BITS 2 Marathon 10 KM Race - 44:57 PB

Image by jeffjose via Flickr

I have been a member of the BITS 2 Marathon running discussion group for the past 4 months. This group consists of Alumni and current students of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, my alma mater.

I joined the group to share my experience of running 7 marathons (Chicago 2009, Copenhagen 2008, Berlin 2007, Reykjavik 2007, London 2007, Oslo 2006, Reykjavik 2006) and also learn from other BITSians who are on the running trail. One of the founding members suggested that we should organize a World Run, i.e. everyone runs a race in their current location on a specific date. The group enthusiastically supported the idea and the BITS Alumni Association took the initiative to provide us with the web space to allow registration and they did an amazing job of designing a T-Shirt and the certificate of completion. I will post them once I receive it. The race was set for December 6th 2009. There were a total of160 registrations in locations ranging from Bay Area in California to Marina Beach in Chennai. Many BITSians in the locations who could not participate in the race volunteered to organize the race and support the runners. We have been getting updates from each of the locations, and it is fascinating to see so many faces taking on this challenge. Note that many of the participants are first time runners.

I am the only BITSian in Reykjavik, Iceland so I had to run the race alone. My effort to get my running buddies to participate did not materialize as I was lazy to not announce earlier than the day of the run, what can I say the last minute planning of Iceland has its influence never the less it has been a gorgeous day for a run. I started at around 10 am and completed the race in 44 minutes and 57 seconds, this is my personal best and I improved on my previous personal best by 1 minute and 6 seconds. I am pretty happy with my performance and I acheived my goal which was to run the 10 km sub 45 minutes :)

Chicago Marathon 2009: 3:33:54 PB

I ran and finished the Chicago Marathon 2009 in 3 hours 33 minutes and 54 seconds, this was an improvement of 31 minutes and 26 seconds from my previous personal best.




We arrived in Chicago on the 9th and the day we were leaving Reykjavik the weather was interesting, we had winds of about 40 m/sec. There was some doubt whether the flight to chicago will leave on time but all of that uncertainty was put to rest when the plane took off on time and my buddies Villi and Joi were on the same flight and they were running the marathon as well. We reached our hotel at around 12am on Oct 10th, we stayed at the Westin Michigan Avenue, it was a great location for shopping right next to the John Hancock Building, Bloomingdales and Macy's. Our daughter has been so well trained to travel that she took everything in and she was having fun as well inspite of the jet lag and all the shuttling between airports.

Villi, Joi and I went to the Marathon expo center and got our bibs and running chip on the 10th, spent some time looking at all the running stuff. I bought myself 2 pairs of ASICS shoes, Performance Trainer and a Kayano. The Kayano felt like a massage for my feet.  In addition, got all the Nike Chicago Marathon memerobilia. Did some serious damage to the wallet, hey what the heck its not like I am going to run the 2009 Chicago Marathon again.

In the evening we went to Carmine's an Italian restaurant ate some spaghetti with meat balls, this time around I did not over eat just enough to feel full and satiated.  Since the race was starting at 7:30 the next morning we hit the bed. I woke up at 3:00 am as I could not sleep after that, read the book The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown, got some granola with yogurt, nuts and dates my typical Marathon breakfast.

The weather was cold, at 3:00 am the temperature was -1°C. We left the hotel at 6:10 and walked the 2 miles to the start. It was amazing to feel the energy of everyone getting ready to start the run. Villi, Joi and I found our spot near the fountain in the park. I was planning to run with my wind jacket and had my bib pinned to that, Villi and Joi advised me to run without the jacket based on their experience in Boston which was cold to start with but got warmer during the day and Joi had to throw away his jacket. That was slight change of plans, never the less I decided to run with the official Chicago Marathon T-Shirt on-top of my CWX cold top. We deposited our bags and squeezed our way to the front of the pack, we jumped over a fence to reach the 3:50 pace setting group. It was exhilarating to hear the start of the race, 33,608 runners ready to hit the road.

