Adios 2012!

Holly Molly!! Its been a while I updated this blog. Its time to reflect and say good bye to 2012 !!

Since this is mostly a training/racing blog I will focus only on those. I had few goals that I wanted to hit before the year ended

Things that went according to plan:

• Learn how to bike properly..how to use cleats (without falling), gears etc properly
• Finish a century ride
• run in minimalist shoes
• run a sub-2 hour half marathon--(bonus--1:50 half marathon)
• run a marathon 

Things that did not go according to plan:

• Learn how to swim
• Do a triathlon
• Run a sub-4 marathon

Miles on saddle and in shoes:

• Bike: 1,963.10 miles
• Run:  716.07 miles

I started the year with the hope of doing an olympic distance triathlon by the end of the year. Only caveat was I had never biked or swim before. While my biking and running has come a long way, my swimming hasn't. Somewhere in the middle of the year I dropped the ball on swimming out of fustration and focussed only on biking and running. If I ever want to do a triathlon I will need to put lot more effort in water and be really PATIENT. I think that is going to be key for 2013. Swimming has not come naturally to me and its going to take lot more work in the pool. The other goal that I did not hit was running a sub-4 marathon. To be honest, I had high hopes of nailing that one at MCM but that did not happen. I am hoping to nail that one this year either at Oakland Marathon or more realistically at Chicago marathon.

Few wonderful moments from 2012

Graduating batch of Team Asha-East Bay 2012. New runners and friends for life!!

Awesome training buddies--Samar and Vishal (Ramesh missing)--Always fun chasing them in training like in the picture!!

1:50 Half marathon at Norcal half--My first  half in 2011 took me 2:58 mins.--I have come a long way!!

I am marathoner !!

During tour of Napa 100 miler!!

We finished century ride together and formed new friendship over the year training for it!!

Amazing TVTC!! Awesome people and athletes!!

Final ride to Mt. Diablo to cap off a great year!!

Here's to 2012!! Happy new year and have a safe, healthy and prosperous  2013!!

2013 Race Schedule

After some discussion with master chei-fu, here are the races we have pen down for 2013:

Norcal half marathon (Feb 24)
Oakland Marathon (March 24)
LifeCycle Aids Ride (June 2-8)
Napa to Sonoma Wine Country Half Marathon (21st July)
Tour of Napa Century ride (middle of August)
Pac Grove Olympic Distance triathlon (Sept 13)
Chicago Marathon (Oct. 13)

I also plan to do a few local 5k's and 10k's here and there. One of the 5k's would be next Saturday. The goal is to run that race with all out effort to get the starting base

I am super excited for 2013. There are lot of unknown challenges. Can I go sub 1:50 at 13.1 ?? Can I go sub 4 at 26.2 and prove (to myself) that MCM was just a fluke?? Can I really bike 545 miles from SF to LA ??  What will it feel to run one of the largest marathon in world ?? Will I be ready for my first triathlon ??  I am looking forward to taking them on over the next year. But for now my goal is not worry about them and get back to consistent training starting Monday. Let's have another year of getting fitter, stronger and faster and defining new mental and physical limits !!

Marine Corps Marathon Race Report

Lets get done with this as soon as possible so that I can get it out of the system

Going into the race I was really happy with my preparations. I had put in work required to run my first full marathon. I had diligently followed the plan and did all the key sessions as required. I had also rested well in the week leading to the race. We (Me, Ramesh and Bharathi) arrived at DC on Friday late night. On Saturday we met up with the other Asha folks staying in the same hotel and we all went to the expo for the bib pick up. Rest of the Saturday was spent between resting at the hotel, watching ironman world championship on nbc, watching weather conditions and meeting an old college friend for dinner.

On Friday prediction was there might be high winds and heavy rain on race day late morning/early afternoon. But by Sunday morning predictions had changed and Sandy was only going show up late Sunday night or early Monday morning. There was really too much uncertainty around the timing. Irrespective of its timing I think I wasn't really too worried. It wasn't like I haven't run in rain or wind before. On Sunday while catching the race shuttle to the start location it was drizzling slightly. Nothing too scary. My plan was to wear my wind breaker as the second layer during the whole race. I had never run in that wind breaker before and since I have a very high sweat rate trying a new second layer in the race was bit scary for me. Usually, I don't like doing anything new in the race. By the race start time (7:55) we had the most awesome weather we could ask for the race. Cloudy, bit cold and no rain in sight. Seeing that I removed my second layer before going to the start line.

Going into the race my plan was simple. Follow the 4 hour pacer as long as possible and then if everything goes well then up the pace in the last 7-8 miles. This did seem pretty doable on a good day. So I lined up behind the 4 hour pacer. As soon as the horn went off, 30,000 runners all started with the single goal of conquering 26.2 miles. Honestly, I had never seen so many people running at the same time. It was packed but still there was enough room to run.

First 5-6 miles
As soon as the horn went off my single goal was to keep an eye on 4 hour pacer all the time.  As soon as we approached the first water stop (at around 2.25 miles) I had my first accident. I was running to the extreme right and the water stop was to the extreme left. Crossing over was a very risky affair with runners every where. The problem is you cannot abruptly stop or cut in as people are running (at high speed) behind you and you might end up colliding with them. Some how I managed to get to the other side by cutting in (pretty scary stuff) and once I was done as I was trying to go to the center I got tripped by the runner in front of me. I went down on my knees. Both my knees scratched against the road and started bleeding. I gathered myself and check if I could run. Luckly I was OK. I did have slight pain but nothing too alarming. By this time the 4 hour pacer had pulled up. I didn't wanted to loose him this early so I started the chase again. Luckly by mile 3 or 4 I caught with him. After mile 4, the same accident happened all over again. The guy behind me tripped me. Here I was again on my knees on the road. This was really getting scary for me. Luckly, I survived that fall too. At the next water stop I quickly regrouped myself, cleaned my knees and checked if I could run. There was certainly some discomfort with some bleeding from both the knees but then the pain was bearable so I decided to get back at my chase of 4 hour pacer.

