I wanted to train with India’s top long distance runners because that’s what I thought I was good at. After all, I have been an official 2-hour pacer for the half marathon at Tata Mumbai Marathon four times in a row. I chatted with Ajith Markose, middle and long distance coach at the Reliance Foundation, who works with Sawan Barwal, India’s newest national record holder in the marathon. Since I readily blurted out all my personal records for 5km, 10km, half and full marathons, Markose smiled and praised me. Buoyed, I asked for Barwal’s workout that helps him go faster. “These boys run flat out for a whole minute and then rest for a minute,” starts Markose and I immediately interject showing (off) my familiarity with the workout, “Fartlek.” He patiently nods, “Yes, Fartlek. They run 400m in that minute and do 35 to 40 sets of it.” As someone who has come close to death after just 15 rounds of Fartlek, covering between 230m and 300m in the running minute, I quickly abandoned my idea of asking him for a chance to train with Barwal and other long distance runners, who run up to 200 km a week depending on their training phase. I run that distance in two months during peak training.
