My first Marathon, Oct 7th 2012 - Long Beach, CA

I ran my first marathon on Oct 7th, 2012 in Long Beach California. My time was 4hours 50 mins and 29 seconds. I finished somewhere in 50 percentile among the runners, also similar position for men, and also my age group.

This entire journey started after returning from India in May, until then I had been running 6X week for approx 25 miles for weight loss. In middle of June I ran a 13 miler and decided I was going to get my training up to shoot for the October marathon. I had my weight around 163lbs and remained that until the race.
I ran a 15 miler somewhere end of June and then did 2 runs approx 20 miles each in August. Then did one final run of 23 miles in mid September. The first ~20 mile run was at 10min/mi pace in the start of august, but around the same time we started a blistering summer season with high 90s temperature, and thus the remaining long runs suffered in time. Nevertheless I was able to get close to the distance I needed to be at to prepare for the race.

At the end of august, I registered for the race and bought new shoes, with some extra support for pronation, instead of neutral ones I was training in. Looking back  I should not have changed it so late in the game. I was able to run 23 miles with the new shoes, but always felt a bit of discomfort. In the first of 3 taper down weeks I ran 25+ miles with a fast 10.5 mi on the weekend. Thats when I picked up an ITBS on my left knee running too fast downhill on torrey pines road. This meant the remaining two weeks leading up to the race I had to ice it everyday and ran only twice per week that too with a IT Band tape. I also switched back to neutral shoes. Interestingly I could run with the tape without pain if I kept the pace below 6mph (10min/mi) and that meant I had to alter my run plan to go slow on race day.

I was a bit circumspect if I would be able to go even past 10 miles with the knee pain, but I know that I had trained hard, and did everything right so no time to quit, heck if I had to I would walk/crawl to the finish line. The worst thing that could happen was I may not be able to finish the race but it would not be for the lack of trying. There are many who run with so many disabilities and I did not want to make ITBS as an excuse for not running.

So we set off on Sat morning to long beach and picked up our race packet. I was running the marathon and Ingrid the 5K. For dinner I ate lots of pasta pizza and cookies around 6pm and went to bed early. On race day, sunday, I woke up at 4am and ate two slice of bread with peanut butter and jelly. We parked a mile away and reached the entrance at around 6:50 am just 10 mins before start ! Next time I am going to get there 45 mins earlier.
I had to use the restroom and there was a snailing long queue, and finally got done by 7:20am. The first 4 waves of runners had left by then and so I along with Vishwajeet, who was running his first half marathon, started at 7:30 with the fifth wave of runners. I carried my iPod nano a pair of sun glasses a visor cap, and some jells in my back pocket. I did not carry anything else.

My race plan was to run very conservative and drink gatorade every 2 miles and eat jello shots whenever they gave us, I did not eat any solid food in the entire race.

The day was nice, the weather was 65-70 in the  morning, cloudy and very flat roads. Initially we were running in a thickly packed crowd of runners of all ages. It was expected to get hotter by 10am but because of my knee problem I ran slow at a pace of 10min/mi and crossed the 13.1 mile stage approx 2hrs 12 mins into the race. Originally I wanted to do 9min/mi for first half and then gradually taper to cover 23 miles by 3hr 45 mins stage so I could shoot for 4:15. I changed my target ti 4:30, run conservative throughout and finish strong (no walking) . So after crossing the half race stage, the sun came out and we were no longer running along the beach, we were in inner city road and it felt hot, not boiling but hot. I started slowly tapering off and I crossed 19 miles in 3hrs 19 minutes. I started again drifting slowly probably hit the wall around 22-23 miles, and in 4hrs 22 mins I was done with 24 miles or so. It  would be take almost another half hour to finish the last two miles. The finish was off target by 20 mins but I have never felt better, I did not walk at all and heck, I had actually completed my first marathon!

During the race everyone was very comforting and cheering each other up, there was so many spectators and also cheer leaders when we ran past schools. I never cramped and the knee held up, and I finished the race!

Some take aways -
 1. I may have too much gatorade, felt heavy in the tummy - need to learn how to drink the correct amount
2. I need to train a bit for pace, do some sprints and intervals, my training plan was too simple and to improve on pace i need a better plan.
3. Running the race conservative worked, Chris's idea - the first 20 miles is half the race and the last 6 the second half is so true.
4. Dont change shoes a month before the race, I think I am going to stick to neutrals from now on.

