Intro

This blog as might be apparent from the title has to do with running, biking and basically other outdoor individualistic sports, sometimes extreme, such as rock climbing . But don't be surprised if you find articles on work, personal life, music and even philosophy, this blog is an exception in this aspect in the blogosphere of running blogs and I am trying to revamp the blog to make it more runner friendly. You might want to look at the sidebar titled 'categorised', which as is obvious, categorizes my posts into different areas of interest.
The other thing that might interest many people is a section on 'running videos' and 'general videos' on the side bar, which I keep updating now and then.
I plan to bring in more posts on running and biking, with some added colour, so as to make them 'complete'. That's about it for now.
As a post-note, I have run a half-marathon, but I am yet to attempt a marathon, which through some concerted effort and time should happen in the future, but that ofcourse is not the culmination of this blog, it would on the contrary be something to jumpstart this blog onto new vistas.




Sunday, September 25, 2005

Going long

I hadn't run a long run since atleast a month.And all of my longruns so far haven't gone beyond 16 kms. So I decided all of a sudden yesterday, that I am going to do 20kms, no matter what. The 'no matter what' was responsible for my not so good experience during the run...

My normal long run of 16km is twice the road race(held every april) route. The road race route passes through some prominent landmarks in iit campus like football, hockey fields; computer centre(cc), Hospital, Vanavani, Gate, Gc and ends in the stadium. So for yesterday's run, I added another 10 laps in the stadium to make it a 20km run.
I usually carry two 250 ml bottles(the ones you get to flick on an IA flight) during the long run. This time I decided to mix some glucose in the water...which didn't turn out too good.
I started off well at around 9 min/mile pace and was comfortable until I completed 8kms(i.e. when I reached the stadium). From this point I was struggling, with my left calf really tight, for atleast another 10 mins, after which I felt a bit strong again till the 16km mark(stadium again).
My pace during the run so far had varied from 8min/mile to 12 min/mile depending on how I felt. But as I started off the remaining 10 laps of my run, I felt very weak and tired. I was just pushing myself, counting the number of laps remaining, trying to shake off the fatigue. My head started wobbling and my form had degraded, I was more shuffling than jogging. Since I was sipping glucose water rather than water, I felt a desire to drink pure water..I even imagined the coolness of water rushing from a spring somewhere in the hills...The thirst was becoming unbearable and I had to finish the run quick.
Somewhere around the 7th lap, I thought how could people be insane enoguh to run a marathon, when here, I am struggling to complete a 20 km run. I sort of decided that I wouldn't attempt a marathon or distances beyond the marathon, atleast not in the near future. Soon, there were only two laps remaining and I slowly picked up the pace and the last lap was run really fast..I just wanted to get it done. I was really relieved that I had accomplished the goal I had set for yesterday. It had taken me 1hr 59 mins to do it. The day before yesterday, I had done some speed workout and that might have made yesterday's run, a tad more miserable. After finishing the run and having cooled down, I headed to the hostel and I drank 1.5 litres of water straight, had my grub and slept soundly for a good 10 hrs.

6 comments:

NaiKutti said...

good work karthik... keep it going... that was a good time too... i prefer electral to glucose... glucose sometimes gets suffocating... but nothing beats water with once in a while sip of electral...

Pradeep Kuttuva said...

karthik..

good one machi...keep it going...

i stick to water, tho man...and i go a lot slower...

Arbit said...

@naikutti..yes glucose is not my cup of tea...I might try electrol next long run..

@cecila..Thanks and good luck to you too..

@Madurai..Tell me wen u come to chennai..we can fix up a long one..

The Thinking Runner said...

A tip for the long runs: make sure they're no more than one-third of your weekly mileage. For example, if you did a 20K run last weekend, you should've run atleast 40K during the week. If the long runs are disproportionate to weekday mileage, their quality will suffer.

Arbit said...

Oh good funda...I seem to have run 40k inc. the long-run :)

Arbit said...

@kalai..may be you shud give it a try :)

Kennenisa Bekele with the WR

Robbie Mcewen and steve o'grady - The 'Nudge'