Mumbai Marathon training, Badminton and Football

What a weekend it was which just went by! My training for the last few months had seen more downs than ups. Now that I recall, it has been about 50KM of running in the preceding 2 months. Thats right, this includes a fitness check run of 7KM a day before the Delhi Half Marathon, the Delhi Half Marathon on Nov 1st after a month of injury layoff, and then the 3rd Delhi Runners Half Marathon at Jahanpanah Park on Nov 22th.

Finally, looks like things are changing for the better. Within the last 8 days leading up the the weekend, I have done 90KM. This includes the 2nd Running and Living Marathon on Dec 6th, a couple of 9KM practice runs after that, and then a 30KM long run the weekend gone by. My aim is now to do a 30+ KM run every weekend leading up to the taper for the Mumbai marathon, maybe even running a 42KM again in one of those runs.

The 30KM last weekend was done at Rose Garden / Deer Park, a beautiful place to run which I visited for the first time. Lots of trail to run on, and good company of runners all preparing for the Mumbai marathon, so there’s no shortage of motivation and enthusiasm. My calves and ankles seem to be holding well with no recurrence of the pain I have been feeling till now. As always, I could not contain myself on the evening of the 30Km run and played and won a Badminton tournament in my residential society, reeling of 5 matches, including 4 really tough ones within 3 hours.

The next weekend long run is also scheduled for the Rose Garden / Deer Park circuit. I am very excited about that, since I hope to meet a lot of new members of the Delhi Runners group, which has been growing by leaps and bounds, and all group runs have seen increasing participation. In fact, today Mint – The Wall Street Journal also printed an article about running with groups, and which featured Delhi Runners as well.

Well, a month and 2 days to go for the Mumbai Marathon, which leaves precisely 4 weekends in between. Considering a two week taper, I need to put in at least two more 30K+ runs, and maybe another 30K run with a couple of weeks to go.

Oh, and finally before I press the publish button, another thing happened which made this weekend complete and so satisfying. Arsenal beat Liverpool at Anfield for the first time since 2003! Go Gunners!