Friday, July 4, 2014

That extra speed - 1 mile dash!

What is the right balance between wasting time, wanting to work out, being lazy, being negative and wanting to be positive?  Run.  Run that one mile.   10 minutes or less.   Give it all.   Tie your shoelace, down the stairs, set your GPS, and ran with all you have.   Let the lungs burst, the nostrils flare, the mind scream, the legs pound the concrete.  And still that would not be my best - there is a Roger Banister who is calling and probably calling forever.

I invented this 1 mile dash keeping the few factors that I had listed in mind.  But it is a place to scream, punish and take everything out of your system at the start of the day.  1 km run would have been good, but 1 mile is just long enough to make you better.

I ran a 8 and quarter minute mile today, so far the best, but I know it is not my best.  Wiki  says that the best is as this -  Hicham El Guerrouj is the current men's record holder with his time of 3:43.13, while Svetlana Masterkova has the women's record of 4:12.56.  

My inspiration here is Roger Banister, the first man to run the one mile under 4 minutes. I am not running for the world record, but to shake a hand with Roger, an imaginary one at that.  


And just today, as I met with one friend who wanted to get back to running, it was back to those days where I used to talk endlessly.  Some of my earlier blog will be testimony to this blah, blahs!

And then I come back and squeeze this video in to watch.  And that is another inspiration.  

The idea of running the 1 mile dash to increase the pace when needed during the long runs.  This cannot be done without strength training, good hydration and proper stamina building, especially when running a long race like half or full marathon.

I will keep you posted on this through my workout schedules.   I am planning to add strength training to this.  Look for more. Now I got to go to the track. We will catch up shortly!

- A Road runner

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Miles to go before I sleep - Birthday eve mile run.

I am letting out a secret here.   My life has been a downward rollercoaster - well it depends on how you see it, but how I see it, is downward.   Another way of looking at it, at wrong side of 40 now, that worse is still to come, so today is better than tomorrow.

Is it pessimistic?  Who really cares?  Reality is that, you cant 'let go'.   I have lived a life what many may not dream to tread.   The depths of mind will reveal that the situations and crossroads that I had to face.  But that must be the same for everyone.   But since I dont know anyone, I would rather stick to me.

Now, why this in a running blog, you might ask. Simple, this is MY blog.   And, when I run, it is me looking inside me.  And facing the good, bad and ugly of yours truly.  So, if you dont read, I really dont care.  Because today, I am 40 - and they say life begins at 40.

I ran a 9.57 min/miler yesterday and today I ran 8.46 min/ miler.   Did it make a better me?  I dont know.   So, I let another secret here.  I have not run a group run or race since 2010.  And that is exactly when I lost my marbles.   Today is the most feared day of life.

I thought I will not see the other side of 40. I would die, leaving my family and the stakeholders of my life in distraught and despair.  It has been a dream and a deep conviction.   Now I am living that conviction.  I ran today as though it was my December 2012.   I will wait to see tomorrow's dawn. If I wake up, then I will blog again and I will run again.  I will LIVE again.  That is not to say, life is new.

But I would have bought a fresh lease to complete the carry-overs of the pre-40 portion of my life, and then look forward to what future throws at me.  My runs will be always towards this.

That is ME.  You read or not, you respond or not, that is YOU.  There ends this story.


- A Road Runner , June 25, 2014

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Window runner

I call him the window-runner. 

He has been now living a life in exile since 2010.  It was a life that has been constructed on scaffolding - constructed with the promise of future, but a pain of guilt of the present.   The guilt was basically about life - the why's and why nots.  His ventures had carried a delusional promise, and his talent - a mirage of great potential.   I know him for more than 7 years now, since I first met him.  

He was one of the runners who was not a pioneers in the running circuit, in that city of high humidity, but certainly one of the prima-donnas of the second wave.  He was a regular in all the city runs, half.   He had also started to run longer distances especially in that Silicon Valley races. Life was good.
When he was part of the running groups, his life was better
or was it otherwise?
All that was fine, till an intercity move made him a lonely runner.  His castle-in-the-air and his talents were there, in front of him, like mirages, and he squandered the present.  His castle started crumbling, but his mind rebuilt it feverishly. 

I met him at the starting line of  SCMM 2012 half.  He said he never wanted to participate in the race and he was running for charity - without a timing chip.  He had now been running what he felt as 'guilt runs' - an anti-dote for his way of life.  'The guilt runs' in his own words, 'were either to cry my heart out, or cursing the world, pour out my failure on the road, as the feet stepped on them and crushed them.  That was one way of keeping the sanity of my split mind'.   But he hid from the pack.  He had become a loner in those two years since his move. 

'Another way I keep myself motivated is being around in the runner circuit, in social media.  There, people always see me for what I am, but never intrusive.   There were many queries if I was running this race or that, but I never replied; and naturally, the queries died down. But I am never far away.'
He started running the distance on race days alone,
but got vicarious participation through social media

'I can always see my friends - posting registrations, pictures of collection of bibs, race day pictures, and the medals and certificates.  I feel it, as I have, vicariously.  Then I go for my guilt runs.  I slowly started feeling that there were runners besides me.  I imagine that I was running those races - and I would run an equal distance, but alone, in my neighborhood on race day'.

'I am now, and here, at the starting line, by a quirk of fate; somebody had a charity bib, and he said you just run and yesterday got my bib.  It was like somebody giving money and asking me to shop;  I could not refuse.  So here I am!'.  And off, he disappeared into the crowd of running feet. 

I could not meet him after that.  I sent him a friend request on facebook.  He accepted almost immediately.  I don't see his posts.  And I don't think he is still racing in any of the races.  May be he is running those lonely runs on race days - or 'window-running'.

- The Road Runner