From Couch to Triathlon in 365 days
As I just think of the year that is ending, 2017, I just thought it would be nice to chronicle my improvement in staying active (and endurance sports) over the past year. I hope I will look back at 2017 twenty or thirty years later and thank myself for starting all this!
I actually had not been bitten by the fitness bug at the start of the year (neither am I now into fitness) but I just was interested in picking up my swimming skills. The search for a better place to swim (in google) had landed me at Open Waters of Ottiyambakkam (OWO) a couple of days before the new year started and I had decided that I will be a regular to this place in the new year and get better at swimming. That is where the journey started.
The first thing I realized when I went to OWO was that every guy who came there was an avid runner and the discussions in the first two to three sessions that I was there always was around running. So much that I decided to purchase a pair of shoes myself.
And so started my running "journey." I started with a small route which I measured in google maps and came up to around 4.5 km (home to home). I used to run for small distance of 200 to 400 meters maximum before I ran short of breath and would walk for quite some time before starting to run again and then get tired very soon and then walk again. Might probably have run 5 or 6 runs in January along with the twice weekly swim sessions at OWO.
Come February. The running routine was getting a bit better. Thinking of it now, it was nice that I did not have any set goal in mind on my running. Just used to be motivated by all the run experiences shared by CTCians in OWO. On my running, was fixing small landmarks en route (same route every day) and used to try to better the previous day's distance at least by 10 steps! February was a very happening month in running for CTCians. The Auroville Marathon happened on February 12 and the whole of OWO used to be buzzing with talk about the marathon, the route, etc. Of course, more amazing was the fact that two humans (you have to believe me, I have seen them in flesh and blood), Peter and Vipul, ran all the way from Chennai to Pondy and participated in the marathon after the run. So all this used to make me wonder, when others run 21 and 42k so well, what is it that is going to stop me from getting better? I achieved a "feat" on Shivaratri day (Feb 24) when I ran nonstop continuously for 2k (by now, I had memorized all the distances on my route, thanks to google maps) and I was still strong enough to run more that day. The swim sessions at OWO were continuing at the rate of thrice per week and we were getting prepared for the triathlon scheduled for March. I was now swimming better and was able to do 3 laps of 50 mtrs without stopping to hold the rocks. I never ventured in the 150 meters side when the ropes were tied initially and when I wanted to try there, the ropes were not there and I stuck to doing the 50 mtr laps.
March - this is the month when I did my first "event", happy that it was a CTC event. I had registered for the 5k swimathon but had changed in last minute to 3k as I was not really sure of my yet untested endurance. Event day - March 4, and my timing was 3 pm. Was at the venue a good 1.5 hours before event started and met up with all CTC buddies, a few of who had finished their 10k sessions in the morning. A few were continuing with their 15k swim still. When my turn came to get into the water, I was frozen and took a lot of support from the rope and had feelings of giving up after the first 150 mtrs. My freestyle was just not working and tried to keep switching from freestyle to breast stroke and so on. Two laps over and by then most others had done 4 laps. I decided to stop for some water as my throat was parched. The warm water (electrol mixed?) helped me a lot. I decided to stick to breast stroke and set into a rhythm and I swam 7 laps continuously from lap 3 to lap 9 (2.1 km). Was feeling a bit crampy at the 9th lap and so decided to take the 10th one easy and changed between free style, back stroke, and breast stroke and completed the 3k swim in 2.15 hours. At least 75% of the crowd would have completed before me, but who cares. This is my first event and I have completed this successfully !
Having achieved this in March, I was motivated to get better at running. This is coz all the others in the group were already looking at the July triathlon and what level they wanted to compete. My running was now at a consistent level where I could run 2k first and then walk-run-walk. The walk portion used to be more after the first 2k. I had registered for the olympic category for July 1 triathlon and there was a practice session on March 25, which I turned up for without a cycle. Did the swim leg strongly and decided to run after that. This is when I realized I was shortwinded after the mandatory 2k I was used to doing. Decided to join the tambaram running chapter (TTB - Tambaram Thunderbolts) but when I looked at their facebook page, backed off, seeing their posts about running so many kilometers, TPL (tambaram premier league), etc!
April - Decided to increase my run distance (from less than 5k to 7.5k). The initial run distance increased slowly in April from 2 to 2.5 km and tried to do a "second run" of at least 1k at a stretch after the walk break. Tried to squeeze in a long "third run." Did around 10 days of run in April in the new route. Registered for a half marathon (21.1k) - Kanchipuram Half Marathon, scheduled for July 31!
