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.