Sunday 20 May 2012

Happiness is... Even splits?

My hair is all nice smelling and loose and just washed today. I am feeling the right mixture of happy and tired and sleepy and content. The weather is terrible but I don't really care, not today, not yet. Last night was rocky, with the monster breathing fire onto my face (she has a blocked nose); the ac being switched off (refer blocked nose); and just-not-enough-room despite King Sized Ness of bed. But still.

I woke up to the alarm, rather reluctantly, I admit. I eased myself out from between the snoring Lochans. They look so alike its alarming sometimes. I feel left out. Jealous. But I make jokes. "What are you planning on starting your own species?" I ask them. I crawled out today smiling at that clever joke.

My running buddy for the day (week) reached a few minutes early, making me forego the vaselining (!) of toes. But what the hell. Today was my 'Poisonous Pink Sports Bra' as the child calls it. Purple Nike shirt. The very popular Nike Tempo Track Shorts (Women). Aside from the Vibrams, I was poster Nike ad person in motion.

At any rate thanks to the humidity, all of the above (yes, even the shoes) were soaking wet at the end of the run. This doesn't bode well for the rest of the summer of running, or as good advertisement for Nike's Drifit technology, sure, but what the hell. I feel pretty awesome for having gotten my long run out of the way.

So, the agenda seemed simple, on paper. Earlier in the week, we had run an interval workout together. As we were jogging to the track as warm-up, we were discussing goal paces. "9 minutes per mile average" he said. I was like "Oh Wow" I cannot sustain that for more than 6 miles. Max. I said. "Lets see" said he, ominously.

We parted ways, after I did that interval workout (I did decently, clocking sub-8 min miles throughout), but that doesn't mean much. My main struggle is really after an hour and half of running. I am good (sort of) till that point of time. & This was just 6 total miles of running including warm-up/cool down. So.

Out of kindness of his heart, Mr. Quizzer (lets call him that), said, "lets go for a 2:10 half marathon on Saturday if you want." "I want" I replied. I can manage a 2:10 HM. But my strategy for it would have been very different than the one he had in mind!

We started up the Garmins and head off. He made me slow down almost immediately. I am famous for the stupidity of 'starting too fast' We hit the miles steadily at goal times after that. I was pretty sure that this would come back and bite me later. I tire usually by the tenth mile and find myself slowing down for sure. The way I deal is by having a few minutes in the bank by running faster in the earlier miles.

But this even splits thing was so awesome. I was talking throughout, almost. I shut up once in a while to conserve and concentrate, but not for too long. Before I knew it, we were at Mile 11 with just two more to go. "I can run for twenty minutes" I told myself. "Lets have some fun" said he. "No thanks" I replied, pansying out.

Soon enough we were in my favourite stretch of the campus, a nearly straight one with no traffic, lined on both sides with trees. We found another runner ahead of us, moving slow. "Lets reel him in" I know that guy, and felt a bit bad, but what the hell. Reeled him in.

"Okay Kenny we are done" High fives. 2:08:57 Which means we apparently saved 1 minute and 3 seconds! My garmin is a bit sluggish so it showed the distance as a bit less than the regulation 13.1 miles but the golden rule of social runners insists that we go with his device. (Mine always loses in this rule, idiotic thing from Hongkong).

Seriously, the even splits thing is awesome. If there is one thing I hate, its looking upon my deterioration towards the end of my long runs. Where I seem to just fall apart like a house of cards. In this one, I hit each of the 21 kilometers, from beginning to end, in 6:05-6:20  minutes. And each mile at an average of 10 mins. I might even have a Goal Marathon Pace now!

Happiness. 

2 comments:

Dee said...

could you please let me know where to get a good sports bra for running in Chennai ??

Preeti Aghalayam aka kbpm said...

Deepa-My recommendations are thus:
1. Non-drifit - if you don't sweat too much this works well - Jockey - avl everywhere
2. Drifit & Similar - Nike store in Nungambakkam high road, Adidas store in Pondy Bazaar. I found a Puma in the TTK road Puma store long time ago but its uncertain.
I order some of them online in the US s'times, its not any cheaper though there is more choice. Write me if you need more gyaan!