Marathon training + an injury

I am planning to start training for the marathon starting on the 28th. I was sick the whole of last week and so decided to take things easy and heal myself. The only physical activity was 4 hours of biking on Saturday and some tennis on Sunday. Unfortunately I think I injured my leg playing tennis - I seem to have gotten the dreaded planar fasciitis. I have been icing it most of the day at work. Hopefully things will heal by the 28th when I start actual training. I am also going to swear off tennis for a while and stick to just running and some cycling.

Anyway, I will try and update folks as I go through my training. I am also going to run an interesting experiment - do I actually lose any weight training for the marathon. I started running mainly to lose weight but these days the tables have turned. I am trying to lose weight to improve my running - aahhh. As and when I update people on my runs, I will also do my best to put information on my weight.

I did run 63 minutes yesterday before I realized I had serious planar fasciitis.

Running a marathon

Yup - finally I got a little brave and in a fit of enthusiasm, signed up for my first marathon. I am already starting to repent the decision but …

When I looked to sign up for a marathon, I had a few criteria in mind. The first one was that I should finish the marathon, ideally within 5 hours. As I grew more confident that there is a high probability of this happening, the next thing was to make sure I sign up for a large marathon. I did not want to sign up for a marathon with 300 people and be the last guy to finish :). So it had to be a large one.

Well the Chicago marathon was full before I signed up and I did not get through in the lottery for the New York one :(. Obviously I have not qualified for Boston considering the qualifying time is something like 3:05 or something insane like that. Anyway, I managed to find a reasonably sized marathon - the Philadelphia marathon and I signed up for that.

Now the training starts. The actual marathon training will start on the 28th of this month (16 weeks) but I want to get as many miles done before that so I have a reasonable base to get my training going.

For the next few months, you will read a lot of whining after long runs and ice baths :). You have been warned.

Well, last week, I did close to 30 miles (29.81). That number will slowly have to increase - maybe to 40.

Lack of a well rounded education???

I have always been proud of my school, always wearing the PSBB badge with pride (well after I graduated that is :)). I think it is the best school on planet earth and have always felt that school made me what I am today (not much but still …). I know, I know - even I had to be molded and taught. Well there are lots and lots of great things I can tell about school but I was shocked to find that there are certain things that were not taught :(.

Well, during my days in PSBB we were always told to try and reach for the sky. Everything was within limits. We can do this and we can do that. Well here is the thing - they did not teach us about the side effects of being reasonably successful. This fact reared its ugly head the past weekend when I had to dress up for a wedding.

Most of my dressing up is usually picking out the first available shorts (jeans in winter), t-shirt, sandals and get my ass to work. Nothing complicated. I usually don’t give too much thought to what I should wear. Unfortunately, this does not work for weddings especially ones being held in the US. Apparently everyone is expected to get into suit.

Well, for the last couple of weeks I was afraid I had outgrown my suit. All this running and still some weight gain - damn it. Anyway, I somehow managed to pull my pants up and get my suit on. It was a struggle but I managed it. I probably would end up breathing a lot less but still, I managed to get in. Then came the shocking realization - I need to wear a tie. See here is the thing - nobody has taken the time to show me how to put on a tie. My dad - well he doesn’t know it himself. Everyone else assumes you know. But I don’t. PSBB had failed me - probably for the first time in memory . I am not sure who helped me during my marriage but that is beside the point.

So after fretting for a few minutes, I decided to do what I usually do when I have any questions. I turned to the internet. After looking through a few sites, I realized that a tie knot is not like other knots I am used to - apparently, it requires a little more work. Damn it. I just thought I could do what I used to do with ropes. So after looking through a couple of sites and a few video demos, I got started. The first few attempts frustrated me - my wife suggested that I should just come without the tie. Pig headed me refused and I kept trying and trying. I finally managed to get some kind of knot that met the approval of my wife. Whew. It was a close call but I managed to get to the wedding on time and looking like a stuffed turkey with a tie.

Anyway, in my bid to get into my clothes, I have been running a lot more. I managed to do close to 27 miles last week with a long run of 11.5. Hopefully, 30 will happen real soon. Woo hoo.

Here are the links for the sites I used in case there are other people who were failed by society and not taught about how to put on a tie.
Step by step instructions on the various knots
Video for the full Windsor knot

Disillusionment with the NBA

Anybody who knows me will tell you that I am an insane sports fan. My mood changes with the teams I follow - I pour all my emotions when I support a team. It is all or nothing - I remember victories forever and same goes with losses. While I like my teams to win, I like to see them win fair.

