Two Marathons in 30 Days

Another month went by, and I finished my second Marathon after finishing my first just three weeks ago. I was not planning to finish two marathons in 30 days. I thought the Amsterdam marathon would be nice to finish; if not, I could give it another shot in Istanbul. After completing the Amsterdam Marathon, it won’t matter if I finish the Istanbul marathon. I could run and see where it goes. With that mindset, I finished the Istanbul Marathon 4 minutes faster than Amsterdam. It is not a big difference, but considering the three weeks between the two marathons and the relatively more difficult course of the Istanbul marathon, I would say it’s a win 😊.

Overall, the experience of the Istanbul Marathon was less lovely than the Amsterdam Marathon. First off, there was no novelty in terms of the course 😃. I know it is not fair, but it is what I felt. The course was my day-to-day commute. There was nothing to see other than the novelty of crossing the Bosphorus bridge running. In Amsterdam, the whole city was new to my eyes, and I enjoyed running and watching around. Second, I loved the vitamin drinks they handed out at every station at the Amsterdam marathon. The Istanbul Marathon did not have that. I believe it is essential as one has to consider bringing appropriate supplementations to survive the run. However, in terms of convenience and cost, the Istanbul Marathon was much cheaper as it is where I live, with no flights and no hotel booking needed 😃. From a running perspective, I have let myself run at any comfortable pace. I did not strategize as it was not critical in my mind to finish the Marathon. I took a small restroom break and switched to run-walk-run at around 25km. The last 2-3km was painful as it included a pretty steep climb to the finish.

Training Plan

Before getting into the Istanbul Marathon, I have used the same training patterns as before the Amsterdam Marathon. I kept my sessions around 1 hour long and decreased them to 30 minutes two days before the Marathon. That gave me a nice taper. After the Marathon, I took a day off and returned to my daily 1 hour long sessions for a week as recovery. Once the recovery week was gone, I switched to my regular weekly rhythm of 6 days a week running. However, I wanted to mix things up. So, I have started a running training program from Stryd. It includes some strides and long runs weekly and adds some variation to my running. This is an experiment to see if a proper running training program can help me with any aspects of running. From what I can tell, the program has three moderate, one long, and two easy runs weekly. Some of the moderate runs are intervals, and some are strides. Because the program asked me to move my rest day to Wednesday, I followed its guidance and moved it. We will see where this goes.

Weight Change

During November, I lost another 1.8 kg / 4 lbs. I’m not strictly trying to lose weight anymore. My goal is to stay between 80-85 kg / 176-187 lbs. The long-term goal is to reach 80 kg / 176 lbs. I’m keeping intermittent fasting up with a single meal a day, timed after running.

Movember

Every November is actually Movember 😃. It is the month of the mustache to increase awareness of men’s health. As part of the Movember Foundation’s efforts, I joined the Strava challenge and committed to running 300km during November. I did 314 km 😉. Three hundred sixteen thousand people also joined the challenge, unlocking monetary donations to Movember Foundation totaling over 316 thousand USD! I will be rocking the mustache for a while 😃.

My virtual meeting setup during November

Running for Kids

Starting in December, I’m joining the NYRR Team for Kids, which supports youth and community programs for the NYC Marathon and help kids develop healthy attitudes about engaging in physical activity. I have a personal fundraising goal of 2600 USD till the race. If you have the means, head here to give a hand 😉.

That’s it for this month 😊. See you end of the year 😉