Mind Games

Over the last two days, I have run a total of 20 laps of KNP (approximately 10K) in 35 minutes each approximately. I am hoping to run another 10K over the next two days before my last long run on Sunday.

What has all this got to do with mind games? Every runner probably talks to himself/herself - it's a way of prodding your body to do what you/your mind wants

Today, I had decided to do an easy 5 laps - I was bored and at 8:15 AM, there was no motivation at KNP :-). I warmed up looking at the last set of regulars complete their final rounds.

While I typically run with music booming loud in my ears, today I wound up my earphone cords and stowed the player - this in itself is a departure from my rituals .. I wanted to see if I could run without music so that if and when my MP3 player conks off, I can still go on without the beat to pace to.

I started out with a slow lap of 3:35, having tried to motivate a PYT to run (she gave up about 200 m later). My next lap was sort of the same timing. Mentally I was still targeting 5 laps. Lap 5 came around at 17:30; so my average time was still 3:30 per lap. Here is some of my mental conversation from Lap 5 to Lap 10:

Me: You know you can't just run 5 laps, that's just the entry fee to the track
Lazy Me: Granted, no issues... but one lap only, OK? 6 laps and we are done... no शेंडी OK?
Me: We'll see, let's go past lap 6

I was almost completing Lap 6.
Me: Wouldn't it be cool if you could run a sub 30 10 laps?
Lazy Me: No way that's happening man, 9 minutes left ... get out.
Me: OK, let's see what time it is (I switched to the clock - 8:53 AM). Why don't we run till 9:00 AM sharp and we'll end up where we do
Lazy Me: Only 7 minutes to go... yeah, I think we can do that...
Me: Let's a run a rocking lap - - sub 3?
Lazy Me: What will that achieve?
Me: कर के तो देख!
So I ran a sub 3 lap 8 (2:45 or so)
Me: You rock
Lazy Me: yeah yeah woteva, enough चमचागिरी

Another 5 minutes or so later, my watch chimed...
Lazy Me: It's 9 o'clock. We are done
Me: Think man, you are on lap 9.
Lazy Me: so?
Me: One more lap and it'll be 10 laps
Lazy Me: So?
Me: Wouldn't it be cool to run 10 laps today as well
Lazy Me: SO?
Me: Oh, come on, let's go for it
Lazy Me: no
Me: Just the one
Lazy Me: No
Me: Look there's an interesting person
Lazy Me: Where? Who?
Me: Look, you have already started Lap 10
Lazy Me: Let's stop
Me: There's that interesting person again.
Lazy Me: I am not falling for that one again.
Me: Look you are pacing well and maybe we'll do better than yesterday
Lazy Me: You know what........... we are almost at the end of the lap
Me: Hey superb, देखा, बातों बातों में मेरा स्टेशन कब आया पता ही नही चला
Lazy Me: चुप साले, फिल्मी डायलाग मारता है

Today 10 laps were done in 34:18. Yesterday's 10 laps were done in 34:45:39. Net net, I did do better.

मैं और मेरी तनहाई अक्सर ये बातें करते है
२:३० lap दौडे तो ऐसा होगा, sub 30 10K दौडे तो वैसा होगा
मैं और मेरी तनहाई अक्सर ये बातें करते है

Long Run Sunday ...........YaYYYYYY!!!!

I read somewhere that the longest distance for a runner is from the bed to the floor. I completely agree. I have been whinging on about how I had not done a long run since the Pune 10K, to the point where I was getting bored of it.
Sunday was my target day for getting in the first of two long runs before the Mumbai marathon on January 20th.

I set the alarm to go off at 5:30 AM. It went off, loud and cacophonous. I turned it off, digging deep into my blanket, promising myself to be out of bed in the next 10 minutes. At around 6 o'clock, I wrapped it even closer, already thinking of running in the afternoon. I finally made it out of bed at 6:45 AM and faced my kit already laid out the night before. Oh, I need to eat something.... so I had a cup of tea, browsed the Sunday newspapers and generally dawdled. At 7:30, having run out of excuses, I laced up. Once I was out of home, it was OK. I warmed up; my warm up routine of stretches was getting to be boring, but I laboured on. My target was 15K.

