Week 20 – Detroit FreePress International Marathon prep (May 17 – May 23)

After an incredible week 19, let us see what week 20 has in store for us.

Day 1 – Sunday, May 17, 2020 – Quarantine Day 62
The COVID19 positive cases are well under control for Michigan. Hopefully this will continue like this and we will soon *flatten the curve* if we haven’t already. Our Governor informed today that there was a slight rise in the usual Sunday cases in the positive COVID19 cases due to the fact that they have started rigorous testing in the correctional facilities across Michigan. This is cause of a concern as I didn’t know they were excluded from the number of tests already. Hoping for the best, but I am preparing for the worst from this point onwards since we are talking about reopening.

Michigan weather decided to pour heavy rains and forced me to take the rest day. I didn’t mind it since I was still recovering from 11 mile hike that I did yesterday. Happy to take some rest. Not an ideal start for the week, but I don’t mind it.

Day 2 – Monday May 18, 2020 – Quarantine Day 63
Count of positive COVID19 cases are still under 500 – a good sign I guess and the only 10 more days for the lockdown for the state of Michigan unless it is extended to a later date in June. Let’s see what our Governor tells us.

The weather has not been in my favor for the last couple days, so it was a rest day for me again! Though there was a brief window to go out around 4 PM, but, I was so engrossed in work, I hardly looked outside and missed my chance for a quick run. I was glad to get some work done though!

After shutting off my laptop, I decided to go for 150 burpees with my friend Monika and her kids. We crushed it and took us almost 20 minutes to complete 30 rounds of 5 burpees each. I wanted to go for more, so during the breaks, I chimed in with 20 more burpees.

Believe it or not, BURPEES is my favorite exercise! ❤️🤪

Day 3 – Tuesday May 19, 2020 – Quarantine Day 64
This week has been a slightly unpredictable as far as Michigan weather is concerned. Yesterday, it was a little cloudy with a bit of drizzle here and there, but at night, it poured heavily, causing major floods in some of the areas in Michigan. Fortunately, there wasn’t any lives lost because of this and the situation was kept under control before everything went haywire, unlike COVID19.

As the weather played tricks, I decided to skip the run for the day and give my knees a little break. At the end of the work day, we decided to go out for a quick bike session. By “quick”, I mean 19 miles long. I know, right? Anyway, by the time we reached around 7 mile mark, we were surprised to find the flooded Hines Drive Park that we usually cross and decided to return from the same point to avoid any unnecessary accident/incident. You can take a look at the flooding that I am talking about in the below picture.

I was a little relieved to cut short our bike ride as my knees still needed some rest to get over the 10 mile hike that we did last Saturday. This is taking more time to recover than I originally thought.

Anyway, we could complete the Half Marathon distance on the bike and I was happy with the effort. Biking has been a soothing exercise mode for me for the last couple months and I seem to enjoy it more than I thought.

Day 4 – Wednesday May 20, 2020– Quarantine Day 65
One more day of the week and this brings us to the middle of the week. I do sense that this week, I will not perform my weekly quota of 20 miles of running and I am okay with that. As long as my physical health is good, I can run more, so taking this a “minor setback” as a positive to take as much rest as I can and come back stronger than ever.

So, today, we skipped both run and bike and decided to go for a nice walk. The weather was finally improving and we couldn’t wait to go out at the end of the day. The work has been crazy busy with the long weekend (Memorial Day weekend) approaching, so it felt better to stretch our legs and have some fresh air after spending almost entire day inside the house.

The trail that we chose was nearby so we didn’t need to go that far away to enjoy the beautiful weather. I am

Day 5 – Thursday May 21, 2020– Quarantine Day 66
We are just a day away from Friday and a long weekend! The COVID19 positive cases in Michigan have been in constant decline, which is a good news!
It’s funny how I have stopped using the word “positive” if I want to convey a good message.

Anyway, instead of rambling on my thought process, let us cut to the chase real quick.
Today was also a NO-RUN day. Well, technically, I ran but didn’t record it and I don’t know how much I ran. So, let me start from the start here!

