Hi Folks! I am back after an amazing fortnight in the Himalayas (Ladakh area of Jammu and Kashmir in India). The La Ultra 2014 was everything that it was touted to be. It was a brutal race because of the many variables - altitude, distance, gradients, temperature changes etc. 15 runners from 10 countries showed up at the Start Line and one finished. 

My CI did not pan out as well as I hoped because my runner Allen had to drop out for medical reasons about 7 hours into the…

Hello again! My apologies for the long delay in sharing my continued experiences with the Foundation Program. 

Like I mentioned in the previous post, I took a 4 day break from the program and revisited Week 7 again. I am happy to report that I managed to stick to the recommended program for Weeks 7-10 without much difficulty. I did experience a little calf soreness in Week 9 and 10 after my long run on Sunday. So I did not do the first optional run of the week; basically took…

Hi All! I know that most of you will be excited about the Jackson Hole Run Camps this week, but I wanted to maintain the discipline of sharing my Foundation Program weekly reports.

Well, Week 6 went great and I stuck to the program perfectly. My long run at the end of Week 6 went great and I felt good after 140 minutes run. I started Week 7 enthusiastically and after Day 3, felt a 'twinge' on the left side of my right calf muscle. I decided to take a couple of days off just to…

Hello again! I completed my long run of Week 5 yesterday (Sunday in India). There is not much to say except that my body and mind have got conditioned to the schedule and I am enjoying it. 

My long run yesterday was 2 hours and I felt at ease and strong even at the end. My legs felt a little fatigued in the afternoon, but by evening I was fine. I woke up this morning on my Off Day and am feeling fine. 

The discomfort on the inside of my left foot went away within a few minutes…

Hello again! I got tied up with other stuff and realised just now that I have not posted my update on the Foundation Program for over 2 weeks now. Well, the good news is that I have just been lazy in updating this blog, but I am chugging along on the Foundation Program (I'm in Week 5 currently).

Weeks 3 and 4 went by pretty well. I felt a little bit of fatigue and my legs didn't feel so good after 3 days of Week 3.  I looked ahead at the Week 4 schedule and it had 2 Off Days.…

Hello Again! Week 2 went easily enough. I stuck to the instructions precisely and got all 6 days of training in exactly as prescribed. I put in the longest times suggested by Eric and my weekly long run (Day 6 of Week 2) was  95 minutes. 

It has just started raining in Bangalore and the monsoon is around the corner. We can sense it in the air. I do all my training in the morning and it is a superbly pleasant experience. I am out of the door by 5:30 am to the chirps of birds  - just…

The Born2run website only recently provided an option to buy a Slant Disk and Stability Disk in a new bundle called The CI Board Bundle. Earlier packages included ski poles and DVD which I could not afford and didn't think I needed. Living in India, the international shipping charges also were too high. In fact, the shipping may have turned out higher than the cost of the package itself. 

I was keen to start with the Slant Board strength exercises recommended by Eric. So, I…

As promised, I did get started on the Foundation Program. Of course, I did not doubt that I would get started this week, simply because I fit the description of a 'Perfectionist' from Eric's book. I was very disappointed to not having got underway last week because I have about 3 months to the La Ultra (thehigh.in). I won't be a runner at this event, but I have signed up to be crew for one of the runners. My objective is to help my runner to the finish line after a 333 km run in the…

Hi! I got back to Bangalore after spending a week at Coonoor, up in the Nilgiris Hills in Southern India. I had planned to start on the Strategic Foundation Program (Week 1)  and was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I got started on the program on Tuesday last week as planned, but could not get anything else done the rest of the week due to bad weather. It rained continuously for 4 days with dense fog. I know that most trainers would say that we have to train through adverse conditions…

It has been about 3 months since I read The Cool Impossible the first time. Since then I have probably read the book couple more times and soaked in these big ideas:

• Form and Strength and how they are interdependent
• Benefits of strength exercises for my feet
• Nutrition and general diet
• Mental strength and discipline
• Awareness (probably the biggest one!)

This is a quick update on my last 3 months.

Living in Bangalore, India,…

I have been tracking this event called La Ultra - The High (thehigh.in) touted as one of the cruelest events in the world for the last couple years because I have some good friends as part of the organising team. I have wanted to help out as a volunteer and also experience this event first hand.

I thought the opportunity and the time had come when the La Ultra announced a new Relay event called the Eleventy-One which was designed exactly for people like me. It would allow me…

I am into my 8th day of the No Sugar Diet recommended by CI. I don't expect this 20-day diet itself to be an issue because I am not much of a sugar junkie anyway, but nevertheless it is important because this will be my first milestone with the Cool Impossible program. For the record, I loved dark chocolates and cookies until some 6-months back and have since then almost entirely gone off sugar.

The 20-day Whole Food challenge should not be a big challenge in India. Much of the…

Hello! I read The Cool Impossible over the last couple of weeks and got signed up on this site yesterday. I run as a hobby and have been running an average of 1-2 Full and/or Half Marathons a year for the last 7-8 years. 

As I approach 50, I got introduced to La Ultra, The High (thehigh.in) through my buddy Dr. Rajat Chauhan who also happens to be an Ultra Runner and part of the organising team at La Ultra. He has got me seriously thinking about trying the EleventyOne at the…