I’ve done this before. I’ve gone from near zero training to fast half marathons. It’s only a matter of consistent training for the next year or so before I break my half marathon best again.

I’ve been looking forward to running Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon since May 2015. I took some time in 2015 to train and qualify. I ran 2 marathons before this one and finished both of them in 5h 47 mins. I moved to Mumbai last year, so I trained along the route for the most part as well. SCMM 2017 is the first time I had to DNF a race.

I planned to train well, but sometimes all the planning in the world won’t help. I had a family emergency in the end of November. I had to be in Kerala until the first week of Jan with my parents. So I went into SCMM with 6 weeks of no training.

I planned to finish in 5h 45min. It would mean running at a steady 8:11 min/km pace. Managing my pace has never been my forte and I did particularly bad for SCMM. At the 11 km mark, I was ahead of my planned pace by almost 5 mins. This difference was quite steady and consumed my energy. I was on the verge of learning to control my pace after Bengaluru Marathon. The break from training completely ruined it.

At about the 29 km mark, I cramped up. Both my legs had muscles which were pulsing if I tried to run. I could barely walk. I hobbled about 2 km to take help from the physio at the medical tent. They massaged the pain out of my legs. I could walk again, but running was still too painful. It didn’t help that I was feeling a little dizzy. Not enough that I feared a black out, but I knew I was a bit of the edge.

The sweep bus was coming along on the other side of the road at this point. I decided that if I was far away from Peddar road when it passed by me, I’d get in the bus. Otherwise, I’d walk the course and make it to the finish line. The bus approached me as I merged onto Dr. Annie Besant Marg and I decided it was best to cut my losses and get on it.

I have no regrets in giving up. I’m glad I decided to give up when I hit my limits rather than push through and hurt myself. This has made me realize the importance of consistent training and a good base. Over this year, I aim to work up on base. I’ll be racing less and working on training well.

On Sunday, I finished my first marathon, New Delhi Marathon, in 5:47:13. It was 42.195 km of fun, pain, and runner’s high. If the bib numbers are sequential in order of registration (I suspect they are), I’m the 8th person to register for the full marathon. That’s how excited I was about a full marathon right in heart of Delhi. The criticism in this post is because we want you to do better next year. You guys managed great things for the first edition and we’d love to see a better event next year.

From the onset, the quality of this race would depend on its route. Having it pass through some of the major landmarks of Delhi was great. You guys pulled this one off, hats off to you. Extra points for the course being AIMS-approved.

At the start of the race, there were a good number of race marshals and police; they stopped traffic and guided us. This was a great feeling. The people in cars and bikes on the route were cheering us on too!

From about the 30K mark or so (at 9 am), I only saw three aid stations with water. The rest of them seem to have run dry and the volunteers were just sitting in chairs and chatting. To be clear, until this point, the race marshals and police were extremely helpful and cheery. As I was preparing for the race on Saturday night, I decided I’d rather carry extra weight than not have water. In retrospect, that was the best decision I’d made. My advice to fellow runners, when in doubt, carry your own hydration.

The website seemed to say that roads would reopen by 11 am but I’m pretty sure we were navigating traffic around 9 am. I understand that this is not in your control, but an early warning would have been nice. What could have been in your control though is having route markers and/or race marshals until 11 am. This did not happen, as far as I could see.

As my first marathon, I’m not happy with the last 2 hours (12.2K) of the race. This is when I was reaching my breaking point, which is my fault, thanks to less than ideal training. This is also when the support from the race organizers dwindled much less than what I expected. It took me 2 hours to complete the remaining 12.2K. I look forward to the next edition where I can better my own time at the New Delhi Marathon. I hope the organizers will also give me a better experience.

Last year, I missed the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon. It was just after I moved to Delhi and I had no confidence I could run a half marathon anyway. Any race over 5 km looked like a tough deal back then. All through winter, I was lazy because of the cold. It was comfortable to snuggle in my blanket than step out to run. Eventually, I did start running just as the summer started to hit. My first run in Faridabad doesn’t seem like a long time ago anymore. I remember panicking about my ability to finish ADHM if 8 km felt as difficult as it did.

I’ve run quite a lot in the last year. In fact, I’ve got a graph of it. I spent a day geeking out about various graph options to finally arrive at this one 😀

Strava also has a great video which captures my year in running quite accurately!

If I had one thing to take away from this year is to keep running. There are a lot of plans around to start running. Following them religiously doesn’t matter. What matters is you go out to run 3 to 5 times a week, everything else will follow.

Back to ADHM, I was disappointed with my performance this year. I felt like I short-changed myself by not running faster than 2h 10min. I also panicked at the start and ran faster than I should have – I did the same mistake at Faridabad. Now I’ve learned my lesson and hope to not repeat it next year. Next year, I’m hoping to train on a more advanced plan to improve my time. I’ll also have a better base mileage to start and will have lost a bunch of weight. I’ve gone from finishing my first half marathon in 2:46:28 to finishing ADHM in 2:11:21 – an improvement of 37 minutes and 7 seconds. That’s way better than I could have asked for. I already know that I can do better if I start a full 3 to 4 month prep for ADHM in 2016.

I have lofty goals for 2016:

• Run my first full marathon.
• Run a total of 2000 km in the year.
• Cycling a total of 3000 km in the year (oh,I have a cycle now!).

I don’t know if I can do it, but a near miss with 1900 km of running is still commendable!