I was a huge Laker fan in my grad school days. I still follow the team but not as much since Shaq was traded - yes, I was one of the few people who liked the team for Shaq. So it was a shock to me when I saw that the 2002 Western conference final might have been rigged. I still have not recovered from the NBA telling everybody that games get officiated differently in the last few minutes. Most of us thought this was the case but did not think that it was an official line. Imagine if you are a cricket fan and the umpire decides not to give a leg before in the last 5 overs or If you are a soccer fan, think how you would react if fouls in the penalty box are not penalized in the last 5 mins.

Now, we have this rogue referee who tells everybody that the 2002 western conference finals was rigged. It was definitely one of the worst officiated games in the history of the NBA (and I have been watching most playoff games since MJ came back after his first retirement). To hear that it was done with an agenda in mind is really sad. I have a problem with how people are brushing off Donaghy (the referee in question) because he is a convicted dude. I have my doubts about his statements but I would sure like the NBA to be more open about how they call the games. I would like to know what constitutes a foul and what does not. I want a more open system if they expect me to spend my time and money watching this sport. Why do I have to believe David Stern and his goons. They lost a lot of credibility when they said officiating varies based on how much time is left on the clock. In every other sport I follow, I know what is allowed and what is not. Seeing the play, I can give you pretty good reason why something is a foul. In the NBA, it is just some guy making a call and more times than not, we are left scratching our head. It is sometimes really funny (or frustrating) seeing how the announcers spin a call.

Yes, I was happy the Lakers won back then but now I am not sure. I might just lay off the NBA or not put too much emotions into it if crap like this is allowed to happen. There is something called playing fair and till the NBA convinces me that happens, I will just follow the score and change channels. I will also switch to following some other sport that doesn’t have so much money involved that there is a need to cheat.

For now, I am just not going to watch any more of the finals. Just follow the score and spend the extra time I have reading a book.

By Toutatis

This weekend was easily the craziest run I have ever had. I did not realize what I was getting into when I went on my long run.

We had had insane thunderstorms the previous night and the sky looked pretty ominous. I woke up at around 7 and waited around till 8:15 checking the weather and staring outside at the clouds. It did not rain one bit. So after getting into my ACICS, I decided to head out on my weekly long run. The target was 100 minutes.

The initial 40 minutes were fine - I was doing pretty good time. Then it started to pour. I was in a place where there was not much shelter. I got completely wet and so I continued running hoping things will start slowing down. Pigheaded that I am, I decided to continue running on the route I originally planned to instead of heading back home - I would have probably made it back in 25 mins. It started pouring like crazy and it did not let up even a little. I am sure if somebody from an asylum had driven by, they would have put me in a truck and taken me directly in.

Initially it was a lot of fun - I hadn’t run in the rain in a year and the one advantage with running in the rain is that you can stay relatively cool which means you end up with better times. Unfortunately, after a while, the rain started impeding my run. The course was a little hilly, so it was a bitch running up and down with water rushing past. I had to slow down to make sure I stay safe.

After about 25 minutes of really heavy rain, there was some lightning and insanely loud thunder. I felt like Vitalstatistix (yup I am fat and can be safely compared to him :)) - was the heaven going to fall on my head. My super portion of gatorade was only going to do so much. The road I was running had flooded pretty badly and water was rushing everywhere. If it were Chennai, I would have been seriously frightened of open manholes. Luckily, they are not so common in Madison but I still had to watch my step all the way. I wanted to run faster to get home quickly but was worried about slipping. An awesome dilemma.

To top it all, there was awesome thunder and lightning. Cars were spraying water on me every 5 minutes and emergency vehicles were screaming away to glory and that got me a little worried. Eventually traffic slowed to a crawl because the street was completely flooded. Yup, I was a little scared.

Well, long story short, I made it home safely. My wife was not impressed that I chose to ignore her warning and run outside. But after thinking more about it, I probably would have run it 9 times out of 10 even if I knew what was coming before I went on that run. And guess what Obelix would have done seeing me on the road - tapped his head with his index finger and say - “that dumbass is crazy”.

Well I did 10.5 miles in 100 minutes. I could have run a little faster but for the rain :). I should add that I was totally amazed that my shoe held up so nicely without slipping. I am definitely sticking to my ASICS-2130.

Map of my 100 minute run

Awesome week for sports fans

This week is turning out to be one of the more awesome weeks for sports fans in recent memory. In fact, the last few days of May and the first few weeks of June are definitely what gets sports fans everywhere excited.

First there was the IPL coming to a pretty thrilling finish. My mom was talking excitedly about it - obviously that does not happen regularly. I am a little disappointed that the team from Chennai lost but luckily I did not have too much emotion invested. I wish they had better names for the teams. Mumbai Indians - what rot. Rajasthan royals my foot. As a friend used to say, my left ass could have thought of something better. For example, Rajasathan Rajputs is definitely more Indian sounding and I came up with that after 3 seconds of putting some thought. And can someone hire Shane Warne as the Indian team manager. There is no need to even think twice. Wow, what an awesome job.

