The Human Race - August 31, 2008

The Human Race is slated to be the largest/biggest race ever. No this is not a ultra marathon, its more than that. Its a 10km run, which will be run (at the same time) by over one million runners in 28 different cities of the world.
The cities are -
Europe - Amsterdam, Istambul, Johannesburg, London, Madrid, Moscow, Munich, Paris, Rome, Warsaw
Americas - Bogota, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Lima, Mexico city, Quito, Sao Paulo, Vancouver
Asia Pacific - Melbourne, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo
United States - Austin, Chicago, LA, New York

Its sad that Bombay or New Delhi has not been included in the list. Had Bombay been there, I would have definately participated in it. Not sure what is the reason for the organiser (Nike), not having included a single city form China or India (if you exclude Taipei), two of the most populus cities. It would have been wonderful to have been a part of this initiative (even thought its a pure commercial exercise) and have asked my friends at CMP India to ensure that Bombay is a part of it next time around, should there be something like this again.

This is slated to be one of the biggest marketing initiatives (both the scale, resources and monetary investment) done by any organisation.

The beneficiaries of this initiative (Other than ofcourse the organiser - Nike) are WWF (World Wildlife Fund), Lance Armstrong foundation and ninemillion.org.

For more details and registration visit www.nikeplus.com

Weekday run after a long time

I finally managed my first weekday run (on a working day) in a long time. Managed to do a 13.5Km run in 1hr 31mins. Which included few minutes of walking at regular intervals and a break to pickup my breakfast, not bad at all.

Am feeling a lot better today after the run and hope to do my next run on Sunday. Next week I plan to do two weekday runs, basically run from home to work. With my ultra backpack things are a lot easier as I can also carry my work clothes in them (not everything but things that I need specifically on a particular day). Plus this weekend I hope to get my water pouch for the ultra backpack, which is going to make running a lot easier, as I will not have to remove the pack off my back each time I need water, I just sip water using the extended pipe which is attached to my 1.5liter water pouch.

I hope to use the water pack for the Sunday run, as I would get it on Saturday. One regularly needs these extra to keep adding that extra excitment to running. I also need to buy a new pair of running shoes, I am waiting for my regular vendor to arrange the Adidias Nova pair from me as its been out of stock for sometime (hope to get it soon).

Yet to get started...

Am yet to get really started. Things were really looking good at the end of last sunday, but mid-week I was struck by a bad bout of bad throat infection. So this meant the only time I could actually run was on Sunday and managed a 10.5km run. I took about 1hr 11mins to complete the run.

Its been a hectic and tough week on multiple front. But am sure I will bounce back next week with some good runs.

Refreshing weekend runs

Its been fun a weekend, truly relaxed and laid back, something which I badly needed as last couple of months have been very hectic. I did some good runs this week, did a 55minute run on Saturday, followed by two runs on Sunday of 65mins and 17mins (morning and evening). My legs seem to be holding up quite well, but I have not done a 12km Plus run for many weeks now (that will be the real test). Saturday run was difficult as my lungs are not really used to doing even a 10km run, so I have had to mix it up with short walks. This will get sorted out once I start running atleast 3 times a week. Waiting to do a 20km run very soon. I have also managed early starts this weekend, started at 7.45 on both days. Given the weather conditions I don't really have much of a choice, but have managed to do this without sacrificing on sleep.

So after a long time I managed to do 20km plus mileage in one week. Hope to carry the good work to the next week. Look forward to doing some week day runs, will hopefully manage 3 runs during the week.

A roller coaster ride

This week has been quite a bit of a Roller coaster ride. The first half of the week was quite normal, but mid week I was suddenly hit by a viral infection (severe throat and body ache, accompanied by mild fever). I was not able to rest sufficiently on Thursday as I had a action packed work day on Friday. But, after that I was able to take complete rest from Friday evening to Saturday evening (tons of sleep, with food breaks & snatches of India's disappointing performance in the second test against South Africa).

By Saturday evening I was almost back to normal. To confirm the same, I decided to go for a short 3km run and a well deserved cup of coffee at my favorite coffee shop, to celebrate my recovery. The run was almost effortless and the blues of the viral were blown away. I needed this run before I attempted my Sunday morning run.

Sunday morning I started early, at 7.45 which has been the quickest start time for a long time. With temperatures going up, even a half an hour delay makes a huge difference. I managed to complete the 11km run in about 1hr 05minutes, which is quite close to my regular pace, thought this was a mixed with walk and run. Which clearly means that the lower frequency of runs (now restricted to 1 or 2 runs a week) have resulted in my losing my running rhythm (without really the finish times).

But the highlight has been the super quick recovery from illness and I have only endurance sport (distance running) to thank. The quality of rest is now so much better, which helps the body bounce back in double quick time. Its almost as if the illness is like a 50km run and you need about a day to recover and get back to normal. I would never have imagined myself running so soon after recovering from an illness.

So along with the known benefits of regular running, like a 40% reduction in chances of a heart attack, weight reduction, better energy levels & stamina, there is a new one - super quick recovery from illness, esp. flu. (and this would also extend to bigger things like surgeries).