Long Run 5

It was around the 9th Km mark that one of my favourite running tunes, The Killer's Mr. Brightside Jacques Lu Cont's Thin White Duke Remix kicked in. I was struggling a little bit on this Saturday run but was hitting my straps by the 7K mark and I veered right past Sir K. Sheshadri Iyer's statue into the amazing trail path with its stones and twigs and branches and the odd log strewn across my path because of the heavy rains that have been lashing Bangalore these past few days. The song has what I believe to be a perfect beat for a runner at my pace. It never goes too fast nor does it slow you down. There's always something happening in this remix. I was truly enjoying the song and the clean, fresh air and the smells and the rhythm of my feet, thinking about "surfing a wave" of serotonin and dopamine that many runners seem to experience and that runners like myself experience only in brief spurts, if at all. But around the 9.5K mark and at 6:45 mins into the song, it just kind of happened: I do tend to experience some goose flesh and an increased sense of awareness from time to time as I run but this was special. As Brandon Flowers' haunting vocals singing "I neveeerrr......I neeveeeeer" melded into the remix beat I felt dizzy, happy, lightheaded and elated all at once. I think I recognised that feeling for what it was and didn't dwell on it too much. I just kept going, trying to hold on to that feeling. I found myself suddenly trusting the trail and running with my eyes almost half closed with a big smile on my face. Just pumping my arms, enjoying the feeling of moving and but also being still. Stillness in motion. It truly was awe inspiring. For moments there I was afraid I was actually feeling dizzy and was going to black out and this wasn't some running-induced half-daydream. But it was. Maybe it was because I'm generally happiest when I run and the combination of music and the environment inspired this sensation but for me this was another example of how connected our minds and bodies (and dare I say soul) are. And then again, maybe it was that I had, even if for a brief few minutes completely and totally emptied my mind of everything but the present and was completely in the present and that "present" at that moment was such a beautiful amalgam that I felt heady.  Either way, those precious few minutes again reinforced why I wake up at 4:30 AM on a Saturday. My reading of how endorphin reactions work tells me that the body produces more as the frequency of exercise also increases. In any case, the word endorphin is derived from "a morphine-like substance" and that's explanation and reason enough to lace up every other day and strive, in the words of the immortal Bruce Lee to, "Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water." 

I finished 15K in much the same time as last Saturday in a time of 1:55 hrs at a pace of 7:40 / km. I pulled up with a pretty bad pull in my right calf. It was all black and blue over there but my recovery is getting better and better. I treated myself to an intense 20 minutes in the pool today and feel almost as good as new with most of the soreness gone. I'm almost 4 kgs lighter than I was on April 18th when I (re) started this endevour. I've clocked a total mileage of 92 Kms since I started which is pretty poor by general training standards but a huge leap forward from where I was. I need to start hitting 40 - 45 Kms a week on average from here on. I'm still pretty unsure if I can make the starting gun of Kaveri but I'll defer that decision till August. I'm missing my long run next Saturday (off to the jungle) but I'll try and slip in a couple of longish runs through the week. In any case, this coming week is a "step back" week where I cool off a little bit before I really up the ante next week when I'll be pushing half-marathon distances and more on a regular basis.