Tough 9.5 miles tempo! Wednesday, Aug 31, 1:37, Shoreline Trail

Having missed the tracks yesterday because of a late meeting at work, I was keen on running today. The schedule mentioned 10 miles at tempo pace for Thursday. I decided to do them on Shoreline (La Avenida) trail today. The surprising part is this: these 10 miles were as tough to me as the long run (19 miles) last Saturday!! This is the route I took and it was actually only about 9.5 miles (the Google maps application underestimates a little because of having to do straight line approximations), to give it an average pace of just about 10 min/mile.

Why did this run feel so hard? I just felt less energetic today. I should have taken a powerbar at 5pm (I started the run at around 5.55pm). I had a very light lunch and then a powerbar at 3pm but I just did not have energy. I noticed it at the end of the first mile itself. Secondly, I started running tempo pace (8min/mile for me) a bit too soon... I did the first mile at slow pace but because the mile markers are only for about a 2 mile stretch around the La Avenida Trailhead, I started on my faster tempo pace immediately (I had planned to run at that pace for 2 miles). By this time I knew that this is not going to be a great run for me. I managed 8:15 for the first mile and about 4:07 for the next 1/2 mile before I saw my right shoelace untied. I had to stop after which I took a 1 minute walking break. Then I ran for another 3 minutes but the energy was missing. I needed to eat something. Luckily, I had brought a powerbar along with water in my fuel belt. I took half of the bar and drank one of the two bottles (of water) I had. This had occupied 3 minutes during which I was just walking. From then on I felt better, but I still had to improvise the tempo workout. I recalled an article that I had read (passed around on the TeamAsha mailing list sometime back) about how to insert tempo workout in a 9min run/1min walk schedule. I decided I needed walk breaks today. So, I shifted to a 3 min warm-up + 3 min tempo + 3 min cool-down + 1 min walk pattern. The warm-up and cool-downs were slower than the tempo pace by only 45-60s/mile. The 3 min tempo run in the middle was probably at around 9:00 min/mile pace. That guess seems to fit well with the overall average pace of 10 min/mile. I finished at around 7.55pm and it was getting dark. It was time to go home and eat!

Key learnings:

• Eat something (powerbar/banana) 1 hour before running
• Keep enough water (all 3 bottles in fuel belt filled) before starting to run
  

Monday, Aug 29, 8 miles, 1:26, Around the neighborhood

Training schedule had an "easy" 7-mile run prescription for today. I ended up running a bit longer and farther (~8 miles, including a 1 mile warmup. Note that these mile calculations are possible only because of SueAndPaul's pedometer application built on top of Google Maps). I was going really slow, esp. in the beginning. Overall, I did about a 10:50 pace which is pretty slow considering the fact that I did not do much walking (except a 1 minute walk at the halfway point). I made the big mistake of not using 'body glide' and also not carrying any water with me, so had to pay the price of both by the end of the run. Learnings are obvious!

Long run: 19 miles, 3:23, Oracle/San Mateo Trail

It was Saturday morning and time for yet another long run, in fact the longest run so far of my life. I was determined to be "clinical" (one of my own magic words that I have tried to use to myself, as instructed per Galloway's book). So, I woke up at 5.30am, ate a powerbar and made myself some coffee, then loitered around slowly (I am notoriously slow before a shower), changed and left apt at 6.25am to reach the trail (near Oracle) at 6.50am. This is the earliest I have ever reached at the trail. So far, so good.

After the ritualistic warmup mile with Sandeep Borle, and a ten minute stretch, Coach Char had announced that it was time to start the run. Soon, I found myself running with a face that I had seen before but never talked to. His name was Rajeev (no none of the coaches, the guy with the cap in the photo) and in the next few minutes what turned out made us be shocked in disbelief at the sheer coincidence. On coming Monday, we were supposed to be in a meeting together where I would be presenting something to him (he works for a potential customer company of our chip company, and I have architected something for which his feedback would be really useful). Surprised, we laughed and I went along the business of discussing with him what I was going to present anyway :-) And so passed the next one hour and 15 minutes! We had run about 6.5 miles together.

I was feeling good so I thanked Rajeev for the discussion and sped up a little. Unfortunately, I couldn't find someone of my pace to run with for the rest of my run and one of my "key learnings" from previous runs had not been put to use. However, at the halfway mark, I was feeling pretty good. I had done 1:45 (so, a 11min/mile avg pace) and the cool morning breeze by the San Francisco Bay had kept things easy. I was trying the PowerGel (GU) for the first time, and the first packet I took was of a pleasantly surprising Tangerine flavor which I loved.

