New Blog Location

I am (finally) moving to my own domain, and my own blog. Follow me at:

http://pradnya.me

Support SaiG for his Fund Raising for LLS

A very good friend of mine, SaiG, is training with Team in Training with the goal of running the Seattle marathon in June 2009. In addition, his goal is to raise $3900 for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This is a cause that is extremely dear to my heart. Even today, when I hear of someone training with TNT and raising funds for LLS, it strikes a deep chord.

Please support SaiG in his missionto help fund research on leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and hodgkin's disease, and to help support the patients of these diseases. Together, let's help fund and find cures for these terrible diseases..

Back to the Swimming Pool

After a long hiatus, it feels great to be back in action- this time on the swimming front. And that too, in a beautiful 50m swimming pool in IIT-M. I am already managing a distance of 800m-1km. I even tried a few rounds of butterfly the last time around. I wish Bangalore had a more accessible swimming pool.

Back In Action

I ran on the treadmill today after a long time- almost a year. It felt great to be back on track. Although my timing has deteriorated significantly, my stamina has not. I was able to run/walk a total of 3 miles in just under 45 mins. My goal is to get it down to 36 mins by the end of the summer. A stretch goal is to get it down to 33 mins. And maybe get to 6 miles as well. Hopefully this is the start of a good running routine for me back here in India.

I realized that one of the reasons I could get back to my running form after such a long break, is my long standing inclination to do any exercise (whether swimming or running) in a slow and steady manner, with a focus on endurance. Even today if I go swimming, I am sure I will be able to swim 1000m with at most 4-5 short breaks. On the other hand, I am terrible at sprints- running or swimming. There's just no way I will be able to beat 10 min miles for even a 3 mile run.

Irrespective of my timing, I am just glad that I have gotten back into the running routine again.

Support Randy in his Gladiator Run in Rome

It will be two years this May, since the day I signed up for Team In Training's marathon training program. There were plenty of reasons I signed up that day for the TNT program. The primary one being- The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's mission to fund research on leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, with the aim of curing these terrible diseases.

One point that I have not yet mentioned in this blog was the fact that I had actually trained for the marathon in honor of that one special person, who was unfortunately diagnosed of leukemia a few years back. I was shattered when I first heard this news. She had to undergo some very tough chemotherapy sessions last year, and has been doing fine since then. Here's wishing from the bottom of my heart that she stays healthy for the longest of times.

To this day, whenever I see someone training with TNT and running for the leukemia and lymphoma cause, I tend to re-live in my heart, every moment of my marathon run, as well as my marathon training experience. I especially feel for the honorees, in particular that special honoree, in whose honor I had trained and run the marathon.

When I came in this morning, I saw an email from Randy about his Gladiator run. It brought back a lot of memories and emotions from my marathon days. Coincidentally, today I happened to wear my marathon finisher's medal (necklace from Tiffany's) for the first time since I came to India.

Please support Randy in his mission to complete the Rome marathon and to raise funds for TNT and The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. He is running for a very noble cause; I hope I will get another chance to do the same.

Return to India

This blog has stayed dormant for some time (almost a year now). I will revive the blog soon once I start a regular running routine in India.

Meanwhile, I have been thinking of writing some posts about my move to India, as well as some other random thoughts. So as to not divert from my marathon/running theme on this blog, I will write the non-running and non-fitness posts on my other general blog: http://pradnya-blog.blogspot.com/

Nike Women's Marathon 2006: Pictures

Nike Women's Marathon 2006

Nike Women's Marathon 2006: My First Full-Marathon Experience

On a wonderful Sunday morning in October, in the beautiful city of San Francisco, I finished my first ever marathon run. The marathon was as much a test of my physical strength, as it was a test of my mental resolve. It was by no means easy; but I managed to hang in there, and to complete what I had set out to do, 5 months ago.

Along with 15000 other participants, less than 1% of which were men, I started my run at 7AM in the morning, from Union Square. The air was heavy with excitement and anticipation at the prospect of running the 26.2 (or 13.1) miles. The elite runners had already taken off at 6:40AM. As the gun went off at 7AM, we were started off in batches. I was in the 3rd batch, and got to the start line about 8 minutes after the first set of runners took off.

