Diwali week and recovery plan

I don't think I have had such a holiday filled Diwali ever before. I will not be working five of the seven days this week.

I have had to take a break from running, to give my legs some much required break (well its a forced break, did not really have a choice) and to also get on a course of anti-inflammatory medication during the week. I am taking Voviron 50mg (antibiotic) and combining is with Evion 400mg, vitamin E medication (to ensure that there is no cramping). I am taking this under medication supervision. Self medication can be dangerous. The only reason I am putting this up on my blog is so that I remember what i had taken and when (pl. do not take this medication without consulting your doctor). The course started on Monday night.

I need to keep my legs moving so started the week with a swim today, I did around 1.2km today and managed 1km in about 29minutes. I will keep a track of my distance and time over the next few swims so that I can get a better idea of my standard/default pace. Which means I will have to do a minimum of 1km, will try and do at least 2km on one of the days.

I will be swimming thrice this week, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I will mix it with a cycling trip n Wednesday with a 20km plus trip. If all goes well, I should be back in business on Sunday with a 10km run. The plan is well laid out and hope that things fall in place.

Things going from bad to worse..

Things don't look very promising and I will need to take some corrective action to get things back on track.

Last weeks slide continued, I managed to run on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. I only managed 10.5km run on all three days. The Sunday run was the most difficult, my right leg is definitely not in good shape. Thankfully this is not a injury, its just strain and hammering my leg has received over the past few months. But, that does not make things any easier.

I plan to use the new week, which has tons of holidays to get my right leg back in shape. I can't afford to rest them completely as that will set me back big time and I won't be in the right shape for my Bangalore Ultra on November 16. So next week should see a good amount of cycling and swimming, I just need to find motivation to ensure that I do one of the two on at least four of the five holidays I have next week.

Interesting week..

Last week was quite different. My legs were strained, actually my right calf and upper part of the ankle were feeling awful and I knew my body needed rest and by Tuesday I was also struck by a nasty cold. The cold made my body feel drained and tired.

I still managed to run on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Managed two 10.5km runs on Friday and Saturday, followed by a 21km run on Sunday, taking the weeks tally to 42km. Things don't look too good with my right leg (Calf and shin). Will be watchful and decide accordingly.

Things are improving..

This weekend turned out to be a lot better than what I had expected out of myself. I managed a reasonable 12km run in about 1hr 20mins and followed it up with a 20km run in 2hr15mins. It was a bit of effort and yes my legs are a little strained due to the training. But there seems to be no injury, thank god for small mercies.

Now I only need to stick it out and keep chipping away and aim for a 50+ week for the next 3-4 week, don't think I want to push my body with a really long run. Will attempt it only if my legs feel really good on one of the Sundays, as the last thing i need is a injury before the ultra.

I have got most of the things organised for the Bangalore ultra on November 16, including my tickets for Saturday afternoon, to make it well in time for the Sunday ultra. I don't think I will be able to make much improvement on my 11hr 7 minutes time at the ultra, but am confident that this time my recovery after the ultra marathon is going to be a lot better.

I also have a very strong feeling that given my current training, the biggest benefit is going to come during my Bombay marathon. I stand a good chance of doing a time of under 4hr 20mins.

Tough times..

I was away for quite a few days on work, but managed to put some kilometres into my training. The good thing is that this was around a steep hill on asphalt roads, which meant I could pack more effort with less kilometres. It also meant that my legs took some beating, I had some stiffness around my shins before I left and this sort of aggravated it.

I managed to run on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and did 6km, 9km and 6km respectively. Which does not sound much but the high impact doing downhill and the steep climb ensured that I kept up with my training going. But, when today I had a tough time doing my planned 20km and managed only 12km in about 1hr 25minutes.

I will try my best to get over this stiffness around my shins and manage some good distances over the weekend. Guess these are the after effects of the hard training of last few weeks. I hope I feel much better and legs are back to normal on Sunday, badly need a 35-40km run in October.

Registered for Bangalore Ultra

I finally got down to actually registering for the Bangalore ultra on November 16, 2008. This year they thankfully have a online payment option, which makes things sooo simple.

visit for online registration http://www.thefullerlife.com/index.php?id=568

For offline registration download the form - http://www.thefullerlife.com/index.php?id=206

The rates are Rs.1250 for regular people and Rs.1000 for RFL members (and it costs Rs.1000 a year to become a RFL members). Strange that they don't have a lower rate for last years runners, which is a usual policy at most progressive marathons. Guess they are more keen to build RFL membership.

And yes these are special early bird rates, applicable till October 15, 2008. After this they go up a little. They have also made arrangement to stay at Our Native Village, venue for the Ultra marathon.

13k plus 7.5k, plus more to come

I was not able to run on Tuesday morning as my legs still appeared a little strained from last week. Thought of making up for it on Wednesday, but as luck would have it, I went out to catch a awesome event in town and slept very late. And then it was down to Thursday, which was a holiday. As usual I got up early but could not get out of home before 8.20am, the scheduled time was 7am!

Given the heat, sun and humidity, I knew I would not be able to do the planned 20km, so did the second best thing. I did a 13km run in the morning and followed it up with a 7.5km run in the evening. Now its down to two more weekend runs on Saturday and Sunday while I am traveling, I don't think I will be able to make up for the lost day, but that is not really a problem. Till the time i got the long run today (breaking it up into two parts is as good, as it helps me to train at make quicker recoveries)