I am training for a marathon again. I mean, its spreadsheet time. Though I haven't yet registered for the race. Though I have ignored emails from friends suggesting travel/acco plans to race venue (Hyderabad, if you must know).
The logic of my marathon training is a simple one. First the left hand side column is populated. How old am I? What historical injuries will I bring to the start line? Is the weather any comfort to humans (or any flora/fauna for that matter)? Excuses, you may say. Most important things in the world, next to guilt, which I consume as a major food group.
Next starts the browsing and analysing of the running folk-lore. The McMillan. The Galloway. The Murakami (useful tips from him that help left hand side column things a lot, especially the aging funda). I obsessively determine my 'expected finish time' and correlate it to last year's race standings. And thus depress myself immensely, at the get go.
Synthesis of all information and excuses and the scheduling of runs is up next. I have a simple excel WS marked out with stuff. This year I am at any rate logging all my runs and workouts and swims. Would use another sheet for the next few months, thats all.
I am aiming to add in a bit of speed-work this time around. Alternate weeks on the track. Yassos or Mile repeats; or at least 100m sprints/Tabata sessions. The latter are much easier for me than the former, but I suppose I could up the intensity and be somewhere in between in terms of difficulty. We'll see. The knees, ankles, and back health will determine that.
The past week was an experiment on what I call 'core tightness.' Might sound super stupid I warn. Of late, I have been running about 3 days a week (2 short, 1 long), swimming 1-2 times a week (crappily), and indulging in some species of core workout (usually p90x) 1-2 times a week. I mix it up fairly haphazardly based on morning mood but on average this is it.
I have been eating fairly badly. Mostly fried stuff like Murukku and Beetroot chips from Chennai Chips. I don't overeat so thats not a problem. I eat lot of veggies, so thats not an issue either. But the Murukku, Thattai, Chips, Boondi type stuff are still an enemy. Somehow I am reluctant to totally clean up my act here. I rationalise saying its 'not too much'
So the experiment this week was to run my 'pants off' as the case might be. Avoid any 'mat work' - no core synergistics, no insanity, no swimming even (which is just as well as the pool is ridiculously crowded). I ran everyday Sun-Thu. I was supposed to get out and run a bit on Friday as well, and then test behavior in long run today.
The experiment failed. I had to take yesterday off, first of all. My tempo run on Thursday (a long tempo - 6 miles - tough) was not great. The weather kicked my ass. Work and other commitments kicked my ass. I slept in. Never mind, I told myself. Rest is good. Lets bend the long run over.
I woke up this morning with a start, 2 snoozes later. Did my thang & woke up child (for her swim lesson). Child went to the bathroom and we discovered she has loose motion. I KNOW its not a big deal okay? But its 5:15 am. I am alone. I am a mommy. I am an idiot. I told her to go back to sleep, switched on the ac.
I took off. Mind disturbed. Legs were not great. Never mind, I told myself. They will heat up. I pulled out a 9:20 first mile, then coaxed out a 8:53 mile 2. Then I let it all flow. I took to the track for a bit - about 3 miles - and had the satisfaction of overtaking all the old people there. I was pushing myself though. Never mind, I told myself.
The core felt bloated, not in the least bit tight. At any rate I got my period yesterday so the experiment has to be repeated again for sure. Everything is all bloaty and weird at this time anyhow, run or coresyn, hardly matters, I would think.
I got out of the track and to the road. Lost in the ipod. The garmin died an ignominious death. Two dogs barked at me. Thankfully I was faster than them plus threatened to punch them. So they held back. On and on I went. Weather. Child. Legs. Back. Thirst. Blood blister. Oh well. I turned back.
Guess I did okay. No idea if my pace was good (it was decently good the first 10k, this I know). But I hung in there for nearly 2 hours. A few ticks more than last weeks long run. It has been a reasonably high mileage week. My left column is ready (add blood blister). New shoes! New worksheet! New everything! Hyderabad, here we go.
