Author: Tanvir

The Training Plan

Here is the 18 weeks training plan which I plan to follow for running a marathon by Dec 4, 2005. The plan has been developed by Hal Higdon, the details of which you may find in the book “Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide”

Week Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Aug 01 18 rest 5 5 5 rest 10 cross
08 17 rest 5 5 5 rest 11 cross
15 16 rest 5 6 5 rest 8 cross
22 15 rest 5 6 5 rest 14 cross
29 14 rest 5 7 5 rest 16 cross
Sep 05 13 rest 5 8 5 rest 11 cross
12 12 rest 5 9 5 rest 19 cross
19 11 rest 5 10 5 rest 21 cross
26 10 rest 5 11 6 rest 16 cross
Oct 03 09 rest 5 11 6 rest 24 cross
10 08 rest 6 12 6 rest 26 cross
17 07 rest 6 13 7 rest 19 cross
24 06 rest 6 14 8 rest 29 cross
31 05 rest 7 15 8 rest 23 cross
Nov 07 04 rest 8 16 7 rest 32 cross
14 03 rest 8 13 6 rest 19 cross
21 02 rest 6 10 5 rest 13 cross
28 01 rest 5 6 3 rest – race
Categories
Running

The next challenge

Early in July, I finally decided to run a full marathon. With this started the search for the perfect marathon to run, which would suite me from all perspectives. Most important among the things which had to kept in mind was the Indian weather. No matter where you run, there is a very small window in which you can practice, and most of the year here is hot or humid.

After much searching, the target narrowed down to two – The Dubai marathon (Jan 5), or the Singapore marathon (Dec 4). Both were well placed with sufficient time for training, but myself and Vivek finally decided on the Singapore marathon as our first marathon. August 1st was decided as the first of the 18 weeks comprising our training schedule, which we finalized from the much acclaimed programme from Hal Higdon, senior writer with the Runners World magazine, and a great sportsperson.

Upcoming marathon events in India

Forthcoming events:

  • Oct 16th – Hutch Delhi Half Marathon
  • Nov 19th – Hyderabad Midnight Marathon
  • Dec 4th – Pune International Marathon
  • Dec 11th – International Delhi Marathon
  • Jan 15th – Mumbai International Marathon
  • May 2006 – Bangalore International Marathon

I am planning to run my first marathon in Singapore, Dec 4th, 2005

Categories
Running

My first tryst with marathons (or Half)

Since a long time, I had this desire to run a marathon. It was hidden deep down somewhere in my head, and through a combination of events, it rose to the surface. Going the full distance of 42 km was tough for the fisrt attempt. However, what spurred me into action was the news that a half-marathon was going to be held in Noida (India), my very own city!

My close friend, Vivek, was as enthusiastic about this as me, and together we started on a “very short” plan geared for taking us to the completion of the half-marathon, which was supposed to be held on April 10th, 2005. Proper preparation for a half-marathon takes a minimum 2 months, as advised by the experts, but, shortage of time resulted in a 4 weeks plan for us.

Bad news came in early in our preparation, the race was getting cancelled, with the organizers citing unfavourable weather as the reason, though I was more conviced that the organizing body was not capable of handling a big event like this. Sometime later, I heard that the organizers managed to have a low key race, which I did not participate in due to the obvious break in my training plan, and lack of motivation after the disappointment.

So, this first attempt of ours to run a long distance race was unsuccessful. But later on, I realized that it actually was’nt. Because, this was going to be launch pad for future challenges.