Running the half marathon

[anushsh]

I am kinda thrilled that I could finish the half marathon at the Kaveri Trail Marathon this year. Sometime last year in September, I had decided to give 10K a shot at the same marathon. I trained for more than a month to finally do a 10K. That seemed like an achievement. New shoes and new gear. After that, I stopped training due to lack of

Comments

[shortindiangirl]

Congratulations on your half! That's great and with great timing too, considering the trail and humidity etc. How many other runners were there ?

I think training in India for such an event is very difficult for many reasons. One is that the culture is not geared towards this level of fitness. Even people who are fit do a lot less. Here in the U.S. people do a lot more or as much on a routine basis, so its quite easy to get into the groove of this sort of thing. Second is that training areas are tough. You have to run in the city along side the traffic, or even in places like Lal Bagh, the loops are small and you have to do many loops. Near my house in STL, I have a park with a 9k loop. Just one loop. So training for the half marathon is just 2 loops. And the seasons in the South - most of it hot, with humidity - those are very difficult training runs. If you had the crisp cool air of the Fall weather in most of the U.S. states, you would see a marked different in your training and in your total run. If you walked for some bits and still managed 2hrs 14 mins, I think you must have been running 8.5 to 9 minute miles for much of it, with some slower segments. That shows a high level of fitness, keep it up.

Also make sure to eat right. Proteins to replenish what your muscles store, carbs of course, and now is the time to eat good fats - peanuts oils and coconut. These are fats that the muscle can store locally, and it's a good time to each your body to store it that way rather than as adipose tissue all over the body.

You should not take a complete break after the half, your body will be in shock. Do a little bit, or at least do slow pace, long hiking type of thing. That is what I did today - 8 miles of hiking, carrying 10kgs of baby!! I'm exhausted now!

[anushsh]

yep, need to get back on the track again.

[anushsh]

Yep, I agree with the training in india. Difficult to find longer loops. I have been doing hiking but want to do longer runs for fun. Need to train more :-)

[sharathm]

Awesome man.. keep it up..