After the race I felt dead but could still stand, did not fall to the ground. After taking a little bit of fluid, I had a small glass of beer and then the pain started. I slowly limped and walked a mile to the parking garage and Ingrid drove us home. She had done her first 5k run and finished in 40 mins, so proud of her.

I did not feel hungry until we reached san diego in the evening and had a nice indian meal. For the next week I took rest, my left knee pain slowly started to go away and so did the stiffness. And today, 10 days later, I feel rested and started running again, but short runs only !

ITBS injury on left knee

So after running the 10.5 miler on Sept 22 I got my first IT band injury. I ran a bit faster downhill on torrey pines road and finished the run on avg pace of 6:30 min/mi a bit faster than usual.

After coming home my outer part of left knee was inflamed and hurting making it hard to extend the leg. After some research I learnt that I had ITBS and that sucked. So I am following the RICE rule Rest Ice Compression and Elevation. I have been icing and taking ibuprofen. Sun Mon I did not do any cardio, on tues i did slow 20 mins eleptical and wed I have done 30 mins run on treadmill. I am still taking medicine , one pill a day and its getting better, need to rest it and avoid any undue stress.
Its getting better and I am on taper 2 week. 

Taper week 1 of 3

I did my first taper week from Sept 17 - Sept 23, ran four days total, and total mileage of 27 miles approx. I ran a bit faster getting close 7mph or 8:30ish min/mi, I did that intentionally to get some pace and felt good. 

23 miler run on Sept 15 ! and now ready for the real deal

Ok now here is the big test, it was a 23 miler run and started at 5 am in the morning, it was expected to be in high 80s by 9am. Well it seems that the temperature reached higher and the first two hours i had completed 12 miles. By 7am , i was bit off pace and the weather was unusually dry almost el paso like even though i was running along the coast.

The next miles were slow as the temperature started rising and the heat was dry heat, so i did not sweat. After 18 miles I was back at the base of torrey pines hill and hour 10 minutes later. It then took me another 1hour 20 mins to go another 5 miles as the heat was super high and I was walking a lot. All in all the heat and probably hitting the wall was a double whammy. Also tried new shoes that I bought in first week of sept.

Now I know that I can finish a marathon and my timing will only get better as the temperatures are cooling off.

Nutrition wise i just ate peanut butter sandwiches late night before, took electrolyte capsules and drank 2-3 bottles of electrolyte water. I did not take too much food except some gui shots.

Perhaps need to do better by eating some oatmeal 3 hours before the run, something to watch out for the marathon

20 miler run

So two weeks after my 19 miler I did my first 20+ miler, and it was 20 miles to be exact. This run was actually much slower at 11 min/mi pace. The month of August and September had gruesome heat wave with temp crossing into high 80s and 90s by mid morning. That affected the run but the important thing is I stuck it out and completed although i slowed my pace in the second half. 

Week after long runs

After long runs the week that follows is gruesome. I have managed to do 4 short runs and put 15 miles. I need to push some more by not running but say including cross training such as swimming and biking. 

100+ miles for Aug

Month of August I logged 100+ miles, 1222.6 miles to be exect. After logging 90 miles last month I made a marked effort to up my mileage and succeeded. I ran two real long runs 19 and 20 milers in August.  

91 miles month of July

Had a sort of slow month for July, with two weeks going below 25 miles. Need to keep strong and make sure that August hits 100+ miles. I expect the week following a long run 3+ hours will be slow but I need to fight to stay consistent. 

19 miler first ever !

Ran 19 miles in 3:15 avg pace 10:18, the route was UTC through torreypines beach del mar upto solana beach all along the coast. Its an interesting route with a 7 climbs with avg gradient between 2% to 3%, with a steep climb up torrey pines. 

Preparation was eating pasta for dinner and waking up at 630, eating pasta bagel, hydrated with gatorade and started out at 930. This time i made sure to start when the temperatures are cooler and took gatorade with me. The temperature soared at 1130, so need to start out at 7 to avoid heat.  Finished the bottle and refilled water at torrey pines  beach on way back. After finishing 19 miles i slow jogged 0.5 miles, picked up some gatordade from home and cooled down for another 20 mins on the treadmill. That helped a lot, also put my feet up after for another 20 mins and then felt completely rested. 