Like most others, I started off at a very easy pace- about a minute or so slower than my regular pace. We had been advised by our coaches to start easy and pick up the pace as we feel comfortable. This gave me the opportunity to observe what the crowd was upto. A lot of people had "I am running for..." banners on the t-shirts, in support of the honorees for whom they were running this marathon. All of us on the Peninsula Team of TNT were also wearing a note with pictures and names of the 5 honorees of our team. There were a few people with "It's my birthday today" banners on their t-shirts, and people were wishing them as they ran by.

In about 3-4 miles, I had eased into a steady pace. I was now taking short 1 minute walking breaks after running at a good pace for about 6 minutes. From Union Square, we ran towards Embarcadero along Post, Montgomery and Washington. After hitting Embarcadero, we took a left and kept going along the bay, past Fisherman's Wharf and Fort Mason, towards the Presidio. As we ran up a small hill, we got an amazing view of the Golden Gate bridge. The sun was shining down on the bridge, and there was fog beneath the bridge. It almost looked like the bridge was hanging in mid-air, supported only by clouds. It was a very pretty sight, and many runners took out their cameras at that point. I really missed not having a camera with me at that time.

We then ran along Marina Blvd, where I ran into TJ, our TNT team manager- one of the most encouraging and enthusiastic persons I have ever met. She did a great job of cheering me on. After we passed Crissy Field, we hit our first major uphill on the route. It was just about 6 miles into the marathon, and I was feeling quite fresh at that point. I decided to run up the hill at a slightly slower pace than normal. I managed to do that fine enough, with a couple of short walking breaks, and I was quite pleased with myself. The downhill that followed was even more fun, and I managed to conquer it in no time. Then came the next uphill, and I did fine on this one too. The final big downhill, near the Cliff House was very pretty- we were running down towards the sea, and then along the Great Highway.

The route then went through the Golden Gate park, where we reached our half way mark. I was quite happy with my pace- just about a minute slower than my regular pace- which I though was good, considering that I had already done the two major hills on the route. And I felt I had enough energy to run the second half of the marathon. I thought it was time I picked up my pace a bit. But then I ran into a hurdle. After mile 15, my quadriceps started hurting a lot. My confidence, which had held strong until now, started withering with every step that I took. I was sure I will be able to run another 3 miles with that pain. But another 11 miles! I started getting scared at the prospect of not finishing the marathon.

I then started walking for more time than the usual 1 minute recovery. I was analyzing what went wrong and realized that my over-enthusiasm in tackling the hills in the first half of the marathon might now be adversely affecting me. But I was quite sure I was prepared for the hills, and I was frustrated with my quads for giving up on me. I then decided to ignore the pain in the quads, and started a run-walk routine in the ratio 4:1, to give my quads enough time to recover. By then it was almost mile 18, and we were out of Golden Gate park, and had also done most of the Great Highway. We now had to encircle Lake Merced, before heading back down the Great Highway towards the finish line at Golden Gate park.

My quads had finally decided to cooperate, and I was now feeling fine. Then another roadblock came along, which took me even more by surprise. This time, it was my foot that started getting a burning feeling. Every step I took felt as if I was running barefoot on hot coal. This was something that I had not yet experienced on any of my long runs. I had always thought that my ankle was my weakest link. My knees and calf muscles also gave me some trouble once in a while. But this was something new. It would have been okay if I had to go just another mile or two. But another 6 miles seemed like another marathon to go.

I knew it was a complete mind game at this point. I just had to tolerate the pain and keep running. So I started a 2:1 running routine. I was running for 2 minutes and walking for 1 minute. Not the best of paces, but it kept me going. At this point, there were just two phrases occupying my mind. Coach Terry, our head coach always says: "Focus on finishing strong." And coach Mary had concluded the pre-race party with the advice: "Relentless forward motion." That was all I could think of. In the 6 hours and 17 minutes and 30 seconds that I was running the marathon, I did not ever stop. I was either walking or running all the time. I drank water and gatorade while walking and filled my water bottle while walking. I knew my destination, and I kept going. And it was not just me. All around me, I saw the determination in everyone's eyes, inspite of the physical pain.

Between miles 22 and 23, apart from my feet, all other muscles started aching as well. To my surprise, I got quite emotional at that point. The agony of every step caused me to review the 5 months of training in my mind. In addition, I was touched at the thought of the tremendous encouragement and support of the entire TNT group, including the coaches, the mentors, the captains, as well as that of friends and family- in particular, Niket. And most importantly the thought of the honorees, the fund raising, and the cause, which were the primary reason I was doing the marathon, was quite moving. I was quite overwhelmed with all these thoughts, and had tears in my eyes as I ran that mile. I knew at this point that I would complete the marathon.

