Training since Dec and amidst Covid-19 lockdown


The last race I ran was the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K mid Dec. I kept the momentum going in Dec, happened to clock my highest ever mileage (430 km), I was pretty pleased with how my training was coming along for Tata Mumbai Marathon (TMM) on 19-Jan. As my luck would have it, the week of Jan 13th, I contracted a pretty bad eye infection and was not able to run the Mumbai Marathon. I do want to run a marathon in Mumbai one day.

I had mentally prepared myself for drop in training volume starting Feb due to my new job that I started on Feb 4. I went about with my training as much as I could without stressing about the miles I would log. If I compare start of the year until mid May, I ran ~11% more (about 1,286 km) compared to last year (1,152 km). Lockdown & work from home seemed to have helped keeping the miles ticking.

Training during Covid-19 lockdown, 
  • I had somewhat taken running in GKVK for granted. I can't believe my last run there was on 13-Mar. Starting 15-Mar, GKVK stopped allowing runners to enter due to Covid-19
  • Without much choice, moved my training field to Jakkur Lake, they shut for public a week later also
  • I was pretty bugged with all public places which provided opportunity for running in trail closing down, I just took a break from 23-Mar to 29-Mar 
  • MCECHS & Telecom Layout became my next training ground, but that was short lived due to dog menace, bad roads and general filth
  • Without much choice left in and around my area and the lockdown in full effect, I moved my training to my apartment complex. Thankfully I can do a 2 km loop within the apartment complex, but the challenge is to negotiate a pretty steep climb on the way out. My first 10 km on 9-Apr was a nightmare, I was out of breath and struggled to maintain decent pace due to lack of uphill training over the years. I did all my runs in that 2 km loop during Apr, 1 km out uphill and back. I ran many 100 minutes week day runs, 1 or 2 half marathons until end of Apr. Over the weeks in Apr, running this loop, my runs felt stronger, avg heart rate dropping for the same pace
  • Since 2-May, I have been running the Airport Road flyover that starts across Aster hospital and goes all the way up to Yelahanka AF station. The road is shut for vehicular traffic at the moment, but I am sure as the airport opens, so would this road. At which point, I would need to find another place to take my run to
  • These 2-3 months has been only easy base miles building as per my mentor (Shailja's) advise, I think it would continue like this rest of the year, given the mess Covid-19 has left the world in
  • I am fairly confident I can manage a decent finish time with a few weeks of speed work training thrown in closer to a race (whenever there is one!). For now, I am thoroughly enjoying what I am managing
I am a data driven guy, so some stats.

Weekly mileage since mid Dec through mid May. The trend-line is flattish and going slight down :). 

Weekly mileage 15-12-19 - 10-05-20

Elevation gain week on week since mid Dec through mid May.

Weekly elevation gain 15-12-19 - 10-05-20






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

25

Today marks the Silver jubilee of my professional journey. Hey-ho, my grey hair might be suggestive of a Golden jubilee. I joined Cybermedia in Pune straight out of college on July 20, 1998. I vividly remember everything that transpired that day, the long drive, the welcome and the dozen odd programming assignments that we, bunch of college grads were given part of training. Cybermedia/Ensim helped build a solid foundation that has stood me in good stead to date. To be honest, my move to McAfee, Network Associates, Inc. then and to Bengaluru happened by chance in Sep 2002. I wanted to experience living in another city, be by myself and work in a Public company. I have had the fortune to have worked at a startup, McAfee - public company in Cybersecurity space that went through multiple M&As and most recently at Epsilon - in the AdTech/MarTech space, a fully owned subsidiary of public company Publicis Groupe. 3 employers in 25 long years isn’t too bad. I’ll take that. The journey so
Read more

Tokyo Marathon

Image
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
Read more

TM - Weekly Buildup

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
Read more