By the time I registered for adidas half marathon the road map was clear. Each week I had to increase a mile to reach 12 miles by the end of today and head up to next weeks half marathon (13.1 miles) with the confidence of being a 12 miler. Well, that was the plan and a neat one too. I did what I had to do on most weekends, which is to get out once and run just enough to overhaul the previous best (set on the previous week) by a mile. It worked for all the weeks except for two where the weekend just passed by and I did nothing. Both occasions are victims of my ill-timed and insensitive indulgence – Traveling and Masala Dosa respectively.
I think long distance runs are more a mental battle than it is a physical one. As I have observed that if one’s mind think that he/she can do it then the person invariably end up doing it irrespective of the person’s physical condition. However this is not the case the other way round. So if I had completed my 12 miles before the race day, it would have given that psychological edge to help me cover the same distance on the race-day thinking ‘I had done it before’. That edge is important especially for those times when some thoughts start questioning your ability to last the distance.
Last week at this point these two misses meant that I would fall short of my 12 mile target by 2 miles. I would do well to keep it at 2 miles if I complete a 10 miler this week. This also meant that on race day next week (9th of March) I would have to cross unknown territory stretching more than 3 miles instead of 1 mile as planned at first. Obviously overhauling one mile after 12 miles would be relatively easy as the drive to touch finish line will enable the paining legs to keep it up for one last mile. Well that was the plan, however the reality is 2 miles away from the plan and thats something to be dealt with on the race-day.
Well, its a 3 mile deficit only if (and only if) I finish that delayed 10 mile mark this weekend. To have a nice run on the weekend obviously the week leading into the weekend must go well. Ideally I plan for 3 visits to gym in a week and 2 days of rest. However this week was far from ideal. Work wise the week was expected to be tough and lived up to it (which was fine). I managed to go to gym only twice. On Tuesday I had a good run for 40 mins or so to complete a 8.5 km run. The next day I went to attend this new gym activity called LA Spin. Its a 30-45 mins tough cycling exercise with following traits – fast, tiring and fun. It was also one of the fastest way to burn more calories so could not resist it.
20 mins into the Spin program I had a painful calf muscle pull and I stopped peddling immediately. I removed my leg from the peddle and thought of leaving the class. As the way it has happened in the past my shear grit made me place my leg back on the peddle and continue. Yes, I did not push myself too much but just enough to be a good participant. After the class I slowly limped for some time and was able to get back to normal walking status after some time. I headed home without completing my customary 6 km run.
That calf muscle pull had some pain the next day too and I started to fear what would happen to the 10 miler I had to achieve that weekend. I stayed away from gym for next two days and hoped my leg would recover just enough to complete the run. Friday evening I was sensitive to all the subtle signals sent out by my leg and all it sounded as it was just not right. However I was hopeful.
Any normal Saturday morning is one for Cricket and this Saturday was no different especially because weather was almost perfect. Just to avoid all the distractions I wanted to go early and complete my run just before everyone arrives for cricket which is around 10:30 AM. However a nice movie (Tare Zamin Par) on Friday night meant that I slept at around 1:18 AM on Saturday and hence got up no earlier than 8:15 AM. After initial clean up activities I had a banana and small bowl of cornflakes. I left home at 9:30 AM. On my way down the steps and I was keen on what my legs indicated. The legs were just about ‘ok’ but not the Saturday morning perfect.
I reached the ground near to 10 AM and did some stretching. The plan was just to complete 10 mile and not to bother about time it takes but unfortunately I had got a watch with a stop watch. With how things had shaped up, I was also prepared for an eventual failure on that day on which case I planned to do a proper 10 miler the next day. My previous best distance of 9 miler (18 rounds on this ground) which took 1:30:04 sec (at approximate 10 mins per mile) achieved two weeks back meant that my today’s efforts would add another 10 mins to it if not more. So with the expectations set very clear I started off.
Time taken to run the distance ideally ’should’ never be criteria esp for a self trainer like me. However I am keen to run the distance at a good pace. when I had done the 9 miler last time around the plan was to stretch a bit and do a 10 miler in 90 mins at a rate of 9 mins per mile. However four unfortunate lace untying meant that I had to stop and hence I suffered huge loss to momentum coupled with my inability to keep 9 min/mile pace. So expectation for this 10 miler run was clearly stood at 10 min/mile if not worse. Also I took extra care tying the lace so that I dont have the same problems I had last time around.
I started off and the first mile took around 8 mins 35 sec and was along the expected lines as it was the first mile. Call it luck or stupidity but barely into my 2nd round I had to suffer my first lace untying. I could not believe it and was horribly frustrating. I had all the reasons to stop tie it and start again but I just marched on. I completed the second mile at around 17 mins 30 secs which was not expected (previous best for 2nd lap 18 mins 24 sec). 3rd mile was clocked at 26 mins 35 sec and that was again unexpected. At this point the run started to surprise me.
Surprises were followed by another shocks. Near to half way of 4th mile the other lace untied itself. Now I felt compelled to stop and tie down my both laces as it started to get really annoying. However again, I did not stop. To my astonishment I not only maintained 9 min/mile speed but also developed a healthy one minute lead over my initial target at mile 7. However the dream run was soon over and the pace stated to drop and dropped quite heavily between mile 7,8,9. So much was the pace drop that at the end of 9th mile I had overshot the 9 min/mile target by nearly 1 min. Though I did stretch myself on the 1oth mile but ended up with a final timing of 1:31:35. Yes, this was a time which I never expected to achieve.
After that run I drank an energy drink, sat for a while and played 2 games of interesting cricket where we all joined to play against Sapient folks. I don’t know how I mustered so much energy to play those games but It was good fun.
Well, next week is the big week when I will step into silver stone track to run that 13.1 mile run. Hope everything will fall in place.
