Has anybody ever done this? I might be able to go to Bangalore for the month of July. I guess that's monsoon season so the air will be a little cooler and less dusty. But would 100+ mile weeks be doable?
Has anybody ever done this? I might be able to go to Bangalore for the month of July. I guess that's monsoon season so the air will be a little cooler and less dusty. But would 100+ mile weeks be doable?
It wont be cool. I had an awful time training in india last year. I was there from june 15-july16 and it was very hot always and very busy. I was in bombay tho which is on the other side of the country. You could do 100 but it will be very rough
India is where my running went to die.
I never take days off, but when I arrived in New Delhi it seemed healthier to avoid breathing that air as much as possible. If you aren't staying in luxury accommodations you are also quite likely to get sick from the food. These things combined with the heat and the cultural impossibility of wearing anything approaching shorts and a t shirt (and the fact that it simply isn't done by Indians) makes it quite difficult. I dropped from 70mpw to about 15--which was itself a struggle. Bring lots of light/wicking long pants and be prepared to get very wet. That said, it is an unforgettable journey pretty much anywhere you go. I hope for your sake that you are a man.
It's doable if you love running on a treadmill. :)
I suggest doing a few hard weeks before you go and don't commit to having to do a lot of running when you're there.
I did this last summer in Chennai. Same latitude as Bangalore, but at sea level on the coast. From other runners I learned that Bangalore is better in terms of temperature & humidity. Pollution is quite bad, I heard.
Anyway- before I went away, I was doing about 50mpw. First week, I nearly passed out on my first attempted run on day 3, day 5 I got 5 miles which was ok. Mileages: 6, 27, 29, 44, 41, 30 (flying home at the end). Sessions were incredibly hard- ran a good 10% slower than usual for reps.
Interesting experience overall. I collected a fan club of small boys from a boarding school or something near where I was staying who'd come out to watch me finish my run most mornings. I also found a local group of runners, but they weren't much use as training partners even for someone relatively slow (37min 10k) although i did join them for a longer, 30km run along the coast to a hotel where they'd arranged breakfast and return transport. Running past people's shacks while they woke up, cleaned their teeth and shat in the bushes nearby gave plenty of food for thought. Younger boys invariably ran along with you asking "native place where?" Everyone smiled and waved if you said "vannakum" (Tamil greeting). Being slowly passed by a tractor-pulled trailer full of agricultural workers was fun.
I wonder what they thought of the crazy white man, with long hair and short shorts, who was running alone (at this point) along a quite highway at 5.30am...
I would suggest searching for a local branch of the Hash House Harriers as a way to get in on the local ex-pat running community. Even if you only go to one event, someone can probably hook you up with some more serious runners or at least give you some local knowledge.
Key points
- take it easy until you acclimatise
- run early or late
- find out where is safe to run- the IT campuses and similar are probably your best bet- I used the university campus (nice 5mile loop) but had to get a "walking pass" from the security dept to get access at 5am.
Good luck!