The runners are confident that the training they had in the high altitudes of Tamil Nadu will help them massively during Sunday's half marathon.
As part of the training programme, the runners have been training in the high altitudes of Ooty, Tamil Nadu.
Mohammad Yunus, one of the top Indian contenders for the marathon, believes the intense training they had in the hilly region will help them on plains.
"It helped to improve our breathing system and lung capacity. So, the training in the hilly region will definitely help us in the plains," he added during a media briefing on Friday.
While speaking in detail about the training methods, Yunus said they used to train 400 meter and 1000 meter repeatedly. Besides, twice a week, they also followed strength training.
Talking about the diet, he replied, "We take normal foods with a lot of juices which includes special proteins."
Gopi T, who clocked 1:05:22 seconds in ADHM 2014, is confident about competing against his foreign competitors this time around.
"This time I am confident that there won't be much difference between us and international runners," he explained.
Since, they have been training in colder weathers in Ooty, Gopi is not too concerned about the fog. He said: "We are prepared for the rough weather and will run through fog if required."
Nitendra Singh Rawat, who clocked 1:06:27 seconds in the Cochin half marathon 2014, is mainly focusing on improving his timing.
"My priority this time is to improve my timing. My target for ADHM 2015 - one hour, three minutes," he explained.
"If I can run 3.1 minutes per kilometer, then I would be able to clock one hour, three minutes and 30 to 40 seconds during the marathon."
He added that in the hilly regions during the training, it was impossible to clock that time, but the experience will help him handy to match that level on Sunday.
Among the female contingent, Sudha Singh, who qualified for Rio Olympics in the marathon, is aiming for a top-three finish.
"I want to finish in the top three positions and at the same time be able to clock one hour, ten minutes on Sunday," she said.
Besides, Sudha added that recently she has been training for the full marathon, rather than the half marathon. So she is really confident about her chances in ADHM.
lalita Babbar, who has also qualified for next years Olympics in the Steeple Chase, is aiming for a top-3 finish.
"I am looking to clock one hour 10 minutes or one hour 11 minutes on Sunday and at the same time I will hope to finish in the top-3 positions," she explained.
lalita is also hopeful that the training they did in the hilly roads in Ooty will definitely help them during the half marathon to reach their targets.
Among the other women representatives, OP Jaisha (32), who has also qualified for next year's Olympics in marathon, and l Suriya (25), who is the current champion of TCS World 10K 2015 with a record time of 34:34, are the other notable candidates to look out for on Sunday.
later Jaisha added, “We will not be competing against ourselves but look forward to putting up a competition to the international elite women runners on Sunday”.