I ran pretty strong for first 11 miles and then hit some hills all the way to top of torrey pines hills, so obviously slowed down. But overall the first 16 miles were pretty strong and then slowed down a bit putting up average of 1130 min mile even on flats. Need to keep pushing and cross the 20 mile mark next time !

Reached 165lbs weight !

Today I confirmed that my weight is now 165 lbs, met another small milestone on the road to getting healthy. Next is 160 lbs and that will mark a major milestone when I reach it that so lets do it !!

Longest run 15 miles ! and 100+ miles for month of July

Did my longest run ever, 15 miles in 2:35 on a hot sunny day in San Diego. Two hours prior to the run I ate a bowl of pasta, bowl of oatmeal and two slices of bread. Ran at comfort pace with the aim of running 2hrs 30 mins, did not focus on pace or distance. The route I took was devoid of steep hills but there are 2% to 3% gradient occasionally so makes it challenging. For the first time when i ran past 12 miles I did not cramp up and the bottle of water was good enough.
What also helped was to run the last mile at slow 12mins pace and walked after for 5 mins. Also after the run I did some on spot run to cool down and lied down on the bed with feet up for 15 mins and drank a bottle of vitamin water. This all meant that an hour later I was back to normal :)

This also marks the end of June and I ran 100+ mile 128 miles to be exact with all weeks running approx 25 miles or so. This was a good month and my focus on exercising my core muscles and legs has been helped in the 15 miles run so clearly i need to work hard on core and leg strengthening.

Now onto 160 lbs wt and target a 3hr run in July. 

Work on core and squat to improve gym strength

I have noticed a drop in my strength in weight lifting esp bench press. Previously I had focused on back  muscles to improve strength and that helped and I need to continue to do that. But i have neglected my core, I just do crunch and lower back, that is only 2 out of 5 core muscle group and also for those two i don't do a lot. I need to make my core and full squat stronger to increase my weight lifting. For the core I need to focus on all 5 core muscle groups.  The core exercises i need to do are :

1. Transverse Abdominis (TVA)  muscles are the belt like muscle that wraps like a belt. Exercises: Planks
2. External Obliques are the muscles on side and front of the ab around the waist. Exercises: Arm twist
3. Internal Obliques are the muscles under the external obliques and in opposite direction to them. Exercises: Cross over crunches 
4. Rectus Abdominis (Six pack) runs along front of the abs. Exercises: Crunch
5. Erector Spinae (lower back) is a muscle that runs from neck to lower back. Exercise: back extension

Additional muscles not traditionally core but neglected and important are : 

• gluts and side hips
• hip flexors which are part of pelvis and upper thigh
• hip abductors which are medial thigh

Running speed and efficiency improves if body is straight and pressing forward

I have noticed an improvement in speed and efficiency when I correct my running form and posture to press or lean forward, this seems to correct my stride to also push me forward. Leaning back is not good, but leaning or forcing forward while keeping head straight and looking straight ahead gives me good efficiency and my speed is automatically faster. I need to do this more regularly and make it a habit so that I am a more efficient runner. 

72 miles while traveling to India in May

Did not reach 100 miles in month of may, reached 75% of the way and did some workouts and for the first time I did not add weight maintaining it at 168lbs !
This was good test and now back to normal for the coming months of hitting 100+ miles and loosing pounds onwards to 160 lbs, lets do this !!!!

Super tight t-shirt and shorts seems to prevent abrasion whilst running

Have been experimenting with super tight top, its strecthable medium size t-shirt that hugs onto the body. Also bought a tight cycling style shorts for running.

These have worked well, been running for a week and have not used Vaseline and thus far no abrasions and this could be the solution that I have been searching for. 

Reached 170lbs and completed 100+ miles in April

It was a productive month, I reached another minor milestone of 170lbs and ran 123 miles in April. Feels good and I have dropped a couple of pant sizes and had to buy new pairs !

Now I am just 10 pounds away from being my goal weight of 160lbs, Aim to reach there end of June to mid July.

Before that next milestone to reach is 165 lbs, lets go and do it !