Middle miles (6-17)
In all this early mile madness I had completely lost sight of 4 hour pacer. So for this middle miles my goal was simply to up my effort a bit per mile and try to bridge the gap. By mile 12 I was able to bridge the gap and I was running behind the 4 hour pacer. I had read the pace timing sheet that he provided and it said we would cross mile 13 in 1:59 and indeed we did cross it in 1:59. I was really feeling well at that point. There was some pain in the knees (because of the bruises) and slight pain in my quads which was unusual but still nothing alarming. Everything went smooth in those miles. I was keeping good pace and watching my footings very carefully. I was certain third fall would end my race :)

Torture miles (17-26.2)
This is where everything went south. At mile 17 water stop as soon as I started running again I got a striking pain in my left quad. Initially I thought it might be just one of those odd cramp which  would go away and I did not take it seriously (big mistake) and I continued pushing myself through the pain. Since the weather was cold it was even more important to stretch the quad. I did not. I saw my pace dropped for mile 18. By mile 19, my left quad was completely locked out. Moment I tried to run I would feel a striking pain as if someone had stabbed it. I kept trying but nothing was happening. I tried stretching it but i guess it was too late by then. By mile 19 I knew that my day was complete and I had accepted the fate that it was going to be a walkathon for the remaining miles. Every time I saw someone running past me I would try to hang on with them but eventual pain on quad was too much to bear. By mile 20 even my right quad started acting up. At mile 22 water stop I asked the volunteers to point me to the medical tent as a last chance effort if they can provide me some magic pills to revive my quads and I could run the remaining miles. They told me lot of people had similar issue and gave me two glass of warm chicken stew to up sodium intake. But that also did not help much. At that moment I really thought of quitting and staying in the medical tent but then I knew that would hurt me lot more when I wake up next day. I decided to stop worrying about time/pace etc and just soak in the environment and walk the remaining miles. At mile 25 I met up with Sudarshan (south bay runner) and he also had a horrible experience and was cramping from mile 16. We stayed together for sometime with some slow running but then I had to ask him to go ahead as I was barely able to walk straight without pain. Eventually, I crossed the finish line in 4:53. The highlight of the day was getting the salute and then a medal from the marine. That moment was worth all the hurt. During the expo they had a bus with the slogan "Earned   never given". I definitely had to earn that medal. 

In the hind sight I was disappointed. I had a good plan in place, I had trained for the day. I was really shocked and confused that how quickly things changed for me. There at mile 15-16 I was thinking of uping my pace and then mile 18-19 I was reduce to walking. I have never faced cramping issues in the training. I followed the same nutrition that I followed in all my long training runs. So I am still really confused what could have lead to that issue. May be I was over ambitious in my pace and ran too fast too early to have such a blow up towards the end or may be it was cumulative fatigue collected over the last few months with biking and running. I don't know. What I do know is that I am definitely looking forward to training harder and have a crack at 26.2 for one more time early next year. As far as this year is concerned this was the last race for me. So for now I just plan to take rest for 2-3 weeks to recover properly before getting back to biking/running/swimming (lessons)

Garmin file
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/238783071

Dreams...

I am 1 week away from flying to DC for MCM and I am already having goose bumps thinking about it. It has been an incredible last 1.5 years of my life and honestly I have never worked this hard for so long for any goal but then if you know me well I am a very stubborn character and I never and i mean never give up that easily..

I still remember that moment when my marathon dream was born. Last May, while going out for a lunch I saw a fit man running  on the road and in that moment I declared to my friends that I am also going to run a marathon. My friends laughed at me. They had every right to do it. I was 240 pounds. I had only heard the term marathon. I had no idea about the distance or training or fitness required to do it. For them it was one of those random comments that someone makes without meaning it. But that moment was very powerful for me. I don't know if it was the laughter of my friends or the look of joy on that person's face who was running or just my deep burning desire to run but I was fired up and was very serious about it. Later back at home I started reading about marathons and training programs. Somewhere in my searches I came across TEAM ASHA and their marathon training program for non-runners. I was completely sold by the idea of raising money for an important cause of education of under privilege children in India and in return getting  trained for marathon.

In all honesty, I did not respect the distance or the sport at first. I mean how hard running can be ??  I thought with few weeks of training I will be easily able to finish a marathon. I was reminded how demanding this sport is (and how unfit I had become over the last decade) during my first training run. It was not more than 1 mile but I could not even run 100 meters without completely getting out of breath.  That moment my (over) confidence had completely changed into self doubts. Seeing my condition even some of the coaches had doubts that I would return for the next training run. After the run (once every one left) I asked one of the coaches if I should just drop off from the program and try to get fit for much smaller distance like 5k (or even less) before thinking about marathons (or half marathons).

