Today I had decided to break the mental barrier of 21K. Actually after the FM of SCMM in January, I have not run greater than 21K in 2013. Reasons or excuses are many, but I finally decided that I have to break the mental barrier today. I just finished the Nashik Sula Half marathon on 17 Nov and decided to use it as a launch platform to start pushing my mileage more. I know it is too late for SCMM and I will have to be happy running only a HM here. Actually, I have registered for a HM and I had thought that in Nov, I shall change over to FM, since I was told that it is possible to do that. HM gets over much faster than FM. After 17 Nov HM, I ran on Wednesday(20 Nov) in PDP along with our running group of Savio D'Souza( 800s and 300s ). I did 7 of the 800s and then ran one fast 400m. I was feeling fit.
22Nov 13 ( 2hr run). On Friday, I decided to run a 2 hr run, whatever distance it is. Being a working day, I wanted to start at 0500hrs and finish by 0700hrs and then do my stretching and be ready to leave for office by 0800hrs. My alarm was set wrongly and I woke up at 0430hrs instead of 0400 hrs. Yes, I need 1hr to comfortably do my routine and set myself up for the run. Nevertheless, I was ready to go by 0500 hrs. I did my dynamic stretches and warming up for about 10 minutes and about 05 12 I started my run from NOFRA( Navy Nagar). The RC church bus stand entry gate is the only gate open at this time. All other gates open at 0600hrs. So I ran from there, in front of INHS Ashvini Hospital and then took the colaba causeway road and joined the Cuffe Parade road in front of Badhwar park. I then went straight to Marine Drive near Air India Building. I saw my watch here, I had clocked 26 minutes to reach here, This distance is about 4.6 kms, so I was clocking about 5.65 min/km at this point. I ran till end of marine drive and turned around at the Amul Hoarding ( 4.1 kms from Air India Building). I crossed the runners who start in the mornings of Friday from Chaupatti/ baulNath) and then on the return leg, I crossed the entire group which starts running at 0600hrs from NCPA. I was running well and effortlessly and crossing distances very fast. I decided to go all the way upto the end at NCPA and then turn around and go through INOX (Nariman Point) to the cuffe parade road. This would increase the mileage a bit more. I did that and I reached back to my starting point at NOFRA in front of my house in 1hr and 40 min( approx. 18K @5.55min/km). I continued to run for another 20-22 minutes and then I did my stretching and was just in time to get into my car pool which leaves at dot 0800hrs.
It is strange, that though I like running in the Group, but now I have started enjoying my solo runs. It is a kind of meditation for me, I am in touch with myself and try to understand my body. I feel every part of myself while running, I keep telling myself to relax while running and observe my shoulders, my legs, quadriceps, hamstrings etc. and keep relaxing them while I run. I intend making running absolutely natural and easy like talking or walking. This is possible only when I am alone, because in a group, while you just don't realise the distance and can keep chatting while running, you can miss out on the signs that your body keeps giving you. A couple of times, I have had to back off almost for a week due to a long run when I didn't realise that I was hurting myself because I just ran in a group without observing myself. You also feel tempted to push in more mileage much beyond the 10% rule and increase the risk of injury. Yes I enjoy observing good runners( effortless runners) and their gait and try to emulate them so as to improve my gait.
24 Nov 13( 25K run). The previous day was an official picnic and I had participated in a Tug of war competition and had pulled my left lower back muscle. Whenever I bend in that side, I face pain. So I iced it, applied MOOV and slept hoping like hell that it would become alright the next morning. I kept the alarm at 0400hrs and slept early at 2100hrs itself. The alarm rang at 0400hrs, I dismissed it and continued to sleep and then when I woke up , it was 0426 hrs already. But I was feeling better, the pain was very slight. I got onto my preparations and was ready to leave by 0540hrs. I packed up a change of T shirt and bananas and Energy drink and drove to NCPA. Nowadays, you do not get parking space due to the large number of runners ( in thousands) and I had to park quite far off .
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