In the last three miles, I tried to maintain my 2:1 ratio, but even that started proving difficult, and I ended up walking more and more. This is when the TNT and spectator support came in extremely handy. People whom I had never seen before, and probably will never see again in my life, were cheering me on. They called out my name (I had written it on my tshirt) and showered words of encouragement. The Peninsula team TNT mentors, captains and coaches were excellent in their support. Throughout the course, they had stood by the side of the road and cheered the team members on. In addition, during the last few miles, some of them even ran with me for a few miles.

When I started my last mile, I knew I wanted to finish strong. I therefore decided that come what may, I am going to run the entire mile. Then I ran into Jocelyn, a captain on our team. Throughout the season, during our long runs, she would to mention to the coaches that whenever I see her (or any other TNT volunteer) on the course, I gave a big smile to them. This time, all I could manage was a very tiny smile; I was just too tired, and wanted to get done. She then asked me whether I would like some company, and started running with me. I was so glad to see the support. When I had just about 0.5 miles to go, our head coach, Terry joined me in my run for about a minute and congratulated me on making it to the finish. I took a couple of very short walking breaks during the last mile. But once I saw the finish line in the distance, I wanted to cross it soon, and kept running. Jocelyn asked me whether anyone was at the finish line to cheer me in, and I said yes, my husband will be around.

I was concentrating on running, when suddenly Jocelyn asked me what my husband looks like. I was surprised at the question. I looked towards the side of the road, to see Niket with a camera in his hand, ready to take a picture. I gave the best smile I could! Then Niket started running with me, and Jocelyn decided to go back and cheer other team members in.

At the finish line, Niket wanted to cross it with me, but the officials pulled him out. So I crossed the finish line, exactly 6 hours, 17 minutes and 30 seconds after I had crossed the start line. I received a beautiful Tiffany and Co.'s finishers necklace, as well as the Nike Women's Marathon 2006 finishers tshirt. I am very happy that I completed the marathon. It was a tough and challenging experience- one that I will cherish throughout life.

Nike Women's Marathon 2006: I Did It!

On a beautiful Sunday, on 22nd October 2006, I finished my first marathon. I ran (and walked) all of the whopping distance of 26.2 miles. I completed the run in 6:17:30. That's a very long time to keep running/walking, and I could very well feel it in my sore muscles. But the muscles are also evidence of the challenges I faced and managed to overcome in the race. I will put up a much more detailed post about the marathon later. But I am very happy to say that I am a "marathon finisher" now. I even received a beautiful Tiffany and Co. Finisher Necklace, as well as a Nike Women's Marathon Finisher's t-shirt.

Thank You!

This has been a long overdue post. To all the donors to my fund-raiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and to all supporters of my marathon training: a big thank you. Thanks to your support I have managed to far exceed my fund-raising goal. In addition, my employer matched a big chunk of the money I raised. I am quite happy and proud of the collective fund raising effort that we all managed. More details can be found at: My Fundraising Webpage.

Thanks to all the support I received from everyone, I have managed to stick through the training phase. Now I am anxiously awaiting the final event this Sunday. I am feeling quite confident, and slightly nervous at the same time. The marathon promises to be a fun, yet challenging event. Look up more details on the event at: The Nike Marathon.

Once again, thank you everyone.

Weeks Seventeen, Eighteen and Nineteen: Taper

After the 20 mile run, we officially entered the taper phase of the marathon training. This phase meant that we were to run not more than 4-6 miles on our buddy runs and the on-your-own runs. Recovery was much longer this time, as the 20 mile run on the hilly roads in San Francisco did take its toll on us. But the taper gave us a good chance to recover and regain strength for the final run this weekend.

During the taper, we had one organized long run of 12 miles on the Sawyer Camp trail. Everyone in the group took the run lightly, as it was "just 12 miles", compared to the 20 mile run that we did two weeks prior to that. However, during the run, when everyone started getting tired, we realized that 12 miles is not that less of a distance! But it does seem more of a fun distance, than the full marathon, which seems much more rigorous.

Overall, the taper has been good on the body, and I am now getting set for the final run this Sunday.

Week Sixteen: 20 mile run in San Francisco

I am very happy to report that I completed an extremely beautiful and extremely challenging 20 mile run in San Francisco this Saturday (23rd Sept).