With lot of self doubt I decided to stick with the program and started showing up for the training runs. I was incredibly lucky to have a very supportive group in ASHA where i was never judge by my size or how unfit I was (even being the youngest person in the group) and I was allowed to be myself all the time. As I started getting familiar with the people and program my confidence started growing. I was always dead last in all our training runs. Often times faster runners had to come back to fetch me or push me or cheer me to finish the distance and in all honesty I was always bit embarrassed about it. At 240 pounds running was incredibly demanding activity for me. There were days when I could not climb the stairs of my home because of the soreness and had to sleep on my sofa, days when I would walk really funny (literally limp around) in office but then none of that mattered to me. With every Saturday long training run completed I knew I was getting closer to my dream and that's what mattered to me.

Lot of people think that I started running because I wanted to loose weight. In fact it was complete opposite of that. I wanted to loose weight so that i could run better. For me being over weight was never an issue. I had been over weight for over a decade and I was perfectly normal with that. As I started understanding the minor details about training/racing/weight etc I instantly knew that to run better (and faster) I need to shed excess pounds. I read somewhere loosing 1 lb would translate into 3 secs faster per mile. That was catalyst for me to really look into my diet and over hauling my life style. Changing a certain lifestyle that you have been use to for such a long time is always a difficult process and surely it was. Be it trying to eat healthy, staying away from booze during training, getting up "really" early on weekends for training, forming the discipline to get all the weekday and weekend workouts done without making execuses, mustering enough courage to go to local gym for cross training on non running days and LOTS of other small small things. I started changing things slowly and with time everything started falling in place. I am blessed with amazing support circle of my close friends and family who always listened to my training crap patiently, who kept a tight check on me so that i always remained grounded, who were always there ready to offer me any help needed especially in the times when I faltered from my plan.

By July end I had developed enough endurance to walk/run (more walking/less running) 13.1 miles and I finished my first half marathon in 2 hours and 58 mins. This was by far one of the happiest days in my life but at the same I almost immediately wanted to improve upon my time in the next race because I knew that I will not be able to finish the full marathon (if I do one) on time with that pace. Lot of the people encouraged me to continue training for next 3 months and do a full marathon in Oct. Mentally, I was really not prepared to tackle the distance (yet) and without mental determination it is almost impossible to train for full marathon. I just could not see myself running 15,17,20 miles at a time.  I decided against doing a full and focused on doing another half with faster time. Just as I started training for my second half I ended up fracturing my toe. I could not run for almost a month. That break made me even more determined to train harder and get fitter. By end of Oct I was able to reduce my walk breaks and in turn run a slightly faster half marathon.

With Asha season coming to end I knew I had still not achieved my dream. I continued running through the winter with the sole purpose of getting fitter and stronger for 2012. I planned my entire season around the marathon. This year I was mentally prepared to tackle the distance. Through out the year with every single road race I ran, with every long training week or hard training session completed I knew I was getting closer to my dream.

That day will finally arrive on 28th Oct.  When I go out and stand with 12000 first timers (and several thousands of repeat marathoners) near the start line I know I would be nervous, excited and scared but I also know that everything I could possibly do, physically as well as mentally, for getting ready for that day I have done it. It has been one heck of a journey to get here and I am very proud of myself. One thing I have realized in the process is that dreams are powerful and it eventually boils down to how badly you want it. 26.2 miles is LOT of distance and anything can happen but one thing that is certainly going to happen is I will be giving my 100% running the race I have always dreamed of.

Norcal Half Marathon Race Report

As I posted on my last entry this race was really important for me. Not for chasing some time goal but more to try out few things in race environment that I plan to do at MCM. In the end I was happy to try those things out and was satisfied how they turned out. I still have some work to do (in terms of fixing my gel interval) but good news is I have 6 weeks to figure that out.

Start
I had the awesome company of Ramesh for this race. Since race location was 40 mins drive from my place the plan was to car pool from my place. For pre-race breakfast I did make some change for this race. I was really not hungry in the morning (that's what happens when you have way too many samosa the day before the race :)) so instead of stuffing myself I just drank one bottle of concentrated accelerade (with 2-2.5 scoops). After some navigation we did manage to get to the race location with sufficient time to do a good warm up.

First few miles

The race website said it was flat fast course (It really wasn't..see below). That basically translates to run your heart out and you will get an PR. One of my (secondary) goal was to run sub 1:55. I knew this was very doable on a (assumed) flat course. So as usual I lined up behind 1:55 pacer. My target was follow her for first half of the race and then do my own race. But for some insane reason my mind told me that its flat course I could go for 1:50 and without any reasoning I lined up behind 1:50 pacer. I introduced myself to the pacer and we chatted for some time as we waited for the horn to go off.

As the horn went I started the run confidently. I was really enjoying the freedom of running without any accessories hanging by my waist or in my hand. Only thing I took with me were 3 packets of powerbar gels. As the first mile went the gap between me and 1:50 pacer started growing really quickly. I was very quickly reminded of the saying: "You should run the race you are physically capable of and not what your mind wants to" so I decided to dial back a bit. By mile 2 the 1:50 pacer was really out of sight and I was left alone with running my own race.

One of the goals of this race was to always stay in the race irrespective of the conditions. I am amazed how my minds wanders off if I don't control it. The craziest thought that usually crosses my mind in the race is what food I am going to eat in the evening to celebrate the finish and this usually happens even before I cross 2 miles :P I do get lot of such crazy thoughts if I don't stay in the moment. But I was determined to make sure it doesn't happen in this race. I had a simple plan in place. Chase the guy/gal in front of you and think you are going to win the race if you chase them down. Thats it !! All along I would target one person and try to pass him/her. I would keep an eye on their strides and would push myself if I see them slowing down etc. I stopped looking at my watch and just targeted the person in front of me.