May is when I wanted to graduate from 7.5k loop to a 10k loop. Had fixed up mentally that I should be able to do consistently 10k on my running days (had seen enough of 10x10 messages from Peter and group on FB and wanted to do 10k at least on alternate days). Started off doing that route. 3k was my initial run and then a bit of walking.. and then around 2k of running.. and then walking.. and again 1k max.. and then I was done and used to finish up the course walking ! May is the time when I joined the Tambaram Thunderbolt (TTB) group on whatsapp after lot of introspection whether I should join a running group. May (and June) used to be hectic on TTB group as 100 days of running (HDOR) was going and every day there used to be a post on how much each of them ran. The same names used to appear daily with numbers against their names like 6k, 10k, 16k, what not. The numbers were simply mindboggling.
June 1 is when I first met the TTB group as that was the day when CTCians were visiting TTB to "invite" for coastal cleanup! So, this is when my official TTB journey started. Met up with lot of like-minded people, some of whom I had seen photos on their FB page earlier. Started to join the TTBians on their runs, mostly weekend ones. Two weekdays were reserved for OWO and one for the new addition - Core Strengthening sessions by Elvis (TTB) on Fridays! When I think of it now, the weekend long runs (and strengthening) is what made me a better runner. LSD (long slow distance) runs were scheduled for every weekend (Sat or Sun) and the distances would range from 12k to 21k. My first LSD with TTB was a 12k one where I run up to 3k as usual and then stop. Whereas others were chugging on. It was a running in the TTB "Classic" route and by the time I reached the 6k U Turn point, others had finished their refreshments also (butter milk, tata glucoplus). Return back was tougher and I must have reached really late. Most of them had come off to juice shop after finishing their run! IIRC, I ran around 3 or 4 LSDs in June along with the group and I was slowly but surely getting better! As this was my birthday month and had acquired a new mobile, the first thing I did was to install a running app - Strava. I now started tracking my runs for pace and distance.
Would not be an exaggeration if I said July has been the most happening month in my short running career. Firstly the triathlon scheduled for July 1 was postponed indefinitely (thankfully for me as I was still not ready with a cycle for the event and had 0 practice). My "first running event" status went to the Porur Racers Anniversary run. Here again, a group of TTBians (Veda, KM, VJ) came running to the race venue from Tambaram (10-15 k) before participating in the HM. I was doing 10k and I finished my first event in around 66 minutes (was looking for 60 minutes very ambitiously). Pace could have been better if not for the flyovers !
The fun did not end there. I had registered for a 25k hill run JHU (Jawadhu Hills Ultra) and so the TTB thinktank decided that those who registered for 25k hill run needed 25k ground practice and so the next week after the Porur Run was a long run from Bharath University to Besant Nagar where another event was happening. The route came up to 23k for me and I completed it (including breaks) at 3:10 minutes! Some achievement it was, for me. Could not have even thought of it, leave alone completing, if not for guys like Veda, Vinodh, who pushed me to do it! And then the next week was my first official Half Marathon (which I had registered 3 months back). In the Kanchipuram half marathon, my goal was to complete in 2-1/2 hours. I ended up finishing it in 2 hours 22 minutes :)
August - my first hill run experience - JHU, a CTC event. Completed 25k JHU in 3 hours 25 minutes. Absolutely nothing could have prepared me for this wonderful experience. The "plan" was for 8k each hour and finish in 3 hours. The first 8 km went to plan but started to feel a "sense of cramps" (no true cramps actually) around 10th km as I was rushing madly downhill. So went mostly by walk till the almost U-turn point halfway. From that point, it was mostly downhill but I could not make maximum use as psychologically I was thinking of cramps. After 20k, it was literally hell and took 55 minutes to complete the last 5 km ! At the end of it, it felt great to have finished in less than 3:30 hours (the cut off was 4 hours). A few TTB buddies did 50k and finished strong (Yuvi, Vivek, Veda) and one did 75 k (VJ) and a lot others 25k (Anu, Amul, Ullas, Kumaran, Naveen, Sku, Sudo to name a few). We had a couple of DNFs also due to injuries :( The experience of travelling along with the group in a cab, staying overnight in a govt school, delayed and limited dinner, lack of sleep, early morning queue at toilets, etc. was a good package and it was a worth event! The cold water bath after the event was heaven and the breakfast tasted awesome, thanks to the 25k run.
