The Cycling journey starts!!

What next?! 

So now that the running goal of the year was achieved early in Q1 itself, needed some additional motivation to continue the active lifestyle I had started. 

Needed to save the long term impact on the knees and to prevent repetition of the recent ITBS injury. Also wanted to protect myself from any excuse I could conjure up not to be active. One option was hiking. A friend, Rajesh, had recently done Kilimanjaro and that indeed seems enticing. Although the ideal season to do that would be early in the year so I had missed that opportunity already. Maybe next year. So what next?

Cycling it is... 

Lot of friends on Facebook had turned to cycling. I had stayed away from cycling so far primarily fearing the condition of Indian roads and traffic. Was not convinced this was the right sport for me. But after a long and hard debate with myself decided that it wouldnt hurt to start in April now that the running goal for now was out of the way. 

Next decision was which cycle to go for. Price range was fixed - approx 30K as didnt want to overspend not knowing my cycling future. Lots of research on the web, friends, visiting stores in Pune like Lifecycle, Giant Sprint, Trak and Trails and Pro sports. There were many options and range varied a lot - mountain bike, hybrid, Road bike to start with. Then the brands ... from Trek as Mahesh, who had done Pune to Kanyakumari cycle ride, had suggested that. Few friends suggested Schwinn. Another friend - Satish, suggested Giant Roam 3 which he had bought earlier and was loving it. Neeraj, suggested Marin. So it was all over the place. Research on the cycling forums threw up even more choices! So many choices. 

Zero in on the bike ...  

After visiting the stores, my confusion increased even further. The conclusion was that the brand matters less as quality was quite similar in the mid range brands. Only difference was the name. Finally shortlisted Giant Roam 3. Unfortunately it wasnt available and would only come a month later. Roam 2 was available but was above around 40K. Nope ... not right now. Couldnt wait for another month. Needed the bike now! Impatient now that the decision was done. Lifecycle guys couldnt convince me to go with a Fuji or Scott. Searched for a Trek but couldnt find it anywhere. Finally went to the friendly folks at Pro sports. Amar from the Aundh showroom convinced me to buy a Marin as the components were high end of Shimano, the brand was good, but prices were on the reasonable side as the brand was still nascent in India. He also checked the bike and fitted me with the right size. Interestingly Marin was a Bay area bike - quite popular in California!! Finally bought the Marin San Rafael DS2 - a Bay area bike after having moved to India. :-) The circle of life is complete! 

Ready to ride and conquer Pune and outskirts!! 

First Half Marathon!!

And the day was finally here. March 31st 2014. 

As this was my first LSoM (Last Sunday of Month) run with Pune Running, wasnt sure of what to expect. I had heard there would be a few hundred participants going for 5, 10, 15 and 21k. So would definitely be interesting. Also it was closers to home at Hinjewadi. 

I had studied the route in depth for a couple of weeks for the elevation profile as still was extremely uncomfortable with climbs. Route was a nice one - started from Blue Ridge in Hinjewadi phase 1 and went till Megapolis in Hinjewadi phase 3. Turned back there and ended at Blue Ridge again. Close to the hills so would be slightly up and down, but as I studied the elevation profile intently got a bit more comfortable with the route. The distance was still the killer ... longest so far was 16 km as had missed the 18km run due to ITBS 3rd week of March. So didnt know how body would fare beyond that. 

Reached the venue around 5:30 am. Got the bib and did some warmup exercises with the group. I did it a lot slower and more deliberately than the rest of the group as wasnt used to doing such heavy warmup before the actual run. Didnt want to fatigue myself before the run! :-) Butterflies in the stomach had built up by now. This would be the longest I would have run ... and the 2:30 was looming over my head although that was a 'nice to have' goal.

The HM started exactly at 6 am as advertised. The 15K and HM runs started at the same time. There were quite a few runners in these 2 categories .. I think about 150-200 at least. In the 10, 5k there were even more as Hinjewadi was a good venue for the run. But that was starting an hour later. So off to the starting line ... and the gun goes off. 