My mentor had organized carpools for the run, and thankfully I did not have to drive all the way to San Francisco. Driving to SF was not a problem; driving back after a tiring 20 mile run, definitely would have been tough. On the way to SF, I had asked my mentor what she thought of the difficulty of this run, compared to the previous one. She said this one should be simpler as the route is not as hilly as Woodside. Well, she was miles away from the truth.

We ran miles 1-11 of the final Nike Women's Marathon course, in both directions. The course itself is really beautiful, taking us through the beautiful parts of San Francisco. We started off at the Presidio, around mile 5.5 of the final course. First we ran until mile 1 of the course along Marina Blvd and Embarcadero. We turned back at the Ferry bldg and ran back to the starting point. By this time we had done 9 miles of the route, and I was still feeling fresh and energetic.

Then came the second loop on the course, which was much more challenging. This time, we ran in the other direction on Marina Blvd, towards Golden Gate bridge, and then up Lincoln Blvd, and then a couple of other roads, before hitting the Great Highway. We first ran up a big uphill, which was manageable as it was between miles 10 and 11 on this particular route, when I was not as tired. Apart from that, we had two big downhills, and one simple enough uphill. All the time that I was running down the two hills, I was thinking- I have to run up those hills on the way back!

The way back was therefore the killer part of the route. We had already run 14.5 miles, and the first stretch we had to tackle was the huge uphill on the Great Highway, towards the Cliff House and a bit further towards Lincoln park. It was just too difficult to run up that one, and I decided to walk that one out. After hitting the top of the hill, I ran downhill without any problems. Then came the second big uphill, and again I walked up that one. I was thinking- I am just so tired, how am I ever going to finish this run? But once I saw the top of the hill, I was just so happy, that I finished the last 1.5 miles of the route with a well-paced run. All my team-mates cheered me in at the finish line, and all three coaches personally came up to me and congratulated me on the run. They were doing that to everyone, so no big deal; but it did feel nice to be personally congratulated by them.

The two uphill walks resulted in degrading my time a lot, and I was quite disappointed with myself. As I was stretching out, I remarked about that to one of the coaches, and she reminded me that fortunately we don't have to run back up the two hills on the final course. That was such a relief!

Between this run and the run at Lake Merced, we have now covered most of the final Nike course. I am sure I can handle it just fine. With the four months of training so far, and as long as I manage to stay injury-free for the next four weeks, I am now quite confident about finishing the marathon. I am very much looking forward to the event day...

Week Fifteen

This was a relatively relaxed week. I ran 5 miles on the treadmill, after work, on Thursday (buddy run day). I was planning to run with Rohit and a bunch of others at the Sawyer Camp trail on Sunday. However, I still had a lot of unpacking to do, and therefore decided to run earlier. I ended up running 6 miles on the same trail, but on Saturday. This is a really beautiful trail, and I am sure I will go back and run on the trail even after I am done with the training. It is a flat trail and has quite a lot of tree cover, at least in the early parts of the trail. The best part is that these days, a 6 mile run seems so easy to do!

Now I am nervously awaiting tomorrow's long run- the 20 mile run. This is the longest run of the season, and the last big one before the final event. As I had mentioned earlier, this is a preview of the final course, and promises to be a fun, challenging run.

Weeks Thirteen and Fourteen: 18 mile run in Woodside

The highlight of this weekend was that I successfully completed a wonderful 18-mile run at Woodside on 9th September, 2006. The course itself was very beautiful, with lots of hills, including a steep hill at the end of the course. We ran in Woodside, and then north along 280, then along Edgewood park and back along 280, and finished up with a loop in Woodside. I managed to finish this run quite well, and felt much better at the end of it, compared to the 16 mile run. My pace did slow down by almost one minute per mile, but I have learnt to expect that on these long, hilly runs. I am very happy that I managed to "finish strong" as our coach puts it.

After the run, I managed to ice my sore muscles, and rest for a while. Niket was in town, and we spent the rest of Saturday packing up stuff for my move to a new apartment on Sunday. The move was followed by cleaning up the old apartment and then unpacking in the new apartment. Overall, it was a very hectic weekend; hence the delay in posting this update.

I was pleased to see that the recovery time after the long runs is getting shorter, and I am feeling much stronger after the run. My right ankle turns out to be the weakest link, and I need to ice it often to get it in shape for the next workout. As long as it cools down in time, I am fine with bearing some extra pain for a day or two.

