The National Half Marathon [03/20/2010]

So it's D-day. Madhura made us delicious linguine pasta dinner. That along with the 'CocoCori' chicken....sslluurrpp!
We had a good night's sleep. Woke up at 4:30am. There was special metro service to take the 12,000 odd runner to the RFK stadium. It was quite a sight! All the metro stations on the Orange line were FULL of runners. Electrifying, to say the least. We stuck a conversation with the ladies behind us about my Fivefingers. Got to read "Born to Run". They were mentioning about Barefoot Ted. Have heard of him...have to read up on him. A lot of runners asked me about my Fivefingers.
So well...we reach the stadium in time to check in our bag, warm up and stretch out. The starting line probably serpentined back to maybe a quarter of a mile! We decided to stand by the 9:43 pace marker. The race started off at 7:00 on the dot. We did not hit the start line till 7:09. That probably gives you an idea how long the startup line was. :-)
It was such an enthusiastic crowd. And supporters. The placards and banners were funny too. "Where are you all going?", "Hurry up, we need to get back to bed", Washingtonians bringing out their banjos, guitars, dogs, and cheering hats on. It was quite a sight! Will search for some photos and post them here as I find them. Madhura and I started off at our usual pace and then I took off when we got to the Constitution Avenue ...mile 3. I saw her next at the finish line.
About the race...it was very very well organized. Water and powerade and GU gel shots were at every 2nd mile. And well stocked too. The only complaint I had, and I a lot of other runners say this too...was that we got the impression that this course was pretty flat. Supposedly the 'fastest looped course in the country'. Now my target time was 2:00. When I heard of the fastest looped course, etc, etc, I expected to complete in 1:50 or so. But well. It was anything but flat! And the inclines were at the end of the course! Gosh! My achilles tendons were screaming! (Fivefingers affect?)

The other mistake I made was to suck on the gel at mile 7. Madhura had told me that the right time would be ~9-10M. Well...I did suck one in the second one at mile 11 though. Not sure if that was a good idea.
Slight cramps near mile 12. (Not bad at all!). Deep breathing settled that. Good part was that I got in the 'zone' quite often this time. I didn't have the need for music. That came as a surprise. All good. I also remembered the running technique I devised last week and I think it helped.

Couldn't wait to get to the finish line though. Thank God I wasn't in the left turn for the full runners. I knew I had to get to the finish line before 9:09 and my watch said 9:07 just when I could see the finish line. That final spurt of adrenaline sure did me good. 2:00:49! Very happy. Shaved off a couple minutes from the GCF marathon.

 Picked up my medal, a banana, half a bagel and couple bottles of Powerade. Stood in line for an hour for a God-aweful massage!
Got back home and slept like a log for a couple of hours.
Overall, a very satisfying race. Especially when this winter wouldn't permit me to stick to my program.
Was checking out my last year's log and I realized that I had started the 10K walk-run program on June 15th last year. Not bad for 9 months of running, I must say. Should not get complacent though. This has helped channel my energy and bring about a lot of positive outlook.

Tempo Run stopped by the pit bull! [03/16/2010]

Haven't been keeping my journal for a few days now. The only reason being...I haven't been running! The reason? Rain! daayyuummm! Went to Madhura's gym (Washington Sports Club) as a guest on Sunday. The place is awesome! The treadmills there have individual televisions with cable. What the fuck! You plug in your headphones in and tune any channel and ... run away! Sweet! I could tolerate the treadmill for 4M! Not bad at all! 4M = 40min.
So there you go. Took the day off yesterday (rain!). Today was an awesome day! Temperatures up to 60s (15 deg cel). And bright and sunny. Did some grocery shopping and got out there for a quick 3miler. Did the 3.2M in 25min (pace of 7.5!!!!!!) wowie! Okay...here's what I found. I changed my breathing a tad to suck more air through my mouth starting slow and suddenly sucking in. Changed my stride to a tad longer. Swung arms to aid in that. Made sure that I did not land on the heels though. I hope I remember this though. Looks like it worked. No pains. At about mile 2, I had the urge to slow down, but kept going at it.
At the end of the run by the mobile homes at the end of the road, a pit bull sprung out! There are plenty of dogs around. But all of them are chained. Now this fella, got out and was within 2 feet of me. Teeth bared! And barking away to glory. I could see his fangs clearly. Strangely I wasn't scared though. Stopped and held my ground. Somehow inspite of his barking and growling, he reminded me of Maggy. Funny! Wonder what I would have done were he to pounce at me. His owner called him back and scolded him. That ended my run right there.




