The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you're willing to work. - Oprah Winfrey
I was never much of a runner. Even at my peak fitness as an Engineering student (several years and pounds ago), 3 miles was the best I did and preferred weight training over cardio. Running for more than 30 minutes was boring and I looked at it as something to get out of the way before starting my “real” workout. I played cricket and didn’t care much for soccer (which involves a lot more running that I could have bargained for). I could run if I wanted to – I told myself – but never really got around to it. Running was non-glamorous, monotonous, and too tiring I decided as I silently dreamed of playing for the Indian cricket team regardless of talent (or rather the lack of it).
A friend of mine, KR, ran the half marathon in Bangalore in 2005 in spite of a bad knee. He posted his experience on his blog and it made a good read. Heck, it was inspiring and almost made me want to run a half marathon. Well KR is a natural athlete. I would never be able to do it…
Read it again a couple of months ago and decided I wanted to be fit enough to run a half marathon – not because it sounded exciting, but to show myself I could. Since I was nowhere close to my desired levels of fitness, I chalked out a 12 wk program – thanks to the www. Starting this program was tough – I barely ran a mile the first day and I was puffing and panting. In the first week itself, I had several thoughts of quitting. But quitting is easy, staying focused is tough… I don’t want to sound like I am making a big deal out of this, but different individuals require different levels of effort for the same damn thing. An ‘effort’ might be physical/ emotional/mental. For instance, the mental effort required by a smoker to cut down their smoking by half might be the same as the physical effort required by a mason to work twice as hard.
In my case, it was a matter of convincing myself that I needed to do it and then sticking to the plan!
I am currently in week 5 and I ran 7 miles last night. I am hoping to stretch it to 13 miles in the next 8 weeks. Let’s see how it goes. All I have to do is stay focused.