Middle miles
By mile 5-6 I was amazed to see that I had made up some good time and I could see the 1:50 pacer again. Though he was really far I knew if I kept my head down I can get close to him and so that became the sole mission from that point on. Not to let the 1:50 pacer off my sight and bridge the gap as much as possible with every mile. Lot of the middle miles were loops in a park so it was really easy for me to keep an eye on that pacer and I kept trucking along.

Last miles

Though the website said it was flat fast course I really doubt it they actually meant it. The last few miles were a spaghetti sort of running in some park. People were running in all directions. At one point I had no idea in what direction I was suppose to run. It was like one giant maze. We kept on passing the same point multiple times and each time went into different direction. There were tones of rolling hills every where in the park. When I saw the final garmin file the elevation profile was almost same as SF half marathon and that is by no means is a fast flat course.  Anyways back to race, at mile 10 it finally happened. I had bridged the gap and was 2-3 seconds behind the 1:50 pacer.

Last 3 miles are always the hardest miles in half marathon. Mentally, you want to push hard and finish strong but physically you are getting tired. Usually, I do try to push my tempo in those miles. But this race was bit different in the sense I was already racing hard from the beginning. I still decided to up my pace and try to over take 1:50 pacer. But the moment I tried that I got a stinging pain in my calf muscle ( the one you get when you get cramped). I instantly knew this was not the wisest thing to do. I had put in lot of work till that point to get blown away in the last 3 miles. I decided to dial back my effort and just focused on finishing the race strong. Those 3 miles were tough. I had a dizzy effect at mile ~11.5 where I just felt like I would fall off. But luckily, I hold it together. At that point, time was not important. Finishing the race was the only goal. At 12 mile marker I tried my luck again and tried going hard but again the pain shoot up. No luck. I finished the last mile at steady effort and finished the race in 1:50:21. That was another ~9 min PR from my SF half marathon.

Ramesh also had an awesome day and he was also able to achieve his goal of running a sub 2:10 race.

I was really impressed with the race organization. It was so encouraging to see so many young school kids at the water stations and on the course shouting their heart out to cheer us on. It always helps you to keep moving strong with such cheers.  Kudos to race organizers for putting up such nice event.

Garmin File
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/223494456

Goals

From my last post I think I was able to achieve most of my goals. Good warm up, staying in the race and going hands free. Though one thing I still need to work on is gel frequency. In general my body very happily accepted the gel but in the end I felt I was one gel short. As far as drinking enough fluid on the course is concerned I was happy with that. I took one glass of water and one glass of gatorade on each aid station (every 2.25 miles) and my body was happy with that.

What next
Seeing the progress I have made at this distance I am so tempted to register for one more half marathon before the year ends. But I think this is not the best time for it. Right now, I need to focus on getting ready for MCM. Half marathon distance will have to wait till next year.  Just to make sure I am ready for next week training I went out for 60 min high cadence recovery ride in the evening to flush out the lactic acid and all the junk  built up in the legs.  Its time to get back to long steady slow marathon training runs from tomorrow. We are 6 weeks out from MCM.

Sorry no pics for this post. I haven't received any pictures from the race and I could not wait for their availability.

Here we go (again)!!

On Sunday I would be doing my third half marathon, norcal half, of the season. So far the only goals I always had for any race had been the time goals. But this one is different. I am not gunning for time. Being in the middle of my first full marathon training and no proper tapper this week I have very modest expectations about my times. So instead I figure I can use this race for trying out few things that I plan to do differently for MCM. In reality, when I was planning the races my thought was always to use this race as a training race for MCM. For some reasons, I always feel confident if I try out things in race environment rather than in training runs. So here are my goals that I plan to achieve in this race.

1) Get a proper warm in: I did not do that at SF half and paid the price after the race. So for this one I definitely plan to get to start point early and get a good warm up in.

2) Stay in the race. I always thought I was doing it right but SF half was a good reminder. Once I had bad experience on the bridge I was completely out of the race. I just wanted to get done with it and in that moment my nutrition plan went for a toss and I had a very uncomfortable second half and finish. So for this race I plan to stay in the race for whole 13.1 miles irrespective of the conditions or state I am in and not let my mind wander..

3)Go hands free. This one is really important and something I have been working on in training runs. I started running with fuel belt around my waist last year. For some reason I was never comfortable with fuel belts or as a matter of fact anything around my waist. I bought (and tried) pretty much everything out there in market. One bottle, 4 bottle, 3 bottle, no bottle and only pouch to carry nutrition. All of them either end up chaffing me or are really uncomfortable. This year I made the change to one bottle setup in hand. For shorter runs this works well. But for anything over a hour it starts hurting my hand. I have to keep alternating the bottle between two hands. I also feel it locks up the hand holding the bottle thereby screwing up my natural running gait. So for training runs I have been experimenting with not carrying anything with me (except nutrition). Because all of my longs runs with team asha have a water stop (~2-3 miles) I have started training my body to go without fluid for that much distance. This is what I also plan to do at MCM so its really important to try this out at norcal half and take mental notes on how I feel towards the end. At norcal half, water stops are ~2.25 miles apart so this would be perfect mileage to try it out. Other important thing is to take a "real" break at water stop and drink sufficient fluid instead of flying through it without taking sufficient amount of fluid

On the same lines, try taking gel every 30 mins (~220 cal/hr). So far for half marathon distance I have been able to run without any gel but that would not work for MCM and I plan to take gel every 30 mins (atleast in the beginning part of race) so this would be good time to try it out in race environment and see how my body reacts to it.

I do have few other small goals but above 3 are the most important one that I want to achieve.