I also saw my first ice hockey game - boy am I hooked. I probably chose one of the best games - Detroit and Pittsburgh slugging it out in game 5. The action was unbelievable - end to end. I am totally going to watch at least Stanley cup from now. Unfortunately it is one of the few games I dont know the rules for but that should change real soon. I definitely did not think it would be this good. Boy do they have a new fan. Sidney Crosby is king.

The Lakers and the Celtics are going to play in the NBA finals. I don’t see why the Lakers are such overwhelming favorites. I think it will be a close fought series and I personally think the Celtics will pull it off because they have home court advantage. But it should be a really good series and hopefully we see a game 7. I am all excited for this. Kobe against Garnett. Kobe against the whole Celtic team.

I should add that I am getting a little tired of people talking about the history of the two franchises and calling it the (or using the word arguably) greatest rivalry in sports. I think some of their games were awesome and all but the greatest rivalry - please. Let us not go into that. Have you fought even one war? As all Indians and Pakistanis will attest, the greatest rivalry is an India Pakistan cricket game. Period. Nothing even comes close. Don’t waste your time arguing. We have had a couple of wars between our games - how many fans can claim that. Maybe if Israel and Palastine start playing soccer (or some sport they are equally good at), they might come somewhere close. Till that happens, we should not even revisit this topic. Nothing even comes close. Nothing. I still have not recovered from the Chetan Sharma full toss :(. And the dude has a wikipedia page. Damn it. I refuse to tag him.

And finally we have Euro 2008. Boy am I excited for some good soccer. The Man U - Chelsea game go me started a little early. Now we have the Euro starting Sunday and I am all giddy. I am a little disappointed that England and their fans are not there - who can forget Beckham’s awesome free kick in Euro 2006 and all England fans crying for Ronaldo’s blood in the last world cup. But I am all excited to see the teams play. Ronaldo, Ballack, Zlatan Ibrahimovic (coolest sounding name since Jay Jay Okocha), Ribery, the whole Italian team all looking like models, players with no vowels in their last names etc are few of the things to look forward to. Yes Brazil, my adopted soccer country is not around but there is more than enough to get me excited. I can’t wait. I hope we see some surprise team like Czech republic or Romania come through.

Hopefully my wife doesn’t throw me out after I start yelling after a goal is scored. I have scared her a couple of times after touchdowns but she has seen nothing as yet :).

Running and water bottles

I have noticed in my brief interactions with runners that they are obsessed over everything about running. They will think about what to eat the night before a long run in a way they probably have never done before they started running. My friends will definitely attest to that :). I remember when the big snickers bar (95 cent one) would be my late night snack of choice throughout grad school. The best part (or the sad part) was that I did not feel guilty about it ever. I would also refuse to share it - ahh the good old days. People actually wondered why I gained more weight in grad school than most normal humans - well here is the answer.

Anyway, the thing that runners obsess over most is how to stay hydrated during a run. It is a really tough thing. Runners hate to carry anything that even weighs one pound for the fear it reduces their speeds. But unfortunately when you are running on trails, a water fountain is not easy to find. I have heard of people stashing water bottles along a path but this does not work if you are running on some trails away from civilization.

My solution has been to not take water unless I am going over 45 mins. On my long runs, I used to carry two bottles of water in my hand. Cheapskates that I am, these were used mineral water bottles from when we did buy them. I used to regularly clean my bottle, fill it with water and take it out for my long runs. As my runs became longer, water became Gatorade. Whatever the content, let me assure you that it is a huge pain in the a** to carry water in your hand (how many read a** as arm :). If you did, I salute you) . Try carrying two 16 ounce bottles one in each hand for 120 mins while doing something tiring and you will know what I mean. I would look longingly at water bottles that go around the waist in the various running shops but then see the price tag, sigh and continue using my bottles. My poor cousin has been the biggest victim of my fascination with water bottles for running - he probably got bored by my refusal to buy them.

Anyway, after doing this for a couple of hundred miles, I finally succumbed and bought myself a water belt from REI when those things were on sale. I got one for 20 dollars - The REI Doubleshot. It has two bottles and a pouch to place my car keys. It goes neatly on my lower back - the first day I ran with it, it definitely felt a little odd. But after running with it a couple of times, I think it is pretty awesome. It doesn’t hinder my running nor has it caused any chapping. Chapping definitely was my biggest fear with any of the models I saw. This is my first water belt and so I have nothing to compare it to but it definitely works really well and I would recommend it to other folks looking for a bottle. One thing though - if one bottle is half full and the other empty or full, the bottles sometimes move around. It did not happen a lot but I did notice it once or twice.

