Marathon training and coping with cold, cough and fever

It is really frustrating to be down with cold, cough and fever right in the middle of the marathon training season. Or worse, like me when the race is just 7 weeks far. The mileage has already started peaking, and your long runs have started touching 20 miles / 30+ km.

So there are some dos and don'ts, here they go:

 Immediately after you long run, your immunity is at your lowest mark, take very good care of yourself after the long run. Immediately change into a clean and dry t-shirt after your run. Eat something within 30 minutes of finishing your long run.

After you reach home, try and take a good nap, so to recover from the fatigue. Eat and hydrate well during the day, but do not eat junk. Well what should one do if you find out that you are down with bad cold before starting the long run (as was the case with me). So there are different opinions about it, experts say that anything which is above the neck, you can go and run with it, above the neck: cold etc. Below the neck: congestion in the lungs, fever, bodyache.

Now here is the practical part, I ran a 30K run with a running nose, I felt nothing doing the run, and felt wonderful doing the run, but by the end of the day I was own with fever. So you can run with cold, do the run well, but since your immunity is already low, there is a high chance that you might end up with some temperature at the end of the day. Which might disappear in a couple of days of recovery, if it doesn't translate to a viral infection.

Long long time back, when I ran my first Ultra marathon, a senior runner and somebody whom we all looked up to, Madhu who was also the race director sent out an email to all the people in RFL. I am not sure how many people have preserved that email, sharing it here for everybody.

Sorry Madhu, sharing your email here, but the gyan in that email is golden!

Hi guys,

Just a little over a week to go for the big day! Wow I am tremendously excited. I am also quite a bit nervous. I didn't run all of this week as I was out on a business trip which I think is probably a huge mistake. All the people I met everywhere were hacking horribly most of the time in my face, everywhere I went! Hope I don't get sick now. Definitely Harakiri if I do. 
When I first sent out, almost 9 months ago, an email to a few running friends to seek help for organizing an ultra, this event,  I didn't ever imagine it would end up like this. If all goes well you should see an event that can hold it's head up proudly and stand up to any other such event in the US in terms of quality. 
Plan to taper carefully. 
Don't injure yourself now. 
Be careful of nutrition. It is easy to put on weight these last 10 days so be careful in terms of useless fats, sugars, and carbs except for last 2 days when you can binge on complex low glycemic carbs. 
Take a multi-vitamin pill every day. 
Avoid crowds. 
Wash hands frequently whenever you shake hands or touch door knobs especially when you come out of rest room. I have observed that many people (men, in India, based on observations at Maxim  India) don't wash hands with soap when they come out of restrooms so be certain to not touch door knobs without aid of paper. (he he..sorry). I woudn't even think it funny if you wore a bacterial mask at work (maybe a bit far huh? this bit?) 
On Saturday prior to run make sure to put your feet up most of day to rest them well and stay well hydrated.

Runners for 52K and above. Concentrate on an even pace / km with a Run / walk combination of your suitability right from the beginning. Do walk hills even at the beginning. Run flats, downhills and in shade. Walk up hills and in open hot stretches. Ensure that your rest at aid stations is controlled and even. You can end up with lots of time unnecessarily wasted at aid stations. Joke with the volunteers. 
Stretch lightly periodically. Don't forget to stretch your arms to-don't keep them locked at the elbow. They will get stiff.
Ensure lubricant all over and sun block. Most important is sun block for lips (UV block chap sticks available). Do ensure that you wear a  appropriate hat to block the sun from your face. 

Don't try anything new at the Ultra especially gear and foods. If you are in a bit of trouble don't panic. Remember you have trained for this so you should be all right. Make appropriate adjustments in diet / fluids / speed. Get more gear than you need and keep it handy at the main aid station. 

It will be a struggle. If it weren't there is no point attempting it. That's the raison d'etre of the effort. Don't forget that- the journey is the thing. Don't forget to enjoy it. Be a great part of it. 

I wish you all the very best.

Madhu (Le monsieur Race Director's unofficial message)

Marathon training and staying injury free

This marathon training season has been wonderful so far, but only so far. I was grounded because of an injury / fatigue for 2 weeks. There was excruciating pain in my calves, even after a mile of running. So i did what most of the runners would do, drop the mileage or stop running, keep icing and massaging the area and then again do a litmus test after some days. I took about a week's break and tried doing an easy run again, the pain came back at 800 mts.

I was terribly depressed, became grumpy and irritable, thinking that my SCMM dream is over for this season as well. Thought of visiting Dr Gladson for an expert opinion, after 2 weeks of rest, still the pain did not going away then I guess it was time to meet the doctor. Dr. Gladson is a sports and exercise medicine doctor in Bangalore, he is also a barefoot marathoner and also runs a marathon training program under the name "Raramuri Runners". In short he is the guy who can relate to your running related problems the best!

I met him on a Saturday after missing my long run for that week as well, was very depressed, but all for no reason, he checked my calves, and came to the conclusion that there is nothing wrong with my calves. Infact calves pain is just a symptom, the main culprit is the thigh muscles. since they are terribly fatigued, the calves are working more in order to support the dynamics of running. He made me do some stretches and asked me to run, I was feeling much better. 2 more days of stretching and I was back on track doing my speed runs! Yay!

Moral of the story

- DO NOT delay taking an expert advice if the pain continues for more than 2 runs. I wasted 2 weeks of training on something which could have been cured in 2 days of stretching.

- Try and workout the warmup pattern for your body, for some people 1K works, for some 1 mile. I do 2K of warmup and cool down

- There is no alternative to a good warmup, cooldown and stretches before and after the run. They might not matter during the run, but definitely helps you in staying injury free

- The pain because of any fatigue can be dealt with stretching. Stretch religiously, because you would not even realize when a fatigue gets translated to an injury

- The most important part in any marathon training is the sleep. Try and take atleast 7 hours of good sleep every night. On the weekend try and grab a couple of naps after the long run as well

- Always have light breakfast before the long run, helps in taking you a long way ahead, literally

- Nutrition is very very important. Try and get a good protein snack after any run that you do. I stick to egg whites. You would see a faster recovery once you start following it

Some stretches that might help in this kind of pain and fatigue

Albert Pinto ko gussa kyoon aata hai

Its been a long times since I blogged anything here, so before this part of me starts dying, let me revive this blog again. Over the last few years when my blogging reduced considerably, a lot of things happened in my life. All those developments and the changed routine keeps me busy the entire day, and that is my silly excuse for not blogging :)

One of the biggest changes in me and which is for good is, anger management. I do get angry on things, but then I have found a way to deal with it. A big credit for this goes to my coach and very good friend, Dharam. I still get angry and pissed off with a lot of people, as he says, the way to deal with it is, let your anger come out on the tempo runs and interval training. Angry? great, lets see how well you can do in the tempo runs this week. Try to channelize that energy somewhere else, in being more constructive and positive in life, and in turn turning it into your favor. As Dharam says, after a very hard run after which you would want to throw up, it is tough to stay angry with someone.

The other way to deal with it came from my better half, if you are angry with somebody, dont react to it right away, take your time, brace yourself. Most likely you will realize after sometime that what a foolish thing it would have been for me to get angry and stoop down to the same level.

I am happier now, I carry lesser baggage with me and I see things more positively. And finally my favorite video on anger management, go for something that you are really passionate about, that would make you forget everything

When I am angry or depressed, I go out for a run, a really fast paced. So that when you come back, all you would want to do is lie down and play with my daughter :)

Rebooting blog

Its been one year since I blogged here last. Yes I accept very shamefully that I have been very active on twitter. But that is history now, I plan to write here more often and crib here more often.

More updates in the next post