I started sprinting right away, my strategy was to push hard and keep at it until the finish. I think I was running at a pretty good pace at the start and caught up with many runners in the 3:30 pace and ran with them until the end of the race. I was expecting to see my wife and daughter in the half marathon stage but could not find them in the crowd and I slowed down a bit to find them. Never the less, kept on chugging. The weather was still cold and it never got warmer, I started feeling the strain around 27th km, slowed down a bit and walked during the drink stations. I think the saving grace for my run was the initial push that I did in the first half of the marathon, I ran 20km in 1:34:15. There were several instances where my body was ready to give up but I never gave up and kept running and I was delighted to finish in 3:33:54.

The next goal is to qualify for Boston Marathon, i.e. shaving 18+ minutes from this run!

Speed work 4X1600, Cold, Cough and Icelandic Weather

Did my speed work on thursday, I was starting to feel a tickle on my throat usually a symptom of me getting sick with a cold and flu. But never the less completed the training run: here is the summary of the run, it was hard and I think my feeling under the weather must have made it worse... but I did the speed runs at a pretty good pace.


As can be seen my first mile (1600m) time was 6:18 pace, followed by 6:34, 6:48 and 6:42. I would say the average speed for the speed runs were 6:35. This gives me a little bit more confidence that I can sustain a pace of 6:45 for a extended period of time.

I had to miss my long run this weekend as I am down with cold, cough and body joint aches. Friday I left work at noon and slept maybe 8 hours and continued to sleep on Saturday. I think this has been the longest sleep bouts I have had for some time. I woke on Saturday with a back ache due to lying in bed for an extended period of time. Anyway, I think I am feeling a little bit better today, took the dog out for a 6 km walk in the hale and wind. I have already started counting down the days till the Chicago Marathon on October 11.

Gave up after 35 km...

I was very disappointed after a horrible run last sunday. I managed to run 35 km in 3:06:54 @5:19/km... I think I have to blame myself for the dismal performance. The weather was horrible, it was windy, rainy and down right depressing when I looked out the window when I woke up around 7am. I was quite surprised with the games my mind was playing I have never been intimated by the weather before and I have run in much harsher weather so I don´t know what the issue was. I guess mentally I am getting tired of training, I need to start running with a group to keep up the training regime.

To get down to the specifics, almost 8 km I was running against the wind, which felt horrible and I just could not push myself to keep up a good pace. It felt like the wind was 10 to 15 m/sec, of course it feels horrible when your mind tells  you all that is wrong with the run. I am more motivated than I have ever been to get back into doing more speed work and tempo runs to improve my speed.

Core Workout

I found these exercises to be very useful... they basically work your abdomen and back, I have started doing Rope Yoga which is excellent for the core as well.

Core Exercise 1
Core Exercise 2
Core Exercise 3

Running & Reading...

I saw this clip with Will Smith, I thought it was so simple and yet communicated a very strong message.

Reykjavik Half Marathon 2009 in 1:36:10 PB

I had decided that I would run the half marathon in Reykjavik in 1:45:00 which is 5 minute pace. The day started very early as I got a call from India at 5:45am and I had my alarm at 6:45. Never the less, got ready, Alok and An our friends from Amsterdam had come to visit us and also to participate in the Marathon. Alok was running the half marathon and An was running the 10k. We took a cab from our house to the start line, got there about 40 minutes before the start warmed up by running around the lake in downtown Reykjavik.

I started out a brisk pace and kept at it till the finish, I felt very good all through the way and actually I pushed myself to run hard at the end of the run. The strategy seem to work well and I ran the race in 1:36:10, which is my personal best and this was the fastest average pace that I have ever run even taking my practice runs into account. Here is the official result

The average pace was 4:32/km, I am very happy that the hard training is starting to kick in but the ultimate goal is Chicago Marathon and Boston qualification. I need to keep this above pace if I want to qualify for Boston. It is going to be hard but I feel confident that I can train hard for the next month and be best prepared for the marathon in Chicago.

No diabetes!

I did my yearly blood sugar and urine test and my doctor says I don't have any symptoms of Diabetes... whew! that one is out of the way. He also recommends that I do this every year so that we can monitor the development. I guess keeping my weight off by running has really changed my body's internal workings and I am very glad that I don't have to worry about this at-the-least for a another year...

