My 20th Half Marathon in 2020

As I always, I dont run events for PB or medals, I run Races to meet those enthusiastic and energetic runners and try to absorb their energy that I may miss in my day to day busy, demanding and challenging lifestyle.

I never make plans for any race.
I run as my body responds that day.

So no plans made for this race too.
But focus always is not to run very fast to avoid injuries as I have to be back to work and my roller coaster next day.

2 days before the race I got to know that my bib number was not received and there was no record of the same. I informed this to Sunil Sir and he managed it on top priority.
Its very rare to see such heart touching attitude where he immediately took up the concern and within hours I had my bib number.
Sunil Sir - a big hug to you, if you are reading my blog.

5 days before the race, my kids caught cold.
The elder one got high fever and severe cough.
I was all with him to help him recover since his final exams started from 19th Feb.
He got recovered completely but in the process, I caught cold and fever.

22nd FEB 2020:
So again firefighting for self recovery so that I can run my race on 23rd.
Fever is gone but cold still there.
Lets see how body responds tomorrow as I am not going to push due to low immunity.

23rd FEB 2020 :
So I woke up at 4 AM thinking I am recovered from fever and cold but I had consistent running nose.
Reached the venue and realised after the warm up that my body is not going to perform well.
I had made up plans to go slow, do run walk and focus on only finishing the race.

I decided not to push to run on my pace and slowed down.
I had consistent running nose and therefore it was difficult to breathe. But since I adopted run walk method since the beginning, it was an easy journey for me.

It felt like I was running with weights tied on my legs :)

Around 11 K, I saw my friend who was running his full marathon and was in his second loop.
He too had decided to go slow. So I started running with him.

This was a good chitchat run for us.
and we gradually reached at the finish line.
I was well within the cutoff time.

The learning in this race and the reason I patted my back after the run :
I could very well had pushed myself to run at my pace. but I decided to go almost 20 minutes slower. however the way I slowed down was decreasing my stride and including 1 walk break in every K.

I caught high fever after finishing my run and am recovering form it.
Glad that I could finish off the 20th Half Marathon in 2020.

Moral :
Life is a journey.
Only YOU are the rider of your journey.
You must keep your identity UNIQUE and SIMPLY keep moving.
That makes you UNSTOPPABLE.

When I dared to run My First TMM Full Marathon in Jan 2020

Are you a working double mom?

Is it difficult to find more than an hour / day for your fitness training due to your liabilities ?

Do you still 'DARE TO DREAM' to 'run a FULL MARATHON - 42K' ? 

So if you can dare to dream, you still can RUN a Full Marathon.

My Full Marathon Training :

I have never done a long distance training for more than 15K / day.

Reason : lack of time.

I decided to run my first full marathon in Feb 2019 when I was hooked upon seeing the full marathon training plans floating all over by the experts.

I was advised to do at least 3,4 long distance runs covering 30-35K.

But due to my work and personal commitment, I did not have this much of time to train for 4-5 hours in a day. But I didnt want to give up on my dream of running a full marathon too.

Therefore I decided to make my own training plan.

My plan included :

1. back to back running - not more than 15K at one time,
2. Strength workouts,
3. on spot cardio like skipping, jumping Jacks etc, regular stretching,
4. back and suryanamaskar stretches

5. Breathing workouts - deep breathing, anulom vilom, kapal bhati, bhramri 

6. a balanced food with regular fruits and salad detox.

My Medical Conditions : 

Occasional Lower Back stiffness - I had two c-secs in the past : 

You get Spine injection through lower back veins in C-sec operation that results in severe lower back pain and stiffness at times - To over come this, I have worked a lot on my core and back strength as in long distance running your lower back takes a lot of stress.

Hypoglycemia :
I get severe drop in sugar at times which results in dizziness and complete blackout.

This medical condition can be very difficult and fatal if you do not manage it well. I had been advised by experts to quit long distance running but I decided to find a way out to overcome this medical condition.

I take frequent hydration breaks and keep jaggery, black salt and water with me all the time.

Do not wait to get hungry or thirsty and have one sip after every 10-15 min.

Have a small piece of jaggery after every 30-40 min.

This kept the electrolytes and sugar levels balanced and kept me going throughout 42K without any such symptoms.

For the pre run breakfast and hydration, I had coconut water, banana and black salt water.

Knees :

After my first pregnancy, where my weight had gone up to 90 kgs, my knees had lost all the strength to the level that I was not able to climb a rickshaw on my own.

My gym trainer had declared that my knees are gone off and I will not be able to regain the strength ever again. 

When life gives you challenges, God is actually testing your grit and will power if you will be able to overcome the negatives and come out as a stronger version of yourself or simply give up on that.