Good luck every one racing this weekend !!

Tour of Napa century ride report

I started this season with the thought of doing a triathlon by the end of season but later realized that not knowing anything about 2 sports (biking and swimming) out of 3 wasn't an ideal way to go about it. I was better off building some base in all 3 sports this season before doing all of them at the same time. But by the time that realization had hit me I had already bought an awesome bike from my triathlete friend at work. So it was time to make some good use of the equipment at hand and build some good biking base..

My ride was ready for long day :)

Before April the maximum I had ridden the bike was 25ish mile and that too on sport shoes. I was scared of cleating issues. Though I had cleats from day 1 I was never comfortable wearing them because of the fear of fall. It was due to the constant encouragement from Jesse and Larry from TVTC that I eventually mustered enough courage to try them on. Sure I did had my fair share of falls (some on the middle of roads) but eventually I got use to them. Now it was time to do some REAL biking stuff :)

When I heard about riding 100 miles on bike in a single day it seemed ridiculous at first. Seriously, I don't even like driving 100 miles!! but at the same time it seemed that it would be something amazing if I was able to pull off. I was definitely up for the challenge

Training:
I started training for Napa century back in April end -May time frame. What I quickly realized was that unlike running, biking will require lot more training miles on the legs. This resulted in a training schedule consisting of 4 rides per week (in addition to 3 runs that I was already doing)...Weekends were dedicated to long runs (on Saturday) and long bike rides (with Asha gang) on Sunday...Weekday rides were broken into a recovery ride on Monday, 60-90 mins, depending on how hard weekend was. Wednesday were usually strength building rides, either doing max interval sets or doing sets of increasing cadence in ladder form (usually 60-90 mins) and then Friday were more aerobic base building rides with high cadence (60-90 mins).

Arun, me and Rohit before the riding on the golden gate bridge

On top of King Mountain

The most fun rides were definitely the weekend rides when I rode with Team Asha. It was definitely the most fun I had in a long time. Getting up at some insane times on Sunday morning (OK that was not fun), meeting the 100 miler gang, riding really early in the morning where the only other breathing soul around you would be your riding buddy :), all the banters and rubbish talks with Jayant, Venkii, Sunny, Sri ram, Arun and others,  crushing all the hills of south bay on each of our rides and then feeling that sense of accomplishment. Over the course of 15 weekend ride we tackled quite a few of the hills but ones I will most remember are Mt. Eden, Mt. Hamilton, King Mountain, Old La Honda, Going up Calaveras. Looking back I can see how well thought out this rides were organized and how strong each of us became with each ride.

Actual Ride:
Thanks to Prakash, everything was already planned for us. Hotel bookings, food etc. I went to Vallejo on Saturday afternoon, picked up my wrist band and checked into the hotel. Later we all gathered for a fun dinner at pasta pomodoro.  Surprisingly, I was quite relaxed the whole time. I was mentally prepared for a long day on Sunday. But thanks to all those long training rides this seemed no different. Also, this being a ride and not a race also helped a lot. Back from dinner and some relaxing at the room I was off to bed at 10:30. The plan was to start at 5:15 in the morning to get to the start point at 6 and start rolling out at 6. Surprisingly, this was one of the rare occasion where I did not get up single time at night..straight in the morning at 4:30. Once I was up, after some quick breakfast we went to start point of the ride. After some pictures we started at 6:40-6:50. Our plan was to stick as a group and if we get separated then regroup at the rest stop.

First 30 miles:

100 miler gang after the first major climb

With fresh legs and all energy stored completely charged those first thirty miles went really well. For 100 milers there were two major climbs. First one of those climb (the shorter but more steeper one) was in the first 15 miles. This was good since climbing is much easier with fresh legs. The climb up mount Veeder (I think) was definitely a tough climb. But having done so many hills in training it felt I was well equipped to tackle it. Slowly we crawled our way to the top. The cool part about the climb was a bag piper. Being an early morning you could actually hear the bag pipe from the distance.Pretty cool thing. We all regrouped near the top of the hill (the views from the top were spectacular). Rest of the miles were flat flat flat. We all rolled into the first rest stop. I was still feeling strong at the first stop which was a good sign for me :)

Miles 30-66--Things go south:

Doing the work

Out of the rest stop group decided to do pace lining for next 35ish miles since they were all flat miles (with some roller hills) through beautiful wineries of Napa with average head wind. I must admit I was not very keen on doing pace lining. For one I had never practiced pace lining with this group of riders and I had no idea at what avg pace everybody rides. Even though the effort level does go down when doing pace line I was not sure if my pace was high as other riders in the group and I was not too keen on pushing myself that early in the ride. So I requested them to go ahead and we decided to regroup at rest stop at mile 46. Within minutes the group disappeared and I was riding all alone in beautiful landscape. I was really enjoying the lone time on the bike soaking in all the pretty sights. But I guess I forgot that I have to finish the ride in that moment. Since the routes were well marked I did not carry a route sheet with me and it happened I missed a right turn. Ouch. I continued riding without knowing it and then suddenly I was just riding alone. The markers on the roads disappeared. And I realized I was off route. Luckily, there was a rest stop close by for 50k riders. So I quickly made it to that rest stop. Talked to the ride organizer. Looking at my really worried face he offered me to give me a ride back to finish location. HELL NO!! I had worked way too hard for it to end it like that. I requested him to give me his route sheet and point me in the right direction. Luckily, I had only gone 4 miles after the missed turn. So I quickly saddled up and in the haste forgot to refill my electrolyte bottle and off I went as hard as I could go. My initial plan was to regroup with the gang at mile 46 rest stop but again I missed that rest stop as well. Once I realized that my best bet was to regroup at mile 66 rest stop. Being a lunch break I knew group would be taking a slightly longer break and I had some time to catch up with them. By mile 50 both my electrolyte bottles were empty. Luckily, I had enough gels and chews for keeping me going. Finally, I rolled into mile 66 rest stop. Luckly, the group had not left (they were about to). I was completely exhausted. I had ridden 44 miles really hard without a break. I was definitely ready to get out of the saddle for some time. But I was really happy to see the group finally !!!

