To do or not to do

Jagannath. G

Borrowing from the great Shakespeare's "to be or not to be," runners in TTB are at a dilemma whether to do or not to do.

Let me add some context. The much sought after summer event in the running fraternity, the Hundred Days of Running (HDOR) just got over, and a small group in TTB decided to officially close the event with a "full night" run, starting at 6 pm and ending at 6 am the next day. The run was named 6-6-6 (6 km at a time and rest till start of next hour, from 6 pm to 6 am). One person did 75 km, another did 72, and a third did 66. A few runners did 2-4 hours in the evening and returned early morning to finish their run. A few others joined at midnight/early morning and did good numbers.

As always happens when something extraordinary is done, doubts started appearing in the group chat with members asking questions like "can we do this too", " what are the possible implications of such sustained effort", "does sleep matter at all." This blog will just try to explore this topic a bit further. If you think you will have a solution at the end, stop reading. I am just going to give a few pointers and let you think and take a call. I will broadly compartmentalize the different issues at hand.

Sudden spurt in mileage

Is it possible for any runner who is doing, say, three to four runs a week for a total mileage of 30-40 km, to do a 12-hour run/walk? Yes, it is perfectly possible. But if you add a caveat that it should not lead to subsequent injuries, the answer is tough to predict. If the person has been progressively overloading his running mileage over a protracted period, say month on month, he is better prepared to handle the spurt. While the concept of getting someone to run 100 days continuously itself is flawed, the irony is that people who have run all 100 days and have averaged 8-15 km per day are better equipped to handle the 12-hour load. The 75 and 72k finishers both have done 1000+ km in the 99 days preceding the night run! Not to say this guarantees an injury free run.

Those small irritant niggles

If you had listened to your body and not had any niggles in 99 days, you most likely will not have an issue with the 100th. If you carried a niggle but just wanted to finish your 100 days before attending to it, you probably may never go for a run after the 100 days, it can get that worse! If you have a small pain/odd sensation in any part of your body - extremities or chest, you will do better to take it easy after this and stop the activity and observe for a recurrence another day. If you think you are stronger than those small warnings, you are potentially risking something huge. Beginners tend to assume that they need to push harder when they experience niggles/pain. Same with people who think that they have registered for a race/event. But experienced runners will tell you Always listen to your body . You always have chance to make amends in the next race/event. Never push yourself as if this is your last race/event; it might end up being just that, thanks to your folly.

Sleep

Is it okay to run one full night without sleeping, is the question that almost everyone seemed to have. The short answer is YES, we can do without a night's sleep. But the long answer is that it is okay to stay awake one full night IF and ONLY IF you sleep 7-8 hours regularly every night. Full night awake run or not, you need the minimum 7-hour night sleep. Signing up for these fancy continuously active challenges like HDOR and sacrificing sleep for the sake of numbers will kill you, literally not just figuratively. And if you have been in a sleep compromised state for the duration of the challenge and you want to finish it with a 0% sleep run, that will be the last nail in the coffin, figuratively. Not just overnight runs, even the regular marathons require one to compromise sleep on the previous night. The key is to ensure the lead-up to the event is "sleep loaded" adequately.

Testing the limits

Such occasions give us the opportunity to test our limits. We definitely need to try that, but the idea should be to use these occasions to stretch the boundaries which are in place already, as defined in the previous paragraphs. The elasticity lasts only as long as you do not overdo it. Once the elasticity breaks, it cannot be fixed.

What is good for the goose..

is not necessarily good for the gander. Do not fall into peer pressure. Do not be coerced into doing something just because your friend does it. He may be your running partner regularly but the circumstances that you deal with are different from his. Do only what your training preparedness allows you to. No one can/will answer your family if you end up with injuries/anything more serious.

The conclusion is that there is no one size fits all. What works for one need not work for another. Consider all the pertinent factors before signing up for any event - be it a Marathon or HDOR or an all-nighter. Stay awake to the possibility of calling it off anytime when things are not going your way!

Cheers and Happy Running