I have been running at the same capacity, speed and stamina level for quite some time now. I have been unable to improve my stamina, capacity and times. Even if there have been improvements they are too slow and too little. This is mostly due to the lack of time. Work, travel and lastly my own laziness have been major factors. Lack of good training resources and plans have also led to the stagnation.
So recently I bought two running magazines 'Running Times' and 'Runner's World' that contained lots of training tips and plans. After devouring them front to end, something caught my eye that read 'This "Comfortably Hard" run is key to running your fastest'.
This was an article on 'Tempo Running.' Basic definition of a Tempo Run is that the effort should be "comfortably hard." As in something that is really hard in effort but still do-able and not over the top hard. And it is obviously not something that is comfortable in effort, along the lines of 'comfortably numb' ;-)
Tempo running improves our metabolic fitness. Tempo runs teach the body on how to use the oxygen reaching the muscles more efficiently for metabolism. LT or Lactate Threshold is the level at which the body fatigues. Tempo runs aim to push the threshold higher thus making your muscles better at using the acidic by-products of metabolism. The result is less acidic muscles letting you run farther and faster...
"A classic tempo or lactate threshold run is a sustained, comfortably hard effort." In a tempo run you start with an easy warm up and end with an easy warm down. In the middle you run at a speed that is higher than your average running speed but is a sustainable speed and not your top speed. At this speed you should not end up panting or feel the need to walk in these middle sections. The magazine had a very simple plan that I have started following.
Week 1: 5x3 minutes at tempo pace, 60 second easy jog between each one.
Week 2: 5x4 minutes at tempo pace, 60 second easy jog recovery
Week 3: 4x5 minutes at tempo pace, 90 second easy jog recovery
Week 4: 20 minutes steady tempo pace.
Run!
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Tempo Run
Monday, July 23, 2007
More Bheja Fry...
In the last panel Hobbes is sort of equal to Ranjeet Thadani and actually even to all of us and Calvin is like Bharat Bhushan...
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Bheja Fry...
How irritating is the central character, played by "Vinay Phatak", of Bheja Fry? Oh you better believe it, it is one of the most irritating characters executed in films.
Bheja Fry is an awesome movie that will leave you guffawing throughout and exclaiming "My god, he is so irritating!" The story is about this innocent, downright stupid and obsessive income tax officer who somehow lands in the net of a rich music executive to recruit a bakra/muse for him and his rich friend's weekend stress busting pastime. Bharat Bhushan played by Vinay Phatak (One of the hosts for 'Cricket Crazy') is that bumbling fool who questions "kya idiots insaan nahin hote?" Central to the movie is that fateful night where Ranjeet Thadani (played by Rajat Kapoor from Monsoon Wedding and Dil Chahta Hai) auditions the guy who will turn his world right on its head.
The movie is damn funny and is made that by its dialogues and not by slapstick visuals or anything of that sort. So pay good attention to what is being said and also observe the subtle facial expressions of Vinay Phatak, they are priceless. This guy always goes off track, especially when he is on the phone for a particular reason then without fail he ends up going completely off track driving people insane or frying their bheja ;-)
Go see this movie, it is totally worth it. I wish bollywood made more and more comedies like this. I did hear/read somewhere that this is picked from a french movie but the movie has been adapted enough to fit in the Indian context that it deserves its own merit...
Monday, July 16, 2007
Have a new phone...
...couldn't stand waiting around for the iPhone to make it to India so just went ahead with the 'HTC Touch'. This phone is quite comparable, in terms of features, with the iPhone. It is a totally touchscreen based phone with just 3 small buttons, as you can see below, near the bottom of the phone...
The coolest feature of this phone is the 'TouchFLO' screen. When you slide your fingers on the screen in a certain way the screen rotates to a different desktop. Each of these desktops serves a different purpose, like one of them is the multimedia center which has audio and video launchers. Other one has contacts and so on. By the way the music player's interface is very similar to the iPod interface. The phone has a nice 2.8 inch screen and the videos in landscape mode look really good...
Other than that the phone has Wi-Fi and I've already used Wi-Fi to surf the net without opening the laptop ;-)
This phone has Windows Mobile 6.0 and HTC has worked with Microsoft to provide its own interface, which is pretty striking, and to add the TouchFLO technology...
It has the pocket version of Microsoft Office and can sync with your Outlook email over both wireless and wired interfaces. I haven't used the wireless interface because don't have GPRS nor have the access rights for the corporate email server. But have used the wired interface to sync with my laptop directly and that is pretty straightforward...
Cool device overall, weighs only 112grams, pretty light for a Windows based smartphone and the form factor is quite cool too. It is definitely a tiny device compared to others. The phone is being provided by AirTel in India and also comes with a 1GB micro SD card on which you can store your audio and video files...
Monday, July 09, 2007
Nadal can play on grass...
If Federer is the best tennis player of all time and I think he is, then Nadal is a very very close second.
From how the Wimbledon finals played out I agree with what Federer told Nadal at the net "You [Nadal] deserved to win today, but today I [Federer] was the lucky one."
The game was unbelievable. Federer is god, no doubt. No player past or present comes close to him but yesterday Nadal did the unthinkable. He not only matched Federer but was clearly outplaying him. And this is on grass!!! Even when Federer was pulling out all stops, Nadal took the fight to him. I have heard commentators tell many times that Federer wins many matches in the locker room itself. That's how good he is, people come out afraid, and on grass people just wilt in front of him. But Nadal was the Lion on the court yesterday, something even Federer himself couldn't do at Roland Garros this year when he had the chance. All heart man, all heart...
It was just an amazing match, can't remember two players at their peak going at it like this, toe to toe at the same time. Almost every point was worthy of making it to the highlight reel. I personally will remember this match for Federer's record tying 5th consecutive title but will probably remember it more so for the fight Nadal put up...
Sunday, July 08, 2007
How smooth is smooth???
Everyone has probably heard of the Gillette Mach 3 shaving razor which have 3 blades. Then some of you might have heard of the Schick brand of razors, Quatro, which has four blades. Well I recently found out that 4 blades is not enough for a smooth shave. You need 5!!! Gillette probably heard that song 'Smooth' by Rob Thomas featuring Santana and came up with their Gillette Fusion...
