Arun Rajaraman

I made  a 13 weeks training plan for Tokyo Marathon with the training block starting early December. Nothing fancy really, 5-6 days of running every week (most runs were Easy/Aerobic/Zone 2 Heart Rate runs, 1-2 steady runs and one day of intervals to keep me sharp) and two days of full body strength training using some light weights and body-weight based exercises. The 3 weeks of taper originally had lot more miles every week, but chatting with Neeraj Engineer, I cut down the weekly mileage drastically to keep my legs fresh and body rested closer to the race, which surely was super useful. The detailed weekly buildup is  here  should you be interested. Before the race  My maternal cousin (Sairam) lives in Tokyo   and was very kind to host me. As this was my first trip to Japan, I did want to get there early to make time for some sightseeing before and after the race, Sairam helped plan a rough sightseeing itinerary based on my interest for days before and after the race. I arrived Wedn

Week 12, updated Sunday, 25-Feb-2024, 0945 1000.98 km (crossed 1000 km in 12 weeks), average of 83.41 km/week. 2 days of strength training with half the usual reps. Office was hectic as expected, managed to complete work well within the deadline. Did one 10 km at steady marathon pace and 10 km easy during the week. I moved the weekend 8 miles to Friday as I wanted to run the Epsilon 5 km race during the weekend. Epsilon 5 km race was fun, managed to run a negative split 5 km which would be a confidence booster for coming Sunday. It was a pleasure to see a lot of people from my team getting up early in the morning, lacing up and running or running-walking the 5 km. It was an electric Saturday morning. Distance: 40.54 km Exercise duration: 3:52:38 Weight: 71.2 kg Week 11, updated Sunday, 17-Feb-2024, 1048 960.44 km in this training block thus far, average of 87.31 km/week. Another 2 weeks of taper to go before the race. Managed 2 days of strength training during the week - will reduce th

2023   An year of base miles training which would help 2024 and beyond. In my 2022 year-end blog here , I'd set some goals. I also did a checkpoint mid year here . The new year is here and it's about time to look at how 2023 wrapped up. 2745 km was the target distance I wanted to hit, which is btw 75% of my 2020 yearly mileage. Closed the year with 2,919.7 km (~79.77%). 243.5 km/month, 56.1 km/week. Very pleased with the outcome Strength training always took backseat in my workouts, I made a conscious attempt to correct that this year, very happy on how the year paned out. My appearance at races/event continued to be limited in 2023 which I don't intend to change in 2024. I have decided to participate in 2-3 events in any calendar year, however train all through the year. Races I participated this year, London Marathon, you can read about that here  and another half marathon at NDA in Pune which I have blogged here Body weight continued to be around ~70 kg/155 lb Drinking s

I  have been meaning to visit the Vaishnodevi shrine and Harmandir Sahib for over a decade I’d say. But the trip never materialised and was always in ‘planning’ stage. I’m sure lot of you reading this blog would have destinations you have been meaning to go to but it takes forever to get real. This year my annual outing to New Delhi was due, it is usually to go hang out with Sreekrishna aka Tyson, eat some amazing food and also run the Delhi Half Marathon and return. This year, on the same date as Delhi Half Marathon, there was the NDA Marathon in Pune which I had registered to run, you can read all about it here as a result I didn’t have my usual ‘race’ or excuse to visit Delhi. Around mid August though, I was talking to Tyson and asked him if he’d be interested in going to Vaishnodevi & Amritsar. We tried to loop in Sriram too, he however couldn’t make these dates due to constraints. I booked flight to and from Delhi, the idea was to commute between the other cities by train. I f

Bharath (a close friend of mine, my veda guru and a runner) I'd think, got slightly serious to train for NYC Marathon only after he got his US visa around 3rd week of July. I having run the race last year and moderately struggling due to lack of prep etc, didn't want Bharath to take it lightly. Especially, after his sub-par mileage and lack of training in the first half of the year. Just for context, between Jan-Jul, 7 months duration his average monthly mileage was < 25 km. By any stretch of imagination very inadequate to run a moderately hard course like NYC. He ran the Tata Mumbai Marathon in 5:37:03 in Jan, averaging ~8:00/km pace nursing an injury and I'm sure not enjoying the second half or latter miles due to the struggles. I for one won't recommend anyone toe the line for a marathon without sufficient training. The suffering and experience isn't just worth it. Training Plan I cooked up a training plan for a duration of 14 weeks which was modelled with th

Why I registered for the NDA Half Marathon and my prep Col Suvranshu Roy, my schoolmate, mentioned to me 3rd week of May about National Defence Academy (NDA) organizing  a running event in Pune to celebrate 75 glorious years of NDA. I registered for the event promptly, only because, it would be one-of-it’s-kind opportunity to run a race in the NDA campus, it, I thought was all the more special given I went to KV NDA for my XI & XII grade and have fond memories of the campus and the fun I had back in school. This was still early June, I booked flights to arrive Thu, so I could hang out with my parents and celebrate my dad’s 80th on Fri, meet friends, run the race and get back Sunday.   At the time, back in June, I was mostly building base miles, shuffling around and mostly doing aerobic runs having run the London Marathon in Apr, you could read about it here . The other race I had on the horizon was the Malnad 50 km Ultra which Sriram, TNR and I were planning to run in Nov to