When the run started it was dark and cool, so felt quite good. I knew almost exactly what to expect as I ran along - which was obviously both good and bad! ;-) I knew almost exactly when the road would climb... The first couple of kms again ran like an amateur ... quite fast for my regular speed especially on an uphill. 5:47 for the 1st km, and 6:20 for the 2nd one on the uphill - Mistake #1. Slowed down after the 2nd km with energy drained a bit. A lot of folks went fast in the 3, 4 km mark. I was then trying to follow a couple of seemingly more experienced runners who I was able to keep up with. Seen in the photo below ...was following 2-3 guys and the 2 ladies and trying to keep up with them. Around 6-7 km mark with the sun just rising in the back. It was quite serene atmosphere! Was cruising along following these folks .... and then ... 

Thats me behind the guy and 2 ladies .. with a sunset shades in the background

The mistake that I later realized I had made was that they were 15 km runners and so would naturally be going a bit faster - Mistake #2. After the 7.5 km turnaround for them, I was then left alone with very few ahead of me ... suddenly reality struck me that I still had to go another 13 km to go with very folks to run with. So I had to do the pacing myself. In the photo below you can see the strain on my face. Traffic had also just started so the serene surrounding had changed up a bit. Another 13 kms to go with a climb starting around 8 km which intensified at 10 km mark ... Come on 'I can do it'! 'I have to do it'!

With Infosys in the background around the 8k mark going out

Then the climb started around 9 km or so... around 2.5-3% gradient for a km heading into the mountains in Hinjewadi phase 3. Managed to drag myself on the uphill. My runkeeper GPS started going a bit wonky around this point and on the uphill it showed my fastest km so far at 5:48. not right obviously. Obvious impact of this was that at the turnaround point instead of 10.5 km my runkeeper was shouting 11 km milestone for me. Runkeeper kept straying almost throughout on the way back. At the end it resulted in showing that I had run a full km extra, which was obviously not true. But more importantly giving me false sense of hope around 15-18 km mark on the way back as it showed a km less left than what should have been. The road back was relatively mostly downhill so my speed should have been higher, but my fatigue had caught up with me ... especially around the 15 km mark. Thats me around 15 or 16 km mark with Infosys in the back. Sun was quite bright now.   

Around the 15 km mark on the return route with Infosys in the back and hot sun shining down on me 

Around the 15-16km mark my energy level dropped significantly and fatigue set in. Even the slightest of climbs burnt me out. I had been sipping on the gatorade I was carrying and there were refuelling stations every couple of kms. I had water at one place. I also tried eating the marathon protein bar. But swallowing even 1 bite took me a km or so. Just had to stack it at the side of my mouth and if I felt better I tried swallowing a small bite every time. Wasnt the most ideal snack to eat during a run is what i realized. Next time I would have the Gu Gels or bananas only. But overall the mind was so fatigued that speed was very slow in these last 6 kms. Pace was hovering around 7:30 to 8:20 in this duration. 

Then around 18 km mark (my gps showed it as 19 at that point), there was the final climb for about 1/5 km at around 3% gradient. I tried dragging myself towards the top, but mind took over and i had to walk. Once I tasted how 'good' walking felt at this point, it became a run-walk routine from here on :-( . I probably lost around 4-5 minutes in the last 5-6 km easily due to my mind not cooperating. Also as the GPS was off by a km, I was never sure how far the finish line was ... kept on going and around 22.1 I saw the finish line a 100 mtrs away. Whew!! Crossed the finish line with a fake smile below. ;-) A goal accomplished!! An achievement! Made it in 2:36 - off by 76 minutes from my goal but made it nonetheless!! First Half Marathon!!

That sense of achievement came later though ... after the finish line just went to the sidelines and sat down. I was completely out of energy by this point. Met Samir and family, didnt have energy to acknowledge the achievement either. Then had some water, a very refreshing coconut water (shahala) and energy returned a bit. Then it was back to feeling the sense of achievement!! Couldnt wait to get home and gloat about my achievement! :-) 

A forced smile at the finish line. Surprisingly I look fresh ... I guess the walk-run routine in the last 3 kms is to blame. ;-)

The Runkeeper and Strava activities snapshots below and the activities linked earlier. 

  

Elevation profile, route and my pacing in the race using Runkeeper 

Strave Race Analysis feature is quite nice. The GPS anomaly around 11 km is apparent here. With the climb, it wasnt certainly my fastest km! 

And there you go! Did all of this effort for this certificate! :-) 

One goal achieved ... Onto the next challenge now!!