This week is recovery week for us, with 5-7 miles buddy runs and 6-8 miles runs on the weekend. Next week will be the final long run of the season- a 20 mile run on the final Nike marathon course in San Francisco.

Weeks Eleven and Twelve: 16 mile run

These two weeks were very difficult training-wise. I took a long time to recover from the previous 14-mile run, and I was travelling Thursday-Monday of the following week. So I ended up doing the buddy run, but skipping my OYO run on the weekend. In addition, the travel and the jet-setting caused me to catch a cold, cough and fever. I therefore had to miss the track workout and cardio workout for the week just before the 16 mile run. In fact, until the day before the run, I had some fever and I was not sure whether I will be able to go for the run. Thankfully, on the day of the long run, I felt about 80-90% fit, and I decided to go for it.

The route was the second half of the Nike marathon- in San Francisco. It involved some gentle hills around Lake Merced, on the Great Highway, and in Golden Gate Park. It was a beautiful route, although I was in no mood to enjoy it. I was completely focussed on completing the run. I managed to do so, although I was extremely extremely exhausted after the run. In fact, I had to walk more than half of a mile between miles 14 and 15. After that, I gathered enough energy to finish up the run with a slow jog. I took more time than normal to finish this run. I was just glad that I finished without injuring myself.

The most surprising part was that although all kinds of muscles were aching a lot on Saturday and Sunday, I was back in full form on Monday. This was an unexpectedly fast recovery. On Tuesday, at track we had hill repeats, and by then I was perfectly fine, even on the hilly terrain. I am so happy to be back in action after a week of anxiety.

Moving forward, we have a relatively relaxed week, with buddy runs and on-your-own runs of 5-6 miles. The next weekend run is the toughest run of the training season- at Woodside. It is a hilly course, and we are running 18 miles. The hill repeats will definitely help in handling that run.

Team in Training is Awesome

Every week, our Team in Training (TNT) coaches put up a "coaches' message" on the website. Today's message was simply too good. It was so apt, that I was wondering whether these guys had the ability to read my mind.

The first couple of sentences were something to the effect (paraphrased): While celebrating your successfully completed run on Saturday, many of you might be wondering about your goal to run a marathon. You must be thinking, "Although I managed to complete this challenging run, it was really hard. My aches and pains are really painful, and I feel tired. And this is just 14 miles. How am I going to complete the entire 26.2 miles?"

They then went on to empasize that from here on, mental strength is very important to complete the long runs, in addition to the physical strength. They talked about planning your strategy, including the walking breaks, fluid and calorie intake, etc. And to finish up the message, they put the whole training program in perspective by noting that this is a one day event that we are choosing to participate in. The honored patients, for whom we are all doing this, do not have a choice and their painful battles with leukemia or lymphoma last much longer than any of our training runs or seasons. How true!

The message was very well put. The TNT coaches are really experienced, and have been amazingly encouraging and supportive, while pushing us further and further to our limits. They have a great team of captains and mentors to help them. Each mentor has about 7-8 mentees. Although the mentors are the first point of contact, the captains and coaches pay close attention to your fitness level and muscle aches and injuries. The level of personal attention came as a big surprise to me. They make it a point to cheer in every single participant at the finish line on the long runs. The training schedule is very well planned in great detail. Just follow the schedule and the coaches' advice, and you will be fine.

I would very highly recommend anyone planning to train for a marathon to train with TNT. They know their job very well. They are the best!

Week Ten: Done with a 14-miler

On Saturday, August 12th, I successfully completed a 14-mile run. This was a simple, flat route along the Bay Trail. It was not too windy that morning. We started from Redwood Shores and ran north toward San Francisco along the bay. We passed under San Mateo bridge, and turned around about a mile before Coyote Point Recreational Area in San Mateo. This is the first time I ran more than the half marathon distance, and I am quite happy about it.

Although I completed the run in just 5 minutes more than my predicted regular time, it wasn't one of my best runs. I think I did not time my calorie intake well during the run, and felt really tired between miles 11 and 13. I walked more than normal on that stretch. But once I regained my energy, I managed to finish the last mile with a good pace and a smiling face.