I was determined to do a negative split. So, I sped up a little with the aim of trying to do an overall 10:30 pace. I continued to do a 9 minute run/1 minute walk and was feeling good, in fact unusually so. Then came the second-last water stop with only 5 miles to go. I took my next GU packet, which was of chocolate flavor. And much to my shock, I hated the taste (I normally like chocolate), but gulped it down with some water. However, the mistake I think I made in hindsight was that I spent too much time (2:45 to be precise) at the waterstop, fiddling around with the GU packet, and gulping it down with water. Restarting had become difficult and the last three miles seemed quite tough. In fact the last mile was really tough, but I think it was still okay if I compare with the last few miles of the previous 17-mile long run. However, all my thoughts of doing faster than 10:00 min/mile in the last three miles had evaoprated, as I was barely keeping 10:30 pace.

I finished in 3:23. It felt like one of the easier long runs. However, immediately after finishing, I felt such an acute pain in all of my back leg (Glutes included, for the first time, I should add). It was getting really tough when Manoj and Prasad mentioned that everybody is having it and I should keep walking. Walking for a few minutes and then light stretching indeed helped and I was feeling "fine" after about 20 minutes. It was time to go home :-)

At home, recovery happened relatively quickly. Grishu had been extra nice to me and made me some fresh orange juice and bread sandwiches. They disappeared quickly. I was glad that the run was over.

Key learnings:

• Do not spend too much time on the waterstops. Follow this plan from now on: before the waterstop, start walking, rip open the GU packet, take one or two swallows, then stop for a little bit at the water stop to wash it down, and grab another cup and start walking. Aim to not spend more than 1 minute at the water stop!
• Continue on the things that worked well: powerbar+coffee in the morning, slow running the first 6-7 miles (11min pace is good). Keep chatting for as long as possible with fellow runners.
  

Wednesday, Aug 24, 3 miles, 25 minutes, Westford, MA

So, here I was in Westford, MA, meeting up with some customers. I was struck by how different this other "silicon valley" seemed to be from "our" silicon valley. The one on the East Coast is so green! Driving through Route 495, it seemed like as if I was going to a National Park.

Anyhow, I had already missed my beloved (!) Tuesday tracks. It was Wednesday morning and I had had only 4 hours of sleep (blame it on the three hour time difference). Three two-hour meetings later, I was ready to fall asleep at around 5pm. However, thanks to Tessa (co-worker who was also on this trip and who plays on the Berkeley Rugby team) was enthusiastic about going running, and I strung along. Boy, that was a great decision in hindsight. We ran four laps around this pond called the "Grassy Pond" (and also went outside on the road). Running conditions were ideal, the woods were awesome and the temperature was around 60F. She ran fast in the first lap and I had to follow suit :-) I think we were doing 8 or 8:30 min/mile pace. This probably made up for some of the missed tracks. The best part is that I was energized after the run that I was able to enjoy the really nice dinner with all my co-workers who were on this trip before hitting the bed that night.

Monday, Aug 22, 10.5 miles, 1:46, Shoreline Trail

Having gone to Yosemite over the weekend, I had resolved to run longer on Monday (normally the day for easy runs). So, I hit the Shoreline trail at La Avenida at 6pm and set out after a mile long warm-up to 'my easy long run'. I started at about 11 min/mile pace and then settled into a 9:40 min/mile pace. I went farther than I had gone at anytime at Shoreline and was really enjoying the process of discovering new routes. I mentally decided to take a walk break at halfway point. One part of my mind was chiding me on having come later to the trail than ideal (I had thought of 5.30pm) as I was leaving for East Coast on a work related trip the next morning and had to pack.

As you can see on the map, I followed the Stevens Creek Trail (from La Avenida, which is off the bottom of the map), took a left towards the Mountain View Tidal Marsh, went past the BoatHouse, and took a right towards the Palo Alto Flood Basin. I turned around from somewhere there (it was about 52 minutes till then). I was feeling very very good at this time. I walked for a minute and then started running (a bit faster, as I had planned) back. However, by the time I finished, I was feeling a fair bit low. This continued the whole evening and may have been because of the fact that I really was not very enthusiastic about going on the East Coast business trip (it plays havoc with the running schedule and one's general routine) but I think it was more because of lowered Blood Sugar Level. This was a first hand demonstration to me of the importance of keeping the BSL at good levels throughout the run. This run was the first longish run where I was trying a fuel-belt and I kept myself hydrated during the run, but I should have put a sports drink in one of the bottles. A lesson learnt.

Key learnings:

• Keep BSL at good levels. Take a piece of powerbar or a sports drink after at most 1 hour even on practice runs.

