The euphoria of running a half marathon died down rather quickly.
I actually cheated last week. My goal was 23kms, but I stopped after crossing the half marathon mark. Not meeting the long run target was a mistake.
The week was uneventful – it did not rain much and I clocked a few runs according to my plan.
Last week my long run was on Sunday. This time I pushed the long run to Monday – being an off-day ( Team ADDA works Tuesday thru Saturday – no Monday morning blues for us ).
I reached my running spot at Aarey colony and found it devoid of runners or walkers. Today is a working day and all the poor unlucky folks are at their desk I thought.
I got to know the reason why there were no runners at around 8:30AM. The main road connected Western Express Highway (WEH) to Powai and is full of traffic during peak hours and is jammed. The Aarey colony road is the only alternative to the world famous JVLR road. Moment there is a jam, all the cars and bikes take a detour through my running trail – #)$$*$#))# – and they kept coming on and on in an endless procession.
When one of these vehicles whizzed past precariously close to me, or I had to get down from the asphalt to let the cars go – I plotted how I can get back on these guys. I even invented a portable nail device. When my mind oscillated to the angelic self – it thought of posters that can educate these drivers. Yeah right!
This time I decided to conquer the Aarey colony slopes – so I ran up the 2.5km incline – on both loops – one step at a time. First loop I ran the entire distance of 12kms. Second loop I had to take quite a few walking breaks.
When I was 22kms I closed shop. I was done.
I was kind of down after the run. I could not reach my goal of 26kms. My legs hurt like hell. I had only one thought in my mind – how am I supposed to run 20 more kms? I still have only 2 more months to train and looks like I have hit my limit.
Later when I was running through the run ( 🙂 ) in my mind – I realised. Here I am an ordinary runner – who had struggled to finish a half marathon 3 years back – had just completed 2 back to back half marathons. And I had run up the slope and not walked. And this could be the first run in a long time when I ran without songs or audio book – and so I could not disperse the dark moods that kept clouding my mind.
I should be happy with my performance today – of completing 22kms on a hostile environment.
But men are a greedy lot and so am I. Instead of basking in my achievement – I decided to sit depressed. Later I spoke myself out of it and was at peace.
I have to either move my runs back to Sunday – so other runners can join me in pelting a car – or – find an alternate place to run. Have to do it before the next run – and this time I will reach my target of 26kms – no one can stop me.
 |
| Runs for Week 6 |
Plan for next week
Tuesday,Wednesday : Sweet Rest
Thursday : 8kms
Friday : Rest
Saturday : 8Kms
Sunday : 26kms.