Reached 175lbs

Reached another milestone of 175 lbs confirmed. This has been officially my lowest weight in 4 years, since I have been tracking it. I am happy to reach this goal and I am halfway to my goal of 160 lbs. I have made this goal weight as that is the healthy weight where I will have lower cholesterol and good health.
Now onto 170 lbs and lower !!!!

3rd month of 100+ miles and first 13 miler of the year

Just completed the first 13 miler of 2012. It was a cloudy day with some sporadic rain in between. I started from home to Torrey pines beach and back, with a total elevation gain of 1120 ft and same lost. I did fine for most of the run, halfway through I started back up the steep 1mile 8% slope of torrey pines. Then onto a 3% slope for 1 mile to end of the golf course. Certainly those parts are still challenging. On a lighter note I did not feel any cramps after 12 miles as I have felt last year. The only thing that bothered me was the weight of the water bottle i was carrying, maybe I need to experiment with camel back or something else. My run was strong for the first half and got slower towards the second half. Ideally my second half should be the faster one but the torrey pines 2 mile hill climb of 500 ft is a challenge. All in all my run was at 6.0 mph, and finished faster by 3 and 5 minutes than el paso and La jolla half marathons respectively. Also on this particular route my previous best was pace of 10:47 min/mi as compared to 10:00 min/mi i did today, so a nice improvement !

Today marks end of march and finished the month with 130 miles and I am quite happy with what I was able to do. I have decided that once a month I need to run 13+ miles and other days try to run 8-9 miles to keep my strength. Perhaps next weekend I will do a shorter 7 miler to give my legs some time to recover. Of course I will still be running during the week, shorter runs 3-4 miles should be enough. 

Reached Weight of 180lbs

Reached another minor milestone, weight is 180lbs confirmed. I might be actually lighter ! Now starts the process to reach the next milestone, 175lbs weight, which I aim to acheive in 4 weeks targetting mid-april. I have been shedding weight consistently and more or less been on track ever since I tracked my intake of calories and specially salt and sugar.

For the first time in maybe three years i was able to tricep dips and pullups without assists, and it feels good.  I just have to continue hitting gym 30 mins, cardio 30-40 mins and beware mindfull of my diet. Lets go shed another 5 pounds YO !!!

2nd month of 100+ miles

This is the second consecutive month I ran for 100+ miles, 121.43 miles to be exact !
3weeks i ran 6x per week and one week i ran 5x times. But missing that one day is ok as I beat my Januray mileage by a nice margin. Also this month I threw in some runs on the treadmill, and that has helped me keep pace on outdoor runs as well as weight loss.

I also set a personal best for 5K going finishing in 25 mins 20 seconds, that sets 8:04 min/mi pace. Similarly i set a record for 5 miles finishing in 42min 30 seconds at pace of 8:30 min/mi.

Just two minor milestones and hope two of many more. Just keep running, hoping to 3-peat 100+ with march coming up !!!

Eliminate Alcohol consumption for weight loss

Last week I ran 28 miles, checked my carb intake through the weekdays and in general I was on target to loosing a lb until Sat night. Thats when I went out with a few friends, consumed one lite beer and one cocktail - tequila with squirt lime soda.  Ended the night with a shawarma sandwich. That night out must have wiped out my calorie  burn of a 8 mile run in the morning.

Next day we went to a house gathering with some mimosas (Orange Juice and champagne) and mojitos and some lite biting snacks. I consumed some 4 glasses (6oz) of mimosa and 2 glasses (6 oz) of mojito. Had a light buzz the rest of the day and had some chinese food to end a sunday night.

End result of sat nite and sunday afternoon debauchery has meant that I had not net weight loss. Pretty much all the past weeks effort were squashed by two sessions of drinking. Now i thought my limiting myself to non-sugar drinks and being aware of calories in the drinks would limit the damage but I was proven wrong on the weighing scale today morning.

This is what I have learnt. Alcohol is the first fuel to be digested as it is perceived by the body as a toxin. The liver trys to process alcohol first and when we drink more than our liver can process the alcohol enters our blood stream and affects our cognitive functions aka "the buzz". Whilst this is going on, the body does not digest any other food we consume and as a result all food consumed is converted and stored as fat in the body !! This is probably why I gained weight, i had a lite buzz all day and all food i ate must have been converted to fat and negating my entire weeks effort.  In addition alcohol is also a diuretic, so increases dehydration and as a result loss of essential minerals.