Mile 66-88--We conquer Ink Grade:

On top of ink grade..still 35 miles to go

100 miler gang at the top of Ink grade

Ever since the training had begun we were always told about ink grade. It was suppose to be the toughest climb in the ride. Some 4+ miles with 8-10% gradient. I was definitely looking forward to it. After regrouping and eating some food I was ready for it. It was definitely a tough climb. No doubt about it. Climbing non-stop for 4+ miles is not really fun but then I felt that we had trained on more challenging hills in our training. All along I just kept thinking about king mountain, old la honda climb. Those seemed much tougher than this one. Once we conquered ink grade we all regrouped at the top of the hill to celebrate our climb and got ready for one final push to the finish line. From Ink grade to mile 88 was smooth, uneventful and fast. We stuck together as a group.

Mile 88 to 100 (108 for me)---The finish:

Once we rolled out of rest stop at mile 88 group again decided to do pace lining :) I again bailed out and decided to ride at my pace. Looking at the past disaster I decided to ride harder than the group and stay WAY ahead of them so that there was no chance of dropping me off ;) I biked hard for those last miles. There was tons of head wind but being the last part of the ride I was really not worried of burning out. I just kept pedaling hard. Finally, once in the town we all rolled into the finish line together.

Some of the 100k folks were waiting for us to finish. Had I known that I would have definitely made the grand appearance where they were standing. I directly went to my car and got changed into clean clothes and it was time to celebrate the achievement with Asha family !!

End of an awesome day

So after 7 hours on the saddle (close to 8.5 hours total) someone who had no clue how to change gear on the bike, who kept falling off not knowing how to unclip few months back finished 100 miles..actually 108 :) This by far was the longest endurance event I had ever done and I enjoyed every minute of it !!

Ride File:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/212715383

What's next:
When the idea of doing a triathlon was scrapped I had penned down 4 attainable goals for the season
1) run a sub 2 half marathon
2) Do a century ride
3) Run first full marathon
4) Learn how to swim (work in progress)

With this ride I was able check off my second goal of the season. Now on to the final one...The one I am most scared off so far..Its time to tackle it head on...MCM full marathon is T-10 weeks. Lets get cracking !!

SF Half Marathon Race Report

Like I wrote in my last post, I was satisfied with my training coming into this race. Since I did not have a very specific time goal for this race I was really anxious to see what I can pull out on race day. Butterflies and anxiety had started showing its way by Thursday. No matter how many of these you do they always show up for me !! I went to the expo on Friday to collect my race packet. I did not waste too much time at the expo. Just a quick browse through all the booths and back home.

Expo

Race Weekend:
Team Asha, East Bay had planned a carbo load lunch on Saturday for all the first time runners  (and old runners) at Satya's place. Thanks Satya for opening your home and for delicious pasta !! So half of the Saturday went listening to coaches and talking to friends. Its just so amazing that even after running for more than a year you still hear something and think Ah!! I never thought about it. That was some quality time spent learning lot of new tricks from the experts. Get this--San Francisco full marathon was Arun's 50th Marathon.  We already have another coach who ran his 100th Marathon last year. Team Asha has some seriously talented coaches !!

Race Strategy:
Really ? Aren't you just suppose to go as hard as possible until your heart explode and then suffer for the rest of the race:) Apparently not :) I talked to Jeremy on Saturday to discuss how to run the race. It actually turned out quite simple. His advice was to keep the HR below/close to 175 bpm. at least during the beginning miles of the race and then run the later miles completely based on perceived exertion keeping heart rate as good indicator of it. Simple enough, right ?? To make sure I follow this properly I decided to try to follow the 4 hour pacer group (for full marathon) for initial half race and then run my own race towards the later miles. Running at 9:08 pace with fresh legs was  manageable for me.

Race Day:
SF marathon is an early race with the first wave starting at 5:30 am. So the plan was to get up early at 3 and catch the team asha organized shuttle to start point. As expected there was hardly any sleep on Saturday night. But once I was up I was ready to roll. My pre race day breakfast involved two whole wheat toast with cashew butter and one bonk-breaker peanut butter jelly bar. Due to some delays we reached the start point later than expected.There was hardly any time for warm up and I immediately lined up to get into my wave. I was placed in wave 4 with start time of 5:50. But since 4 hour pacer group was suppose to be in wave 5 I decided to switch to wave 5 (Big mistake #1).  I also convinced Ramesh to join me in wave 5. Once we entered wave 5 we made our way to the front and there was no 4 hour pacer group !! Apparently, 4 hour pacer group went with wave 4. What the heck!!! By the time I realized that it was too late. So my first part of race strategy was in dustbin :) At that point, I had two options: 1) Follow the 4:15 pacer group or 2) just run your own race from the beginning hoping i will not blow up myself in the beginning miles. I decided to go with first option. You can see how confident I am with my pacing abilities :) and off we went.