Running update before Reykjavik Half Marathon 2009

Reykjavik Marathon 2009 is next week and I plan to run a half marathon with a time goal of 1:45:00. I have posted an update until end of July and my training plan, the running stats in August so far stands at:

Distance (km): 130.05
Time: 10:56:06
Avg. Pace (min/km): 5:03
Avg. Speed (km/hr): 11.9
Calories: 11,416
Avg kms per day: 8.1


Image by skipio in Flickr

How lucky am I?

I ran 8.2 km yesterday with my buddy Villi at 10 pm in Heidmork, around a beautiful lake and the sky was such a beautiful sight, I was thinking I must be blessed and lucky to be able to view this sight. I have been amazed at the colors that get displayed in the sky over Iceland, it is purple, red, pink, orange, green, blue and all hues in between.The picture is from SportTracks, a software that I use to track all my workouts it is free but brilliant. It was written by runners for runners. If you want a log book for your running I would highly recommend this tool.

For those interested to see what I am talking about look at the photo stream of fredschalk in Flickr.

Summary of training 2008 & 2009

Here is a summary of my training in 2008 & 2009:

11 week - Runners World Training Schedule

Here's your individualized training program:

Your current race time is: 0:46:03  for a 10 K Your distance training goal is: Marathon You currently train: 41 - 48 km/week How hard you want to train: Hard Your long-run day: Sunday Your training program Starts: Monday, 7/20/2009 Ends: Sunday, 10/4/2009 Length of your training schedule: 11 weeks

Wk Dat Mon Tues Weds Thurs Fri Sat Sun Total 1 7/20 7/26 Rest/XT Easy Run Dist: 10 km @5:41 Rest/XT Tempo Run Dist: 8 km, inc Warm; 5 km @ 4:45; Cool Easy Run Dist: 8 km @5:41 Rest/XT Long Run Dist: 16 km @5:41 42 km 2 7/27 8/2 Rest/XT Easy Run Dist: 10 km @5:41 Rest/XT Speedwork Dist: 8 km, inc Warm; 2x1600 in 7:14 w/800 jogs; Cool Easy Run Dist: 8 km @5:41 Rest/XT Long Run Dist: 19 km @5:41 45 km 3 8/3 8/9 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 8 km @5:41 Rest / XT Tempo Run Dist: 8 km, inc Warm; 5 km @ 4:45; Cool Easy Run Dist: 8 km @5:41 Rest / XT Long Run Dist: 22 km @5:41 46 km 4 8/10 8/16 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 8 km @5:41 Rest / XT Tempo Run Dist: 10 km, inc Warm; 6 km @ 4:48; Cool Easy Run Dist: 6 km @5:41 Rest / XT Long Run Dist: 26 km @5:41 50 km 5 8/17 8/23 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 10 km @5:37 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 10 km @5:37 Easy Run Dist: 10 km @5:37 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 10 km @5:37 40 km 6 8/24 8/30 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 6 km @5:37 Rest / XT Speedwork Dist: 11 km, inc Warm; 3x1600 in 7:09 w/800 jogs; Cool Easy Run Dist: 5 km @5:37 Rest / XT Long Run Dist: 29 km @5:37 51 km 7 8/31 9/6 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 6 km @5:37 Rest / XT Tempo Run Dist: 10 km, inc Warm; 6 km @ 4:45; Cool Easy Run Dist: 6 km @5:37 Rest / XT Long Run Dist: 32 km @5:37 54 km 8 9/7 9/13 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 10 km @5:37 Rest / XT Tempo Run Dist: 11 km, inc Warm; 8 km @ 4:48; Cool Easy Run Dist: 10 km @5:37 Rest / XT Long Run Dist: 26 km @5:37 57 km 9 9/14 9/20 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 8 km @5:34 Rest / XT Speedwork Dist: 13 km, inc Warm; 4x1600 in 7:05 w/800 jogs; Cool Easy Run Dist: 6 km @5:34 Rest / XT Long Run Dist: 32 km @5:34 59 km 10 9/21 9/27 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 5 km @5:34 Rest / XT Tempo Run Dist: 8 km, inc Warm; 5 km @ 4:40; Cool Easy Run Dist: 5 km @5:34 Rest / XT Long Run Dist: 13 km @5:34 31 km 11 9/28 10/4 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 5 km @5:41 Rest / XT Tempo Run Dist: 8 km, inc Warm; 5 km @ 4:45; Cool Easy Run Dist: 5 km @5:41 Rest / XT Marathon Race Day 26.2 miles @5:04 Time: 3:34:26 60 km