I walked to Good Luck Chowk and started off at 8:00 AM, running towards Jungli Maharaj Road. 3:16 minutes later, I had passed Kamat's on a cold nippy morning with the sun beginning to peek out over the tops of the Sambhaji Park trees. I ran an even pace, getting green lights through the first two traffic signals, coming into Sancheti Hospital chowk in 12:30 minutes. The road has a slight climb and I was comfortable and breathing well.

Going up University Road from Sancheti was an interesting experience. The first major traffic light was amber as I ran through it, almost dodging an earnest oncoming State Transport bus. The road climbs continuously till University Chowk. Past Hardikar Hospital, I went up the first of the two big bridges on this route, (doing some hill training on the side), taking approximately 3 minutes to cover 400 m. Onward past the new Pune Central and ESquare, I decided to go over the new bridge which goes to Aundh and Baner. This is a longer climb till the intersection of Senapati Bapat Road and a bit beyond. I could see the intersection below as I clocked 33 minutes.

Down the bridge is a steady downslope till the Aundh firestation. It was a crisp morning and the sun though above the horizon now, was not hot. As I passed Raj Bhavan, I looked at the winking sun and smiled. I felt good. I turned off towards Parihar Chowk and the road was empty.. nary a soul, not even the obligatory rickshaw or doodhwala. I turned again at Parihar Chowk heading towards Baner Road. I clocked one hour just past the FabIndia store. I was panting a bit, but overall still had a good stride and was feeling OK. As I turned onto Baner Road, I clocked 1:06.

Going up towards University Chowk was a bit of a drag. The road seems to be in constant state of repair with half the road blocked. Anyway, I dodged oncoming traffic to get to Sakal Nagar. From Sakal Nagar to University Chowk is a steady climb on concrete roads, hard on the knees and just tiring. I managed to get to University Chowk without too much harm, heading off to Senapati Bapat Road

On Senapati Bapat Road, the downslope truly worked in my favour and I was doing well. I even smiled at a cop at one of the traffic lights who waved me through. Going up the climb towards Symbiosis, I looked at my stopwatch. I had been running for more than 90 minutes. I was running a little ragged and heaved a sigh of relief when I crested the hill.

At the bottom of the hill going on to Law College Road, I knew I was headed for a PB. Bhandarkar Road is downhill from this point and that worked well for my tired legs. I passed Spencer's Daily (the grocery chain) and applauded myself.....literally clapping as I drove towards Good Luck Chowk. It felt glorious. I ran into the chowk and stopped my watch - 1 hour, 48 minutes, 33 seconds later I knew I had completed a PB on 15K

Later when I checked my online odometer, the actual distance I ran came to 15.35KM for a superb pace of 7.04 minutes/KM. Yahooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

These were my stats
Distance 15.35 km.
Reps 1
kcal 1478
Pace (min/avg/max) - / 07:03 / -
Speed - km/hr (min/avg/max) - / 8.48 / -
Duration (HH:MM:SS) 1:48:33

Here is my run map

We are back after a brief interlude....

I went running today after an interlude of almost 5 days.

It is exactly 18 days to the Stanchart Mumbai Marathon. I am under prepared and haven't had a long run since the Pune 10K. These thoughts have been playing through my head for a few days now. I need to do at least one long run of 15K and another of 20K before I head off to Mumbai.

Today I dropped the kid off to school (yes, school reopened today), got the second kid dressed and ready for school, heading out only at 8:00 AM to KNP. Warmed up and ran the first lap in 3:08 reasonably easily. Went on to complete 10 laps in 33:16.

I wanted to go past the 7 lap mark today.. 7 laps has become sort of my comfort zone and in the past month, I was running 6/7 laps before stopping. So far, a good start to 2008 :-)

December running

I have been lazy in posting to this blog and so on the last day of 2007, it is time to list my running exploits in December.

It's been an "on again, off again" kind of month - the temperatures swaying from 9 deg C to 13 deg C in the mornings - proportional to which my ability to get my sorry backside out of bed and lace up have swung too. I have not run a lot in December overall; and that worries me especially considering the Mumbai half is round the corner.