Meals: Cereal + Soy Milk for breakfast, Quiznos medium turkey sub + coke + a bag of chips for lunch, 4 chicken wings + lentil soup (which I got from Wegman's made from scratch and took foorreeevvveeerrr) + beer for dinner.
I think I am going to do similar 3-4milers couple more times this week before the BIG ONE this weekend. Going to work on the new technique.

Short & Easy runs [03/09/2010] & [03/11/2010]

I guess the schedule I had chalked out in preparation for the half marathon is out the window. :-(
The weather really isn't co-operating. But this past week has been awesome! Spring is in the air. Things seem bright. But this week my excuse seems to be work related. Quite a work week. So the routine seems to have been sacrificed. Though I did get out on Tuesday just to get work out of my head.
But half way in and I turned back after what I started as an interval run. Was out of breath really quick. The weather seems to be warming up. But it still is dark by 7pm; which makes me wary running on the state highway.




I dont remember the meals. Nothing out of the ordinary, as far as I remember.
Though I do remember I got a few stitches. Need to keep working on core strength.

Got back home Thursday evening and when I weighed myself, I seem to have lost 5lbs. Not that I care. Just a note.
For some reason I was not up to it. But its going to be a wet weekend. Don't know if we will be able to make the long run this time. So had to keep at it. Decided to do an easy 3-4M. And this time we decided to take Maggy along. First time after a LONG time did I get a chance to shed the base layer and put on a pair of shorts! YAY! Lots of runners out there on the roads. Very invigorating to see that. We didn't care for the time. Chitchatted quite a lot during the run. Maggy was on cloud 9. (she always is when we are all together). And she was covered in dirt all over by the time we got home. The snow's melting and it doesn't take too long for her to turn black from white. Reminds me to get her a haircut. Her hair's really grown. And with the weather turning warm, she will be comfy too.




Meals: Cereal + Soy milk for breakfast, Chicken Fajita wrap from Romano's for lunch and साम्बार + rice + a little icecream + beer for dinner.

Long run [03/06/2010]

I couldn't post the 5M run that I went for on my own Thursday evening. Madhura thought the roads were still not clear and dry enough for her. Now I was not ready to take that. So I chalked out my route and headed out. Took quite a winded route. Felt great! LOVE the Fivefingers!





Don't remember the meals I had on Thursday. Remember it was cauliflower & mixed veggies रस्सा.

The Saturday long run was awesome! Finally got to the W&OD trail at Vienna. What a run! Beautiful day. Temperatures in ~40s. Went out east for 4.5M and back. The trail was just great! Right amounts of elevations and great running conditions. Did the ~9M in 1hr25min.
 




Meals: 2eggs + tea for breakfast, Hogged on Chipotle's Burrito Bol like a famished savage soon after the run for lunch, leftover tomato rice for dinner while watching 'Orphan' movie on DVD. Very fulfilling day.

February 2010 summary

Unable to run the yesterday. It was drizzling slightly. Though I got all ready, warmed up and stepped outside, I just didn't feel like it was a good idea. So got back in and did some सूर्य नमस्कारs.
Monthly summary report for February 2010:

Total distance: 42.32 miles

Total time: 7:06:00 min

Average pace was ~10min/mile. Need to incorporate a little more interval training to get that number better.

Half marathon coming up in couple of weeks. 

Easy run [03/01/2010]

The whole of last week was totally wasted! The snow, the cold and the lethargy. I just didn't feel like running. The home hunting had us consumed on the weekend. Inspite of all that, we did attempt to do some running. Drove all the way to Vienna to the W&OD trail. But it was not clean at all. Slushy snow. Just did not feel like it. Surprisingly, Madhura was for it. I just did not feel it was safe enough. One slip and it would have been easy to get hurt real bad. I just didn't feel like it.
So well, today was the start of week 5. Just 2 more weeks after this and then the half-marathon. Took it easy. Was still lethargic. I just did not feel like running today either. I almost turned back. But then decided to overcome the mental barrier. Decided to take it reaaalll easy. And surprisingly, instead of slowing down, I did the 3.27M in 30mins! Cool! A lesson to be learnt.




Meals: Cereal+milk+McD's breakfast burrito from $1 menu + coffee for breakfast, Chicken Fajita wrap + coke + few fried chips for lunch, eggplant भरित + रोटी + beer for dinner.