Mr. Flash came to say good luck in the morning :)

Mile 1-3:
Within first 3-4 mins of following the 4:15 pacer group I felt that pace was really slow. So I decided to go on my own and do my own race. I started putting up some effort so as to bring my HR up and once I saw it was close to 170-172 my pace was around mid 8:40ish. This was perfect. I kept telling myself not to push harder. Stay there. Keep it there. I kept checking my garmin every few seconds to make sure I was staying there. But within first mile I felt some pull in my abductor muscle and it started hurting me with every step. I guess when you don't warm up properly things can go south especially if you are pushing yourself. This slowed me down a bit and Ramesh caught up with me. I told him about my muscle pull since he also had the same issue couple of weeks back. He said the only way to fix it was to take rest. Not something I could do in race. I decided to take it by the mile and see how it feels. We ran about 2 miles together and he patiently listened to me while I whined about the late arrival, wave goof up and the muscle pull. He wanted to take quick walking break before we hit our first major hill at 2.5 mile so we decided to run our own race and then meet up at the end. My previous two weeks of hill training at SF came in really handy when we hit the first hill. I went hard confidently and I crushed it without stopping or gasping for air. Sweet!! That was probably the only positive thing that had happened so far till that time!!

Mile 3-5:
As soon as we crossed hill @ fort masion we entered another long flat terrain. Before the race I had decided to push hard (i.e., go beyond 175 bpm) in those 3 flat miles (Knowing the race course in advance does really help !!). But when I looked at the watch i was already moving at 8:45-8:50ish pace which was already 15+ seconds faster than 2 hour half marathon pace (9:08) so I decided to stick with it. Surprisingly, my heart rate was still under 175 beats at that time and effort felt bit hard but still manageable.

Miles 6-9:
Mile 5 to mile 6 was the steepest climb of the race. This was the part where we would hit the golden gate bridge after the climb. Having done that climb (atleast part of it) multiple times I knew how hard it was. First thing I did was stop looking ahead and at my watch. That climb is REALLY long. I kept telling myself put your head down and keep moving. It will be over in no time.  Once we reached the top I was just beyond happy.  I did not stop a single time on the climb and considering I had walked the whole hill last year it was definitely big personal victory for me and testament on how far I have come in my fitness. When I got my mile alert my pace for mile 6 had dropped from 8:40is to 9:47. But who cares !!

A quick check on my garmin and I saw my avg pace had fallen from 8:40ish to 8:55ish. But still under 9:00. This was the first time I thought may be just may be I can get a sub 2 if I run the rest half of my race well. It was game on !! At least I thought so :)  My plan was to run hard on the bridge and try get my avg pace back to 8:40ish before we hit the last 5k of the race. The only information I had about the last 5k was that it was full of rolling hills. So having some cushion for slower pace seemed a good idea....

Mile 7 went fast. My pace for that mile was 8:29. But then that's where it all started going south. There was seriously no room to run on the bridge. Instead of focusing on running I was just trying to navigate through the people and survive all the hits. This was really really frustrating. Every now and then someone would just start walking without moving to the side and every now and then I came across people who would just stop running, pop their camera and start clicking pictures without moving to the side. Some random person even asked me to take her picture. Seriously ?? How about I throw you off the bridge and take that picture (OK I did not tell her that). Seriously, that part of the race was just crap. Firstly, the organizers did not secure enough space for people to run comfortably (especially when they charge exorbitant amount of money as race fee) and then I was paying for my bad decision to start with slower group in the beginning. I was definitely looking forward to running on the golden bridge all along but I certainly wasn't enjoying the experience.

At the turn around point (vista point) I saw my garmin for the first time and it still said 8:55ish pace. But honestly, I was just not interested in it anymore. I just wanted to get done with the rest of the bridge portion. At the vista point water stop I drank atleast 4-5 glass of water/gatorade. No idea what happened there but I guess my mind was just out of the race at that point. I had same experience while coming back but it was slightly better (probably because I navigated through a sea of slow runners in the first half). By the time I reached the end of the bridge I was feeling really uneasy in the stomach, mind filled with all negative thoughts and flaring abductor muscle in left leg.

Mile 9-13:

Are we there, yet ??

At the end of the bridge, I decided to take my first real walking break. I badly needed that to clear my head now that nightmare was over. My pace hadn't made much progress and it was still around 8:55ish. But it was not relevant any more. Good thing about the last part of the race was i had no idea about the course. So it kind of made the plan simple. Go about it as it comes. Mile 10 was another small hill followed by big downhill at mile 11. That portions went fast (not by pace :)). Mile 12 consisted of 3 rolling hills with increasing elevation. Probably, that was the last challenge in the course. So without thinking much I took each hill as it came. By the time I came to third hill I was running slower than I walk !! So it was time to just walk the hill. Once on the top of hill I started doing running/walking thing for the next mile. When I reached mile 13 marker I saw avg pace pop to 9 min/mile. What !! I did not expect that. I had stopped looking at the watch after the bridge so that was kind of good surprise. So I still had a chance to make a sub 2 time, really ? That just refreshed me. At the last right turn I started hearing the music and announcer announcing names. I just sprinted as hard as I could. When I crossed the finishing line and saw the time 1:59. AWESOME!!!

