A couple and a 1000 kms of Running

Me and Sushma had set the goal of 1000 kms of running for both of us in 2016. As beginners into running, this is quite a challenge as we both are into several other fitness events.

To welcome the new Year, Sushma and I started off the year with a 10kms run on 1st Jan 2016 on the banks of Tungabhadra river.

The plan was to run as many 10K's and Half Marathons AS possible. At the same time, we had decided to reduce participating in the organized events, and instead lets self-organize them (to save money :-)).

Sushma has been a consistent runner. She gets up at 5:30 AM and runs for 6 kms every day. Her consistency amuses me. Sushma did 10 Half Marathons in 2016. Some of her favorite runs are KTM near Mysore, Ajmera Thump on NICE road.

Whereas I have been more of a endurance runner. Running more long distances.
My Stats for the year:

Number of Half Marathons in 2016	22
Number of 10K runs in 2016	34
Number of self-organized runs	52
Participated in organized runs	6

Among all the runs, the one I love the most is the 5 kms I ran with my Daughter Ananya. 

My Baby steps towards learning to RUN:

We were beginners 1.5yrs ago and specially me, I always felt running was wasting precious human energy :-). I hardly knew anything about running. Until on 30th July 2015, that was turning point for me, when me, Sunil Kumar  and Prasad Sadashiva discussed about the triathlons and decided to participate in Thonnur Triathlon. And for triathlons, running was mandatory :-), so I had to start running. I decided to run starting 31st July 2015. And that's the beginning of running.

Beginning was very hard. I decided to start baby steps of 2 kms non-stop. It took me good 20 mins on the first day. I thought its a very difficult job. I tried to continue on a daily basis till I feel comfortable. On the 2nd day also, I ran non-stop and my timing was 30s better :-). But, the third day was horrible. My legs pained badly, I almost started limping. And at office, I dragged my feet. I doubted a hairline fracture and started (re)searching in google. Found that the muscle spasms, ligament tear and hairline fracture anything was possible. But, my gut feeling was lazy fella, run tomorrow. I ran again, surprisingly, when I run I did not feel the pain. Same thing continued on 4th day. On 5th day, my body gave up, saying your will power has taken control of legs. And legs stopped troubling.

After 15 days of 2kms running, I felt confident and increased the bar to 3kms for next week. And to 4kms following week. And by 1 month, I was running 5kms without any hassle. After 3 weeks of 5kms running, it was graduation day to 10k inaugural run. It was Kaveri Trail Marathon. I decided to run 10k non-stop, and I made a plan to run first 5k without rushing and then slowly increase pace towards the 2nd half. I did exactly that, but the water stations were calling me, come here and take rest for 10 mins :-), but the mind was set to 10k. In the last 1 km, there were organizers trying to pump up the runners. They were shouting, come on, come on... last km finish on a high. I was so tired, was hardly able to run last 1km, since it was my first 10k. I gathered all the left out energy and crashed at the finish line in 70 mins.

After my successful 10k run, my confidence went high and I decided to non-stop Half Marathon (21.1k). Too much :-). But, my gut feeling was, it is possible. My friend Vasu, once narrated that he did a 18kms non-stop run as a challenge to a friend. That inspired me that its possible to run non-stop, which I never knew.

The event was Bengaluru Marathon (Shriram Properties had organized). In the early morning darkness, I was finding it hard to get a parking place for my car, and almost all the roads to the event place were blocked. In this melee, a huge lorry hit my car. I never knew a lorry was so close by, until my car was thrown aside. At this moment, I had a choice, to go behind the lorry and fight for my car damages or forget it and head towards the running zone. Right, I took the 2nd one :-). Its certainly a financial loss to me, but I did not want to stop my first Half Marathon run. I had been mentally preparing for this event for more than 2 months and on the day I did not want to miss out.