So bottom line limit alcohol consumption, period !!

Fastest 5.0 miler @ 7.0 mph, 8:30 min/mi

Today I ran my fastest 5.0 miler, it was a route from SDSC to Top parking lot of torrey pines park and back, with most being flat, but 3/4 mi downhill at 2-3% gradient, and ran the same hill back up. I did good pace on the downhill finishing in 6:30 and coming back up in 7:30, and overall pace were consistent in the remaining splits.
I think what has helped pace has been twofolds, loss of a couple of pound and a couple of runs on treadmill. It appears that running at a constant pace on treadmill for 30-40 mins gives the cardio strength to run on road at same consistent pace. This is a minor milestone and I hope that I can break the 40min barrier for this route in not too distant future. Just have to focus on running though as pace and timing are all secondary, my goal is weight loss.

Success and consistency in Diet and weight loss

Some thoughts on my personal experience and comparisons of weight loss and diet. I have at various points in last say 8 years have been on diet to shed off excess poundage. I have maintained a steady weight of in the range of 176 to 179 (around 80Kg) or so and when I have deviated from my comfort weight I have adopted a routine of diet and exercise to shed off pounds.

So I have tried all sorts of things, common among all those attempts was to get off fast food and saturated fats and regular cola deserts etc. Which is common sense and needless to say that should be part of anyone's weight loss routine. However what I have experimented with is the kinds of foods, number of meals per day, weekly exercise routine and so forth.

Early part of the last 8 years, I would resort to 45 mins of cardio on the treadmill, followed by 40 mins of weight lifting, combined with eating light dinners and consuming more vegetables. I did not in particular pay attention to caloric intake and burn rate but since I had the time as a student and my goals were to loose 5 or 6lbs tops within 2 months I would find my way to nice comfort weight of 177 lbs and often plateauing at that point. As i grew older and crossed into the 30's those diets took longer to succeed but I still was able to manage the 177lb magic weight.

In late 2009 I was ultra busy with dissertation and job hunt and schedule was topsy turvy and I gained weight going from 177lbs to almost 193 lbs the highest weight of my life. When i settled in a new city and job, summer of 2010 I started on a weight loss journey with regular diet of fruits vegetable and stopping all fast food deserts. My job permitted me to stick to 3x cardio 3x weight lifting and i threw in 2x swimming. But it took me around 8 months to come to a weight of around 184 lbs, and it was frustrating, the past diet plan did not work as I expected to. Then in Jan 2011 I trained for half marathons and i dropped my weight to 180lbs but I plateaued there and ran half marathons in March and April. I was able to maintain a stable weight of 180 or so with 2x to 3x short 30 mins runs, and 2x to 3x wight lifting per week. That was until Aug 2011 when life got in the by December i was hovering around 190 lbs.

So in Xmas of 2011 was vacation time and I took those holidays to get back into running, just getting out there and run no pressure of time speed distance, simplicity was key, run 15 to 20 mins away from your house, and spend the next 15 to 20 mins running back. Xmas holidays were spent with all sorts of weird pains aches etc, but in spite of holiday food and new years at Las vegas, I maintained a weight of 189 lb actually i dropped a pound by start of 2012. This prompted me to try something different, why not run like that:- 30 - 40 mins 5x per weekday (M-F) and maybe 60 - 80 mins on sat, no pressure just the joy of running. Add to that I also did one additional different thing, I went to runs during my lunch break at work, and gym for 30 mins or so before work in the morning. That has worked remarkably well. In the first two week i may have lost 1.5 lbs. Thats when it hit me that my diet was not working, I should be loosing more weight and my diet was the weakest link, surely my cardio burn was sufficient. First change was to go to 3 meals (breakfast, lunch,dinner) 3 snacsk (mid morning snack, afternoon snack, early evening snack). That made me feel less hungry and resulted in weight loss of a pound a week. Next up was to regulate the calories and becoming mindful, and thats when I read that an adult should not consume more that 10 tbs of sugar and 10 tbs of salt, these are in addition in what appears naturally in nature in vegetables and fruits. That means every processed food from your healthy slice of bread to juice to vitamin water, they all contribute salt and sugar. Excess salt is bad for blood pressure and excess sugar has high probability of getting converted to fat. So even if my caloric intake is less than 2000 calories, the normal requirement for an adult male, excess salt and sugar can reduce the effectiveness of a diet plan !