However, the strain on the body is slowly surfacing with a few aches and pains. My left hamstrings are a bit tight, and I will need to follow a regular stretching routine to get them back to normal. I also have a slight pain in the right ankle, which I have been icing all weekend. Hopefully that will be back to normal as well. I am already feeling much better today (Monday), compared to Saturday. These muscle aches are scary. I can definitely feel that I am pushing myself more and more. Hopefully I will manage to get till the 26.2 mile mark. I am quite determined to do that.

Week Nine

This was a week of solo runs. Due to some misunderstanding on my part, I landed up for the buddy run at the wrong time. After waiting for 10 mins for the others to show up, I ran 4 miles on Stevens Creek , starting at Whisman park. We had done this trail on the first long run, and on the previous week's buddy run as well.

For the weekend on-your-own run, I wanted to do the Sawyer camp trail once again, hence decided to not go for the planned runs on Saturday. Instead, I headed out to that trail on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, due to some biking race, the trail was closed until noon. I therefore headed back to the Palo Alto baylands trail near my house.

I had decided to do 6 miles this time. By the time I started running, it was already late morning. The wind on the bay was quite strong by then and it offered me a good resistance. This was the first time I was running in such windy conditions. Initially I was trying to maintain my usual pace, but that started draining my energy more than usual. I realized that I needed to do something about it. I started slowing down my pace a bit until I was running more comfortably. That helped me conserve energy, and on the way back, assisted by the windy conditions, I managed to maintain my regular average pace for the entire run.

The 14 mile run tomorrow promises to pose similar challenges. This run is along the bay on a flat, but windy trail. I better get used to the winds, as I am sure San Francisco will be quite windy. I am getting slightly anxious about tomorrow's run, as this is the first time I will run more than the half marathon distance. Let's see how that goes.

In action at the Stanford Dish run

CIMG2456, originally uploaded by Maui Runner.

Believe it or not, this photograph was clicked on my run between miles 10 and 11. This was on the Alpine Road part of the trail, way after the Stanford Dish. I am amazed to see that I am still smiling. It's definitely thanks to the beautiful downhill towards the end of the run.

PS: This is the first time I am posting from flickr.

Week Eight: The Hill Conquest

Consider a 12-mile run. Consider a major part of the run on a hill. And consider the hill to be the Stanford Dish. You will need all the energy you can muster to complete the run. And that's what I did this Saturday, 29th July. I conquered the Stanford Dish trail!

The Stanford Dish trail is a beautiful trail, offering nice views of the Stanford and Palo Alto area. We started from the back side of the trail (from Alpine Road) and went all the way up to the dish. If you remember to look back while running up the hill, it offers a nice view of Portola valley. After we hit the dish, we took a right turn at the fork and ran along some rolling hills, before running downhill all the way to the front entrance at Junipero Serra Blvd. We saw some nice views of the Stanford campus on this trail. We then took the even more steeper trail up to the dish. If I thought the first uphill was bad, this one was much worse. I had to walk up a couple of steep slopes. After we hit the dish, we once again ran along the trail that overlooks Portola valley- this time downhill, back to the Alpine Road entrance that we started from.

By this time, we must have done about 7 miles. After this, we ran west along Alpine road. I was quite tired on this stretch, and was not quite sure why. I had tried my best to not "attack" the hills, but "massage" them, as our coach had put it. That should have left me with enough energy to finish off with a decent pace on the flat road. After running about a mile or so, I realized that all this while, Alpine road has had a steady upslope. No wonder! After I hit the turn-around point, I was quite charged up because I realized that the rest of the trail was a steady downhill, and I managed to finish up with a big smile on my face. I now have the Stanford Dish trail under my belt.

My timing for this run degraded a bit, but that was to be expected, considering the hilly course. More importantly, I managed to finish the run.

Week Seven

I was crazy busy at work this week. Effectively, I did not manage to catch any of the scheduled buddy runs. Instead, I ran 5 miles on a treadmill at the office gym from 8:30 to 9:30 in the night, after a long day's work. I was dead tired by the end of it!

The weekend run was an on-your-own run. Since I was at Niket's place over the weekend, and since it was an extremely short trip, I did not manage to run while over there. Instead I ran 6 miles on a treadmill in the office gym on the following Monday, in the evening, after work.

Week Six: The First Double Digit Run

This weekend (16th July) was my first ever double-digit (in miles) run.

This 10 mile run was on the Coastside Trail at the beautiful Half Moon Bay. We started from Pillar Point Harbor, and ran 5 miles south along the beach, and back. Rather than trying to map this trail, here's a link to a brochure containing a map of the trail. The Bay Area hiker has a wonderful description of a part of the trail, along with some nice pictures.

