TCS World 10k Race 2018
My Running Experience
As everyone knows running help us to get in shape and also a very good for cardiovascular health. I started running in 2017 in the name of fitness. Then, later on, fell in love with running. I started observing my body while running. Getting into the rhythm of my footsteps, enjoy the beats of my heart pumping up, feel the breeze of the fresh morning air on my face.
It helps us to interrogate my self about the things which I am worried about and I have got the solution for it. Running helps us to keep our mind fresh.
It helps us to boost our confidence level physically as well as mentally. By setting a goal and achieving those goals we can gain our confidence level more.
It helps us to eliminate depression, Just try running whenever you are feeling depressed or stressed. It will keep us to concentrate/focused on our body, mind. Few minutes of running, your brain will start to secrete hormones that naturally improve your mood.
Injuries
Injuries are the main thread for the runners, We don’t know what will happen at the time. Without proper warm up and proper running form, it will end up in an injury.
Every novice runner will not aware of those warm up and running form they face injuries. Similarly, I faced such injury and it hits me very badly. After a discussion with a Physio and with his advice I was taking rest for 2 months for recovery. Every runner should keep away from Injury.
It is important to hear and obey what our body says or else an injury. We should not strain yourself in the name of training. Our body knows about our muscles and joints better than us. So it would be better to hear what our body says.
Running Nutrition, Hydration and Diet
Practicing alone will not give the exact results which we expected. We need to follow some Diet plans as well as Hydration plans along with the practice. We need to hydrate yourself well before, during and after our run. And we need to take proper carbs food which will be the main source for energy while running. Additionally, we can use Energy gels which will give instant energy for the running. I am using Fast&up Gels and hydration drinks while running.
Strengthening Training for Runners
Running every day and Diet plan will not help us to achieve our targets. And running every day is not advisable for some runners which will end up with the injuries.
I have mentioned earlier that running is a cardiovascular workout. And cardiovascular will not help us with muscle strengthening. While running we will be using our lower body as well as core muscles. So it is advisable for runners to do 2–3 days of strengthening plan which will help our core and lower body strength.
My Race Experience
There is no use of simply studying and practicing our self. We should test our skill and we need to know where we are and in which position we are. Similarly, Race fields/Tracks are the exams which runners are going to face. Certainly, someone will conquer the track someone couldn’t get a chance to conquer it. But there is no loser in the race, All the runners will be a FINISHER it doesn’t matter about the position. At the end of the race, we can know about yourself and our practice plan.
I wish to test my self in the world famous 10k Race in India, It’s TCS world 10k Bangalore. I registered myself for the race on the first day of the registration. I started planning myself with the help of my mentor from my running group called Soles of Bangalore and the Run Less Run Faster book.
I was practicing well with the plan which is provided by my mentor, And on race day also I did proper warm up for 20–25 minutes with static and dynamic warm-up along with the proper jog and got ready for my D-Day. Packed myself in the front line of my corral and was waiting for the clock to hit the start time. The much awaited time has come. Started my Garmin and focused on the race. It was too crowd and difficult to push myself forward.
Everything was going good till the 4th km mark, The real challenges start Felt tighten hamstring muscles. It made me hard to push myself. Stopped at the 4.4km Mark and I started hearing the voices of other runners “COME ON..DON STOP” those cheers made me run further but the pace completely has gone. And its Humid which made me to took some water. With a slow pace moved further.
Managed to push my self with a slower pace and found difficult since I was not properly hydrated. After 8th KM I started picking with the craze of the finish line. Managed to run faster than the earlier KM.
But I couldn’t achieve my target in the race. I finished the 10k race in 54 minutes which is 2 minutes more than what I have practiced. It made me feel sad for the performance, But as told earlier none of us are a loser. I took it as a lesson and started looking for my next big D-Day(Race Day).
My never ending love on running
After TCS World 10k Bangalore race, I started focusing on the main races in and around Bangalore and with the lesson learned with the previous practice session and TCS world 10k race I started to observe more on the running parameters such as Vertical Oscillation, Balance ratio, Cadence, Stride length, Heartbeat zone and I started focus on those things and implement the same on the other races too.
With love on the running, I have developed an RLRF Training Bot which is deployed in a telegram a messenger application. This bot will help us to generate the plan for Half and Full marathon plan for the runner by getting their recent 5k Timings. This training data has collected from the Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training (FIRST®). This is helpful for a runner to stick with their plan.
Once again, Train smart for the races and conquer the race.
