After the Kaiser half, discovered that somehow I had strained my right calf. So, took a few days off with the good ol' RICE therapy and decided to test it out on the following Saturday. We met at Los Gatos and did an 18 miler without too much trouble (at 10 min pace). There - the last long run out of the way.
The following 2 weeks had rain playing havoc with our running plans (though God knows we do need the rain in the Bay Area to alleviate the drought like conditions). Had to make do with a 9 mile run on the treadmill (instead of 13) - running on treadmill is really boring after running outside!
Followed that up with a 6x800 track session in pouring rain (at 3:40-3:45 per 800); wanted to do the Yasso (10x800 with jog) but again rain had the last laugh. Coach Raman proposed an interesting workout for the 6 miler on Feb 21 - 1 mile at 8:55 pace, 1 mile at 8:45, 1 mile at 8:35, 1 mile of sprints (run at 5K pace for 1 min folllowed by 1 min jog) followed by a 1 mile cool down.
Something about engaging the fast twitch fibers!!
Had a track session on Tuesday (4x400 at goal pace - 2:10 per 400) and a short easy run on Friday.
Plan to head out to Napa with the gang - Satish, Mona, and Senthil on Saturday afternoon to get to the expo/bib pick up. The weather forecast calls for rain on Sunday; I guess the rain has decided to follow me since Portland. Well, I hope that at least we don't have the hail and 40 mile headwinds that they had in 2001!
No major time goals as such; a new PR would be nice but it really depends on the weather. Supposed to be a fairly easy course - let's see what Sunday brings!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Kaiser Half Marathon - Feb 1, 2009
I had fond memories of the Kaiser half. This was the race where I broke the 2 hour barrier in 2008 and had decided to use it as a checkpoint/pace run with a month to go for Napa. I was also experimenting with a different taper strategy this time. I had run a 24 miler on Jan 24th (5 weeks to Napa), and would do 13.1 at Kaiser on Feb 1. This would be followed by a 18 miler on Feb 7th and then 13 and 6.
I had decided not to run Kaiser too hard (i.e. go for a PR) but instead run a consistent pace at marathon goal pace. Ram from the Rancho Rockers was also running this race (after his on-off hibernation in the winter). So, the three of us (Ram, Shyamala his wife, and me) left around 6 am to get to the start.
After a fairly uneventful ride up, we arrived at Great Highway (having decided to park near the finish line). We took the shuttle bus to the start and arrived around 7:15 or so (start was at 8 am). Ran into some other Asha runners there including Coach Tony who gave us a quick pep talk. It was pretty chilly and I had decided to keep 2 layers on and also thankfully had my gloves. We did a short warm up run and some quick stretching. Then we moved towards the start and I lined up between the 8 min/mile and 9 min/mile groups. After the national anthem, the gun sounded and we were off.
This was my first race with the Garmin 305 and I had set it on auto-lap every 1 mile (and also to show current, last lap, and average lap pace). I tried my best to rein in the adrenaline and kept to a 8:30 pace the first few miles. It took a while to get warmed up so I made sure I did not run too fast. After a few miles, Rajeev and Raj passed me and were looking strong (and turns out had really good runs). We went around the Golden Gate park and looped back to the start. Legs felt ok but a little tired.
We crossed the start area again around mile 6 or so and then ran towards the Great highway (which we reached around mile 7/8). I was still keeping an 8:35ish pace overall. We reached the Great Highway and I remembered last year's race where the rain and wind played havoc. Thankfully, this year had sunny skies and it was warming up nicely. I was making sure I took electrolytes at most water stops but I could feel myself starting to tire a bit. The 24 miler the previous weekend (Jan 24) had taken a toll, and I decided to pull back to around a 8:40-8:45 pace.
Reached the turnaround point on the Great Highway and headed back - 3 miles or so to go. The one thing I had noticed consistently was that the Garmin was off by around 0.1-0.2 miles by now (10.2 instead of 10 at the 10 mile marker). I kept plugging along, passing some people, and being passed by others :-) Finally passed mile 12 and tried to pick up the pace a bit. I was still averaging around 8:38 or so per mile.