Legend Example What it Means Easy Run Dist: 3km @8:00 Run a total distance of 3 kilometers at a pace of 8 minutes per kilometer. Speedwork Dist: 8km, inc Warm; 3x800 in 4:00 w/400 jogs; Cool Run a total distance of 8 kilometers. Your run should include: - a warmup of about 1.5km - 3 repeats of 800 meters each; each repeat should take 4 minutes - a 400-meter recovery jog after each repeat - a cooldown of about 1.5 km Note: Warmups and cooldowns are generally 1.5 km each. But on some days, you'll need to make them longer to reach the total distance for your run. Rest /XT Take a rest day, or do moderate cross-training activity. Race Day Dist: 5K @5:00  Time: 20:00 On a race day, run your 5K at a 5-minute per kilometer pace. Your time will be 25:00.

Wonderful weather - a Motivator to run

We have been very lucky with the weather is Iceland so far and that has inspired and motivated me to run more this week although my mileage does not show that :) I have done about 55 kms so far this month. The reason for the slack in the mileage is the fact that I have not done any really long runs that I was doing last month. The longest that I did was 37km, the plan was to do a 40km the following weekend but it never happened as I went on vacation to the summer house and then I decided to do a 18km with a buddy of mine so net net it has not contributed to my mileage.

No worries, I did 15km yesterday and will be doing 10 to 15 km today and that should add to my miles this month.

11.45km run after a break

I wanted to work on a Yasso 800 speed workout on the track but met with some of my friends and ended up running 11.45km in 1:04 hours at an average pace of 5:39/km. It was an ok run given my Heart Rate was around 150 BPM and I was running quite easily the pace. Finished the run with some weight training and some core workout. So net net a good start after the one week break. The goal for this month is 180 km and I plan to do 40km this weekend. Here is the run details:

Cough and wife... stopping me from my 40k

Image via Wikipedia

Ok, thats a lousy excuse... but I have been coughing and not feeling 100% to go out for a 40k run. My wife has been threatening me with a divorse if I went out and did the run anyway! I figured it is better for me to take a short break and maybe do it next weekend. I wanted to do some research on distance that can be run as part of the training for the marathon:

1. Here is what Patric McCrann, author of the Irondistance Run Training eBook and a seven-time Ironman finisher and avid endurance runner had to say: 3 hour is the limit if you run for more than 3 hours then you are doing more damage to your body than train it.

2. Marathon Training says DO NOT run the whole marathon distance! I wonder why... the longest they recommend is 23 miles!

3. Greg McMillan has a very interesting strategy about long runs, he splits the goal of the long run into two

a) Long, Slow Distance Long run with the following objectives

1. Burn fat
2. Strengthen legs
3. Deal with mental and physical fatigue

b) Fast finish, Long run

1. Practise marathon goal pace
2. Practise equipment, nutrition, pre-race routine
3. Learn to run fast when tired

I like the second set of goals and here are the guidelines

1. Start easy but finish with last 30-90 minutes averaging marathon goal pace
2. Run last 1 to 3 miles as fast as you can
3. Complete 3 to 5 times before the actual race

11km slow run this morning

It was a nice slow run this morning for about 11 km, did a couple of hill workout during the run. Here is the split of the run by km:

The average pace was 5:26/km, which is the pace in which I ran my longest training run yet...

I'm a Runner: Jon Cryer from RunnersWorld.com

My favorite shows "Two and Half Men"'s one of the main character Jon Cryer is a Runner... he has done 15 triathlons! impressive I'm a Runner: Jon Cryer from RunnersWorld.com

Midnight Run - 10k PB 46:03

Reykjavik Marathon Association organized a Midnight run (starts at around 10pm) yesterday. I ran the 10k race and finished it in 46 minutes and 3 seconds. Here is the official result. This is my personal best in a 10k race and I improved on my previous best by 4 minutes! It is an amazing feeling to really see improvement after training really hard. I feel that I could have pushed myself a little harder in a couple of laps but I guess that is how you feel after every run... maybe thats what keeps us going.