The run started and I planned to do the first 10k at lesser pace to keep my energy for the 2nd half. After I crossed 10k, I started pacing up. And the water stations again were calling me baaa...baaa...sit down, take rest....and my will power had taken over control of my body and was hell bent on running non-stop. At 15 kms, I started feeling the pain of non-stop running. With every ounce of water dried up, and had lost so much salt in the form of sweat. But, I still was determined to complete on a high. At 19 kms, again, it was getting tougher, but it was matter of just another 2 kms, and I always could drink 5 litres of water, after I complete. So, I firmed up my mind and completed the run non-stop in 2hrs 40 mins. I know, its slow. But trust me, this is the beginning. I will learn more and run faster and better.

After the non-stop 21k, I attempted Bangalore Ultra 50k run. And I planned to run non-stop 25, 15 and 10 to complete 50. And my confidence burst here after the first 25kms, I hardly could run. But, for the sake of completing, I decided to walk and complete. I came last in the 50k run. Here is when I decided to start consolidating my half marathons before I graduate further. And hence the target of 21 Half Marathons in an year. I will continue this for one more year to strengthen myself.

Over the year, I have run 22 half marathons and my timing has improved to 2hrs 15mins. And I strongly feel, it can go below 2hrs, but I need to practice well.

Huge Thanks to my co-runners and we fondly call ourselves Kalyan Nagar Tortoises. With these guys I have run in every possible time of the day. We wake up at 3:00 AM and start running. We have done mid night marathons, afternoon marathons. The topics we discuss during these runs, makes it a fun run.

My salute to all my co-runners:
Raj
Sushma
Satya
Satish
Sindhu
Naresh
Gavin
Atul

Here are the Half Marathons covered over the year:

Months	Total Distance	# of Half Marathons in month	Date		Time	With Whom?
Jan'16	109	3	9/1/2016	21	3:00:00	GKVK with Raj, Sathya, Gavin, Naresh, Sindhu
			24/01/2016	21	2:35:00	Hampi
			30/01/2016	21	2:55:00	GKVK with Sathya, Sindhu and Gavin
Feb'2016	100.8	3	6/2/2016	21	2:50:00	GKVK with Raj, Sindhu, Satya
			16/02/2016	21	3:00:00	GKVK with Raj, Satya, Gavin
			21/02/2016	21	2:45:00	Sena Vihar with Raj, Sindhu
Mar'2016	102	3	23/03/2016	21	2:58:00	Sena Vihar with Raj, Sathya
			26/03/2016	22	2:29:00	Sena Vihar with Raj
			30/03/2016	21	2:43:00	Sena Vihar
Apr'2016	107	0
May'2016	124.5	3	1/1/2016	21	2:15:38	HM PB
			15/05/2016	22	2:55:00	Hampi, solo run
			29/05/2016	21	2:45:00	GKVK run with Raj, Sushma, Atul, Satya
Jun'2016	82.2	1	4/6/2016	21	2:33:00	With Atul
Jul'2016	12	0
Aug'2016	51	0
Sep'2016	102.9	1	24/09/2016	21	2:37:00	GKVK with Raj, Satish, Gavin
Oct'2016	73.5	3	10/10/2016	21	3:05:00	Hampi with Sushma
			16/10/2016	21	2:14:59	HM at Bengaluru Marathon...PB
			30/10/2016	21	2:58:00	Davanagere with Sushma
Nov'2016	45.7	2	5/11/2016	21	2:55:00	With Satish and Raj in   GKVK
			22/11/2016	21	2:45:00	With Satish around Sena Vihar
Dec'2016	89.4	3	4/12/2016	21	2:55:00	Awesome Cubbon Park Run
			8/12/2016	21	2:40:00	With Super fast Satish   around Sena Vihar
			14/12/2016	23	3:00:16	Miles for Millets with Satish and Sushma

Regards,
Swamy.

emailto:swamywins@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/swamywins

Chennai Triathlon Dec 2016 - Olympic Distance

Chennai Triathlon

What an awesome event and am happy with my improved performance.