On 19th December, I ran 6 laps in Chittaranjan Vatika (CV) in 23:48 minutes, doing a sub-4 lap on average. On 20th, I broke the 30 minute barrier on 10 laps in Kamala Nehru Park (KNP) clocking 29:59 mins. 21st was an iffy 18:40 on 6 laps in KNP.

On the 22nd, I went running in the evening at 5:00 PM. The crowd in KNP was mostly nannies with young kids and young college kids monopolizing the benches. I ran an even 6 laps in 20 minutes, the heat sapping away any pace.

Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day gave me the perfect excuse not to run. I finally got out on Boxing Day to KNP for 7 laps in 23:11 mins. My final run of December was on the 28th, when I ran the same 7 laps in 22:36 minutes, at a tempo pace starting out with a 3:04 lap, followed by 3:11 lap, slowing down and putting in a 2:56 lap 5.

Had great hopes of running today - the last day of the year, but cooked breakfast for the Most Wondrous instead to thank her for being supportive of my running (yeah, right - another excuse :P)

Running into 2008

(Pix Credit: The Simpsons Show, Fox Network?)
Every year magazines, newspapers, websites, blogs tend to reflect on the year that has been and wax eloquent on the happenings, non-events and generate completely irrelevant lists of things. Today it's my turn to reflect.

2007 was a great year for me running wise (and other wise too). It started with the Stanchart Mumbai Marathon in January where I completed a half marathon. Having done this distance twice before, my ONLY imperative was to RUN the distance, not walk not crawl, but to do this with feet off the ground. I completed 21.097K in Mumbai in 3:40 something. While the timing was not as good, I was still very much thrilled to have done better than the previous Mumbai outing.

As is typical with me, I took a lot of time off after Mumbai and did not start running again till June/July. One morning in June/July after dropping the kid, I went to KNP and ran some laps. If I remember correctly, my average time was around 4:00 minutes per lap. Around August, I had been running regularly enough to venture onto the blogspace and start recording my exploits :-). The Delhi Half Marathon in October was a super high in my short running career with me getting rid of almost 40 minutes off my Mumbai time.

I ran 10K in Pune in 71 minutes. For once, it appeared that a 140 minute half marathon was not just an elusive figment of my imagination but a distinct possibility if I trained hard enough.

2007 is the year I ran 3 races and I am quite pleased with being able to find the time, and keep the enthusiasm going.

In 2008, I hope to run the half marathon in Mumbai, Delhi, maybe Hyderabad, perhaps the Ultra in Bangalore and if I can swing it - Singapore

Some totally random metrics from 2007.

1. Number of Laps of Kamala Nehru Park (KNP): 360
2. Number of Laps of Chittaranjan Vatika (CV): 47
3. On Road Kilometres Run: 104.97
4. KM flown to & from race venues: 2368 KM
5. KM by road to race venues: 240 KM
6. New running stuff: 1 Nike Water Bottle, 2 Nike drip dry shirts, 1 Adidas running shorts, 1 pair Adidas SuperNova shoes, 1 Sony NW something MP3 player.
   
7. Best Lap time: 2:48 (KNP), 3:08 (CV)
8. Entry fees: INR 500.
   
9. Celebratory biryanis and kababs: Lost count :-)
10. Weight loss: I would rather live in ignorant bliss than know the reality.

Happy New Year!!!

Runner's Log

After my 10K run on December 2nd, I took it a little easy missing my long run for the week. Not a good sign.

Here's what I have been doing over the past week.
On Tuesday 4th December, I ran in Chittaranjan Vatika after dropping the kid off to school. This was an easy run of 7 laps. I took 29:36 minutes, averaging around 4 mins per lap.

On Wednesday 5th December I went to KNP. I ran 12 laps there in 43:38

On Thursday 6th December, I went back to Chittaranjan Vatika, running 6 laps in 25:52 minutes.

As I said before, I skipped my long run, not getting back on the saddle till this Monday. On Monday 10th December, I ran 10 laps in KNP in 35:19 minutes. Today's run was 11 laps in KNP again; I took 40:23 minutes.

Tomorrow, I hope to run 8x400 intervals.

10K

हाय, Pune Marathon - what a yo-yo -- the highs came in the running part, the lows in all the organization and logistics. True to form, the 22nd edition was no better organized than its predecessors - water, the usual problem was not present till 8K, the race started with about 30K people trying to squeeze past the podium onto Lakdi Pul all at once, traffic was not at all stopped well or held back...... but let me start at the beginning.

