Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2013

SCMM 2013 was scheduled for 20th Jan 2013, I was going through early start of 5:40 AM from Azad Maidan. Tthe 18 weeks of strick training schedule including 2 weeks of taper culminated into a personal best of 4:05:05.

Training: Losing out 3 months of training due to laziness and work committments, I was left with only 18 weeks worth of effective training against atleast ideal 26 weeks. I prepared a plan to do base built-up for 10-12 weeks and then start with interval workout. It was a realy struggle initially, pace too was pretty slow. I had serious doubts whether I would be able to pull fast paces at a later stage, but decided to stick to the plan. Rather than focusing too much on pace, I kept my focus on HR for upto 6 weeks and then alternate easy effort and medium effort. On fridays, I included the evaluation runs.

The first major milestone was Pune Internation Marathon 2012 on 2nd Dec 2012. I had decided to target sub-2 and notice a trend on HR. I was able to finish in 1:56:57 with an avg HR of 180. I was shell shocked, obviously cannot stick to this type of effort for any longer duration. I decided to introduce speed intervals now. Things slowly started turning around, but I always felt that I need 1 more month to prepare better.

This year I also toyed with changing the 3 week taper to 2 week taper. I kept running till Friday as I was feeling very good, but I think that might have some impact on the crapy feeling I was having during the initial few kms. Lesson learnt, last run should be done on Wednesday, Thurs, Fri, Sat are complete rest and carb loading.

Like 2012 event, I had booked train tickets from Pune to Mumbai and hotel stay was planned at Manama primarily due to its location from the starting point. Lunch and Dinner places were pre-decided and no further exploring to be done. Almost all runners from "Pune running" group landed at Hotel Manama and it was like mecca of runners, everyone checking-in around the same time. Early Lunch & early dinner went as per plan, but rest on Saturday day and night went for a toss. I just couldn't sleep on Saturday night for a long time, woke up at 3 AM to get ready.
The race started couple of mins late and I crossed the starting point 3-4 mins late. I slowly moved into the planned pace. I kept good control over my pace as far as possible in first 5 kms, but it still went faster than planned. I was feeling the effect of speedy runs couple of days back, but nothing bothering.
Plan: 0 - 5K @ 9:20 avg pace
Actual Pace: 9:09
After 5K, I was to push the pace slightly but ended up going faster than desired. This 5K included Peddar road incline as well, however I was feeling pretty good so far, trying to relax as far as possible.
Plan: 5 - 10K @ 9:04 avg pace
Actual Pace : 8:45
Next 5K were again smooth as butter, focusing on rythmn and breathing. This is also the time when Half Marathoners started crossing from the other side. Wathing the leaders cross on the other side was a great site. This 5K ended on sea link bridge.
Plan: 10 - 15K @ 8:48 avg pace
Actual Pace: 8:46
I was feeling a need to empty my bladder for the past 10k or so, but was not able to locate loo or a good location. Resisted temptation to go out in the open and keept on running with little water input. Slight slow uphill resulted in slower than planned 5K. Consumed 1st GU gel at this point, felt like throwing up.
Plan: 15 - 20K @ 8:48 avg pace
Actual Pace: 8:56
This is where the sea link bridge was finishing and I saw an available portable loo on the right. I grabbed the opportunity and took a long 2 mins break before resuming. Then I tried to catch up the lost time and seems that it was a mistake to do. I did 21K in 1:57.
Plan: 20K - 25K @ 8:48 avg pace
Actual Pace: 9:17
So far things were looking good for another 5K, I consumed my 2nd GU gel in this 5K. I had started to overtake a lot of runners and also got a feeling on who are really running at my pace. Overtook Kaustubh after taking with him for several kms, crossed Anand V, he was having severe cramp and finished walking. My 30K was done in 2:47 as planned.
Plan: 25 - 30K @ 8:48 avg pace
Actual Pace: 9:03
Things slowed down a bit in this one, but still I was feeling good and strong. This included the Peddar road return hill, I crossed it easily only to get a severe cramp on my left side while going downhill. I had to stop for 1-2 mins to remove it completely and then resume running. 35K done in 3:17 and had 43 mins left for 7.2K to achieve sub-4.
Plan: 30 - 35K @ 8:48 avg pace
Actual Pace: 9:37
That cramp caused me to slow down, even take 1-2 walking breaks in this lap. I was slowing down, not due to fatigue or sun or anything else but the cramps I was getting. It was limiting my leg movement.
Plan: 35 - 40K @ 8:48 avg pace
Actual Pace: 9:53
Last 2.5 kms was in complete pain, I decided to just keep strolling as far as possible without pushing anything. I felt like taking 1 min break at 41K, so I did. Resumed again to stroll across easily to finish in 4:05:05.
Plan: 40 - 42.2K @ 8:48 avg pace
Actual Pace: 10:49
I was able to achieve 14 mins drop in personal best and was happy to have done good. I have a couple of learnings, but most importantly to train regularly throughout the year. Learnings to be covered in another post.

