Airtel Delhi Half Marathon V

Hello,

This is a further update on my practice for the Half Marathon.
Last Sunday (19th Sept) I ran 5K at a reasonable pace. I ran a distance > 10K on Tuesday and Thursday and was hoping to run a 12K yesterday. I could not do it as two rather important things came up.
My wife left for Jaipur to be with my ailing mother. Mummy had a Cardiac Bypass Surgery on the 6th of August and was expected to be up and around by this time but due to an infection of the surgery cut the progress has been much slower and we are fearful of the continuous illness.
The Champions League finals between Chennai and Warriors was telecast live from 6:30 PM. I felt like watching the match.
I therefore have to make the 12K run today.
On an average I am able to run the distance of 10K within 1:20 mins. This gives me hope that I shall be able to meet my target of 3 hrs for the run in November.
The fact that now I am able to run 10K comfortably also boosts my confidence.

By the way our cricket team won the practice game against NBK on Saturday. We were playing without a couple of our good players and were still able to chase down 178 runs needed for victory in 20 overs. This victory is a good confidence booster for our team just before the league starts. We are playing the same team coming Saturday and we expect them to come hard at us. I am sure that if we play to our potential we can continue this winning streak.

Best regards,
Manoj

Airtel Delhi Half Marathon IV

Hello,

Yesterday was another wonderful evening.

After skipping the scheduled run of 5K on Saturday I ran it on Sunday but once again without timing the run. The reason for skipping the run on Saturday was that I had gone for Cricket practice in the morning and felt that I would not be able to do justice to the run that evening.

You learn by making choices and I learnt that running immediately after having a mug of coffee is not a great idea. I sweat a lot and on Sunday, when I began running, I was sweating profusely even before I had run half a KM. The regular sweating usually starts after I have run a KM and it does not tire me in any way but the sweating I encountered because of the coffee made me feel lethargic and I would have surely failed to complete any course longer than the 5K.

The planned run for Tuesday was 7K and I was wondering if the tiredness that hit me on Sunday was a one-off thing or was it something that would put a brake to my preparation. 

Such thoughts I believe are not unique. The apprehension that I will not be able to make it made me think of giving up. 

However, the run yesterday was heartening. I started with a plan to go 5K and then plan on the remaining 2K. As a 5K run now seems easy I was hoping that I would have enough steam left to go through the next 2K.

Before starting on the run yesterday I had a couple of glasses of water and a 'Kaju Barfi'. I started at a slightly slower pace and had finished 3K before I actually started to feel the run. The 5K mark was passed easily and I reached 7K only with a slight pain in my knees. I have now got rid of the knee strap and the crepe bandage on the shin and ankles. 

Although I had done my scheduled run I somehow felt I should take advantage of the fact that I was not tired and run further. The spur of the moment thought was to better the 10K run of the previous Saturday or at least equal it and therefore I kept on going.

I met Noel who plays cricket at Sharq United on Fridays. Earlier Victor of Sharq United has also seen me run. I am not sure if they are surprised or aghast about my plans. After all most of them are 10 years my junior and the HM is a punishing distance. I also met Anku, Vinod's son who was walking with his father after having cycled on the previous two days.

These diversions are good as they take your mind away from the running. Other diversions are looking for familiar faces and trying to figure out their walking/running plans for the day. Looking at people and calculating how slow or fast I am in comparison is also a good diversion.

Anyway before I realized I was already at 9.5K and still feeling good.

It seems I made a small mistake here and tried to pick up speed for the remaining 1.5K. I was able to do it but the higher speed affected the kees and the runners knee was back. It was however much lighter this time and after having done the cooling off walk of two additional rounds I went home took a quick sower, dressed up and was at Salmiya market to order for our clothes for the cricket matches.

Things are getting exciting here as well as the season draws closer. We have a good team this year and God willing we should beat a few of the fancied teams. This Saturday we have planned to have a practice match with NBK.

If we do well we will celebrate.

Best regards,
Manoj

THE AIRTEL DELHI HALF MARATHON III

Hello,

Yesterday I started for my run at 7 PM. The Sun was down and there was a pleasant breeze blowing. It was perfect weather for the run as even the humidity which had been a big bother in the past seems to have come down.

I took a quick bite (Lebanese sweets prepared at home by my office colleague) and had a glass of water before I started from home. The walk to the park is about half a KM and provides me an opportunity to test my aches and pains. I felt good as the calf pain that had been developing over the day was not bothersome any more. The crepe bandage taping over the calf seemed to have helped.

The plan was to run 6K and after the disappointment of the run on Monday I was apprehensive.

Once I started my run and completed half of the 1K circle of the park I started getting confident that I was not going to see another failure.

I completed the 6K without mishap or tiredness and as a celebration walked two smaller rounds of the park on the paved track.

The shin pain was more or less absent during the run and I think running on the dirt track instead of the paved one has helped. I now have pain in the calves.

The pain has travelled from the knees to the shin and to the calf and I hope it is on it's way out. I now have two days of rest or cross training before the 5K race on Saturday.

We, ie my son and I, plan to go for a swim today. Tomorrow I will play cricket in the morning.