September had another sort of challenge lined up for me - the first two events I did were a semi trail (Kanchi) and a hill (JHU). This was a full trail event - the only such event in Chennai - Chennai Trail Marathon - CTM, a CTC event! Any hopes that I had of closing down on my personal best on HM vanished when the organizers announced that the cut off was extended by half hour due to poor ground conditions ! The route was dark, slushy at many places, scenic all through, with the familiar CTC volunteers all along the way. It was an awesome run, and all the training helped. Anbu joined me for a few kilometers (he had started half hour after me) and I could not keep pace with him and so sent him off. Finished with a strong sprint, in less than 3 hours, 2.55 to be precise! Lot of TTB presence in the event and all of them finished strong, a few of them FM!
The event for October had to be different - after all these different running events in different profiles and so it was, the Mongrels Duathlon. Run 10 km, cycle 40 km, and run 5 km to complete the route. Veda had given us a fair idea on what to expect at breakfast ! The first 10k run was really good for 80% of the route but kept in mind the instructions to not "push" too much in first 10k and so settled for 63 minutes and then the cycling part. Thanks to Karthik Babu for the cycle. The first 20k was tough in cycling due to headwinds but the return was easier and I could finish 40k in 2 hours! It was a great feeling, considering that my first 20 km long cycling had been just 2 days before. The last 5k run was really tough and this is where the thought of a strong breakfast kept pushing me and finally managed to finish it in 40 minutes for a total time of 3 hours 45 minutes!
November was a non-event month where lots of training was being done for the Chennai Marathon (TWCM aka CRCM) scheduled for Dec 3rd. Also the CTC Triathlon scheduled to happen in July is now fixed for Dec 16. So October-November was used for training and I was hoping to do a sub-2 hour 21km in CRCM. There was a training run every weekend and I was running at least 16k almost every weekend.
December 3, 2017 was the CRCM day. I had understood, based on my training, that sub2 was not going to be easy but I decided to stick with the 2 hour pacer for 21k and try to finish along with him. In hindsight, this turned out to be a poor plan as by the time I was done with 6k, I was running out of steam. The 2.15 pacer Ashish was crossing me and I felt maybe I will stick with him and finish at least in 2.15. That guy was running faster and could not keep up with him too. Then, after around 14km, I was almost crossed by the 2:30 pacer. I started feeling I was going to do worse than my maiden HM of 2:22 hours. I decided to somehow pace myself to stay ahead of the 2:30 pacer (as she was telling that based on her pace, her team would finish in 2:20). With a lot of difficulty, I managed to finish the event in 2:15 minutes official time (2:18 strava time). Lessons learnt, that I should pace myself properly at the start and also speed training needs to be better and also long runs should be close to 20k, as I was struggling after 16k in the event ! Disappointed that I could not do even 2:10, forget 2:20 :( December 10 was another event (pillar pacers anniv run) and tried another shot at 2:10 in this event. Did really well up to 10k and was feeling good but somehow got bogged down after 14k and ended up that event too at 2:25 odd. So the sub-2 dream goes on to 2018. Decided that i will not register for an FM till I do a sub2 HM.
The last event of the year came up on December 16 - the much awaited (for me) triathlon. Got cycle from Ramanath a week before the event and did a couple of rides, one of them for 40km. Got some good tips from Elvis on gear shifting. Was confident of cycling this time. Even thought had had practice in swim, the swim leg was still giving me jitters as I was always practicing in the 50 mtr stretch. Come event day, went with some butterflies in stomach. Started swim slowly but stuck to my favored freestyle. Almost 30 minutes had elapsed for 600 meters, took a break and had some water and then things were better and finished the next 900 in 30 minutes for a 1 hour swim time. When I took the bike, I was feeling more confident and was thinking of a 1:45 timing for 40k cycling. I managed to finish almost close to it at 1:48. The final leg, the toughest one basically coz it comes in the end, is where I found TTB support help me a great deal. Sudo who was not participating in event, accompanied me in my 10k run and was a great motivation for me to finish in 70 minutes (against the 75 cut off I had planned). Triathlon done and dusted in 4 hours 20 minutes (my expectation was 4:30). So ended the year on a very positive note after the not so happy performance at CRCM! Fixed up on doing a Half Ironman challenge in July 2018
https://2017.strava.com/en-us/
Please do give me your feedback as comments on this writeup! I hope it inspires a few of my friends to get active in 2018. The active me that you see now was slowly built up, brick by brick and there is no reason you cannot do that !
I actually had not been bitten by the fitness bug at the start of the year (neither am I now into fitness) but I just was interested in picking up my swimming skills. The search for a better place to swim (in google) had landed me at Open Waters of Ottiyambakkam (OWO) a couple of days before the new year started and I had decided that I will be a regular to this place in the new year and get better at swimming. That is where the journey started.
