My Long run @ Sydney

Disharmony of disengaged an un-discardable nexus between dispirited mind & dismayed feet - Can't decipher my disgruntled thoughts in disarray, for a better title !!!

Post from Epping, Sydney, Australia....

Three kinds of people exist in this world – the one who learns by reading; a few who learn by observation and the rest have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves – Will Rogers, one of the renowned political sages of America

My innate sense to categorise myself indicates that I belong to all the above three characters and that attributed to a disarray of thoughts even to find an unambiguous title to this write-up.

Having landed in Sydney, Australia three weeks back, the still-not-fully set-in-summer weather despatching cool breeze mostly and the unarguably well laid out pathways alongside of Epping’s (suburb in Sydney area) every small avenues, roads, streets, boulevards and public park interiors ideal for physical fitness activities and of course with oft frequented slopes urged me go nuts and run every day as against the alternative day runs I had been doing in Mumbai, at unearthly hours for many local zombies. This was well in sync with what someone said, ”…it is better to burn out than fade away…”. My very sense of Nature’s sanction of this short term situational advantage I gauged to exist here has also augured well with my DNA, in its changed composition positively biased towards my undiscardable running passion since 8 years – this mostly identifies me to fit into the first category of people defined above.

The unplanned “daily” run schedule I abruptly decided to adopt was due to lack of any active professional work I could do here other than small domestic help at home, of my son and daughter-in-law; Also, it was my aspirational urge for an “off-the grid experiential taste” - more of the third category of people defined above - to run extra miles when the environ is so conducive;

The so-called ‘off-the grid experiential taste’ urge has emerged as running is more of a wellness ritual for passionate ones and nothing special about it; this in a way toe the line with my tacit belief that was cemented out of my observing many runners doing this “extra business” by running a 10K daily (a 300K month) and posting pictures and records to support their claim on social media as well – this aspect places me in the second set of people defined above – that makes a three-in-one scenario to characterise me and that ensured a “Disharmony of thoughts disengaged” with my abrupt decision to do extra daily run….confusion worse confounded !!!

Well….That being the self-assessment to go in for extra running, nothing changed on the preparation front to equip myself – like every runner, I espouse strict discipline and 4:30’ ish systemic wake-up call daily since many years though, I used to think that it was a foolish consistency and an inflexible regime of birds who get up to chirp and get ready to fly in the wee hours. Barring a few days due to difference in time zone in Australia and as we get the Sun here first than Mumbai much earlier by 5:30 hours, I lulled a while to get to my extra run plan. 

Knotty issue:

The initial phase of my first day run started off with a slope of about 76m elevation gain - like that of our (ill?) famous Satara Hill Marathon’s 1st Km - from the road to enter the Epping’s Boronia Park area through an avenue, and it was full of ups and downs at oft repeated intervals to test my “plan” (sans any well thought out strategy), to the fullest right from the quality of the shoes – new pair of Sketchers UltraR model – to my leg muscle vulnerability or otherwise and to my not-so-good running posture which I could not correct despite someone might have noticed to call it poor in its genre and against ideal style or norms found in books. I do not have technical expertise unlike many runners to know what I wear are a pair of lighter race shoes or heavier training shoes but what I needed was to trick my own judgement literally to decide on this knotty issue of relevancy of shoes that needed to augur well with my running style or the lay-out of my legs itself per se which I did not bather yet even after 8 years of running marathons.

I was unable to streamline my running pace though started off at a very comfortable 8m/km pace, to guard against any eventuality that could restrict me not-to-run even one loop of the Park – a new route – and more so, the lack of knowledge to understand the “deception procedure” to decide on this light versus heavy shoes conundrum itself was an involuntary “add-on” to my knotty issue. Might be, I subconsciously had some idea about weights of shoes, style of running and the running economics to draw my “plan” – a mind based and runner-blinded lyrical emotional imagery – this is what I termed as an undiscardable nexus between runners’ mind and feet.

