super couple of weeks..

Its been a wonderful week. Could not manage runs during the first half of the week due to various reasons, primary one being not able to get adequate amount of sleep. So I decided to convert this shortcoming into an opportunity. I planed to run on all days, Thursday to Sunday and was hoping to also add an swim on Saturday.

And everything went as per plan, I ran on Thursday and Friday, 11km to work and did 14.5k on Saturday and topped it off with a 17k run on Sunday, taking the four day tally to 54k. This is the first time I have attempted and completed four consecutive/successive runs. This gives me a lot of confidence for taking up multi-stage ultras, as they not about running hard or long, but about recovering from your run and putting another run, day after day. I hope to come to a position where I can do four half marathons back to back without much effort, to be in a position to mentally prepare myself for a multi-stage ultra.

The week before that was also very eventful and special. I was going through my twitter feeds on (www.twitter.com/girishmallya) to find out what I was upto during the week. I also discovered the reason for not being able to post last weekend, my internet connect wasn't working properly for the whole of last week :(

The highlight of the week was a bike trip from home till a place called Khargar, its about 25km from my place. This was the first long bike trip I have ever attempted, my previous best was a 22km trip. It felt really good doing this 48km trip, climbing steep flyovers (some of them were very steep and would be impossible to climb without a geared bike), riding on a national highway, going downhill at over 50km/hr, having state transport bus drivers intentionally coming close to you (for some stupid sick reason), the only thing that you need to rely on is your skill & riding ability. Plus its also getting that extra confidence to be able to ride on the highway with ease, instead of getting stressed out. Thankfully I had a fellow cyclist with me (who has done many long distance biking trips) leading the way. I would never have attempted this trip, had he not been there, riding solo on these highways is not a sensible thing to do. I hope to do a 75k or 100k biking trip as soon as I find another person or group to do it with, physically I know I am ready for any of these distances, but there is no way I can do it without someone to pace with (plus obviously having more than 2 riders makes things safer not only from the traffic point of view but also incase of a puncture or accident).

In addition to this wonderful and memorable biking trip (I hope to do the same trip again, as I want to see wonderful Khargar during the monsoons, it was the first time I had been to that place and it was truly beautiful), I also managed three runs, including a 18k on Sunday and a 17k run on Friday (after a really late night and 3 hours of sleep on Thursday), all of this made the last week also very special. And yes I think I did one more run on Tuesday or Wednesday, but can't recollect, it was a 11k run.

So its been two very good weeks, but I need to focus and continue biking or swimming atleast once a week, badly need cross training to stay injury free.

Weekend getaway in some really hot weather..

Managed 4 runs during the week, did two 11k runs on Wednesday and Thursday. Took a two day break, to Sula Vineyard Nashik and had a great time. This place is about 200km from Bombay, but its not muggy like Bombay, just plain dry heat. This forced me to hit the gym at Ginger Hotel, my first treadmill run in a long time. Running on treadmill is so easy, esp with the Aircon on ;-) Managed a 7k run in 40minutes (the equipment was really good, maybe coz its a new hotel). I completed the week with a very hard 15k run in 1hr 45, Stupid lazy me started at 8.30am in the morning and paid the price for it. I did a total of 44km for the week. It was a good lesson for me, I need to start at 7am in the morning on both work days and holidays!

I have a long weekend in the coming week, hope to stay in Bombay and catch up on Running and swimming. Need to get some good mileage in.