Strategy during the run

I had a simple strategy to run as hard as I can for a lap (I have my Garmin, set for autolap on every 1 km) and try to keep it under 5 min/lap. It is amazing when you can set a goal and threshold... here are the splits:

Longest training run yet: 36.07 km in 3hr 16min

Started running at 7:22 am on Sunday, the goal was to run 36 km but I did not have time goal... coming to think of it I should have. I ran the first 15km at an average pace of 4 min 54 sec, which I presumed was good enough to keep my overall average around 5:15 but I ended up doing 11 seconds slower. The average pace was 5 min 26 sec not terrible but still slower than I thought I would do.

Another thing I noticed was that I was much more tired during the run than I was in my previous long runs, I think the reason is due to lack of proper sleep. We just got a 8 week old black labradore puppy and she has been keeping us up in the night.

New running strategy

I had a great run this sunday, I started at 7:30 in the morning and did 32 km at an average pace of 5 min 13 seconds. But I found a very interesting thing about myself and my running strategy... I ran almost 20 km at an average pace of less than 5 min and I was not that tired even after doing that and the rest of the 12 km I was all over the place on pace depending on the terrain, if it was hilly I slowed down and if it was down hill I sped up net-net I only lost 13 seconds in my overall pace... what was even more interesting is that my average pace was 5:08 until the 29 km, I lost another 5 seconds per km in the last 3 kms.

New Strategy

Well, I think if I run as hard as I can in the first leg of the race and cover as much distance as I can then I can actually afford to slow down in the latter half and it does not affect my overall time that much. I am going to work on my speed and improve my fast pace say to around 4 min a km, I have a way to measure this during the Yasso Speed work, I am doing about 3:15 for 800m... I need to pick that up to 3:00

My first Yasso 800 track work

I followed up on the plan and did my first Yasso 800 speed work this afternoon and here is the result:

As can be seen I did 800 meters in

3 min 15 sec

3 min 12 sec

3 min 18 sec

which tells me if I can continue on this form and run the 800 meters in similar time when I repeat the Yasso runs with 5 laps and 10 laps, I should look for a finish time of 3 hours and 15 min for the marathon!

If I can accomplish that I can qualify for the Boston Marathon! Lets see how my training progresses... lots of "Ifs" :)

Running Goals

I have set some personal goals related to my running:

1. Register and run Chicago Marathon and New York Marathon

2. Qualify for Boston Marathon

3. Compete in Iron Man in 2012

I think all the goals are acheivable, if I am going to put in the work.

So, what are the challenges?

I need to improve my Marathon time by over 45 minutes to qualify for Boston

I need to learn swimming as I can barely survive in the water

Plans

I am running Chicago Marathon this october, and my goal there is to see how far I can push myself towards qualifying for Boston. In order to increase my time I am planning to do a lot more track runs. The plan is to start to do some track work today, I am going to run 3x800 at a pace of about 3 min 20 sec as recommended by Yasso below.

Copenhagen Marathon 2008

I finally went and bought a memory card reader and was able to get the pictures loaded onto Picasa. Ragnar was my running partner during the training and on the marathon. I had written about my result last year in another post. I completed the marathon in 4:08:00, my running partner on the other hand did much better he finished in 3:45 or something like that. I was very happy for him. Overall it was a good experience. The Copenhagen Marathon route was very interesting as well, the buildings, the water cannals and parks were very pretty but I remember the weather to be little chilly and windy.

I remember keeping up with Ragnar until the 25th km and we were averaging a pace of 5:24 min/km, which would have been a great race completion pace. I am hoping to better my PB in Berlin in the coming Chicago Marathon.

Chicago Marathon 2009 - October 11

I have registered to run the Chicago Marathon on October 11, 2009... I will be using this blog instead of my other blog to chronicle my preparation

10km in 50min on Dec 31 race in Reykjavik

Finally! achieved a goal in running. It was quite a thrill to be able to beat your own demons... I have tried to break into the 50 minutes for 10km race since I started running in 2006 and finally did it almost 3 years later!