Run 4 Fun

If you are a runner, you keep coming back to it despite the highs and lows. The exhilaration of a great race gives you euphoria, while injuries, setbacks, and periods of poor training bring frustration.  For experienced runners who have tasted success, the mind longs to replicate past training achievements, but the body may not be ready for it. Many seasoned runners overestimate their ability to handle training stress—perhaps due to the mental resilience built over years—while underestimating the risk of injury. But the running gods are fair. They see through carefully crafted Strava profiles, rewarding consistent effort while ultimately ensuring that bad training habits catch up with you, often in the form of a setback.  Learning from Past Mistakes:   The last time I trained consistently for months was between April 2018 and March 2019. Since moving to India in June 2019, other aspects of life took priority. I continued running, but without a structured training plan. Ea...

Running scene in India is growing at an explosive pace and every weekend there are tons of races across various towns. I ran/race quite regularly in Houston for many years and observed the running scene very closely. I can't help comparing running in India Vs Running in US in my mind. Moreover I have noticed some socio-economic trends which are peculiar to both countries.  In USA, the running scene exploded in 70's where it became mainstream to run marathons. However, the runners were motivated by almost "Rocky" type self-motivation and grit and it wasn't much later when corporate houses like shoe/apparel/nutrition companies became a dominant force in running. In India, however the explosion of running scene is happening with clever and active drive of these same/similar corporate houses trying to entice upper middle class to lighten their wallet for the glory that comes with running.  For the following socio-economic analysis, I have made the following assumption...

I hesitated to write this post about 6 weeks back because I didn't want to jinx the rhythm I had found.  As much as I enjoy many aspects of running, I struggle to blend it into a lifestyle as many runners seem to have achieved around me effortlessly. I keep falling off the wagon like an incorrigible  alcoholic :) I tried to prepare for TMM Half 2023 in haste and overconfidence which resulted in a unique recurrence of injury called "Calf Heart Attacks" (three separate instances so far in my running career, all happened when I tried to return to running from a break in haste). I still ran TMM half 2023 because I didn't want to miss the marquee event of Mumbai running. I finished the race in 1:52:xx but limping with pain.  I examined the cause of the injury and a pattern emerged. I was simply too reckless as shown in the table. Not only I squeezed in three half marathon races without adequate training, I ran them comfortably hard as well. I also squeezed in few speed wor...

I'm writing this post to put my experience about this weird running injury involving calf muscles. I wrote about it in my previous post. However, at that time I didn't know that there is a particular term about it, "Calf Heart Attack". The earliest documentation of this injury on web is from a Runner's World article by John Parker. The second article  about Calf Heart Attack is much recent from 2019 by Daniel Frey. In first article, John Parker describes calf heart attacks as:  The calf would get tender, sometimes knotty, after hard training (usually intervals); then a few days later, while out on a run, I'd feel a sharp pain very deep in the gastroc, and bingo, I'd be out of business.  So I'd take a few more days off, more massage, and then start back. Deja vu all over again. And I found I could repeat the cycle as many times as I wanted, and the injury would just keep popping back up. It was the most frustrating injury I had ever dealt with. As ment...

The year 2022 is almost over and it is a good time to reflect and look forward to 2023. I will share my thoughts related to running in this post. I still call myself an accidental runner. Running has given so much to me and it has also taken so much from me. I truly credit running for what I'm today (good or bad) because during the year 2007-2012, running really shaped my life, how I approached various things while living in US and to a great extent it kept myself fairly sane. Although, one must question how running marathons can ever be called being sane :)  I have always struggled with what running needed from me in the form of miles run or the discipline part of it when there are no goals in sight. I still do not think I have fully incorporated running into my lifestyle. It still requires a lot of mental work from me to get into running mode for extended times (anything more than couple of weeks). But, that may not be a bad thing per se.  Let us get back to the title of thi...

I'm beginning to sound like a broken record or that nagging old(er) guy who wouldn't shut up. I wrote on this blog in February, 2018 that I want to give structured training another go and few weeks later in March, I busted my ankle. During a long run a mishap happened and I sprained it very very bad. As a result of that my training was set back by at least 3-4 months and my range of motion on ankle is not back 100%. I did run law week 8k/Bayou City Classic/Bellaire Trolley Run and in each single of these race Tom Wille wiped the floor with me. He enjoyed continued improvement over his stellar 3:19 marathon in January. He also started doing track/hill work with Jon Warren's group to get some speed training. Which brings us to say June 2nd or Height's 5k run. Now, heights 5k is insanely fast course 5k but usually held in the worst possible weather conditions of Houston summer. I wanted to have a go at another attempt at sub 20 5k but during warm up itself I knew that i...