Musings of a runner: Notes on running

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.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Notes on running

Running at Tirumala: Since I was to visit this holy place along with my family, I wondered how it would be to do some running out there, taking in the fresh air of the hills plus the scenery. Well that's not the whole story; I started running with focus a week back (a half mary 12 weeks down the lane) and pumped in effort into 5 consecutive days last week. Taking a break on sunday, it was but natural to run on monday, wherever I was, the place happening to be tirumala.
Though my run was of a mere 15 minute duration, I encountered two steep and short hills and could very well feel the decreased levels of oxygen at this place - talk of an intro to altitude training!

416 miles non-stop:
Dean Karnazes ran 350 miles 'non-stop?', wrote a book and got great publicity. Pam Reed ran 300 miles and rivalled our ultramarathon man's feat.

Next in line is Christopher Calfee, a chesterfield county teacher who would attempt to run 416 miles 'non-stop' by running twice the distance(208 miles) of the blue-ridge relay race held in Virginia on september 8th and 9th!!
The relay which is run by a team consisting of a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 12 people is set on a tough course with lots of elevation changes..There are a lot of down hills on the course, hence the last 208 miles would be a really trying phase for calfee. Hence if Calfee manages to complete the 416 mile run, he would have pulled off a really wonderful and mean endurance stunt.

A point to note here is that what 'non-stop' really means is not clear..Does it mean the runner can't stop to pee or take food? Dean karnazes did stop to have food. Can you stop to stretch..again not clear..But the general idea is running steadily with minimal breaks.

Update:
My fitness level has improved at a decent pace since I started running again two weeks back. Though it would take atleast a month for me to get comfortable with running 45 - 60 minutes regularly as I used to previously(6 months back), the good news is my comfort level has increased from 12 minutes(2.5kms) of running to 20 minutes(4 kms) over the past 2 weeks.
Its amazing how your fitness can drop down drastically when you don't run for a long period of time. The come-back road is painful, especially if you can't hold form for even half of the distance you were previously comfortable with. However, the body isn't entirely alien to adaptations required for distance running and will learn quickly or so I hope.