Training Journey to 2020

So this is going to be a 2 part blog – the first will comprise of the journey towards the peak of my Training Cycle 1 and the second will be details of the TMM 2020 itself – so buckle in and enjoy the ride.

I have been very candid about my injury and the journey I went through to overcome it – I have been blessed that I have a support system that has encouraged me at every step and in addition to that, I have had the ability to adapt to every phase – be it the one where I was part of the corporate, when I branched out into an entrepreneurial venture, started training, racing, moved into organising sport and now when I have moved back into training – the growth & learning has been exponential.

I think my first tryst with the mountains was a revelation and the beginning of a complete change in my attitude towards everything. It was humbling and life-changing. I truly believe that everyone should attend the 28-day BMC course at one of the mountaineering institutes – it inculcates values such as humility, team-work, acceptance, contentment, gratitude, strips you of all sense of possessions and clears perspective in so many ways. And for me personally, 2018 was the year I finally said a complete good-bye to smoking, not even the social smoke after a few drinks – just a total BYE BYE!

So the journey to my racing 2019 cycle started with too hard a workout in 2017 where I increased the intensity & volume of my interval training – this led to shin splints and before it got any worse – I finally had the wisdom to back off and choose to start listening to my body instead of blindly following the advice of people around me. The one thing that I have understood is that we are all unique and each persons body adapts and responds differently to a training programme. THIS is the reason that training needs to be monitored closely with regular updates and feedback for tweaks to be made in it for optimal performance.

Its very simple you see – just like at work – when you continuously perform and deliver. The reward for it is more work – until you reach a stage of burnout – and this is what most of us suffer through in our pursuit of speed and performance and forget the all important R&R. Anyway, I kept going with alternate forms of exercise to maintain a fitness and decided to start working on building a foundation based completely on aerobic base miles.

This meant, that I worked on maintaining a low heart rate to improve my Cardiovascular efficiency and this also meant that I had to really slow myself down – this helped improve the strength in the tendons and ligaments which were taking a regular volume of beating through the base mileage that was being done to make a foundation.

I, then relocated to Delhi – had a busy work schedule and just about enough time to get my mileage in. But I knew that I was missing something – my fitness was improving but the strength was not and the weight was not dropping. In fact, with the travel involved, it was only increasing. I did not have the time to devote to creating a routine for myself so I reached out to a coach that I admired – Zareen, who would create a strength routine and give me guidelines on food. She was lovely to work with – she did not get involved in my running training and gave me the support I needed at the time to a) Improve my strength and b) Insist on setting up a kitchen and getting involved with food. We worked together for a few months – she was exactly the person I needed at that time.

I have always worked with strength but never got involved in food prep in the past – and this was the beginning of another aspect of my journey – a change in my relationship with food – looking at the kitchen more like a lab to go wild in rather than another chore to be done. Taking pride in creations and experimenting how it affects my body – and there is no one size fits all may I add – you have to respect and understand food for it to give you the nourishment that you desire.

By the time Khelo India 2019 got over, I was completely over Delhi. Before I moved on, I took part in my first HM at the IDBI Federal NDM in years – I got a PB – the work I was doing was showing results. Intensity training – zero! You just cannot take away the power of mileage.

This was followed by more mountains ( healing), my first Technical Summit – more travel and the one thing that was constant was that base aerobic mileage and strength work I was doing. Even through travel, I would eat quality – natural, local, simple. Then came TCS 10K, then came Mumbai – a new role, a new chapter and also an opportunity to work with the team at RRS. We trained together and created a tribe – one that worked together and progressed together – all of us, a team – working on each others strength and learning at every step.

The last 3 months in the build-up to TMM were extremely structured – this included regular long runs, regular testing of the engine, limited intensity training ( just enough), focus on building strength ( constantly change the workout that you do – you CANNOT do the same thing again and again and expect improvement) and food – so much focus on food, nutrition, sleep and recovery.

The biggest learnings for me include: 1) Rest – get enough 2) Trust the process – the race is built in training 3) Patience: Good things take time – give yourself that 4) Realistic Goals 4) Knowledge – you will never know everything – read, learn 5) Personal Journey – the beauty is in the journey, the result is inevitable – work for it but let it not be the sole motivation – learn from it 6) Stay Uncomfortable – it forces you to grow. 7) Study – There is no shortcut here

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