Arun Rajaraman

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....

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 i...

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 ...

In my 2022 wrap-up blog here , I had some thoughts on what I would like to do this year. A mid-year check-in to see where I stand. Consistency: Check   Active days: 115 out of 181 days (~63%), averaged 227 km/month Mostly regular, barring one week when we were on holiday in the North East (I should make time to blog about that memorable trip some day) and again between Jun 15-26 as rest time to recover from the impact 4th toe on the left foot bore after a freak gym accident, stupid enough a 15 lb. dumbbell fell on my foot. The damn foot still hurts! Training Volume: Check 75% of 2020 volume, i.e. 2,745 km for 2023 Right now, coincidentally at 1,362.82 km (~49.65%), 1,382.18 km left for back half. Even-stevens! Have been chipping away without even tracking the target. I'd say, it has nicely fallen in place Strength Training: Check Twice a week is the target 38 sessions in 26 weeks. That's 3 sessions in 2 weeks against a target of 4 sessions in 2 weeks This volume is nothing gre...

Around mid November, I got a place to run London Marathon April of this year, this was right after I got back from the States after NYC Marathon, if you haven't read I have blogged it  here . I continued clocking easy/aerobic base miles during November & December, averaged about 30 km/week. Just shuffling my legs and staying in touch. I started training with right earnest for London Marathon the week commencing Jan 23, it was a 13 weeks training block building up to the big day, Apr 23rd. Call w/ Neeraj Engineer Beginning Jan, I was scrolling through my Garmin app and chanced on a run Neeraj did in Pune which meant he was visiting. As he was in town, thought would ring him and chat up for a bit. We talked about various things and ofcourse running too. I casually mentioned to him about the upcoming London Marathon, he asked me about how the training was and what the plan was. I hadn't started training specifically for London and/or had any plan at the time. With no so great...