Quest for a faster me

Here I am sharing my thoughts about my 3 year running journey. I wrote this for publishing in my company's in-house magazine. 

As a child, I always had an affinity for sports and fitness in general. From watching and relishing all things cricket (as do any middle class Indian child) to making role models in the likes of Ganguly & Yuvraj, all I fantasized was being a star sportsperson and shine to make my family and country proud. That never happened though as evident, despite being born and brought up in Haryana, the cradle of sports in India. Things don't always go the way you would have wanted them to. Thoughts evolve under the influence of your surroundings and we change our course pragmatically. So I grew up, went to college, life took many turns and I ended up chasing deadlines in corporate world for over 9 years now. 

But the affinity for something you are passionate about always remains. I tried to balance things out and played sports like basketball, football as an amateur but still consistency and competition were always lacking and the vacuum couldn’t be filled. Team sports required logistics and companionship which was difficult to maintain especially at project sites where I worked for quite a while. Also, time for leisure activities became scarce and it started to become all work and no play. 
Fortunately, the circumstances couldn’t stop me from following my heart and I decided to opt for the most minimalist kind of sport 'long distance running' which neither require huge apparatus nor mandatory companionship / team. All one need is a good pair of shoes and even not that if you opt for barefoot running (very popular these days). Having a group or mate to train with is a big positive but not a necessity. So, running seemed like the most practical sporting option for me.

Finally, the idea to run a marathon someday struck a chord with me after reading an articles about a corporate honcho Amit Sheth, a Mumbaikar, taking up marathon running in his 40s, improving and ultimately transitioning to being one of the Ist Indian ultra-marathoners to have finished "the comrades" in south Africa, a race also known as ultimate human race where one covers 89 kilometres encompassing rolling hills en route Durban and Pietermaritzburg within a cut off time of 12 hrs. The very thought of surviving such distance on foot filled me with adrenaline and the idea of racing against time and against yourself seemed challenging, raw and cold blooded. Apart from just the idea of completing the distance, the blunt numbers in the form of your race times attracted me as they tell you your potential. Unlike other games where you can claim to be a very good player without numbers putting you down, race times give zero possibility of ambiguity where you stand. The numbers speak about the level of fitness and there is infinite possibility of improvement irrespective of your current fitness level and age.

The fight, as it comes out to be, is with your own self with all your limitations and weaknesses. You get the opportunity to test the limits your body and mind can push you through. Human body is such a wonderful machine and is capable of much more than we can think of as put by philosopher Socrates in one of his work:

"No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable of".

Journey till now and future goals

I eventually decided to start training to run a marathon distance.
For those who don't know, Marathon is a running race with an official distance of 42.195 KM. Half marathon is exactly half the distance. These are mostly run on roads but there are races on trails and tracks too, some on very difficult hilly or desert terrain. 
After training for it for around 5 months, I ran my Ist half marathon in Mar'13 in 112 minutes, no so bad for a beginner. Then, there was no looking back and I ran many half marathons including events at exotic locations like Ladakh, Shimla, Musoorie, Jim Corbett national park to name a few. My best performance came in ADHM, Delhi in Nov'14 where I was able to finish the half marathon in 90 minutes. There was something magical about finishing these races, the feeling of accomplishment so predominant that It brought me to the start line of races one after the other to test my waters repeatedly. It very nearly became an obsession, the quest for a faster me.

Now once long distance running base was built, the next step was to run a full marathon. I took the challenge and ran my Ist marathon distance in Jan'15 at Mumbai, more than 2 years after I started running. Doing the full marathon only after building a good base turned out to be a wise step and I was conditioned to take the physical toll marathon training and race takes on joints and ligaments. It helped me remain injury free in long term. Doing it too fast too soon is one of the common mistakes many of my friends did and got themselves injured. I did my first full marathon was 3 hr 42 min which I bettered this year in January with my personal beat time of 3 hr 15 mins. My experience of that ultimate race can be seen in the write-up I shared in Feb ‘16 edition of enlightenment titled 'Striking balance, the running way'.

Now, my immediate aim is to run an 80 minute half marathon and sub 3 hour marathon. That is no mean task and will require unprecedented dedication and discipline in training. Still, I am up for it and looking forward to the challenge in the coming race season. The next big races on cards are Shimla ultra-half marathon in September, Airtel delhi half marathon in November and Mumbai marathon in January'17.

Training for it

The training for running such gruelling distance was a journey in itself. It was filled with all kind of emotions like happiness, joy, frustration, sacrifice & pain. But it made me a stronger person mentally and physically. It taught me to endure pain and utilize body's energy optimally to reach a far distance in limited time. It required a lot of discipline and taught many life lessons. I would say, training for a marathon will make a person a better human. 
Once you decide to prepare yourself for a long distance running event, training happens in phases:
- Base building (to build a strong foundation of stamina and strength)
- Peaking (to reach your best shape at right time before the event)
- Tapering (resting and storing energy before the D-day finally arrives)

Though I never followed any professional coach for my workouts and diet, material available on web from professionals was very helpful in customizing workouts and maintaining nutrition. I mostly trained 5 days a week with 4 days running and one more for strength training. Every workout was unique and aimed to meet a certain objective.

- long and slow run (for stamina)
- tempo run (comfortably hard pace to mimic race conditions)
- interval run (fast intervals with rest in between, to improve speed)
- easy run (short and slow run, recovery run to give your body time to recover)
- Strength training (exercises to improve strength in leg and core muscles, helps to run efficiently and injury free)

Along with following the workout plan, proper nutrition is equally important so as to maintain active metabolism and maintain lean muscle. Long distance runs are pretty hard on the body and body tend to fuel itself by breaking lean muscle if not aided by proper diet. Protein intake is the single most important nutritional requirement that is often overlooked in Indian scenario because we traditionally tend to eat less protein and high carb food at our home. So adding eggs, lean meat & whey can give that extra edge in training.

Another important part of training is mental conditioning as it is said that running a marathon is more mental than physical. Your mind tend to send pain signals to the muscles and force you to stop or slow down in a race even when you still have some fuel left. There, your willpower comes into play. Willpower is earned through years of conditioning and rigorous training. It is well put in the bestseller book 'Eat and run' by champion ultra marathoner Scott Jurek like this;

'Its a hard simple calculus. Run until you can't run anymore, then run some more. Find a new source of energy and will, then run even faster'.

The social angle

Running is as individualistic a sport as it can be. It is only you and your conscience when you are out on that long training run. Race competition is also at individual level. So one might wonder how come one not get bored training and racing alone. I have also come across similar sentiments. In the first year of running, I always used to train alone nearby home and sometimes it became too difficult to get yourself moving alone. The answer to this, for me, was the fabulous running group I became part of, the 'Sunday Run Club'. All major cities have open groups of runners that provide the platform to interact with likeminded athletes. They use social media to get in contact and organize group training runs every weekend on various locations in Delhi NCR. And it was an altogether different experience running and training in a group. I found it much easier and enjoyable to do running in group as members push and motivate each other whenever someone is getting behind. Also, they share expertise, training strategy and experiences which makes everyone wiser. You interact with people from different backgrounds and professions and it widens your world view. Also, it develops a unique friendship and bond away from your usual friend circle of college and work which is a boon to your social life.

In the end, one message that I would like to give to all is

Try getting outdoors often and play at least one sport of your choice, running or not. It will give you a primal sense of belongingness to your physicality and you will feel and work better because we humans are intrinsically programmed to move. Lack of movement and long sitting as part of our busy corporate life make us unhealthy. Sports are the best remedy to offset this.