Two hard days in a row!

The Colpal group, especially Aalok, is always enthusiastic to get me to run with them on the 2nd Satuurday of the month because its my off day. I too like to oblige because they are fun to be with and besides; they spur me on to do runs that I would otherwise not do.

Today I was scheduled to meet them at Aarey at 6am and being a stickler for punctuality, I rose at 5am to reach the appointed location at 5:55am. At 6:10 I got a call from Aalok that 4 people out of 6 had dropped out! Well, I was glad that at least Roshni and Aalok were coming along.

We started our run and I took them along a 9.4K loop that included a steep hill. I was keeping pace with Roshni which did me a world of good since I wanted to ensure I run at my "recovery pace". I had just done a tough speed workout yesterday and was actually supposed to take it easy today. Whaddya know!; I ended up doing 23k at my prescribed pace for the work out. This means that I did two hard days in a row. While, both the work outs went off like clockwork, I have yet to experience the effect (nay folly?) of not practicing what I preach:-) Well, tomorrow I am going to put up my legs and rue my fate over a beer, if I have "dead legs".

I am sure that both, Aalok as well as Roshni enjoyed the difficulty level in today' work out as it took them to a different threshold in their training. I could not help but smile when Aalok told me that he walked the uphill on the 2nd loop; however, to my surprise, Roshni actually jogged the uphill twice. You know "Pahadis":-); they have it in their genes:-)

Holi smoke!

The exclamation is in order because of the number of mails I received from the IIT runners group when I vociferously opposed making the race an event with big prize money. My sole argument was that this race needs to have a USP that makes it the recreational runner' race! I argued that if you keep big prize money, you would end up getting state level 10K runners who would turn up in droves, the event would become a "janta" event and my beloved slow runners would miss their truly recreational runners' finish. Well, the discussion opened up a flurry of emails with the end result that my opinion was more or less in sync with most.

Then there was the discussion on Kingfisher and free beer and well...you know how it can be:-) It is anybody' guess how touchy this issue is with serving free beer in India and especially at IIT. Bhasker and I got mauled but I made a compromise suggestion which will be discussed (nay debated along with my thoughts on Madhur' mathematical model - which were well received and allayed my baseless apprehensions) at a lunch for the core team. This promises to be a big event if we get our act together.

I did a nice set of speed work, followed by a pleasantly surprising "darshan" from Mahesh, Santosh and Sunil who turned up to discuss their future training, followed by an invitation to eat breakfast, from the Aarey walkers' club that was celebrating Holi. I had to accept the colour that was applied to my face from the Aarey walkers, in return for a breakfast of Jalebis, bhajias and fafda:-) I returned home to find 22 mails from the core group - quite an exciting morning. The beers will follow after I am thru' with giving Dojo his bath.

Recovery and anomaly

The Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) had yet to be purged out of my system, due to the 10K race I had run on Sunday. I set out for my recovery run to aid this process while musing on the mathematical model developed for i-Race. I have exchanged good-natured reservations on the parameters being used for the race time adjustments, with Madhur; but, I could not help feeling that height has no basis (except in running mechanics - which is difficult to model). Besides, though weight has a clear basis, there is scope for refining the model based on % fat in the total weight. This is because it is this fat weight that one lugs around and that brings down your pace. Maybe I'll broach the subject after my own cross-check so that feathers are not ruffled and only if I'm sure. On the other hand, I should "let sleeping dogs lie" cause my forte is fitness and distance running mechanics - I should leave alone the research aspect.

I found the recovery run rather high on RPE even though I was puttering along at a shuffle. Nevertheless, I know it will do me more good than bad; considering that I can afford to lose at least a Kg in this week:-) But then you have "Holi" round the corner and the beers with Allen are inevitable.

I met Dilip Kamtikar who has just returned from his trip to the Antarctica and he was beaming from ear to ear.He pumped my hand vigorously and said, "Daniel; we have to sit over a drink and discuss my trip; not like this - standing around," and burst into a guffaw. With a sparkle in his eyes, he mentioned that the beauty is mind-blowing and that he wants to discuss with the pics. I guess the Alibag trip to his Bungalow, is a given:-)

i-Race for my life

It was just a chance encounter between Jyoti (from DHL) and Madhur (ex-IITian) at their local Gym, that translated into an enriching experience for Madhur and me when she introduced us. Madhur being an active IIT alumni member, got me introduced to the crowd on the groups web forum as a "running evangelist":-) Our shared passion for running combined with our travel together to Auroville for the Marathon, snow-balled into an idea on organizing races. Though I could not do the leg work, I shared ideas with Madhur on the logistics of race organizing (having done this once for a Commodore in the IAF when they wanted to celebrate their 75th anniversary) and helped him correct his superbly conceived mathematical model on age, gender and BMI adjusted times.

The i-Race was held on 8th March and surprisingly had not a single glitch considering that it took just 5 weeks to do it. Madhur and the young 'uns at IIT CS department could put Procam to shame. When the race was flagged off, I bolted from the start as a means of ensuring that I was higher than pace so that I could correct it at the first km marker. I felt the blood lactate build up and immediately realized that I must be well above target and slowed down. I saw 3 runners overtake me in the first 800m and decided that I had to let go of them:-)

The 1st 5K loop went off with 3 more runners overtaking me and I decided that I'd beat at least one of them in the last 2K. The next 5K loop felt taxing as I now guessed that blood lactate was accumumlating fast and I would just about have held on for the finish. One of the runners ahead of me "bit the dust" as I saw him halt at a watering station. The other guy happened to be just 16 yrs old and shot back periodic wide-eyed looks of alarm as he watched me closing the gap. We both finished with a 100m sprint as I allowed him to cross just 1 sec ahead of me since he actually cut me off at the finish line. I saw Bryan in this guy and held back to let him win the position.

I was expecting to run below my capacity considering that I had taxed my liver the last 4 nights during my travel to South India:-) I guess I enjoy my tipple and my runs and don't let one decide the other. I enjoyed this run cause it gave me feedback on so many things; effect of sleep, liquor and weight gain. I had gained 3 kgs since the Auroville Marathon - I must have rested my feet a bit too much after my redemption:-) A super Sunday and a nice outing with family and friends - especially the Colpal group.