The first thing I realized when I went to OWO was that every guy who came there was an avid runner and the discussions in the first two to three sessions that I was there always was around running. So much that I decided to purchase a pair of shoes myself.
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My first running shoes |
Come February. The running routine was getting a bit better. Thinking of it now, it was nice that I did not have any set goal in mind on my running. Just used to be motivated by all the run experiences shared by CTCians in OWO. On my running, was fixing small landmarks en route (same route every day) and used to try to better the previous day's distance at least by 10 steps! February was a very happening month in running for CTCians. The Auroville Marathon happened on February 12 and the whole of OWO used to be buzzing with talk about the marathon, the route, etc. Of course, more amazing was the fact that two humans (you have to believe me, I have seen them in flesh and blood), Peter and Vipul, ran all the way from Chennai to Pondy and participated in the marathon after the run. So all this used to make me wonder, when others run 21 and 42k so well, what is it that is going to stop me from getting better? I achieved a "feat" on Shivaratri day (Feb 24) when I ran nonstop continuously for 2k (by now, I had memorized all the distances on my route, thanks to google maps) and I was still strong enough to run more that day. The swim sessions at OWO were continuing at the rate of thrice per week and we were getting prepared for the triathlon scheduled for March. I was now swimming better and was able to do 3 laps of 50 mtrs without stopping to hold the rocks. I never ventured in the 150 meters side when the ropes were tied initially and when I wanted to try there, the ropes were not there and I stuck to doing the 50 mtr laps.
March - this is the month when I did my first "event", happy that it was a CTC event. I had registered for the 5k swimathon but had changed in last minute to 3k as I was not really sure of my yet untested endurance. Event day - March 4, and my timing was 3 pm. Was at the venue a good 1.5 hours before event started and met up with all CTC buddies, a few of who had finished their 10k sessions in the morning. A few were continuing with their 15k swim still. When my turn came to get into the water, I was frozen and took a lot of support from the rope and had feelings of giving up after the first 150 mtrs. My freestyle was just not working and tried to keep switching from freestyle to breast stroke and so on. Two laps over and by then most others had done 4 laps. I decided to stop for some water as my throat was parched. The warm water (electrol mixed?) helped me a lot. I decided to stick to breast stroke and set into a rhythm and I swam 7 laps continuously from lap 3 to lap 9 (2.1 km). Was feeling a bit crampy at the 9th lap and so decided to take the 10th one easy and changed between free style, back stroke, and breast stroke and completed the 3k swim in 2.15 hours. At least 75% of the crowd would have completed before me, but who cares. This is my first event and I have completed this successfully !
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Swimathon - 3k - March 4, 2017 |
April - Decided to increase my run distance (from less than 5k to 7.5k). The initial run distance increased slowly in April from 2 to 2.5 km and tried to do a "second run" of at least 1k at a stretch after the walk break. Tried to squeeze in a long "third run." Did around 10 days of run in April in the new route. Registered for a half marathon (21.1k) - Kanchipuram Half Marathon, scheduled for July 31!
May is when I wanted to graduate from 7.5k loop to a 10k loop. Had fixed up mentally that I should be able to do consistently 10k on my running days (had seen enough of 10x10 messages from Peter and group on FB and wanted to do 10k at least on alternate days). Started off doing that route. 3k was my initial run and then a bit of walking.. and then around 2k of running.. and then walking.. and again 1k max.. and then I was done and used to finish up the course walking ! May is the time when I joined the Tambaram Thunderbolt (TTB) group on whatsapp after lot of introspection whether I should join a running group. May (and June) used to be hectic on TTB group as 100 days of running (HDOR) was going and every day there used to be a post on how much each of them ran. The same names used to appear daily with numbers against their names like 6k, 10k, 16k, what not. The numbers were simply mindboggling.
June 1 is when I first met the TTB group as that was the day when CTCians were visiting TTB to "invite" for coastal cleanup! So, this is when my official TTB journey started. Met up with lot of like-minded people, some of whom I had seen photos on their FB page earlier. Started to join the TTBians on their runs, mostly weekend ones. Two weekdays were reserved for OWO and one for the new addition - Core Strengthening sessions by Elvis (TTB) on Fridays! When I think of it now, the weekend long runs (and strengthening) is what made me a better runner. LSD (long slow distance) runs were scheduled for every weekend (Sat or Sun) and the distances would range from 12k to 21k. My first LSD with TTB was a 12k one where I run up to 3k as usual and then stop. Whereas others were chugging on. It was a running in the TTB "Classic" route and by the time I reached the 6k U Turn point, others had finished their refreshments also (butter milk, tata glucoplus). Return back was tougher and I must have reached really late. Most of them had come off to juice shop after finishing their run! IIRC, I ran around 3 or 4 LSDs in June along with the group and I was slowly but surely getting better! As this was my birthday month and had acquired a new mobile, the first thing I did was to install a running app - Strava. I now started tracking my runs for pace and distance.