I had chosen the former.

My training had lots of strength training that was focused on my lower body strength.

At present, my knee strength is at such level that even after running full marathon, there is no knee stress and I am back to my strength workout routine within 2 days.

Below is a glimpse of the training plan I followed and ran my TMM 2020 Full in Jan successfully - injury free.

22nd DEC : 

This was the beginning of mental training for my first Full in TMM.

I ran a half marathon in 2:32 as a preparation of the first half of TMM.

I included walk breaks and kept on going.

weather was very cold as the race was in Delhi.

I finished strong.

This half marathon was my longest training run for TMM full.

27th DEC 2020

I took 5 days break with short runs, and my weight training.

and started back to back training.

25th - 6K Christmas run with team NER

27th - 5K with upper body weight training

23 K run  - back to back run in 2 days

28th - 10K run

29th - 13K run

30th - 11K spinning with 50 Suryanamaskars

17K run - back to back run in 2 days

31st - 11 K run with 11 K spinning

1st Jan 2020 - slow and easy 6K run with team NER

2nd JAN - 21K spinning interval

40 K back to back run in 4 days : 

26 K - back to back run in 2 days

3rd JAN - 15K run

4th Jan - 11 k run

14K - back to back run in 2 days

5th - 7K run

6th - 7K run with 11K spinning

7th - strength workouts - upper body

8th - 5K run with 500 skipping and 30 min core training

9th - rest day

32K - back to back run in 4 days

10th Jan - 5K run with lower body workouts

11th - 11 K run

12th - 10K run with core workouts

13th - 6K run

TAPERING Period 

14th JAN 2020 : 

My day without any workout :D

15 min breathing workouts and then detox with fruits and turmeric herbal tea.

I had caught cold so rested most of the day while doing work from home.

15th JAN 2020 : 

Started my day with a 15 min Breathing workouts.

Deep Breathing

Anulom Vilom

Kapal Bhati

Bhramri

15 Min cycling

20 Suryanamaskars.

Had My Protein Shake, Banana and Nuts. After some time had a bowl of Muesli.

Cleaned the house.

Cleaned the kitchen and utensils.

Get back to my work.

16th JAN 2020

6K run walk in cold windy and drizzling weather :D

I wanted to check on my new Garmin. :)

17th JAN 2020:

Ran a quick and easy 6K in morning while it was drizzling.

I slept at 11 PM on 16th and woke up at 12 to leave for my early morning flight.

It is heavily raining in Delhi while I left with my family. (I always prefer to convert my runs in other cities as a vacations with my family).

So it was heavily raining and we headed to the airport.

4 AM :  Having coffee @ airport with Ravi.

Will board the flight at 5:30.

11 AM : will head for my bib collection at MMRDA.

18th JAN 2020 :
My rest day. I went out to roam around in Mumbai. 

Reached back and took a power nap.

Had a healthy dinner - rice, dal, veggies, salad at around 7 PM and went to sleep at around 10 PM.

19th JAN 2020 : 

woke up at 3 AM.

got fresh and left for the venue at 3:50 AM.

roads were blocked so I had to walk down almost 4700 steps to the venue.

Met few friends there and did a good warm up.

walked for few minutes and then got fresh.

The race had to start at 5:15 AM and our line up reached the start line at 5:25 AM.

at around 5:10 AM, I felt an urgent urge of washroom but since the flag off was done, I started my race but couldnt resist so had to take a loo break after 3K ;)

After that break, my run went very very smooth.

I covered 21K very smoothly and as planned started following run walk method after 32K mark proceeding the giant peddar road.

I had a target of 5:40 hours in mind.

Since my watch was new, I was not able to understand the time and was watching the distance mark on the route.

I adopted run walk run method and kept on going without a break as I was carrying my black salt and was picking water bottle frequently from the hydrations support.

It was all mind game after 34K as many runners had decided to walk down the rest 7-8K and then it was really difficult and tricky to resist only walk and keep going with run walk method.

I adopted a count method for run walk run and started following that.

100 steps counts for run and 40 steps count for walk.

And this method really worked. As I was getting frequent recovery time too.

And while I reached spot when the finish line was only 500 mtr ahead, I took my final walk break and then sprinted to the finish line.

Thoughts in my mind while crossing the finish line : WOW finally I can now meet my family after a gap of 7 hours :D

And I had conquered a full marathon course of 42.195 K. However it actually was a 43K. ;)

my running partner and dost on the course.

A very carefully designed Structured workout pattern was followed while I trained for this event as I did not get a single injury as 2 days post my race, I was back to my training and did an intense workout of cardio and core training.

so the core of writing this blog is that, if you wish to conquer the distance, and you do not have much time to do those long run trainings, you still can be an Injury Free Marathon Runner.