Feeling Tired

During the Base conditioning phase, one should feel running effortlessly. However, I was feeling very tired the whole day on Tuesday and the quads were having a wierd feeling of tireness. Due to some less important stuff I was doing on Tuesday morning, I missed my 8-9 miler run. I planned to compensate it in the evening.

I had to go to Aundh to drop my cell for 'microphone' issue. Plan was to drop @ 7, go for 1:30 hrs for running and pick up the cell phone. I reached there at 7 PM, but the technician asked me to wait till he investigates and I could see my evening run going down the drain. Finally he asked me to come back in 30 mins at about 7:20 PM. I quickly went to Rakshak Chowk and started my run at 7:30 PM. I had less than 1 hour, so though of doing the Rakshak chowk to Baner out and back. This route is nice, less traffic and somewhat hilly too. I managed a 4+ miler but was sweating profusely.

Today morning I spent a good 10-15 mins wondering if I should run given the wierd feelings in the quad. Finally good sense prevailed and I started my run slowly. For the past couple of days, I have been thinking of running Naked (sans Garmin and not clothes) but I also wanted to have data for easy comparison. So, I pressed the "Mode" button and started my run with slow and easy effort. Met Nishant mid-way and ran a loop with. Comfortably back home after completing 8 miles for the day.

Tuesday - 4 miles (PM run) @ 162

Wednesday - 8 miles (AM run) @ 156

Double

Double wammy or pain, I have started introducing easy recovery runs in the evenings whenever possible for a distance between 4 - 6 miles. My take on this is that this will help in faster recovery and forms a solid foundation to be utilized later when hill and hard workouts are added to the training schedule. This week is going to be crazy work hours, so I am suspecting how much I would be able to cover. Taking it one day at a time.

I have 2 buddies - Prawaal and Nishant. I usually run with Prawaal during long runs if he is consistent. With Nishant, I have a lot of discussions around running in general and some specifics. More towards disection of Arthur's training methods. One thing I firmly believe that a runner just cannot learn from other's mistakes. They have to make their own and use that as a feedback mechanism to fix the broken things. I had my share of mistakes and I am hopeful that this training is injury free.

Sunday - 5.39 miles (2nd run)

Monday - 7 miles

Following Arthur's modified plan

This being my first blog, I would like to keep it simple and small.
Background: I have started running and doing a lot of reading for the past few years. I find Arthur's method to be the best amongst available options and my plan is to follow it cycle after cycle for 3-5 years. This blog is to share the learnings from following Arthur's ways and prepare a log of how my training is going.

I am preparing for Mumbai Marathon called as Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (SCMM) 2013, my best being 4:20 in 2012 event. My plan is to reach a sub-4 level. Honestly, it seems to be too optimistic given that I have missed most of my base builtup due to GI issues or office committments. I have realized that these problems are miniscule and one has to overcome such unprecendented events to move from average runner background to a more developed runner.

Why Arthur? While following Hal Higdon's plan 2 years back, I realized that just running short distances on weekdays and take rest is not suitable for me. Without having any background on Arthur at that time, I started adding daily runs and stopped taking rest days unless it is needed. I have had a small share of injuries with me, but I have also realized that gains multiply once you start running daily and slowly start increasing the weekly distances. In 2011, I broke the 5 hour barrier and started doing some reasearch on this. This is when I stumble upon Arthur's principles and started reading online materials, blogs, his books etc. This was inline with my conclusions and hence I plan to stick with what he has already invented.

Current Situation: I have just now finished 3rd week of Arthur's base conditioning phase. I am left with effectively 14 more weeks before the event and I plan to squeeze in as much as conditioning and hill workouts as possible to improve my timings. I also plan to share the learnings from my training with fellow Indian athelets as the level of fitness is very poor compared to other countries all over the world.

Mileage this week: 43 miles so far.
Run on 7th Oct : 12.5 miles in 2:15:32 @ 10:49 min/mile pace.

I just have to drop this by 2 mins/mile to achieve my target :) This seems like an enormous task, but I plan to stick to the plan and be patient with sub-4 in mind. I hope that with support from wife and friends (running and non-runnings ones), I am able to give my 100% in this activity.

Future Plans: My plan is to start a fresh cycle after a month of easy running after SCMM event. This time I will follow the whole rigorous cycle of base + hill and repeat it to time the speed workout and sharpening as per the next marathon event.