Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The India Roller-Coaster

I feel like I'm at a point where I'm trying to break through the wall between recreational fun-runner and serious runner.  I don't mean that I'm trying to become a competitive runner, as in winning races.  I'm not so disillusioned to think that's even remotely possible at the moment.  I just mean that I want to build an endurance foundation that allows me to run multiple races per year.  I want to get to a point where my training becomes more about bettering my pace, rather than just focusing on being able to make it to the finish line come race day.  I hope that training for my first ultra in November will provide that.

I'm definitely beginning to find my running groove in India.  It sucks running on the road, but I'm getting better at it.  I think it's only a matter of time before I get hit by a car, or bus, or auto-rickshaw, or motorcycle, or camel pulling a cart, or anything else you could possible imagine moving along the road here.  Stray dogs are a bit of a problem too.  In general they tend to run away from me when they see me coming, but every once in awhile they get that look in their eyes like they're thinking, "I could take this guy.  That'd be more meat than I've had all year!"  So far so good, but I'm just waiting for my first encounter with a rabid dog.

I found a running group in Hyderabad, called Hyderabad Runners, who do several weekly runs, including a long run.  I'm going to my first run with them this weekend.  I'm hoping that I'll meet some new running partners, and that they'll show me some nice trail running locations.

At the moment, the only thing that seems to be holding me back from building my endurance is my constant bouts with 'Delhi Belly.'  For the last 5 or 6 weeks, as soon as I start to feel like I'm making some progress I get hit with a severe case of food poisoning and the only place I'm running is to the bathroom.  I'm hoping that this is just my system adjusting to a new, slightly less clean than I'm used to, environment.  I've been recovering very quickly, so I guess that's a plus, but I'd really like to avoid these stomach issues in the future. All in all, I think I'm moving forward, and I'm excited to start training with a purpose.

Happy Running!

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