So what we have been doing the past two weeks is instead of buying flavored cereal we buy unflavored ones and add sugar by hand, similarly we now eat more fresh oranges and use our juicer to get fresh juice. The logic behind that is would I add two spoons of sugar to my glass of juice, surely not, but that's what even the most premium OJ bottles serve up. So by replacing processed food I can control how much sugar and salt to add and be mindful of those calories. Also beware any sugar free beverage is just replacing sugar with some chemical. The chemical additive is 180 times more sweet than natural sugar, that's bad in many ways, first it does not help me kick my sugar addiction in fact it increases it and second how can any man made chemical be safe than what nature has evolved our bodies over millions of years to consume ? Same thing can be said about fat free snacks, for example fat free potato chips, that itself should raise flags, but those fat free potato chips replace natural fat with a chemical additive, that additive does not get absorbed by our body and gets ejected out. So that's great correct, I think not, along with it, this chemical will also block other nutrients from getting absorbed and that's never a good thing. Always go for the most natural option and instead of eating more of the fatty stuff eat less of it, but eat whats natural, I don't think I can ever go wrong with that.

SO I have tasted success, I have been loosing at a rate of 1.5 lbs per week, and I am right now tipping the scale around 184 lbs. Still a very long way to go, and I plan to just focus on one day at a time. Of course my big grand goal is to go down to 170lbs and % body fat between 15% to 20% range, the recommended values for an adult my age. Once I have reached that goal i have not thought what next, I may actually try to shoot for a full marathon and/or drop another 10lbs of fat add some muscle mass :) But the key is to go one day at a time, and on a given day just do one task at a time, after all its the daily triumphs that lead to big victories!

First 100+ mile month

Finished the month of January clocking 104 miles and in the process crossing the landmark of logging my first 100+mile month. In first week of Jan I started by logging approx 15 miles in 3 days and followed that up by 4 weeks of 6 times per week running 25 to 30 miles a week. This has made me stronger in my cardiovascular strength and now I am able to run up torrey pines and LJ shores without stopping and in fact I continued my runs till I reached the finish. I have also become mindful of my salt and sugar intake trying to restrict each to 10 tea spoons from all sources including bread and juices. Now next I am going to see if I can do 100+ miles in the month of February? The trick is to focus on running 30-40 mins 5 times per week and 60 - 80 mins on saturday, lets do this !!!

2 weeks of 6X week runs

After starting off 2012 week1 with 3 runs totalling 15 miles, I decided that it was time to make a daily run habit with sundays as break day. Its been hard but fun, week 1 ran 30 miles did gym workouts 5 days and no aches pains, thanks to the perfect weather. This past week 2 was a bit colder cloudy had to wear thermals, and some small pains starting bothering, but I managed to run 25 miles and worked out 5 days. Bottom line, I need to workout weekdays before work for 30-40 mins max, and run at lunch time for 30-40 mins and end the week with a 60+ min run on saturday morning. Doing time based running rather than distance or speed helps make it easy to focus and I expect that over the coming weeks I will run faster and mileage will increase !!! One last thing, I am sure that I need to do two more things 1) Log my workouts in the gym, keep track of sets reps and monitor progress, 2) Make a meal plan, need to eat breakfast mid-morning post workout and pre-run snack, lunch, mid afternoon snack, early evening meal, and dinner, but important is to eat the correct things, reduce sodium (salt), sugar and other obvious bad calories. Need to drop pounds, a pound a week for the next 10-12 weeks !! Lets go , lets go, yeaaaaa !!

First run of 2012

Today did my first run of 2012, a 45 min jog from SDSC to scripps institute on La Jolla Shores and back. What a nice day, temperature was around 75, no wind, and perfect blue sky!

Running through the holidays

After a bit of break and some runs in the gym , I took back to running on weekend of Dec 15 with a nice long 7 mile La Jolla shores run. Rest of the two weeks of holidays I ran 7 times, each 40mins with one being around 70 mins. Also hit the gym 3 times a week. Now I feel stronger and invigorated !