My tryst with running
Running has always been a source of joy for me right from my childhood. It set me free, it made me feel like I was the king of the world. While I was running I didn’t care about the past or the future. I truly lived in the present moment.
But, there was one problem. I used to feel like I couldn’t run fast enough or long enough. I have been overweight all my life and hence I felt that there was a limit to my physical ability and stamina, and I could only run a small distance without getting exhausted. After two to three days of running my legs would hurt and I didn’t feel motivated to go for a run the next day, and I wouldn’t go back to run even after a week or so. Then after a while when motivation would strike, I would go for a run, then my legs would hurt, and again I would surrender to laziness and comfort. This cycle continued from my childhood until the time I became an adult.
One day I was reading the book “The monk who sold his Ferrari”. This book changed my life in many ways and I would highly recommend this book to anyone who hasn’t read it yet. I read the following lines from the chapter “The power of discipline”:
Here’s an example. Let’s say one of your personal development goals is to get up every morning at 6 a.m. and go for a run around that park behind your place…
This was just an example that was mentioned in the book but I decided to follow it literally. I made it a point to wake up at 5:45 a.m. every day and step out of my house at 6 a.m. for a run. After a few days, I didn’t need an alarm. I used to run as much as I could, then stop, then again I ran until I was exhausted. Sometimes I didn’t feel like waking up, my legs would hurt, but the words in that chapter of the book were so powerful that I used to wake up anyway.
I did this for a month or so. However, even after a month, I didn’t see any remarkable progress in my stamina or fitness. Hence I decided to consult a few friends who had a good amount of experience with running. I learned from one of them that simply running until you’re exhausted will not work. You need to run for a fixed distance, rest/walk for a fixed interval and repeat. Slowly you need to increase the running distance and reduce the rest interval.
This advice worked for me, and how. I started off with 500 m run and 500 m walk cycles. Slowly, I increased it to 750 m run and 250 m walk. After a month, I could run 2 to 3 km without taking a break. I had never been able to do this before and it made me feel really good about myself and motivated me to improve my stamina further. After 2 months I was able to run 6 to 7 km without taking a break. I myself couldn’t believe how much progress I was making. I started fitting into clothes that I couldn’t fit into earlier. My overall energy level throughout the day was higher than what it usually was. After a while, I participated in 10 km races and completed them comfortably. This was the time when I thought I had reached the peak of my fitness potential.
However, I started pushing myself and one day I ran 21 km. This was a ridiculously high number, I thought to myself. It wasn’t easy of course, but I completed the distance. 6 months back, I couldn’t run even 2 km and here I was running 21 km. That day, I realized that your body could do things you never imagined could be possible, if you are patient enough and keep putting in consistent efforts without constantly worrying about the results. Numbers aside, the sheer joy that running gives you is simply irreplaceable. Like everyone else’s goals, my running goals too got hampered because of COVID-19. I sincerely hope that soon we get to run mask-free, whenever and wherever we want to and experience the magic of running to the fullest.