All along the trail, we were running with the ocean on one side. Anyone who has been to Highway 1 in California, can attest to the beauty of the coastal route. We passed by quite a few beaches along the trail, as well as a number of campgrounds. It was breakfast time for most people in the campsites, which was enough to encourage us to finish the run quickly. After the run, the entire group headed to a restaurant at Pillar Point Harbor for a well-earned brunch.

I was once again pleased that I managed to maintain my 10K pace. I will have to see how long that will continue though. I did feel much more tired this time around, compared to the 8 mile run. As my mentor had organized carpools, I was glad I did not have to drive back after the run.

Our next long run, two weeks from now, will be a 12-mile run, on a relatively hilly terrain. This promises to be a challenging run, on account of the distance, as well as the terrain. I will need to focus more on pacing myself on this run. I'll keep everyone posted on the status of the run.

Week Five

This week, I did a 3-mile buddy run with Niket on the Stevens Creek trail. On Sunday, I did a 5-mile on-your-own run on the treadmill. There was no track workout this week on account of the July 4th weekend, for which Niket and I headed out to Crater Lake. Overall, it was a relatively relaxed week.

Week Four: A Barrier is Broken

This was the best training week so far, for a couple of reasons.

First- I broke a long-standing barrier in terms of the longest distance I had ever run at a stretch- which was 6 miles until now. On July 1st, I ran 8 miles for the first time in my life. I was so excited and so happy to reach that milestone. Two years ago, on 4th July 2004, I had reached the 6 mile distance while running at the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta. After that, I had run 6 miles quite a few times, but did not ever manage to cross that barrier. I crossed the barrier this time, with Niket and the folks from TNT cheering me at the finish line.

This run was on the Sawyer Camp trail, an extremely beautiful trail along the Crystal Springs Lake. Here's the approximate 8-mile route that I ran; I cannot plot it exactly due to the tree cover. This trail has markers every half mile, and is therfore an excellent trail to pace yourself. I was quite pleased to see that my pace for this 8 mile run was exactly the same as my 5K or 10K pace. This was the perfect start to the long weekend.

The other good part about this week's training was the dynamic drills on Tuesday (27th June). We did all kinds of drills such as heel and toe walking, skip running, side-ways running, lunges, butt kicks, high knees and so on. Each one of these exercised a different muscle in the body, gearing it up for the longer distances. However, this also resulted in my walking around slowly the entire next day, as well as putting in a huge amount of effort while getting up from and sitting down on a chair. The good thing is, I survived :-)

Overall, a great training week.

Week Three

The third week was a great one.

For the first time in my life, I found myself getting up at 5:15 in the morning on a weekday (Thursday), and heading out of the house at 6:00AM. This was for the weekly buddy run. We were supposed to run anywhere between 3 and 5 miles that day, and most of us chose to do about 4 miles. Here's the 4.4 mile route that I ran that day.

The weekend run (on 24th) was supposed a 4-6 miles on-your-own run. But my mentor organized a group run, and I ended up running with 4 others. The course was the same as the buddy run, and by now I had become quite familiar with it. It's a very nice course to run on, especially early in the morning at 7:30 on a Saturday! My mentor kept me company for the first half of the run, after which I ran alone. The 4.4 miles were up quickly, and then I had the entire weekend to enjoy myself.

We were told to take things a bit light this weekend as we were gearing up for the long run the next weekend. I am looking forward to the 8 mile run!

Second Week

The second week unfortunately happened to be more of an on-my-own-runs week.

I had to skip the buddy run on 15th as I had signed up for a 5K race a long time back. Here's the 3.1 mile route that we ran for the race. I had to run up a hill on this route; and how tiring it was! It had been a long time since I had done any hill running, and it gave me a good preview of what I should prepare for, considering that the Nike marathon course is in San Francisco- a very hilly place.

I was also unable to make it to the long run that weekend. Instead, I ran a 6 mile route on Monday (19th) morning. It was almost the same route that the team had done on the Saturday that I missed. It was slightly boring to run alone, compared to the previous weekend, when I had some company. Also, it was quite hot when I ran, and I was quite tired for the rest of the day at work.

Overall, the second week was a slightly tiring week, but I completed it successfully!

