Run with the Wind

I had been running inconsistently for a long time, approximately 30 days in a year for 6 years, mostly because I never had a goal in mind. In 2017 I decided to participate in a 5k run. The longest I had run before was 3k and I was fairly confident that 5k should not be an ordeal so I started practicing 5k runs about a week before the event. I was able to run it after around 3 days of running, and eventually completed the 5k event in around 45 mins. I had a couple of colleagues in my team who were beasts when I compared their 5k times to that of mine. One of them runs 10k everyday and is an avid dead-lifter (Vimal) and the other has a PR of 17min 5k (Rishiraj), both of them love running. Conversing with them encouraged me to be a regular runner for a while but I wasn’t able to keep up due to a most convenient excuse that I came up with then - work commitment. Fast-forward one year, I started running regularly once again around 4 days a week and after 2 weeks I ran 5k for 5 days consecutively, loved the feeling and wanted to continue but I felt burned out and decided to rest for a couple of days for recovery, only to lose regularity thereafter.

In September the same year I decided to run regularly once again to recover from physical weakness and a back pain, developed due to my sedentary lifestyle, however this time I succeeded in running on an average 3 days a week for next 10 months, and I had a goal in my mind – to run 5k distance under 25 mins. During these 10 months on the 1st of Jan I was able to run 5k in 27 min, still short by 2 mins of my goal time. This is when I started reading about running and discovered subtleties like importance of:

• Stretching
• Running-form
• Slow-running to build up aerobic capacity
• Rest-days

I tried running slowly consistently and observed that I was less fatigued and that on days when I switched my pace I was able to run faster as compared to my average times prior to practicing it. I continued running regularly with rest-days of around 1-2 days a week and was able to run comfortably. I still wasn’t able to break the barrier of 5k under 25 mins.

During this period, I stumbled upon an article which emphasized on increasing one’s weekly running mileage to build up aerobic capacity which is required for holding a faster pace for a longer duration, I also read another article on running which talked about a philosophy while learning something new – spending more time regularly in doing whatever it is that you are learning, to be better at it.

I never thought about improving my running in this way but it struck a chord and I thought it would be worth-it if I can run everyday for next 30 days. I loved the idea and had to decide upon a distance which would depend upon the time that I can expend in the morning before leaving for work. I settled for a distance of 6k everyday as I had observed it took me around 40-45 mins to run 3 rounds of a lake situated near my residence with a perimeter of 2k. One more thing that I needed to take care was - to not injure myself by running everyday - as it puts a lot of stress on one’s legs, running-slowly consistently helped here, which meant I’ll listen to my body while running and if I start feeling pain in my legs I’ll switch to a comfortable pace.

With this I started my run streak of 30 days. On day 1, I was able to complete 6k in 39 mins I wasn’t bothered about the time as my goal was the streak. It was fun running everyday for a week but in the 2nd week my legs started feeling heavy and I realized that was I subconsciously trying outpace my past runs which was putting a lot of stress on my legs, my average time was 38 mins by now. I switched to running-slowly while starting my runs and it helped, another thing that helped was to not go all-out while ending the runs for the last 150-200 meters. The pain subsided after this and then started the rain which made it infeasible to run around the lake as it was muddy, so I planned my running route on the road a day before and continued the streak alternating my runs both around the lake and on the road. I also started utilizing tips on running-form from a couple of YouTube videos and to my surprise it felt a lot comfortable running that way, it mostly included correcting my:

• Posture
• Arm-swing
• Stride-length
• Foot-landing

On my target 30th day of running I was feeling sore but still decided to run at a faster pace as I thought it’ll be fun to end my streak in a shorter time and was able to finish 6k in 32 min (around 7 min improvement from my initial 39 mins, only when going all-out) but I was out of my breath when I ended my run and decided to rest for the next day. By next morning the soreness went away and I was feeling fresh and continued my streak. Today is my 51st day of my 6k run streak, and I haven't planned for how long I am going to continue this streak, but it feels so damn good. Yet to achieve a PR of sub 25min 5k, which I will try to achieve in this year (I am still thinking about my colleague who has a PR of sub 17 min 5k).

Being a firm believer of the proverb ‘A healthy mind in a healthy body’, I feel that as working professionals we should expend at least 3% of our days’ time in working-out, which not only helps us stay focused on our tasks but reduces stress and gives that lingering happy feeling throughout the day. So wake-up, lace-up and Run with the Wind (I have borrowed this title from one of my favorite Japanese anime which is based on Hakone Ekiden, one of the most prominent university ekiden (relay marathon) race in Japan).