Give Up

Last Saturday was a disaster. I did something that I don’t remember doing before as far as running is concerned.

I gave up.

Here are the gory details.

I had just bought a new pair of shoes. Asics. I had been on Reeboks for the past several years but had heard a lot about Asics. Also, the sales guy at the Reebok store was a complete asshole who did not have a clue about running.

Anyways.

So, this Saturday, I wake up early in the morning, get ready and slip on my brand new running shoes. When I hit the road at around 5.15, I notice a very light drizzle and a cool breeze blowing. Fantastic weather, I say to myself and look forward to the run.

This would have been the first long run in this year ever since I declared my intentions to run the full marathon in January 2012. The plan was to run for 3 hours. And this was not something terribly outrageous; I had already run 21 km in 2 hrs 40 minutes some years ago so I was not scared of the 3 hour run at all.

Within fifteen minutes of starting I was feeling pretty uncomfortable and had to sit down. I took off the shoes and put them on again trying to adjust the tightness of the fit. This seemed to have helped since I did not have any more problems. At least for the first half of the run.

As planned, I kept running till I had been running for 1 ½ hours and then turned back towards home. By then, I started having a very bad fatigue-like pain in my right hip. On top of that, the arches of my soles were in a lot of pain. My new shoes have a little bit of arch support and I guess my feet were not accustomed to this.

Anyways, I kept going, increasing the duration of the walk-breaks and running for shorter periods. However, it kept getting worse and I decided to call it quits. Hailed an auto and drove back home.

I did not last for more than 2 hours.

While there is still some soreness in my legs I think it is more of getting used to my new shoes. Tomorrow is a holiday and I might try a shorter one hour run to see how things go. If I get used to these new shoes then great, otherwise I will have to go to that Reebok store and buy another pair of shoes.

Shoes

Needless to say, shoes are pretty important. I have used Reeboks for most of my running life; getting great value for money at the factory price outlets. I also tried Adidas once which were good but not as good as the Reeboks.

Shoes last for around 600 kms and need to be discarded after they have run the distance. During my early days, I didn’t know any better and my middle class mentality pushed me to keep going on the old shoes.

As a result, I have invited pain in my legs several times in the past – which fortunately went away each time I changed my shoes. Once I had developed a pea sized knot in my left heel that was so painful that I could not put my barefoot on the ground. Another time I got a good case of shin splits - the shin area starts hurting a lot in the place where the bone and the muscles meet. Very, very painful. But it went away after I took some rest and changed my shoes.

Eager to find out what the new Asics will do to my legs and feet. Will I get used to them? Or will I be forced to change?

Time will tell.

The Running Strategy

Took advantage of the holiday today and ran a lap of the Hussain Sagar lake – a little over 9 kms. Took me 65 minutes but was completely drained out by the end of the run. Long way to go Brajesh….. if you get exhausted in running 9 kms, how will you last 42??

Running Strategy

I will be following the same regimen that I have been using for the past years – the one that has allowed me to complete several Half Marathon events.

Introduced to me by my friend and then colleague Atish, I shall be following the world famous Jeff Galloway’s running method – a combination of walk/run segments as against a continuous run from start to end.

In this method, you run for a while, walk for 1 minute and then run again for the same time duration.

You keep interrupting your run with 1 minute walk breaks that let your muscles recover and energize you for the next segment. I have been using a 7 minute run + 1 minute walk during the 21 kms and this has allowed me to finish the runs within a range of 2 hrs 24 minutes to 2 hrs 35 minutes.

But here is the tricky part. I just did the math for the full marathon and the task is going to be very, very difficult.

If I have to complete the run in 5 hours, and if I maintain a speed of 5 kms/hr during each of the 1 minute walk breaks that I will be taking, I will have to run for 8 minutes at the speed of 8.5 kms/hr – for a full 5 hour period.

The most that I have done is 7 minutes with an average running speed a shade lesser than 8 kms/hr so this is really, really going to stretch me.

Planning to use the treadmill to get myself into the routine of running for 8 long minutes @ 8.5 kms/hr. Or, I could run for 4 minutes and take a 30 second walk break…..

Will try out all combinations – luckily there is time for me to experiment and also to build my stamina to see me thru a 5 hour run.

Will keep you posted on the developments.