Woke up early at 5:15 AM, had my ritual cup of tea, half a banana and a couple of biscuits. I was still undecided about whether I was running in my New Balance or my new Adidas. After mentally hemming and hawing for about 15 minutes, I decided on the new Adidas. 10K seemed like a good distance to try them out over a longer length. I laced up and sms'd my running buddies - Ravi who was running his first event in a long while and Rajesh for whom this was a 2nd showing at Pune.

We all walked to Good Luck Chowk at around 6:40 AM where a set of desks were laid out haphazardly.. apparently the assembly point for some Group 5. We walked ahead towards an extremely crowded Garware bridge - everyone just wandering here and there trying to figure out what the procedure was. We were lucky to find a wayward official who stamped our bibs with a rubber stamp indicating 10K and took our entry cards (go figure). As we waited, I started my usual warm up routine waiting for the flagoff. In the background, there were speeches.. most of which I did not pay any attention to. It was a lot of fun to be among some practiced runners - I saw some familar faces, a lot of NDA/Army Cadets - most all the regiments had a contingent there

They flagged off all the runners at once - barring the "elite" runners who started about 15 minutes earlier (I think). All - the general 10K crowd, under 17, under 19, full marathon, boys, men, women, charity run .. what have you. One would think they could have at the very least staggered these start times by 15 minutes. Most of the first minute was spent passing the podium where people whipped out their mobiles and took pictures of the celebrities - Sunil Gavaskar, Salman Khan, Sagarika Ghatge, Vidya Malavade, (the last two of Chak De India fame) and some starlet who was unidentifiable to me.

Anyway I started my stopwatch and managed to make it out of Lakdi Pul without being trampled upon. Ravi and I got a good pace going running within myself, not yet huffing and puffing terribly. I did not check my time till before Modern Bakery Chowk, where I was clocking around 18 minutes. Not bad, I said to myself. After I turned off Laxmi Road, I started looking for the KM markers. Did not find one till the 4K mark. I clocked 27:46 here...at this point it did not register that I was doing 7 min/KM

At the bottom of the Seven Loves/Shankarsheth Road bridge, as I headed onto the climb towards Golibar Maidan, I had 35:26 on my stopwatch. I turned the corner onto Main Street at 37:26. I had heard this was a downhill run, but this was my first time on it. I paced very well on Main Street, sort of competing with this one other guy till the 7K marker at Budhani Wafers. I was showing 48:26 at this point and it finally registered ... I was running at 7 min/KM mark. This was a great boost as I reached the 8K marker going towards the Police Commissioner's office. As I passed Blue Nile, I saw a diminutive lady in a uniform - she was a an ambulance officer and I realized that the few others I had seen in the same uniform were also keepers of our good health.

I went past INOX at 1 hour and at the 9K mark, I clocked 61:26. A small hill near Wadia and I was home free was what I was telling myself. By now, I was grinning at other runners as I passed them, exhorting them ...it's almost over. I was certain I was going to clock around 68 minutes. I think the course calliberation was off, and perhaps the 10K finish line was set about 500 m beyond the actual 10K mark. Anyways, I kept runnning till I crossed the finish line. My stopwatch showed 71:14:55

I stretched a little, finished my Electral fortified water and set off in search of Rajesh and Ravi. Ravi's timing was 64 minutes and Rajesh's was 61 minutes. At the finish line, there was a chaotic scene as officials tried to write down our bib numbers etc. After we collected Rajesh's brother, we walked down Bund Garden Road in search of a rickshaw, ended up in Madhuban for an upma and coffee.

If only the Pune Marathon organizers think of the runners and general organization, perhaps it could have been truly be a memorable event for all the participants. First, water every KM or even 1.5KM would not hurt, traffic management with roads being shut at least for 4 hours if not more, simplified registration processes (in this day and age, I am surprised this event does nothing to leverage the Internet), staggered start times and distances, ... I could go on.

I am quite happy with my run. 10K in 71 minutes at a consistent pace of 7 minutes a kilometer, that is a personal best for me. Today is a rest day and tomorrow I start chasing the dream of a 140 minute half marathon in Mumbai