We turned onto Fulton and up the small hill and finally within sight of the finish. Picked up the pace to around 7:30 and went past the finish line in 1:53:02 (PR was 1:51:30). The Garmin showed 13.32 miles! (off by 0.22 miles!). Turns out that several other people observed the same thing. So, this was either a mass co-ordinated Garmin malfunction, or the race organizers messing up!
Anyhoo, kept walking to the food area and picked up some Cliff Bars and water. Met up with Rajeev, Raj and others and chatted for a bit. Waited for Ram to finish and he did so in a new personal best! Picked up our sweat bags and walked back towards the parking area where Shyamala was waitng patiently - many thanks to her!
All in all, a good race and met my goal of treating this as a fast long run. The T-shirt this year was black (better than last year), but I guess the medal fell victim to the recession (no medal this year!).
I had decided not to run Kaiser too hard (i.e. go for a PR) but instead run a consistent pace at marathon goal pace. Ram from the Rancho Rockers was also running this race (after his on-off hibernation in the winter). So, the three of us (Ram, Shyamala his wife, and me) left around 6 am to get to the start.
After a fairly uneventful ride up, we arrived at Great Highway (having decided to park near the finish line). We took the shuttle bus to the start and arrived around 7:15 or so (start was at 8 am). Ran into some other Asha runners there including Coach Tony who gave us a quick pep talk. It was pretty chilly and I had decided to keep 2 layers on and also thankfully had my gloves. We did a short warm up run and some quick stretching. Then we moved towards the start and I lined up between the 8 min/mile and 9 min/mile groups. After the national anthem, the gun sounded and we were off.
This was my first race with the Garmin 305 and I had set it on auto-lap every 1 mile (and also to show current, last lap, and average lap pace). I tried my best to rein in the adrenaline and kept to a 8:30 pace the first few miles. It took a while to get warmed up so I made sure I did not run too fast. After a few miles, Rajeev and Raj passed me and were looking strong (and turns out had really good runs). We went around the Golden Gate park and looped back to the start. Legs felt ok but a little tired.
We crossed the start area again around mile 6 or so and then ran towards the Great highway (which we reached around mile 7/8). I was still keeping an 8:35ish pace overall. We reached the Great Highway and I remembered last year's race where the rain and wind played havoc. Thankfully, this year had sunny skies and it was warming up nicely. I was making sure I took electrolytes at most water stops but I could feel myself starting to tire a bit. The 24 miler the previous weekend (Jan 24) had taken a toll, and I decided to pull back to around a 8:40-8:45 pace.
Reached the turnaround point on the Great Highway and headed back - 3 miles or so to go. The one thing I had noticed consistently was that the Garmin was off by around 0.1-0.2 miles by now (10.2 instead of 10 at the 10 mile marker). I kept plugging along, passing some people, and being passed by others :-) Finally passed mile 12 and tried to pick up the pace a bit. I was still averaging around 8:38 or so per mile.
We turned onto Fulton and up the small hill and finally within sight of the finish. Picked up the pace to around 7:30 and went past the finish line in 1:53:02 (PR was 1:51:30). The Garmin showed 13.32 miles! (off by 0.22 miles!). Turns out that several other people observed the same thing. So, this was either a mass co-ordinated Garmin malfunction, or the race organizers messing up!
Anyhoo, kept walking to the food area and picked up some Cliff Bars and water. Met up with Rajeev, Raj and others and chatted for a bit. Waited for Ram to finish and he did so in a new personal best! Picked up our sweat bags and walked back towards the parking area where Shyamala was waitng patiently - many thanks to her!
All in all, a good race and met my goal of treating this as a fast long run. The T-shirt this year was black (better than last year), but I guess the medal fell victim to the recession (no medal this year!).
Que Sera Sera (AKA the CIM relay)
Having skipped the CIM relay in 2007 due to the birth of our son (now that would have been quite a scene - me running CIM when my wife went into labor; would have led to my permanent banishment to the garage :-)), I thought I would run it this year. Adding to the motivation was my dad and brother visiting us during that time. Since my dad had never seen me run a race before, I thought it would be good idea. So, I decided to team up with Navneet and run the relay as a 2 person race (half-marathon each).