Earlier I had planned to do the 5K on Saturday morning but the Bank Cricket league is starting on 9th October and we have a practice planned for Saturda morning. This means that I have to do the run in the evening.

I am planning on doing the 5K run in 35 mins. 7 mins to a KM over 5K should be good for achieving my target of doing the HM in less than 3 hours.

Best regards,

Manoj

The Airtel Delhi Half Marathon II

Hello,

A few days back, on Saturday, I ran my first 10K.

It was very satisfying as I have continued to train through the problems of 'Runners Knee' and 'Shin Splints'.  The 'Runners Knee' troubled me a lot during the first week but I have not been bothered again by it since then. However, the 'Shin Splints' seem to be a different problem altogether. It started in the second week of the training and turned severe in the third week. The third run of that week was a 6K run and I had to stop after 3.5K as going any further was difficult.

I took help of Dr. Scholl's soles that provide arch support and the pain became bearable. Now into my 6th week of training I do not get the unbearable pain I experienced in the beginning but my shin still hurts in the beginning and the end of the run.

I have noticed that I get a feel of extra energy at the 3K mark and it seems to last for a few KMs after that. Like in the 10K run on Saturday the run from 4K to 9K was pretty easy.

Till now I have been focussing mainly on completing the planned run and have still not timed my runs accurately. It does seem that I am doing 8 minutes to a KM.

At this rate I need to add another 30 seconds per KM for the HM and that would give me a timing of 3 hours and 4 minutes.

This is slightly over my target of 3 hours and I will try to bring down my timing over the current week.

Disappointing news is that yesterday I had a setback and failed to run the 6k I had planned. I got so badly drenched in sweat by 4K that it was impossible to continue further. I completed the 6K by walking through the last 2K but it was not the same. I walk pretty slow and I was slower after the exhaustion. 

I went through a few blogs of first time HM runners and was surprised to note that they completed the run in the 2 hours and 30 minutes range. 

I hope that I am able to run within 3 hours.

Best regards,

Manoj

THE AIRTEL DELHI HALF MARATHON

Hello,

15 days ago I started preparing for the New Delhi Half Marathon.
I scrolled the net to get some idea on how to prepare and came across a wonderful training chart for novices at http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/novice.htm.

I have since followed it religiously and done 19 kms for the past two weeks with a six km run on Saturdays ending the weeks.

After the first week I developed some pain around my knees. Earlier I had developed similar pain when walking downhill from Vaishno Devi and had concluded that it was because of my excessive walking. The pain, while doing the Vaishno Devi trip, generally started after I had completed the uphill climb of 13 Kms and was on my way down. As I never had this pain while walking or playing cricket I associated the pain with something to do with the pressure I put on my knees when coming down.

When the pain in the knees threatened to disrupt my plans in the first week itself I decided to seek help. As always I trusted the net and came up with detailed description on symptoms, causes and came up with this on http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/knee-pain/DS00555/DSECTION=symptoms

Chondromalacia of the patella, or patellofemoral pain.
This is a general term that refers to pain arising between your patella and the underlying thighbone (femur). It's common in young adults, especially those who have a slight misalignment of the kneecap; in athletes; and in older adults, who usually develop the condition as a result of arthritis of the kneecap. Chondromalacia of the patella causes:

Pain and tenderness in the front of your knee that's worse when you sit for long periods, when you get up from a chair, and when you climb or descend stairs.
A grating or grinding sensation may be present when you extend your knee.
When to see a doctor
If you have new knee pain that isn't severe or disabling, a good rule of thumb is to try treating it yourself first. This includes resting, icing and elevating the affected knee, and sometimes using nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce pain and inflammation. If you don't notice any improvement in three to seven days, see your doctor or a specialist in sports medicine or orthopedics.
Some types of knee pain require more immediate medical care. Call your doctor if you:
Can't bear weight on your knee
Have marked knee swelling
See an obvious deformity in your leg or knee
Have worrisome pain
Have a fever, in addition to redness, pain and swelling in your knee, which may indicate an infection

As i had none of the above serious symptoms I started treaing myself.
I started rehabilitation exercises. These specific exercises help in strengthening the muscles that support your knees and control limb alignment, such as your quadriceps, hamstrings and the muscles around your hips (especially the hip abductors). The details I once again got at the halhigdon site on the half marathon and I was happy to know that it is not serious. http://www.halhigdon.com/15Ktraining/Stretch.htm gives details of the exercises that stengthen your muscles.
After doing the stretches for a couple of days I found that I no longer have the pain around the knees. As recommended I also purchased knee caps to support the knee but I think I need to purchase something better, this one is cheap and most prabably will start slipping off after using it a few times. I have still not started the icing part but will do that as well.

After I ran 5 kms on two consecutive days I have developed some pain on the sides of the calf muscle. I will once again take a look in the internet for a solution. Meanwhile I ran 6 Kms today with the slight ningling pain but was able to complete the run.

When I started I had thought I will not have the lung power to run the distances. Now, after two weeks my ideas are changing. I now believe I will not be breathless over even longer distances but need to take care of my legs.

Best regards,
Manoj