The logic of my marathon training is a simple one. First the left hand side column is populated. How old am I? What historical injuries will I bring to the start line? Is the weather any comfort to humans (or any flora/fauna for that matter)? Excuses, you may say. Most important things in the world, next to guilt, which I consume as a major food group.
Next starts the browsing and analysing of the running folk-lore. The McMillan. The Galloway. The Murakami (useful tips from him that help left hand side column things a lot, especially the aging funda). I obsessively determine my 'expected finish time' and correlate it to last year's race standings. And thus depress myself immensely, at the get go.
Synthesis of all information and excuses and the scheduling of runs is up next. I have a simple excel WS marked out with stuff. This year I am at any rate logging all my runs and workouts and swims. Would use another sheet for the next few months, thats all.
I am aiming to add in a bit of speed-work this time around. Alternate weeks on the track. Yassos or Mile repeats; or at least 100m sprints/Tabata sessions. The latter are much easier for me than the former, but I suppose I could up the intensity and be somewhere in between in terms of difficulty. We'll see. The knees, ankles, and back health will determine that.
The past week was an experiment on what I call 'core tightness.' Might sound super stupid I warn. Of late, I have been running about 3 days a week (2 short, 1 long), swimming 1-2 times a week (crappily), and indulging in some species of core workout (usually p90x) 1-2 times a week. I mix it up fairly haphazardly based on morning mood but on average this is it.
I have been eating fairly badly. Mostly fried stuff like Murukku and Beetroot chips from Chennai Chips. I don't overeat so thats not a problem. I eat lot of veggies, so thats not an issue either. But the Murukku, Thattai, Chips, Boondi type stuff are still an enemy. Somehow I am reluctant to totally clean up my act here. I rationalise saying its 'not too much'
So the experiment this week was to run my 'pants off' as the case might be. Avoid any 'mat work' - no core synergistics, no insanity, no swimming even (which is just as well as the pool is ridiculously crowded). I ran everyday Sun-Thu. I was supposed to get out and run a bit on Friday as well, and then test behavior in long run today.
The experiment failed. I had to take yesterday off, first of all. My tempo run on Thursday (a long tempo - 6 miles - tough) was not great. The weather kicked my ass. Work and other commitments kicked my ass. I slept in. Never mind, I told myself. Rest is good. Lets bend the long run over.
I woke up this morning with a start, 2 snoozes later. Did my thang & woke up child (for her swim lesson). Child went to the bathroom and we discovered she has loose motion. I KNOW its not a big deal okay? But its 5:15 am. I am alone. I am a mommy. I am an idiot. I told her to go back to sleep, switched on the ac.
I took off. Mind disturbed. Legs were not great. Never mind, I told myself. They will heat up. I pulled out a 9:20 first mile, then coaxed out a 8:53 mile 2. Then I let it all flow. I took to the track for a bit - about 3 miles - and had the satisfaction of overtaking all the old people there. I was pushing myself though. Never mind, I told myself.
The core felt bloated, not in the least bit tight. At any rate I got my period yesterday so the experiment has to be repeated again for sure. Everything is all bloaty and weird at this time anyhow, run or coresyn, hardly matters, I would think.
I got out of the track and to the road. Lost in the ipod. The garmin died an ignominious death. Two dogs barked at me. Thankfully I was faster than them plus threatened to punch them. So they held back. On and on I went. Weather. Child. Legs. Back. Thirst. Blood blister. Oh well. I turned back.
Guess I did okay. No idea if my pace was good (it was decently good the first 10k, this I know). But I hung in there for nearly 2 hours. A few ticks more than last weeks long run. It has been a reasonably high mileage week. My left column is ready (add blood blister). New shoes! New worksheet! New everything! Hyderabad, here we go.
2 comments:
> Would use another sheet for the
> next few months, thats all.
What, you have some undergrad ghost writing your posts for you now?
"Would use"?
Did you actually use that in a sentence?
I would disown you, if it weren't for the beer and the potential quizzing partner.
What are undergrads? Are they some type of bot. I don't own any. So thats me and me alone. You should disown me. So there.
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