I am happy that I could formulate this method and in future will be able to help and guide people like me to make their dream come true :)

Playing Small deeds doesnt serve the world.
You must THINK BIG, COME OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE, AND PLAY BIG.

Latika Goel
Practising Psychologist & Lifestyle Trainer
Founder of Fitness World LetzBFIT with Latika
Author of a Book on Strength Fitness

 

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Any copy of the above matter is now allowed.

 

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FATAL cannot be reversed

BLOG : FATAL cannot be reversed.
Medical | Research | Session

by...

Latika Goel

certified
Clinical Dietician
Clinical Psychologist
Lifestyle Coach

Strength training expert & marathon runner.

Why I choose to write on this topic.

I have seen a rise in uncertified online doctor and dieticians who do not have any certificate or practical knowledge – advising people on the crucial and tricky conditions like :

Weight loss

Reduce tummy / belly

Improve running pace

Strength workouts

Nutrition – even to the person who needs clinical dietetics advise.

The worst part is : people go for all free advises available on social media and internet.

They do not want to spend money on their own health.

Lifestyle and Dietetics advises are very tricky and crucial as it varies from person to person.

A lot of technicalities is involved in a single person’s health solution.

I have come across so many fatal incidents in recent pasts, those were the results to the wrong advises floating in the market. But never have I seen any so called experts floating in the market coming upfront and taking the blame.

Social media, whatsapp, google, youtube, even one one o one basis – you will find such people copying the stuff from google and or other profiles and claiming them to be the master.

My request to all the self made and proclaimed nutritionists, doctors and advisors, please do not advise risky and unnatural process for the sake of so called weight management related rush in the market.

It at times can be fatal which will never be reversed.

Lot of self claimed experts, without any certification or experience are fooling people only for the sake of earning money or fame on social media.

Please do not fall prey to such people.

A thin person, a fast runner, a bodybuilder, or a very good dancer cannot be a trained coach or expert.

A trained and natural expert will never advise you to adopt any short cut or any procedure that is not made up for your body type. For example  : cutting down on any nutrient from your food, or advising you to lift more weight or follow any workout that’s not made for your body type and strength or advising you to run fast irrespective of your body anatomy and your athletic strength.

Examples :

1. A person who has recently achieved his/her PB in a race – suddenly became a doctor or nutrition expert and others starts copying them merely on the ground that they too will get pb if they follow the same.

2. A person who has successfully managed to get his type of muscular body – starts preaching about what to eat and how to workout. People starts copying their diet plan and workout videos. Which really can be FATAL.

3. If I can run 10 K with a pace of 5, that doesn’t certifies me as a health or running coach. So if you copy me and my lifestyle assuming you will also achieve that pace, then its really FATAL for you.

4. A person asks on a social media platform – how to manage Cholesterol – immediately few of the runners became doctor advising – run 10K everyday. Stop eating after 6 AM to 8 AM., follow low carbs diet, cut off carbs from diet, go on all fruits diet, eat only salads etc etc.

Correction here : its never one for all. Your nutrition and activity guide depends majorly on your lifestyle / your daily routine / your body type / your metabolic rate / and above all your medical conditions.

A fasting of 6PM-8 AM , only fruits and salads diet can be fatal for a person who has a acidic system or is fighting with low blood sugar levels.

If the person is advising without checking on your health reports – kindly ignore the advise. Do seek a one-o-one advise so that you can avoid any risk associated as FATAL cannot be reversed.

So stay away from people claiming for weight loss / fast pace running / fast muscle mass gain etc etc.

Its never one-for-all be it workout, eating pattern or any lifestyle routine.

Opt for a certified counseling instead of copying the uncertified social media universities.

Seek right help :
instead of posting your Q on a social media (specially if its your health related), do consult a trained and certified professional.

Do not hesitate to invest money for your own health progress with the right guidance.

People in India have a tendency to adopt free counseling and spend ZERO for their medical and health conditions. This is creating a very dangerous and fatal situation in the name of health and wellness.

Please wake up and seek the right guidance. For that be alert and informed.

Will they take responsibility if god forbid their advise gets fatal for anyone? Have you seen anyone coming forwards and taking the blame behind the fatal accidents?

Spend some money on Certified Expert advises.

As any wrong / misguided / immature advise can be FATAL for you.
Please do not opt for Short Cuts and flaunting advises.

FATAL CANNOT be REVERSED.


by...

Latika Goel

certified
Clinical Dietician
Clinical Psychologist

Lifestyle Coach
Strength training expert & marathon runner.