After a long day at work, we started off with our usual bike route. Everything was going well and faster than I thought when at mile 6, I heard a weird sound coming from the rear tyre of the bike that I was riding. Before I could figure out what was happening, Aryan, pointed out that the rear tyre of the bike might have punctured. 

Man, it was bummer for me as I saw myself becoming the victim of the bike trouble for the second time now. The first time, my old bike’s chain broke and had to drag it at least 4-5 miles. After that, my friend, Anupam, generously let me use his old bike, this bike, met with this fate.

After the tyre got punctured, we clicked a few pictures before I started my long walk home and my friends continued with their bike ride.

Let me tell you, it was not an easy walk; But, I had to do it and all the running that I have been doing, one thing it has taught me is TO NEVER GIVE UP!

With my undying spirit, I started my walk. It was going to be a 6-mile walk, so I thought of listening to some podcast or some interesting video on my way. I knew I would not be able to do that for the entire distance as I was running a little low on charge. But, anyway, I managed to kill time till 3 mile mark, after which I couldn’t continue YouTube-ing. That’s when it hit me – instead of walking with the bike in my hand, I could run with a bike in my hand – and that moment just gave me chills and that’s when I started running ferociously.

One thing that I have realized about my running is that if I give at least 3 days of rest to my knees and legs, I can crack a 5K within 29-30 minutes, which is a really good pace for someone with a physique like me. Having skipped running for the last 3-4 days gave me enough strength to put more run that I anticipated and I ended up completing the 1 mile of the remaining 3 miles in just 8-9 minutes. Unfortunately, I had my Apple Watch on the Walk mode instead of the Run mode, so couldn’t record the this run, but, anyway, it was good to know that I could run (well, it was a good realization).

Out of the remaining 2 miles, I remember finishing half a mile in just under 5 minutes again to shorten my ETA. It felt good for a change to run with a bike in my hand. Good day!

Day 6 – Friday May 22, 2020– Quarantine Day 67
This brings us to the last working day before the Memorial Day Long Weekend! I was so ready for this day as I wanted to take my mind off work and have some relax weekend and I was happy to finally get that!

With the plan for the weekend in mind, I decided to skip the run today too and for the first time in my Marathon preparation, I would take the entire week off and not run a single mile. I AM OKAY WITH THIS AND VOW TO COME BACK STRONGER. Let us see what’s in store for the next week!

Day 7 – Saturday May 23, 2020– Quarantine Day 68
Saturday is the official last day of the week and I couldn’t be more excited to take the 3-hour drive to the HARTWICK PINES STATE PARK, which is 40 miles shy off Mackinac Bridge from my place. For Michiganders like myself, 75 is a bliss and I love driving on this freeway. Upper Peninsula being my most favorite place in the whole wide world, I love these little day trips to or near UP and don’t like to miss these, so, when my friend, Monika, came with the idea of visiting this state park, I was all in. It would be fun to explore one more state park during these “not so rush hours”, I thought!

Interestingly, this was the first long drive I took in 2020, so it made this trip a little special. Having explored almost half a dozen state parks during this lockdown, I wasn’t much impressed with the trails that this park had to offer. Me and my friends are used to some challenging trails with some good views, but, to our disappointments, this park had trails which were a little wide and correctly paved, which we didn’t expect, so couldn’t enjoy the hike that much. Additionally, we found way more ticks and bugs attacking us from all directions, which was a mood killer.
I am sure if we would have visited this place before the other state parks, we would have loved it, but since, we have had good experiences, couldn’t appreciate this place much.

At the end of the hike, we explored the nearby campgrounds, and were highly impressed with the well-managed campgrounds, which, obviously, were shut down for the season.

I clicked the below picture during the final stretch of the hike. Loved the black and white version of the original picture.

Here’s the small video from the campgrounds in Hartwick Pines State Park. I loved the chirping of the birds and the clear sky. Enjoy!

And that wraps up Week#20.