Missed by 48 seconds...

The quest to understand how to improve running performance, lead me to my first book on running, "Lore of Running" by Tim Noakes. The book is very exhaustive (about 700 pages!) and found it to be a complete book about running. Each time I read the book, I got new insights (had to re-read some of the chapters to get the point). The book covers various aspects of running like physiology of running, how metabolism works, training methods for both body and mind, understanding and avoiding running injuries, special considerations for women, kids and many such interesting topics. Tim conveys all the points with lot of research papers and his own personal experience! One of the points that I found very interesting was how metabolism  (process of converting body reserves into energy) works during endurance running.

Guess most of us know that 64% of the body weight is because of water. But did you know that of the remaining, 15% of body weight is Fat and carbohydrate stores are quite trivial (about 1%)? Below table lists the weights of different organs of the body in an average 70 kg man.

Of the different energy stores in our body, carbohydrate and fat are the two most important energy source during prolonged exercise (anything more than 2 hours). Carbohydrates are converted to energy faster than fat.

With the amount of energy store we have, table 1 would mean, for an athlete running at 19.8 kmph, the energy that carbohydrates provide would last for about 2 hours, whereas the body fat could last about 59:49:00! Clearly, carbohydrates are not enough for Marathon running.

As the duration of any exercise intensity increases, fat become an increasingly important energy source. Below figure shows the contribution of fat and carbohydrate during long exercise.

 

At the same time, our body appears unable to extract energy at a high rate from fat metabolism (Metabolism is the process of converting the energy reserves into energy) during high intensity exercise. And if not trained correctly, the carbohydrates would deplete faster  and lead to experiencing "The wall" after 30 km (there are other factors as well but this is one of most important cause).

What these means is that Marathon runners, must increase their capacities for fat oxidation so that they can "spare" carbohydrate stores during racing. They must also maximize their abilities to store liver and muscle glycogen before exercise and must increase their capacities to absorb carbohydrate during competition.

The book also explains how this could be achieved, like importance of different training (Hill training, interval training's, distance training), preparing mind for best performance, eating right kind of food and so on.

(All the things that I have mentioned above is just some of the many insights I got. Would recommend reading the book to all those interested to actually get more explanation and details of all the studies done based on which these observations were made!)

Training for the race:

This time I started the training for the Ulm Marathon in July mid (2.5 months before the race). Previous marathons I could train only once a week. On one hand it was clear that training once a week was not enough and at same time had to figure out how much and when could I train. There are lots of training plans available but had to figure out a plan that works for me. Made a plan for one month at a time. For month of August, set a target to run 3 times and a total of 50 kms per week.

1. Saturdays were for long runs (>25 km).
2. Once a week would either run from home to office in morning or run back home in evening. About 16 km in 1:25:00, which meant only 40 minutes more than regular commute time and could also do the training. 
3. One more day would do hill training near the house. Would run 200 meters up the hill and walk down. Repeat about 8 to 10 times. Just 40 mins of workout and would be completely exhausted. Was difficult initially but could see the benefit of this soon. I could run my usual running speed for a longer time now!

Did few days of cycling (to office and back home) and swimming on few Sundays! Luckily, Purvi and Tanu had summer holidays for their kindergarten and German classes respectively and could manage spending more training hours this time!

Focus for the last 3 weeks was to taper and reduce the distance to 30 km per week. Did more interval runs during this time (at running track and hill). And did fast short distance runs (12 to 15 kms).  

Soon it was last week. Did only 2 hill training during this week. Ate lots of carbohydrates in the last 3 days (Each day: 2 bananas, 2 apples, 1.5 liter orange juice, 4 slices of whole corn bread, rice, pasta and potatoes). Didn't take any milk product on Saturday. Kept engaging in positive thoughts and kept saying that this time I will do it under 4 hours! One morning, started to praise Tanu, told her how awesome she is!!! (and I am practicing being positive). She smiled back and said "We are going to have a fight in the evening":).

Race day

Finally the D day arrived. On Sunday 23 September 2018 around 600 full marathon runners and 3000 odd half marathon runners were waiting at the start line. Had a perfect weather for the race (12 deg when we started and about 20 deg when I completed). Felt little cold while standing at the starting line (it seems if you don't feel cold when you are standing at the starting line, then the race might be hot for you!). 

Though the weather was pleasant. Didn't have the same luck with my Garmin watch. GPS signal wasn't detected. Though I switched it on couple of minutes earlier. (It was like copy paste in windows, 99% copy is completed and the 1% copy takes eternity to get over!) Annoying and at same time had to quickly decide what to do. Within minutes all the pace makers had gone  and was at almost the very end. Finally had to start the race without the stop watch started. Got the signal only after about 1.5-2 km. As a result, right throughout the race my watch was out of sync of the actual distance and more importantly the time. Since there was no possibility to verify my exact time I assumed that I am about 7-8 mins more than the current time in the watch.

Anyways soon shifted my thoughts and concentrated on the run. got into the rhythm of about 5:20 to 5:30 minutes per km. One of the things I learnt recently was to get the best performance one has to be fully present during the run. Mind keeps drifting to every other aspect of life (office, family, kids, money, relationships, practice sessions....). But best performance comes out when we are fully present and just thinking about the run! Each km, I kept mentally calculating the finish time for the next km. Example, if current time is 23:45, added 5:30 and the goal time to finish next km was 29:15! Kept repeating this time in the head. Sometimes forgot what was the goal time but almost 80% of the time could keep the focus and kept focusing only on the next km goal! Km after km kept going towards the finish line. The most beautiful thing about keeping engaged in this was that the race was going on without much focus on how much is left and within no time I was at 32 km mark. Though there was some pain at times (stomach pain and leg pain) but was bearable. Kept engaging in the positive thoughts that today is my day and will achieve the target.

Read somewhere that Marathon only starts after 32 km! Was very much as per plan, 32 km in 3 hours and had a good 60 mins for the last 10.2 km (which means a good 6 mins per km). Somewhere around this distance, we reach a moment where we lose out complete concentration and energy (also called as "the wall"). I had also experienced it in all my previous 5 marathon runs so far. Mentally I kept preparing for this. Though the target looked reasonable now, I had to still run and complete as per the plan. Pace reduced after 32 km. First the body slowed down and then I slowed down mentally, thinking I have enough cushion. From the initial calculation of 7-8 mins behind the actual start time I felt that I will finish about 1 min faster. Didn't push hard and just ran the last km fast. Wow I am going to be under 4 today! Crossed the finish line being happy. Yes I did it!!! But was still not sure. Checked the mobile and saw the race time was 4:00:47! Shit how could this happen? Completely disappointed, felt sad and sat down in utter disbelief.  How could I be so careless and stupid? Why didn't I check the time correctly? I still had stamina to run fast and could have surely covered the 48 seconds. All negative thoughts turned at making myself wrong. 

Dragged myself for shower. Hot water did the trick, soon forgot about the physical pain and mental disbelief. Sure didn't achieve the target today but the positive was for the first time I could run the complete 42.195 km without experiencing The wall. Didn't walk during the race and though was fully engaged mentally every lap didn't feel exhausted.  Best thing about running at Ulm Marathon is you get to eat popcorn after the race:)! Had stomach full of popcorn's!