RH Sunfeast Week 1
Unlike the training program of 2010 where members of a batch met at their chosen venue twice a week, this year’s weekly schedule involves the group meeting at their respective venues only once a week. Members from all the venues meet over the weekend at a common location, as usual.
With no updates about the training program on Facebook this year (last year, we had got to know about RH and their training program from FB), we missed the info session on Feb 27th. In fact, got to know quite accidentally that the program has begun on checking the parent site. As a result, we missed the subtle difference in the program this year.
When we reached the Agara Lake venue on Tuesday, March 1, 6:00 AM, we kept looking for the coaches and other people from the training group. Since this was our first time at Agara Lake for RH, I also thought about the possibility that we have the venue all wrong and maybe everybody meets not at the lake but at the adjoining park. In any case, Sandip decided for us that we might as well run one round around the lake. Good that we did because we found out later that we are supposed to do the tempo run on Tuesdays on our own. We figured on the following Wednesday that most of the workout is done on the Agara Lake service road.
Sandip successfully persuaded one of his colleagues to join the program. Since he stays close to our place, he too comes to the Agara Lake. Thats some noble deed done. The more friends and relatives you can get to join the program, the more fun the training is.
The weather this year has been quite unlike Bangalore. Most of January was warm as hell and then the winters came in around February, as if the weather cycle was getting back on track after skipping a month. Even until the first week of March, mornings were quite cold and sunlight started pouring in only after 6:30 AM. So on Tuesday and Wednesday, we actually had to use a torch to find our way to the venue and locate the members of the group. It was that dark at 6:00 AM!
Experimented this week using distance and then time for interval training. Finally settled for time as the unit of measurement, fine-tuning the run and rest intervals. My Saturday and Sunday runs did not go too well, one because of the 5:1 min interval used, which was a bit aggressive target, and second because of the inflammation of Achilles tendon. I got to know about the condition from Preeti, the group’s physiotherapist and a runner herself, only in the second week of training. The constant pounding of the left tendon resulted in a numb foot right after 2 km of running. Have been advised to let the tendon recover on its own and to constantly ice it to bring down the inflammation.
Pain is a necessary evil; if you dont have sore muscles the day following your training, you most probably did not do your stretches effectively.
