Calling a fatty a fatty

Just a reality check to see if I am on track for a full marathon this year. I feel I am not yet ready. This is mainly because my legs give up around 20-23K range. I have a half marathon next Sunday at Mangalore. As part of training I am doing 10K almost 4 times a week.

A group of enthusiasts got together this wednesday and having nothing else to do talked about running to work. i thought this was due to recession/slowing markets :0. Soon they turned serious and today we ran our first half marathon to office. I did a decent 21K in 2.15hr. this is almost an improvement by 1hr considering my timing from the Bangalore ultra. We started at 5:45 this morning and had to reach office by 8:00AM because our dress code is enforced after 8:00AM. We would end up paying a 200Rs if we miss this deadline. I realised that not having any stops in the run helps a lot. I did the 21k non-stop. The 1K from wipro gate 16 to my office in 15mins, walking. I carried 1/2lt of water mixed with lemon+salt+sugar. Having small sips throught out the run helped me run non-stop.

After the run we met at the food court to restore our carbos :). Thats when I asked the professional runner in our group what should I do this remaining 1 week to train for the 1/2 marathon in Mangalore. He suggested a few techniques for muscle strengthening. This was when he told me dont run a downward slope. You are a little bit over weight and might end up hurthing your knees. if that happens you cannot run the 1/2 marathon you are planning. Finally somebody told me I am over-weight. Comments section might be automatically disabled for any further comments stressing the point that I am a fatty.

Run

The other day I was thinking about how I got to running. One day I was walking along Rose garden road/Lakshman Rao park road in Jayanagar. I saw a friend of mine run and i thought of accompaniying him to beat the boredom. That week the 'Runners for Life' organised a 5K run in office to select our corporate team for their annual 'Urban Stampede' They invited anyone interested to run. this is where I ran my first marathon with timing+bib. I also found the idea of being served water or electrolyte or oranges and bananas on the run interesting. I found myself running easily after these. Thus began my tyrst with running.

Now I run because I want to train myself to run a full marathon (42K). I also find that I am stress free after a run. My mind frees up of any stress I have and I also get some thinking time alone, if required. Running just gets better with time. I ran my first 10K in Bangalore Sunfeast 10K at about 77mins on tarred roads across the central Business district. My next 10k was at Mysore along the trail of the river Kaveri. This was a trail and needless to say untarred. This was tough considering the many ups and downs on the trail and the weather in Mysore was not helping. My time was again close to 77 minutes. This was an improvement considering it was a trail run. or that was what I told myself. Then came the regular 10ks at office on Wednesdays. Since this was again on tarred surface I saw that I finally made my sub 1Hr 10K for the first time last week.

I decided to 'up the ante' by registering for the Bangalore ultra under the 25k category. This was needed as I wanted to run a full marathon in the next 1 year. A saying by a great runner motivated me. never stop if you are tired. Thats a way the brain feeds you false information and says go home. If you are exhausted, stop. Go home. thats when you are actually done. I took about 3 and a half hours to cover the 25k trail. This was tougher than the Mysore KTM run as this was an even more undulating trail and Bangalore decided to be hotter that day. But surprisingly I was not tired when I completed 12.5K (50%) of the run. I was surprised that I covered more than my usual distance of 10K without being tired. I used to stop at 10K earlier thinking that was my limit. Turns out I can do more. I was also surprised that I was not exhausted after 25K but dog tired. A couple of half marathons and I am on track on completing a full marathon in 2012 or latest by the Mumbai marathon in Jan-2013.

I learnt a couple of things this last 2 runs. Staying dry through out the run helps a lot. I bought myself a dry-fit Tee and shorts for the 25K. It is nothing but a cloth made of spandex, polyster, nylon and a small amount of cotton. Staying wet (hydrated) through out the run helps. Drink a lot of water the day before. Keep drinking water in small quantities through out the run. Do not drink a lot of water as it makes you feel filled up and you cannot run. This was the mistake I made last time. Also, empty your bladders before the run. Get yourself some bare minimum running shoe.

Do let me know if you need any info regarding running. I don't know most of it. But I know some professional runners from whom i get you the info. To lookup running events in your country please visit: http://aimsworldrunning.com/Calendar.htm

Update: I did my first full marathon in Non 2012 in Mysore and the second on in Jan 2013 in Mumbai. Finally I keep my word to myself. 

Goodbye America

I am surprised that I am a little sad to be leaving the country, on the contrary, I am way too excited on coming back to India. A couple of things I liked here in the past 18 months:
Courteous people, by courteous I mean, very courteous people. Good roads to drive on. Good clothing at affordable prices (all made in India :)). 

It is always people that make your life beautiful. I was lucky to befriend a whole lot of people here on a professional and a personal front. They made my time here go quick. They will be missed.Starbucks coffee, you will be missed. But I prefer the filter coffee and tea available back home to this. I'll miss the High speed Internet, the one which allowed me to download the entire FRIENDS series in one night.IHOP, you make nice delicious pancakes and real filling omelet. You will be dearly missed. But you will be the bar against which all future omelettes I try will be measured.

I am looking forward to some major changes in the months ahead. Looking forward to running on a daily basis. I have 2 marathons to run in the next 30 days. I am looking forward to getting back to my clicking. This has been untouched for a long time.

I will be home in a couple of days. Looking forward to meeting my friends. There is a whole list of things I am looking forward to, before I do those, let me touch down safe. A bon voyage to me. There are many other people back home who make me happy about life. Looking forward to the next phase of my life as a married man. Yes, I would still say, Life is beautiful.