Since landing back home last Wednesday morning, my body struggled to return to Indian timing,. I had only been to Syria, 3.5 hrs behind Indian time, for about 5 days. I did not sleep on time (min 1:00 AM), and did not wake up on time to make it to the regular runs with my buddies. Wanting to ramp up mileage in preparation for the ECR run on 22nd March, I find myself woefully behind target. Consider this: the longest run in 2009 has been a 7.5 km run so far, and that was nearly 2 months ago! My average from 29 runs in 2009 has been 5.4 km. Ha, I love going through these stats!!! I have a database that captures every one of my runs of the last 10 years… it started as a simple Excel spreadsheet and has evolved into this big database full of info on weather, shoes etc and full of charts and all kinds of fancy indicators – these have largely been responsible for keeping me going during the time I was running by myself and needed the motivation to step out the door (don’t ask me for a copy, am not giving it out – but can always show it and format can always be shared!!).
This morning I finally broke the jinx and was up by 4:30 and out the door by 5:00. Went for a 5.7 km run with Hari for company, I was going at nearly 80% capacity over the flyovers while he seemed to hardly work up a sweat. It was a good run and timing was decent. Hari reckons that one uphill workout and one speed workout a week besides the usual runs will take me to a sub 4:00 timing in Berlin. He has also promised to push me all the way and that he is ready for a workout any time. Thanks mate, you may regret that you made this offer as I intend taking you up on this one!!
I will have to get past the 10 km mark before Friday, and the 15 km mark on Sunday. Target for the ECR Run is now 21 km – to run it comfortably and if the wind is behind my back, finish strong!