Training Schedule

I will give a brief overview of the training schedule that I am following, as a Team In Training (TNT) participant, in preparation for the marathon. This is basically a five-days-a-week schedule, out of which three days are with the TNT folks.

We start with a track workout every Tuesday evening. This workout currently primarily consists of stretching exercises and core strength exercises, inter-leaved with running laps around the track. This hour and a half long workout usually is enough to make you feel half-dead, thanks to the squats and pushups and other deadly exercises, that I have never paid much attention to, until now. Once the core exercises become routine, we will concentrate more on tempo runs and such. Following the workouts, we usually have various information sessions such as the gear clinic, nutrition clinic, injury clinic, etc., which are really helpful.

Every Thursday we have what is called as the buddy run. This mid-week run is a short run, which starts at 2-4 miles, and builds up very slowly (a mile or two a month) until the event week. Various mentors in TNT lead runs at different location at different times of the day, and we can join any run that is convenient to us. Alternatively, we can run the distance at our own convenience.

And then comes the big one- the long run on Saturday mornings. This is the run where we build up the miles- approximately two miles every two weeks. We started with 2-6 miles (depending on prior running experience) the first weekend, and will gradually build up the miles upto the event month. The entire TNT group meets once in two weekends for the long run. The in-between weekends are supposed to be on-your-own runs, which usually cut-back a bit from the previous weekend's mileage. The idea is to get some rest before the next long run.

In addition, we are required to throw in a couple of days of cross training and stretching during the remaining days of the week. This could be cycling, swimming, elliptical, stair-master, etc.- ideally something that does not strain the knees too much. Friday is a recommended off-day, to give the body some rest before the long run on Saturdays.

Overall, it's a pretty tough schedule, in preparation for a pretty tough event. It's a lot of fun though, and I am looking forward to every week of the schedule, for the next four months.

The First Step

It's been a long time since my first post; well, I was busy running! On Saturday, 10th June, I completed my first "long run" for the marathon training. It was a lot of fun, with a lot of promising training sessions to follow.

I ran 5 miles the very first day! And it was a great 5 miles at that. I had started off with the intention of doing 4 miles (we were given a choice of 2, 4, or 6 miles). Here's the originally planned 4 mile route that we were supposed to run. However, our group took a left when joining the Steven's Creek trail from Whisman Park, instead of a right, and eventually ended up running 1 mile extra.

Surprisingly, none of us felt the burden of the additional mile. The beauty of running with such a huge group is that you are bound to find someone who runs at exactly the same pace as you, no matter how fast or slow you are. Sure enough, I found a couple of ladies who ran with me for all the 5 miles of the trail. We were chatting all the way, and before we realized it, we were done with the loop!

Honestly speaking, one of the ladies- a mentor in TNT, and who must be in her 50s, and who has run one marathon and three half marathons- was doing most of the talking. I was amazed at her fitness level. Here I was, trying to catch my breath between the running and the little talking that I was doing, and she seemed so much more at ease. I really wish that when I am her age, I can be as fit as her.

The next long run will be a 6 mile run. I will write in more detail about the training schedule that we are supposed to follow until the marathon, in future posts.

The Journey Begins...

For ages, people have been trying to get me to start blogging. Although I read and keep up with quite a few blogs, I never found enough motivation to actually start writing a blog. Add to this the fact that my writing style isn't that great, and I had a recipe for disaster.

Last week, I finally found the one compelling reason I had been looking for, in order to start a blog. I attended a meeting organized by Team In Training (TNT), which is a program for training athletes for endurance sports. I went there with the thought that maybe it was time I considered registering with some marathon training group- something I have been wanting to do for a long time, but never gathered enough courage to get into.

The meeting changed everything. In exchange for the training, TNT asks all participants to raise funds for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The society's mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, and myeloma. During the meeting, they introduced a number of "honorees" who have been battling some form of blood cancer, who have faced innumerable sessions of drugs, chemo etc., and in whose honor we will be running the marathon.

One honoree very aptly put it (paraphrase): "The darkest statement most of you would have been told in life is- You need to train for marathon or a triathlon; or You have lost your job; or something similar. The darkest statement I have been told (at age 19) is- You are going to die soon."

That statement hit home. I am determined to run the Nike Women's Marathon for this young girl and for many more like her.

The target is 26.2 miles and $2500. Although, in reality, the target is much beyond those two simple numbers. This blog will track my journey down this challenging path.