After race carnage:
I regrouped with Ramesh, Samar and Vishal at the end of the race. Everybody had an incredible day. I asked them about their experience on the bridge and everybody had the same experience. I was happy to know that I was not the only whinny baby out there. Did someone remember that flaring abductor muscle ?? Well I ignored the pain during the race but it surely made a grand appearance at the end once my body started cooling down. I did not wait long at the race afterwards and went home to see how bad it was. Turned out I could not lift my left leg an inch from ground without screaming like a little girl. I told you I learned few cool tricks at the carbo load, right ?? One of them was to walk backwards on the stairs if you have such issues. Works so well. So for next few days if you see me climbing stairs backwards don't ask me why :)

Showing off our hardware

Samar, Vishal me and Ramesh..Training buddies. Solid race for all of us

I guess sometimes I just think too much about pace/time/speed etc and in the process forget about how much I enjoy running and how far I have come from last year. Last year I could barely run 100 meters without taking (long) walking breaks. It took me 2:58 to finish the course. One year later, I have shaved off ~60 mins on the same course. This was also a new over all PR by 10 mins. This by far was the biggest satisfaction. I cant wait to get back on to the training wheel and see how much we can get out of my body by the year end. But for now its time to rest and recover quickly :)

Garmin file from SF half 2011:
 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/103204119

Garmin file from SF half 2012:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/204484658

San Francisco Half Marathon Pre Check

I started writing my San Francisco half marathon race report but then realized that it might end up really LONG so decided to break it down into two post. So here's part one:

The last half marathon, Pleasantan Half Marathon, that I did was back in April end. Training up to that point was not as consistent as I would have liked  but I was still able to put a decent run together on race day with the time of 2:09 (My last half marathon effort was 2:46 before that). That evening Arun sent me an congratulatory email  and somewhere in the email he mentioned I should aim for sub 2 half marathon at San Francisco. Running a sub 2 half marathon was definitely a goal for me this year but I never targeted extremely hilly SF half for that. During that time I had also taken up biking bit more seriously in hopes of doing a century bike ride later in the year and was taking swim lessons two times a week. In general, my simple life with one sport had turned into one chaotic mess with 3 sports and I had no idea on how to structure the training effectively in line with my race schedule (which by the way was really long :)). That's when I contacted Jeremy and he agreed to take me under his wings. We worked together and came up with training schedule that worked well around my work hours.

Training under him was radically different as compared to what I was use to up to that point. Entire training was heart rate based. So instead of seeing run x miles at y pace I use to get run x mins in y heart rate zone. This meant running much slower than race pace most of the times. So finally, I was going make use of the heart rate strap that I had bought last year with my watch thinking its cool thing to wear around to some good use :)

Running with super fast Vishal and Samar. Always fun!!

I had block of about 11-12 weeks of training before San Francisco and most of first 8-9 weeks of training focused completely on building good aerobic fitness. I must admit  I was really skeptic about running MUCH slower than the race pace most of the time but  with time, as the fitness increased, I had seen my pace improve from 10:xx to 9:20ish with the same effort level (same heart rate zone). Seeing this kind of improvement made me believe that this was the right approach in longer run.

Going on to Golden Gate Bridge during training run

Last 3 weeks still mainly focused on building aerobic fitness but some of the session were devoted to hill repeats and hill sprints. How can you run SF half without training for hills!!  Being a local race I also had the advantage of running the actual course before the race. I did run 70% of course including the golden gate bridge with Vishal, Samar and Coach Arun two weeks before the marathon. The course had two major hills within the first 10 miles (that we did).

Last weekend before the race weekend I again went to SF and did (3 x) hill repeats on those two hills just to get that confidence that I can tackle them next weekend at the race.

Coach Arun leading the way. Don't ask how we took this picture :)

Looking back at those workout logs of 11-12 weeks I think I was really happy with my training for one I had never trained that consistently (without breaking down) before and some of those weeks consisted of 10-13 hours of training. I was overly obsessed with pace and speed in the beginning but as time went and I started understanding nuances of heart rate training I figured that focusing on building solid aerobic fitness (even if it came at the cost of sacrificing some speed) was the right way to go about it. Speed will come back with time and improved fitness!!


Since I did not focus on building speed in my training, going into the race I did not have any expectations of about my finish time but I knew it would be close to my PR 2:09 and I would have taken that considering how challenging SF course was as compared to Pleasanton half marathon.

Introductions

Howdy! I'm not sure how to or where to begin. Blogging is something relatively new to me. I enjoy reading other blogs but a blog of my very own is a frightening prospect. I hope you enjoy reading!

A bit more about me. I am a software engineer by profession. I started long distance running last year after joining team asha marathon training program hoping to shed few pounds and get fit and healthy once again.  I instantly fell in love with running and over the next 6 months I completed two half marathons, the San Francisco half marathon in July and the Morgan hill half marathon in Oct, with the PR of 2:46 and in the process lost close to 40 pounds. I was ~240 pounds when I started!! I continued running  through the winter and this year and kept on getting fitter. I ran a bunch of 10k's early in the year and then ran Pleasanton half marathon in April and improved my time to 2:09.

Seeing the improved fitness I also started biking and taking swim lessons to add variety to training. I plan to do a century ride (100 mile bike ride), tour of Napa, in 2.5 weeks time and run a couple of more local half marathons and then tackle a full marathon, Marine Corp Marathon, in Oct.

In last 1 year and 3 months I have lost close to 80 pounds. I have enjoyed each and every moment of this journey. While I do love racing in general I find the process of setting personal goals, racing as well as health, and achieving them more interesting and satisfying than anything else. I am far from being done. Heck I am just getting started so tag on as I continue on this journey to get healthier, fitter, stronger and faster !!!

Right when I started running last year. I am probably faking running here for the camera. I could not finish the warm up without walking in it :)

San Francisco half marathon-2012. My first sub 2 hour half marathon. Race report to follow