Monday - This week was originally supposed to start on Monday. But I was carrying so much fatigue and sleep deprivation that I just choose to sleep in and do some mobility and foam rolling in the evening.
Tuesday - I was so looking forward to Tuesday since Balaram and I were catching up with Gokul for a run. Gokul always has some fun stories to tell! It was a super easy/ chatty 15K ending it with 4 ^ 20” hill strides where Gokul absolutely smoked me. Will definitely post the video of Gokul doing hill strides someday :)
Wednesday - Today was a big track workout.
3K Warm-up
4 ^ 20” strides, 1’ jog
4 ^ 7’ at HM effort, 2’ rest
6 ^ 30” at 5K effort, 1’ rest
2K Cool-down
I can’t pinpoint to one specific thing but I have been feeling really fit and fast the past couple of weeks since I have been back from Bir. This workout totally validated that. The first two reps were with Tribhuvan on auto-pilot. I was feeling it a bit by the 4th rep but Surendra and Avik alternated pacing duties which let me just switch off mentally and follow them.
The original idea for Wednesday was to double and make up for the skipped run on Monday but I was smart enough to skip it considering the heat and fatigue and get in a solid strength session instead.
Thursday - Today was just shuffling around ranting about things with Ballu. He pretty much gets a sneak peak of Pondi on the loose every single day. Distance - 16K, Average Pace - 6:15/km, Average Heart Rate - 137
Friday - Lots of strides today - It’s been a while since strides felt this good. Just need to carry this flow into race week. The highlight of today’s run was me trying to explain to ‘Don’ what strides were in 5 seconds only for him to comeback and say - Pondi, you felt like you explained something but you didn’t. Also, I started feeling my right foot and the left calf a bit towards the end but didn’t think much of it.
Saturday - Saturday’s are long run days. Makes life easier over the weekend once I get the long run out of the way. Had a banana, carried my 2 gels and soft flasks filled with water and the first 12-13K was totally seamless. The left calf eventually started acting up and I took a call to stop the run around 19K. A year or two ago, I would have struggled my way to ensure I completed the run. I would like to think I am much smarter now and tomorrow is always a new day. Remember, consistent training weeks trump all-start training weeks interspersed by breaks!
Sunday - The shoes were the culprit! I figured out that the last 2-3 runs in the Puma Deviate Nitros ended up with me having minor niggles and went back to my Novablast 3s for the run today. Started the morning with some lukewarm lemon water, banana and sampled Plasmaide (some weird Pine Bark extract thingy) which Bhuvan handed over to me - Tasted so bad!
The run felt like poetry in motion. I was chatting with Dada and bantering with Srini through and through, finished a litre of water, consumed my two gels and ran 25K without any niggles. Definitely sticking to the rotation of Novablast 3s for easy runs and Metaspeed Skys for workouts till race day.
105K of running, 1 day of quality work, 4 sessions of strength and mobility and thats a wrap for the week - 6 weeks to race day!
What - Strides are 20 - 30 second accelerations to the fastest pace one can go without sprinting followed by a minute of easy recovery in between. The usual guideline is to do 4 to 6 of them.
Why - Strides build raw speed and helps you become more efficient and faster overall at all sub-maximal running paces/efforts.
When - Strides can be done 1 to 2 times a week during any easy run to begin with.
How - Ease into the effort where the first 6-8 seconds are used to gradually build pace while emphasising longer strides, the next 15-20 seconds to hold that pace/effort and gradually slow down towards the last 3-5 seconds.
Another important cue is to maintain long distance form with a slight forward lean and a relaxed upper body while running tall.
One of the biggest mistakes most of us make as amateur runners is running our easy runs fast and quality runs not fast enough! I get so hyped up seeing a lot of runners run their easy runs at a pre-defined pace which is almost always faster than needed. What people need to understand is easy is an effort, it is not a pace.
Becoming a faster and stronger runner with consistent race results over a period of time is way cooler than impressing your strava followers with your “easy run” paces.
So for your own sake - keep your ego in check, forget about what your Strava loons like and run easy as an effort - where the effort feels super sustainable - where you are able to hold a conversation throughout the run - where the pace is just a by-product of the effort and not what you conceive as easy!
Or you can continue running faster on easy days and keep wondering why your times aren’t improving :)
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