Would not be an exaggeration if I said July has been the most happening month in my short running career. Firstly the triathlon scheduled for July 1 was postponed indefinitely (thankfully for me as I was still not ready with a cycle for the event and had 0 practice). My "first running event" status went to the Porur Racers Anniversary run. Here again, a group of TTBians (Veda, KM, VJ) came running to the race venue from Tambaram (10-15 k) before participating in the HM. I was doing 10k and I finished my first event in around 66 minutes (was looking for 60 minutes very ambitiously). Pace could have been better if not for the flyovers !
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My first 10k in 66 minutes - July 16, 2017 |
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My graph for the Kanchipuram Run - steady till 16k and lot of stop-runs after that (July 30, 2017) |
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JHU - Aug 6, 2017 - See the hill peak in the graph! |
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CTM - September 10, 2017 |
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Mongrels Duathlon - October 8, 2017 |
December 3, 2017 was the CRCM day. I had understood, based on my training, that sub2 was not going to be easy but I decided to stick with the 2 hour pacer for 21k and try to finish along with him. In hindsight, this turned out to be a poor plan as by the time I was done with 6k, I was running out of steam. The 2.15 pacer Ashish was crossing me and I felt maybe I will stick with him and finish at least in 2.15. That guy was running faster and could not keep up with him too. Then, after around 14km, I was almost crossed by the 2:30 pacer. I started feeling I was going to do worse than my maiden HM of 2:22 hours. I decided to somehow pace myself to stay ahead of the 2:30 pacer (as she was telling that based on her pace, her team would finish in 2:20). With a lot of difficulty, I managed to finish the event in 2:15 minutes official time (2:18 strava time). Lessons learnt, that I should pace myself properly at the start and also speed training needs to be better and also long runs should be close to 20k, as I was struggling after 16k in the event ! Disappointed that I could not do even 2:10, forget 2:20 :( December 10 was another event (pillar pacers anniv run) and tried another shot at 2:10 in this event. Did really well up to 10k and was feeling good but somehow got bogged down after 14k and ended up that event too at 2:25 odd. So the sub-2 dream goes on to 2018. Decided that i will not register for an FM till I do a sub2 HM.
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CR Chennai Marathon - Dec 3, 2017 |
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Good performance, could have done better - CRCM Personal Records |
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Olympic level Triathlon (December 16, 2017) - Mandatory photo with Peter! |
What has helped me in this journey
I have never been an athlete at school/college level and my tryst with sports has been at a very low level. So, how did I achieve this level? It was purely due to my passion for being active and the discipline that follows the passion. I am active at least 6 days a week, if not 7. I may not follow the run schedules very religiously but I ensure that I at least run an easy run. It also helped that the first 6 months of my running stint, I never measured the pace or distance (other than the google distance) and tried to keep increasing my run lengths. I am sure the most help has come from the TTB group. If I had joined TTB in January itself, I might have been a better runner by now (or maybe not, I might have been chasing numbers then itself - God knows). From the day I started tracking numbers (June 29, 2017), I have completed close to 900 km of running and maybe 200 of cycling and at least 20 km of swimming (all this is for 6 months)! Do check this strava video below, might have been updated around Dec 17th or so.https://2017.strava.com/en-us/
Please do give me your feedback as comments on this writeup! I hope it inspires a few of my friends to get active in 2018. The active me that you see now was slowly built up, brick by brick and there is no reason you cannot do that !
Superb writeup Jagan.
ReplyDeleteWonderful write up and summarisation of events Jagan. Sure you are going to inspire many. From the day one we started running together at ORR, I always felt that you are a strong runner and only thing missing is the tactics to endure. Your best is yet to come.... Good luck for 2018..
ReplyDeletenice write up.
ReplyDeleteYour methodical and consistent approach to running is reflected in your writing too.nice.your feats are sure to inspire a lot of people including me.
ReplyDeleteYour methodical and consistent approach to running is reflected in your writing too.nice.your feats are sure to inspire a lot of people including me.
ReplyDeleteReally motivating. Keep it going.
ReplyDelete