Shoes in Running Performance Matrix (RPM):

On Sunday, the 30th Oct 2016 I did a very long unplanned run of 36K in Mumbai to celebrate in my own style a special day of my life – to mark logging into 36th year of my wedded life and to dedicate the run to my beloved wife who is also into marathon running domain. This sudden long run was done with my Asics Nimbus Gel shoes on, which did help run about 5 half marathons including some absolute trail races of 25K and more and some training medium and long runs of over 25K between February and October 2016, thereby cumulatively accounting for about 600K in a span of 7 months, if my NikeRun+ app stands by my statistics. The logic of light shoe weight was sensed to have biased in favour of my Sketchers UltraR as against Asics Nimbus Gel even to an extent of 2% of the mass.

Such an unplanned long run led to a muscle cramp leaving a constant pain in my left thigh; I didn’t recognise it that time or after, to merit a serious care for that pain but treated it as a “good pain” as it was well within the ambit of tolerance I fixed to my sense of agony, notwithstanding the lack of my ability to decipher the underlying internal seriousness of such cramp and resultant constant pain. This tendency I was advised against to ignore by my first ever remarkable coach cum marathoner & a 2 times Comrades finisher Mr Samson Sequeira and my current coach Striders Miles as well – …“Disharmony of thoughts Disengaged the nexus between mind and feet…” – the famous saying that goes, “…when I do what I fear the most, then I can do anything…” proved to be in consonance with my disharmonized attempt.

My continued daily slope run for the first week with the constant thigh pain and my uncared-for approach to address it, raised a range of disengaged negative thoughts (i) on the largely recommended light running Sketchers shoes, (ii) on my running posture to some reasonable extent and (iii) on my unproved vulnerability of challenging a daily steep slope run with a total elevation gain of 278m for a 5K run on a chosen road which for a week of continuous run of more than 50 Kms had a total elevation gain of just near to 3000m – a point that called for some tips from a reliable source to redress.

In the process, in respect of dichotomy of shoe weight and running economics over the years, I analysed obvious peripheral factors that led to much more improved running performance of many of my Jolly Gymkhana and other recreational runner friends. The thoughts have narrowed down to believe that with

a. good choice of shoes (light versus heavy as discussed above)

b. perfect food habits ensuring a gradual weight loss to remain at Optimum and

c. a chosen well trained style of running and timely act on good tips to address those not-so-severe injuries, a runner should perform well by improving his/her running economics even by as high as 60% of his/her Past Personal Best (PPB) and at the same time weight of shoes if gets reduced say, by 100 gms, the running economics does move up the scale by 1%.

Some of my notable runner friends in India, I remember to correlate as a validation to the above point are:

• Gynaesh Kanodia, Hemang Khetani, Sushma Upadyay, Jitu Mehta, Kamal Matalia, Amul Vora, Hiren Mehta, Hiten Mehta, Jayendrabhai Deliwala, Navinit Shah and Dr Chetan Shah etc. – many of them had their PPB moved beyond the scale to move even from a 2:40 hours to 1:58 hours and some even from 3:30 hours to 2.30 hours for half marathon

• Nitin Upadhyay, Jatin Shah, Hetal Katau, Vipul Mehta, Sidhhesha Hanumanthappa (on to 2017 Boston Marathon), Kiranpal Singh Dodi (of my age, 62 years), Neeru Bajaj and Sanjay Panchamia could finish half marathon well in 1:40/50 hours;

• It was a delightful sight to watch negotiating a rocky trail sans faultering at Borivli National Park Hill marathon of 25K by Kiranpal Singh Dodi and Neetu Bajaj despite their senior veteran age group and the one by Sunil Shetty, Sangeeta Shetty, Jatin Shah and Hetal Khatau in Silvaasa trail run of 27Kms. It requires excellent PROPRIOCEPTION (a sense of whole body being in space), co-ordination of foot placement and accuracy of each step/style of slope running

• whereas extreme brilliant runners like Capt. Swaminathan, Ashok Someshwar and Sunil and Sangeeta Shetty who did their full marathon just at 4 to well under sub 4 hours.