Long run of Aug 20th skipped

Grishu and I decided to go to Yosemite over the weekend. I left with running shorts and shoes in my bag and grand plans in the mind about running through the Yosemite Valley, but ended up just being on bike for most of Saturday (next time you folks go there, rent bikes at the Curry Village Rental and inhale the beauty of Yosemite on wheels -- it is awesome!). We did a mild 4 mile flattish hike on the Mirror Lake Trail and worked our way up the rocks to be close to the Bridalveil Fall, but that was all the exercise that I did.

15x400m intervals: Easy!

Tony was incharge of Group 2 today. The drill of the day was to be 14 (or 16 if we felt good) 400m repeats with 60s recovery period in between the repeats. Tony, as is his wont, added variety to the lap repeats by making every 4th repeat faster than the others. So, while we were supposed to do 1:50 laps, the 4th repeat was to be done in 1:40, the 8th repeat was to be 1:35 and the 12th repeat was to be 1:30. My timings (to the best of my recollection) were: 1:50, 1:49, 1:50, 1:44, 1:50, 1:48, 1:48, 1:38, 1:48, 1:47, 1:46, 1:27, 1:47, 1:47, (1:10 + 0:31)

Well, I found today's lap repeats to be much easier than previous week's 5x1 mile repeats. It felt like I put in about 75% of my full effort, and could have done either 2-3 more repeats or could have done each repeat about 5 seconds faster (still too slow for Group 1 though which was doing 1:30 - 1:35 normally and 1:10-1:20 in their faster laps!).

Another interesting variation Tony made us do was that in the last lap we were supposed to jog for the first 200m and then go flat out and do a sprint in the next 200m! I think I did the second half of 200m in 31-32 seconds. Sprinting was nice as (come to think of it) we have now put some 200+ miles in the training program since April without ever doing a sprint!

17 miles, 3:04, Sawyer Camp Trail

The beautiful Sawyer Camp Trail was calling again, this time to do 17 miles. It is a 6 mile long trail one way so one has to go out and back, and then go out and back again for 2.5 miles to finish off the 17 miles. I did it in 3:04, including about 3 minutes of a bathroom break (as if that matters). So, it was a bit slow, but I was deliberately so. After the 7.55 mile long hilly run on Thursday, a wonderful 2 hrs of tennis ball cricket in the sun during a company picnic on Friday had left me sore in the back, shoulders and glutes in the morning of the Saturday run. So, I knew it was going to be tough.... In the end, I thought I finished reasonably strong.

I have been reading Galloway's book on marathon running (the one that came in our goody bags given to us by the wonderful Asha folks) the last few days and it talked a lot about managing your diet before and during the run. Inspired, I had gone to Trader-Joes to buy some energy bars last week. I managed to roll out of bed a bit earlier than usual (5.30 am) and ate one of the bars at around 5.45am. Then I idled around for half an hour, but finally changedand left for the trail at around 6.40am.

The sight of the trail made my eyes light up. The weather was perfect, probably about 55F and a bit cloudy. After a short warm-up and stretch later, we were all ready to roll on our personal journeys through the trail. I had decided to take it easy, and joined Manish, Chakri and Chetan for the first six miles, going at about 12 minutes per mile (this is about 2 minutes/mile slower than my average of the past runs), including about 1 minute of walk for every 9 minutes of run. Sharing jokes throughout those six miles just made it so easy. Thanks guys!

After the first six miles, I wanted to go a little bit faster though I was already feeling a little bit sore. Thankfully, I had Chetan's company for the next four miles or so. We continued our 1-minute walk breaks, which, even though the minute passes too quickly, just feel like they are a good thing. Coming to the 11 mile mark, I was feeling pretty strong. It was still cool and misty, reminding me of the half SF half marathon. Or may be it was just that the starting line (at 12 miles) was in sight... Once there, I took a small break, and went out again for the 2.5 miles round-trip to complete the remaining 5 miles. However, by the time about three miles were done, I was doing the countdown after every 0.5 mile. I wonder what portion of this behavior is truly caused by the condition of the body ...

After the run, I was pretty sore, much more so than in previous long runs. I think I will blame the cricket games the previous afternoon for that. It has been a tough day since the run too, as I am barely able to walk only slowly. But it is my upper body that is sore that I can not cough or laugh too much :-)

Key learnings:

• Rest on the day before the long run
• Go to the trail early to warm-up and stretch
• Try GU next time (this time I ate pieces of an energy bar throughout the run after the first 10 miles, as advised by Galloway's book, which actually worked out well).

7.55 miles, 1250 ft up, 95 minutes

Inspired my own earlier blog entry below, I decided to do something I had not done ever before in the what is now four month old training program -- that is to go for a weekday run in the morning! So, I got up at 5.35am with not too many thoughts about the alternatives I had at hand to getting up at that hour. I was determined you see... I had to reach Rancho San Antonio to start with the group at 6.15am.

