Elizabeth Vasanthakumari, Golds and Silver, Rome - Big update!

I've decided to keep my posts short and quick. Just like my running. Now realized that short and quick is a life truth.

Anyway, first off did some pretty interesting running in Rome. Not much - just enough to keep me warmed up. The most interesting aspect of Rome, from a running perspective, was meeting Elizabeth Vasanthakumari. She was part of the 1984 SAF Games Gold medal winning 4x400 team along with P.T. Usha. For having been one of the fastest runners of her time, Elizabeth is extremely humble. Just goes to show that greatness doesn't get into everyone's heads.

Well I came back from Rome, and literally hit the ground running. The evening of the day I landed in Madras, I went to JN stadium for my yearly meet. The rest seemed to have helped. I won golds in 100, 200 and 400. Silver in the 4x100 relay - my team was a little washed out from multiple events. I ran pretty strong. Even the 400 - my favorite event - was a class act. Just goes to show good training can make a duck run.

Anyway, after that event, it was finally time for rest. I took several weeks off. Simply going to the gym and doing some light weights. Not so much for a work out but simply out of habit. It was strangely unsatisfactory. I think it was a case of remorse that my event was now over.

Anyway, I walked into Chicken Pox and that ensured that I was in bed for two weeks. Now its been 5 weeks since I was diagnosed - approximately 3 after I was certified as fully recovered. Just started running again. Managed to do a full 30 minutes yesterday.

Now that thats out of the way, I'll try to post shorter more regular posts.

Until next time.

Running with Usain "Lightning" Bolt!

I've been focussing on the sprinting for a bit. Getting ready for a meet in December. A friend of mine in his blog quotes the great Emil (Zatopek) -

"If you want to run, run the 100 metre race. If you want to experience something, run the marathon"

Really? Come on!!

I just say look at Bolt horsing around at the 80m mark and clocking 9.69 and you will know that there is no running in the 100. Oh and just try training for it. A couple of my friends - Shumit and Hari - from Chennai Runners did a sprint work out yesterday. I focussed on starts and the first 30m (we only had about 50m on the straight). The work out was ok, nothing to really write about.

But last night I watched the Bolt burning the track in Beijing. New TV - so it was a sight to see. For a bit I felt all of them were flying. If I remember correctly all the qualifiers made it in less than 10 seconds.

Anyway, bottomline was watching my friend Usain inspired me to look at how the beast can run so fast and hang on for the entire 100. I concluded that it had to do with Speed Endurance. I also concluded that I have not sprinted a distance greater than 100m and so must absolutely suck at 'speed endurance'.

Also in my last meet I had run the 400. I got off the start quite strong, but absolutely bonked at 350m with my calves cramping up like cricket balls behind my knees.

What do I do about it? I work out an ambitious Speed endurance work out for this evening. I head out to the track at 1700 hrs and focus on my work out. The plan was 2 miles warm up, then sprint 100, 200, 300, 400, 600 and 800, cool down with a 2 mile jog.

Warm up went well, but my feet felt like lead from yesterday's work out. I was quite surprised that a few 30m sprints could do that. Anyway, after the work out I managed to get out a 100m stride, followed by 100m, 200m and 250m sprint.

One of the goals of speed endurance is to the train the body to handle a large amount of lactic acid. Its called "bathing" the muscles in Lactic acid - some sick dude must have come up with that creative term.

Anyway, after the 250m sprint, I can assure you I was bathing.I could feel acid on my shoulders and also in my throat. This was accompanied by an urge to throw up. I decided I'll beat Bolt next year. Experience that Mr. Zatopek!

So I finished up with a 2 mile jog and cooled off in the pool for about 15 minutes.

So much for my 'endurance'. Anyway, fortunately I caught my weakness fairly early. The plan is to burn the 400 and 100 in December. Lets see if that actually happens!

Until Next time.

Sprinting to a T

On Wednesday morning Chennai Runners met at the Egmore SDAT stadium for a slow run. That happened to be my training day. So I decided that I will do my sprints.

And my new sprinting pal Gunasekar happened to come along. Let me tell you something about Gunasekar. Gunasekar is 22 years old. He is in the Tamil Nadu police team - just got in a week ago. He is built like a beast - muscular, big and fat free. Runs like a fast penguin. But smokes the 100m in 10.8 seconds. Think of a lean Rottweiller.

I am the only guy sprinting with him - not sure if thats because Im the fastest around or because Im the stupidest around. I have a suspicion that its the latter because every time we sprint, he beats me by about 7 or 8 yards.

The good news is that I stay ahead of Gunasekar for the first 20 yards. I wonder whether he actually clocks a sub 11.

Anyway, I did 4 sprints with him. And I finally got my core working. I can tell you that it was one of the most amazing experiences Ive had in running. It felt surreal. Now I now what "activating your T" means. The power and control - atleast what I feel - was totally exciting.

Im looking forward to next Wednesday for my next sprinting run with Guna.

I just wish the guys in my club would take to sprinting more. Dont understand why none of them wants to even try it.

Until next time!