One good thing about having a bottle behind me - it does make some noise. Sometimes it feels like there is a runner behind me running and like everybody knows, there is no worse feeling in running than when someone runs past you. So you tend to speed up :).

Anyway, I did 9.25 miles on Sunday (and needed all the fluid because it was insanely hot and humid) and 5.15 miles tempo run yesterday.

Take a look

My former roomie’s fiance sent this to me on Facebook - Thanks. Simply mind blowing. I have no idea how this guy does that. You should definitely take a look if you have time.

Penalty shootouts - soccer

I am a huge sports fan. I watch lots of sports and follow a few others online. I will not bore you by listing all the sports - that will probably end up being a whole paragraph by itself but be assured that I probably know more about sports than your average sports fan. In sports, I am pretty close to master of all trades.

As most Indians will tell you, we suck at sports. The only exception is cricket. In cricket, our expectation is way more than what our team is usually capable of but I will address cricket in a separate post. Since the Indian team sucks, I have this habit of adopting teams to support. I am free agent when it comes to sport teams, and so I have at least one team per sport and sometimes multiple teams if the teams rarely face each other.

So it is with soccer. My favorite country to support is Brazil - I simply love their style of play. If India ever has a decent team, I hope we play with the same flair. I am passionate enough about the team that I was moved to tears when they lost the 98 final. Aaahhh - bad times. Anyway, I also support Manchester United in the premier league, Sao Paulo in Brazilian club soccer, Boca Junior’s in Argentine club football, Barcelona in La Liga and Real Madrid in Serie A. If these teams face each other, the order is the same order I have mentioned :). If and when India becomes a soccer power, I reserve the right to switch back.

Now to the actual point I wanted to make - I recently watched the penalty shoot out in the UEFA Champions league between Man U (my favorite club as shown by the complex equation above) and Chelsea. To be honest, I hate the idea of penalty shootouts - it is a pretty cruel way to end a game after the players have given everything for 120 mins. Unfortunately I can’t think of a different way to end the game. I shudder every time I think of a game going to penalty shoot-outs. Too many top competitions end in a penalty shootout and makes mere mortals out of supposed great players - David Beckham in Euro 2004 and of course, Roberto Baggio (he of the awesome nicknames - the divine ponytail) missing in the finals of the 94 world cup (Yes, Brazil won :).

That being said, is there anything more exciting or unpredictable than the penalty shoot-out. Boy, it takes a lot out of you when you are emotionally invested in a team. Can anyone name one thing in any sport that is more exciting and tense? I cannot think of anything that even comes close. It is just crazy to watch it as a fan - I can’t imagine what the players are going through. The last one I saw was so mind numbingly good. For all practical purposes, I thought Man U had lost. Of course, if they had lost, I would not be writing this post :).I hope someone in football comes up with a better way to end games but till then, I hope my teams always come on top with a little less excitement.

Anyway, I am back to running full steam after a down week last week. I had been increasing my miles for the last 7 - 8 weeks and figured I will do a week where I just log half the miles. I did a 4.8 mile tempo run on Tuesday and a 4 mile speed training run today.

Iron Man - review

I saw this movie last weekend. In one word, awesome. I have never come out of a movie so excited in a long time. If you like action movies, you should definitely see this in the movie theater.

It was like a James Bond movie on some insane drug. Beautiful women, unbelievable action, gadgets - you name it and you will find it in the movie. The music complemented the action beautifully and the visuals were simply mind blowing. I never thought I would see a Robert Downey Jr. movie but after hearing the reviews for this one, decided I should risk it. Finally one of my risks paid off. Considering my previous choices were Chicken Little, Madagascar (yes, I like cartoons) and some more crappy movies, you will understand my trepidation for taking risks with movies.

There was one thing I wish the director had done a better job of and that was the building of characters. Even the hero’s character was not built up properly. The only thing I got from the movie was that he was a playboy and a genius. Otherwise, nothing.  But I will not hold it against the movie since I am not a big comic fan.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s role in the movie was pretty good. She is one of the stronger female characters in comic book hero movies and not the usual weak female lead. Of course, we did not get too much insight into her character either.

The best part was that my wife enjoyed the movie as much as I did. So I guess I will have no problems convincing her I need the DVD :). In fact, I suspect she will be standing in the line before me.

If you do go to the movie, wait till all the credits are done and you will see an interesting teaser. I will warn against getting yourself a nice big mountain dew before you go into the movie - brilliant action movie + huge mountain dew - insane high. Of course, it that is what you want, then go for it

I cant wait for Dark Knight.