With less than a month to go for Race Day, I am in an unusual dilemma as to whether I should run the last long run or simply take it easy and save up for raceday. Have i peaked too early? Typically for the Mumbai Marathon, I do my last long run 3 weeks before race day.
But there isn't anything typical about THIS race.
But there isn't anything typical about THIS race.
At the KhardungLa challenge, I not only need to conserve strength for the 72 kms distance but I also need to save up some love for myself for a TOUGH 9 days acclimatising trek that precedes it.
Running the previous 2 long runs at Lavasa and Amby valley didn't drain me much but left me with a bit of a stuffy nose that could make acclimatising in Ladakh difficult. So, I needed to rest out before we depart for Ladakh on Aug 31st.
Running the previous 2 long runs at Lavasa and Amby valley didn't drain me much but left me with a bit of a stuffy nose that could make acclimatising in Ladakh difficult. So, I needed to rest out before we depart for Ladakh on Aug 31st.
Also, work pressures between my trip to Burma and Ladakh ensure that I look for an opportunity to rest in whatever time i get.
So when in Burma, I tried to keep up with the momentum gained from the previous runs and packed my running gear for at least a short run or 2 out there.
Feeling pressure to give up running through the holidays is fairly common. Its very tempting to put training on hold until after the holiday’s over. But with such a daunting challenge ahead, NOT running for a while can actually create even more stress!
Add to it, the pressures of day trips beginning early morning at times can also seriously limit the amount of time one can get to run especially either in the morning or evening. Nevertheless, i did 3 beautiful short runs on the lovely roads and trails of Burma
There are a couple of things I kept in mind while doing these holidays runs.
I planned my runs keeping the day’s schedule in mind. If there would be any car travel in the day, that would give me some time to catch up on sleep, i would run a bit longer.
I consciously avoided pushing myself with any pace runs or serious hill running.
Even www.runnersworld.com advises “Running three days a week for even 20 to 30 minutes will maintain your current fitness level, relieve stress, and give you more time for holiday obligations.
Shorten your runs. Something is better than nothing! Some running is better than no running at all so rather than eliminate a run completely, cut it short”
The first run i did was in Mandalay, an easy paced city that wakes up early and sleeps early too. The city is blessed with plenty of greenery and pagodas
A large portion of Mandalay is occupied by the Royal Palace which has beautiful continuous green boulevards on all 4 sides and aggregate to approximately 8-9 kms.
There’s also the Mandalay hill that gives a superb moderate hill run experience while giving beautiful views of the city below.
I charted my route on www.mapmyrun.com and headed out with a small bottle of water in hand. I chose to run approximately an hour which would mean a circuit of upto 10 kms.
Mandalay Hill was quite far from our hotel and going to the top and back would mean running around 15 kms for which i did not have enough time in hand.
The run was essentially a flat terrain upto the base of Mandalay hill and back.
Running along the walls of the fortress of a palace gave me good time to closely appreciate the watch towers and the gates while running my imagination as to how impressive the architecture and designing was in those days. Absolutely no technology, it was pure Mathematics, engineering, and hard work of labourers or slaves then!
The boulevards are a favourite for joggers in Mandalay. An early 530 sunrise means runners are winding up their runs by as early as 630 am. So as i trotted back to my hotel after an hour and 15 minutes and 12 kms done, the sun was up and blazing and i was on time to enjoy the lovely breakfast!!
The second short run i did was near Inle Lake at Nyaung Shwe. This was mainly to capture early morning pictures of a sleepy town. It was just a half hour run with a friend Shruthi who somehow felt inspired to wake up early and join me for my jog.
The half hour run around Nyuang Shwe was flat through rice fields and on village roads alongside monasteries and stupas.
It was a pleasure to see monks headed to for their morning prayers. Did i have as much discipline as they did with their prayer schedules?? Far from it!!!
The third run was in Bagan. The moment we reached Bagan, I was dead sure that i wanted to run there. The beautiful trails, the ups and downs of the roads and the serenity of the pagodas are just too tempting to avoid a run!
We started off from our hotel at 5 am. Our course was to run from New Bagan to Old Bagan and run for atleast an hour and divert along any trails that entwine around the Pagodas that came our way.
The weather was very hot and humid, nevertheless the joy of running in new places quite overcomes that discomfort. The first few kms were a slight upward gradient and I chose to pace ahead and run back to catch up with Shruthi. Thus, we could stay together and i could ramp up on my distance..
As we closed in on Shwedagon pagoda, a popular site for tourists to enjoy the sunrise, there were lots of westerners returning on their ebikes. Bagan has a policy by which tourists are allowed to only use E Bikes. And not fuelled motorbikes. This ensures that the environs of the pagodas are clean and pollution free!
At one particular roadside Pagoda, i saw a steep flight of stairs going up to the Buddha statue inside. I did a couple of up and down runs on it. Its so much fun to run with no targets in head! Something i really discovered in all my training runs outside of Mumbai!!!
Quite soon, it was more than an hour that we had been running and we turned back to our hotel. How complete is a morning run in Bagan without the sight of a monk headed for prayers?? That too happened and a good 1hr 15 min later, we were back in our rooms to get ready for our day ahead whizzing around Bagan on Ebikes!