It turned out to be a very nice, though somewhat strenuous, hilly run for about 7.55 miles at the beautiful Rancho San Antonio. Anil used this website (points 1,e,f,3,u,w,v,4,t,s,6,r,p,u,3,f,e) to calculate the distance we ran.

5x1 mile intervals: On Running and Nirvana

The interval workout on the Stanford tracks every Tuesday are probably even more difficult than the long runs. This time, it was bit of a sudden increase from 4x1 mile repeats from last Tuesday to 5x1 mile repeats. Or so it felt. This inspite of the increased recovery time to 3 minutes between the repeats. Anthony organized the Group-two-ers (my new group, I had to abandon Group#1 -- that elite group of fliers -- after my left leg shin pains). Time intervals did not turn out to be too bad: 7:38, 7:26, 7:18, 7:04, 7:22, but I was ready to give up after #4. Mile#5 was never to happen if it were not for the group, or Anthony.

That man - Anthony - is simply awesome. He inspires you and gets your best out. Sometimes I reflect late Tuesday or Wednesday about how I did my track workout. I wonder whether I could have put in a bit more effort. My answer has been usually "yes"! (Note: it never feels that way while being in the middle of them). But it was just not the case with yesterday's workout. Anthony took all the juice out of me. And he did it in a way that I can only be extremely thankful to him about. He shouted several times to me that "I could catch up to the leaders" in the last lap of mile#4 and I was indeed able to, with the gracious help from Aravind (who was leading along with Vignesh and Chandu, but actually slowed down just a bit, turned around to look behind at me, and stretched his hand back and out to make a gesture to me to speed up towards him). Thanks Aravind and Anthony!

The exhilaration that comes after the Tuesday workouts is an invaluable gift. While driving back from the tracks (a short 7 min drive for me), I was thinking about why the experience is so exhilarating. Yes, yes, I know about the endorphins... But I think it is quite a bit to do with the feeling of having participated in something really cool... something that we at this age don't do any more.... that is to just go for it without holding back and without thinking of all the reasons to hold back or not... to be simply free from brain's idle scheming and calculating (well absence of choice helps :-). Pardon me for the leap, but if this bit of freedom is so exhilarating, how happy "Nirvana" must be.... And what's the lesson? "Just go for it"!!

The following verse from the Buddhist text, Dhammapada, captures the instruction beautifully:

"Bhikshu, empty your boat! It will go faster."

(Bhikshu means monk)

Long run at Los Gatos Creek Trail (15.25 miles in 2:32)

It was supposed to be a 16 miler at Los Gatos Creek Trail... I finished it but later learnt that owing to a mistake in the mile-markers, I ran more like 15.25 miles or so. Boy, those 0.75 fewer miles certainly did not make their absence felt. On the whole, this run was in the lower twenty-five percentile of my runs (meaning I felt worse than average). This is in contrast to the 13.1 mile long first half of the half-marathon in San Francisco the Sunday earlier which was a total blast and where I was feeling strong in the last few miles. As a consolation, may be the hot weather had something to do with it, but it was probably more the fact that I felt a bit hungry by mile#9.

Other salient points for me during this run:

• Good: Ran 10.30min pace in the first 5-6 miles (.30min slower than my eventual pace)
• Good: Had a chance to run with stalwarts: Pradeep and Arun between mile#8 and mile#12. It is amazing how easily they make it seem.
• Bad: Finished alone, i.e., with no company. I had told myself even earlier to not do it, but it happened somehow here.

Recovery was normal, i.e., no after-effects on Sunday. Grishu (that surprised woman behind a tired runner) insisted on the delicious Bakery Buffet at Passage to India on El Camino Real. I resisted meekly and a good 1.5 hours of sleep after the lunch, I was ready to re-start the weekend.

Key learnings:

• Keep the pace low (10.30min/mile) for the first 6 miles.
• Do the 1 min walk (after every 9 min run) starting from the first mile itself.
• Keep Gu or powerbar with yourself (I have yet to decide which one)
• Eat breakfast 1 hr before running.
• Do not run the last five miles alone. Catch somebody who is about your pace (Vignesh, Karthik, Lily, pleeez look for me...)
• Get up from bed earlier so that you have time to warm up and stretch adequately and listen to Coach Tony before the start.

Blog wins!

Ok, so I have finally decided to jump in with my own blog. Ever since I started to train with TeamAsha for the Chicago Marathon on October 9th, I have always wanted to put up my experiences on a web page but never got around to it. The immediate reason for this now is that I have to raise sponsorship funds!

I thought for a long time about creating my own web page vs creating a blog. However, in the end blog won out because it just seems to be such a live, running commentary rather than a more static web page. Well, we will see how it goes.