We left for Sacramento on Saturday morning with Vikranth and Ram (who had kindly offered us a ride). It was a fun trip though Ram was feeling a little under the weather (no doubt due to a Friday night party and subsequent lack of sleep). We reached the expo, picked up our stuff, and were then met there by my brother (who had arrived earlier to visit some of his wife's relatives). My dad and I went along with my brother having made plans to meet the others for dinner that night. Only Ram and Vikranth showed up and my dad and I had dinner with them at an Indian restaurant. I then chatted with Navneet and made plans to pass the chip on to him through Ram (since Navneet was running the first 2 legs and I would run the last 2).
The next morning dawned bright and clear - little did I know what was in store :-) We had arranged to have my brother pick us up at 7 am and drive us to the halfway exchange point. As we got closer, we discovered that they had shut down all of the streets leading to the exchange point. As we drove around in circles (aided by a dysfunctional GPS system that kept telling us to take the same route back again and again), my blood pressure started to rise significantly. Some frantic phone conversations ensued with Kanaka (Navneet's wife), and she mentioned he was getting closer to the exchange point.
After driving around and taking the freeway and getting off a couple of exits later, I decided enough was enough. Navneet had already reached the halfway point. I got off and told my dad and brother to wait at the finish. I asked around and discovered (much to my chagrin) that I was at the 18 mile marker!!! So, I decided to start running against the flow of runner traffic back to the 13 mile marker. Of course, this meant that I undertook some good natured ribbing from the other runners - 'Dude, you're going the wrong way!!', and 'Hey Man - lost your bearings' etc. etc.
I had my cell phone with me and was in constant conversation with Navneet. Finally managed to meet and get a hold of the timing chip. Stopped for a second to put it on - by now, we had lost over 40 minutes and I was pretty steamed. Navneet had run his 13.1 in just under 2 hours and this fiasco had cost us.
I took out my frustration on the pavement - I ran as hard as I could. Shortly after I started, I saw that I had caught up with the 5 hour pace group. I kept pounding the turf into submission and passed wave after wave of runners. The 4:50 pace group, 4:40, then 4:30. I was tiring a little but I kept going (fueled mostly by frustration at this point :-)). I finally rounded the bend and crossed the finish line in 4 hrs 25 mins and change. This meant I had run my 13 miles in 1 hr 45 mins or so (not counting the 5 miles that I ran in the other direction :-)). I looked around for my dad and brother and finally found them a bit further along with the crowd. If not for the delays, we would have finished in around 3:45!
Anyway, a lesson learned the hard way. Next time, I plan to stay in Sacramento (we stayed in Folsom near the start this time) as they have shuttles from Sacramento to the relay interchange points and the start. We had a nice lunch and then headed back that evening.
All in all a fun race - just need to be more aware of road closures next time. It turns out that most of the other Asha teams also had similar problems....
We left for Sacramento on Saturday morning with Vikranth and Ram (who had kindly offered us a ride). It was a fun trip though Ram was feeling a little under the weather (no doubt due to a Friday night party and subsequent lack of sleep). We reached the expo, picked up our stuff, and were then met there by my brother (who had arrived earlier to visit some of his wife's relatives). My dad and I went along with my brother having made plans to meet the others for dinner that night. Only Ram and Vikranth showed up and my dad and I had dinner with them at an Indian restaurant. I then chatted with Navneet and made plans to pass the chip on to him through Ram (since Navneet was running the first 2 legs and I would run the last 2).
The next morning dawned bright and clear - little did I know what was in store :-) We had arranged to have my brother pick us up at 7 am and drive us to the halfway exchange point. As we got closer, we discovered that they had shut down all of the streets leading to the exchange point. As we drove around in circles (aided by a dysfunctional GPS system that kept telling us to take the same route back again and again), my blood pressure started to rise significantly. Some frantic phone conversations ensued with Kanaka (Navneet's wife), and she mentioned he was getting closer to the exchange point.