Total: 3 hrs 58 mins (Max of 6 hrs)
Swim      - 1.5 kms - 1hr
Cycle      - 40 kms  - 1hr 40 mins
Running  - 10 kms  - 1hr 15 mins

Results:
http://www.chennaitrekkers.org/2016/12/chennai-iron-triathlon-dec-17-olympic.html?m=1

On my first Olympic triathlon, I had clocked 4hrs 50mins in Hyderabad. And since then, I had been plotting to achieve sub-4hrs mark. In the 4th attempt, I broke into under-4hrs.

Hyd Triathlon Oct 2015          -      4 hrs 50 mins
Chennai Triathlon Mar 2016   -      4 hrs 30 mins
Hyd Triathlon Oct 2016          -      4 hrs 20 mins
Chennai Triathlon Dec 2016   -      3 hrs 58 mins

Certainly the overall improvement of 52 mins has boosted my confidence.

All the more, I did not have any swim practice for 2 months and still I could do a non-stop swim of 1.5 kms, it was thrilling. In 2014, I could only swim 20 meters and run 2 kms. But, over the last 2 years, its been a good turnaround. The lake is just about 1.5 kms from the Agni Institute of Technology, where we were given free accommodation. I just love the way Chennai Trekking Club (CTC), took care of the participants. The triathlon fee of Rs 500 with free accommodation, its just too good.

The swim leg took about 1 hour. With non-stop swimming, I was bit exhausted, but that's only for 2 mins :-), the cycling rejuvenates. I took a few bites of sandwich and off I went. Since cycling is my passion, I could overtake quite a lot of guys and could feel that years of cycling has certainly helped.

I keep saying, "cycling is my birth right" :-). This time around, I was slower by 10 mins compared to my last year's cycling performance. There was a bit of headwind during the return, but regardless I should improvise by another 10 mins.

The last leg of running is very painful in Chennai due to scorching sun. But, my determination to complete under-4 had ignored the heat and just could run well. Last 5 kms I had thought, I might possibly walk, but happy that I could run non-stop. This is crucial. After non-stop swim and 40kms of cycling, the body won't be in a condition to start running right away. I managed to run for 3 kms and walked 2 kms.

At the mid-point, I only had 40 more mins to cover the last 5 kms distance. I thought, this time too I would go beyond 4 hrs 20 mins. I just thought for a moment, should I fall into my own lazy trap or should I fight?  I decided to take it head on, and started charging. Picked up the pace slow and steady, once the 2 kms went past, my determination grew even further, I started with long strides, before I realized, I started overtaking people on run zone, which does not usually happen as am a slow runner.

After 4 kms, I just told myself, 1 more kilometer and I will crash land after I reach the finish line, on the way I asked someone time as I don't wear watch or don't carry mobile during the triathlons. I got to know that I had 10 more mins for the last km, that's it I knew, I was close to my target. Once I crossed the finish line, I was ecstatic. The 22 Half Marathons in 2016 have certainly helped me improve on the running.

The triathlon journey has begun.

My Personal Best (PB) timing meant I stood 17th out of 216 Olympic participants. 17/216 is reasonably good I feel, but yes a lot lot lot to learn yet and improve.

Swimming I still can possibly cut down 15 more mins and cycling, at least 10 more mins and run another 5 mins. May be little more disciplined practice should help here.

Though I can easily jump over to Half Iron Man, I prefer to stay at Olympic distance for another year and let me enjoy this distance.

For beginners, trust me, everyone can do triathlon. Just come out of the mental block that only well trained athletes can do it. A swim of 1.5 kms looks too long, but its not really. Even if you don't know how to swim, I can challenge you, in 30 days time, with dedicated effort, you can be a good swimmer. And running and cycling are much easier and you could stop anywhere you feel uncomfortable. So, lets TRIathlon. Happy to help you get into triathlon from scratch.

Feedbacks and suggestions are most welcome. I would like to learn more.

You can reach me at  swamywins@gmail.com