• some “off-the-grid and off-the shoe” barefoot runner greats like Bobby Thomas Phillip and Venkat Venkataraghavan are of different segment marathoners whose PPBs always get broken by themselves in this category to win an amazing degree of admiration from runner fraternity – these runners simply do not have any impact from the study of shoes and none could have any data to analyse the composition of their foot balls, mid feet and toes as well or even to advocate the suitability of such barefoot running for all though they too are used to suffer from pain at sole as well in definitive terms.

The above RPM does reveal the relatable “nexus between the theory and the practice” more rather than the “nexus between the dispirited mind at the time of constant pains and the dismayed feet”.

Recalibration of my distraught thoughts:

My daily extra slope runs braving constant thigh pain that spread gradually to my leg muscles too, kept my feet to remain in utter dismay. Though I don’t have anyone here to look forward to get advice, I could make a corollary as listed herein below, of some of the tips available in public domain to address this issue:

• mid-sole cushioning though adds little weight to shoes, it decreases muscle break-downs and fatigue to improve running economics – my Sketchers UltraR ranked as the best suited pair of shoes

• Body weight is only about 30% as effective as losing shoe weight because extra fat on shoes needs a great deal of energy to accelerate each time when the runner strides forward.

My body weight is not the one to create a cause of concern – right side of 60ish Kgs -, but the inability to do a constant daily 10K slope run was; I sensed the constant thigh pain unplugged me to an immobilised feeling and it is a reality check that none of the above technicals were of any help, rather they just helped knowing further pointers about selection of shoes and body fat loss to improve running economics – the first type of human character viz. “learn by reading” DID NOT help -“bizarre nexus between the dispirited mind and dismayed feet”.

The regular long distance running training I had in the last 8 years to keep fit involved a lot of strict choices and long hours on road many a time to test and tune my body parts to remain in sync with the needed degree of discipline for such long-distance running, albeit – may be, it does toe the line with what someone said, “... One should know how important it is NOT necessarily to be strong but to feel strong...” That made to think on alternatives to get rid of my thigh pain and made me to do a walk/jog sessions daily sans any rest day.

Stretching – alternative to peripheral technical advices on shoe weight and body fat loss:

I went on to try on special stretching exercises listed below, at home in the evening and post daily run/walk/jog depending on particular day’s severity of thigh pain and I thought it would do good to relieve me from the pain I suffer from since over a month – but, alas!! nothing could redress my knotty issue leading to my original status of disgruntled thoughts in disarray, unable to decipher and stay clear of ambiguity.

• ASS to GRASS overhead Squats - The very name would suggest to what I mean as all runners know it very well.

• SIDE PLANKS - mostly for my left thigh part - simple one which is regularly done by runners at least once a week (with eyes closed for better appreciation of the plank)

• SINGLE LEG BALANCE: (with eyes closed for better appreciation)

• PUSH UPs & PULL Ups: in simple forms 

Epilogue: 

Most of the medical practitioners advice runners to cut back on running/mileage accretion, if they suffer from pain or injury or extreme advice of even taking a complete break from running altogether. While downtime gives generally an opportunity to mend our running schedule to suit the recuperation process, rest should NOT be the ONLY part of runners’ recovery plan, I learned.

I also believe if injured runners do not address muscle pains, faulty mechanics of their running postures or proper choice of shoes to suit their running style, they are almost guaranteed to re-injure or suffer for a long term from such perils; but, I constantly try on alternatives by Reading, Observing and having an off-the-grid- experiential taste – the 3 types of human characteristics, though solution still eludes unfortunately.

Despite all unclear perceptions as to what to know and stay clear of the constant pains I suffer from, I did not go-off my plan of daily slope run but I continued my walk mostly at good pace and at the end, run for a while, and cleared an amazing quantum of an average of 7K daily on slopes – a retreat to my title “Disharmony of thoughts disengaged an un-discardable nexus between dispirited mind & dismayed feet – Can’t decipher my disgruntled thoughts in disarray for a better title!”

However, by now I am convinced that for some readers of this post from me, my daily slope run with pain and eluding a solution yet might look like a comical veneration and a show of adamancy of my transgression – but I fervently hope the pain will subside in some days and I will do at least a half marathon on these slopes well before I get back to homeland. 

Believe NOT in “economical running” but in “better running economics”…. Cheers….