After driving around and taking the freeway and getting off a couple of exits later, I decided enough was enough. Navneet had already reached the halfway point. I got off and told my dad and brother to wait at the finish. I asked around and discovered (much to my chagrin) that I was at the 18 mile marker!!! So, I decided to start running against the flow of runner traffic back to the 13 mile marker. Of course, this meant that I undertook some good natured ribbing from the other runners - 'Dude, you're going the wrong way!!', and 'Hey Man - lost your bearings' etc. etc.
I had my cell phone with me and was in constant conversation with Navneet. Finally managed to meet and get a hold of the timing chip. Stopped for a second to put it on - by now, we had lost over 40 minutes and I was pretty steamed. Navneet had run his 13.1 in just under 2 hours and this fiasco had cost us.
I took out my frustration on the pavement - I ran as hard as I could. Shortly after I started, I saw that I had caught up with the 5 hour pace group. I kept pounding the turf into submission and passed wave after wave of runners. The 4:50 pace group, 4:40, then 4:30. I was tiring a little but I kept going (fueled mostly by frustration at this point :-)). I finally rounded the bend and crossed the finish line in 4 hrs 25 mins and change. This meant I had run my 13 miles in 1 hr 45 mins or so (not counting the 5 miles that I ran in the other direction :-)). I looked around for my dad and brother and finally found them a bit further along with the crowd. If not for the delays, we would have finished in around 3:45!
Anyway, a lesson learned the hard way. Next time, I plan to stay in Sacramento (we stayed in Folsom near the start this time) as they have shuttles from Sacramento to the relay interchange points and the start. We had a nice lunch and then headed back that evening.
All in all a fun race - just need to be more aware of road closures next time. It turns out that most of the other Asha teams also had similar problems....
Hibernation is for Bears!
Well another off-season after Team Asha disbands and everyone goes into hibernation mode!
After Portland, I had some hamstring issues and had to lay low for a few weeks. The smart thing I did was to make a trip to SMI for some massage sessions with Greg. Now Greg had this reputation for making grown men scream like little girls (not that there's anything wrong with that :-)) and I went in full of trepidation. He didn't look all that intimidating as a person and I thought things would go fine! And then I took a look at those hands and that giant thumb on one of them. The violins from the Psycho theme song started playing in my head as I got onto the massage table.
After a gruelling 1 hour session (where I am proud to say that through a combination of gritting, gnashing, and finally biting into towels, I did not scream like a little girl!), I was glad to note that I wa still able to get off the table. And being the glutton for punishment that I am, I actually went back for a couple more sessions. At the end of it all, voila - no hamstring issues any more!
Anyhoo - as the title of this post says, Hibernation is for Bears! I don't like the idea of training for 6 months and then losing all the fitness gained by hibernting through the winter. So, I resumed training at Rancho with a band of die-hard merrymen (and women) led by Coach Raman. And of course, given that it's good to set some goals to carry one through the cold months of winter, I decided to run the CIM relay and then the Napa marathon on March 1st.
After Portland, I had some hamstring issues and had to lay low for a few weeks. The smart thing I did was to make a trip to SMI for some massage sessions with Greg. Now Greg had this reputation for making grown men scream like little girls (not that there's anything wrong with that :-)) and I went in full of trepidation. He didn't look all that intimidating as a person and I thought things would go fine! And then I took a look at those hands and that giant thumb on one of them. The violins from the Psycho theme song started playing in my head as I got onto the massage table.
After a gruelling 1 hour session (where I am proud to say that through a combination of gritting, gnashing, and finally biting into towels, I did not scream like a little girl!), I was glad to note that I wa still able to get off the table. And being the glutton for punishment that I am, I actually went back for a couple more sessions. At the end of it all, voila - no hamstring issues any more!
Anyhoo - as the title of this post says, Hibernation is for Bears! I don't like the idea of training for 6 months and then losing all the fitness gained by hibernting through the winter. So, I resumed training at Rancho with a band of die-hard merrymen (and women) led by Coach Raman. And of course, given that it's good to set some goals to carry one through the cold months of winter, I decided to run the CIM relay and then the Napa marathon on March 1st.
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