An unusual Sunday long run !!

M so excited, writing about running. A quick fitness level update. August just three four 8 km runs, few hill repeats 4 km and few small runs. My year end resolution was to reduce yo 65kg from 70kg, instead I reached 75kg.. Phew, lots of fat.. I am in pune for a week and today was third day. Its full if sweets n carbs n sleep n so 75kg. In august I reached a stage where I had overcame the pain of regrets and so skipping my runs was a cake walk..

I just happy realised that only way to get out is to wake up n go running, sliw but long runsss.. Today was that day, Sunday  - famous for long runs.. There was fuel and fire to run n finally the spark was ignited by new location. Instead if outdirrs I ran indoors in treadmill. Hotel gym :).. Have heard that its easy to run in treadmill n its true. New shoes n natures natural view, I ran 10.5km in an hour. I thought I'll be tired, but no, I was refreshed n hardly exhausted.

Wanted to go on top of those hill, a small one n finally found a company to help me on my way. Man, just 100m n the exhaustion due to previous run swept in. Slow n steady we made it. Perfect beginning for Sunday. Then it was fun filled day all the way. I was expecting to be in kandivali for September n October n new location for training but that is not suppose to be.

Small tough time, almost 4 hour travelling it will be n need to fit my training schedule. More challenging is to get the fitness level back and an unlimited enthu for learning new technology.. Its gonna be Awesome !! I hope I write for next three days the same way as today. My company induction starting tomorrow..

Tough Times Never Last, Tough People Do

End of Two Crucial Months

Yesterday was the best day to write this post. The second best day is today. The two crucial months I am referring to is the vacation period just before joining. It was supposed to be filled with running, reading, juggling n self discovery. Well I pretty much scored average in all and didn't clear Japanese language proficiency test N5 (basic level). Currently I am waiting for document verification n joining process of my first full fledged job. It was all exciting yesterday n the emotions would have been visible in the post. But at this moment I am waiting, and I wonder if waiting will ever be exciting. Just amused at how many yeaes in all do we spend waiting. . .So the mood of the blog might be OK OK and to the point.

Let's us brush through the summary of previous 2 months. By July end I was running 10 miles easily n regularly and then came august. Hardly ran for 7 8 days in all and the longest run was just 5 miles. I never was worried about my tummy till today, all thanks to August andmy laziness. Its not just laziness.. Running with mind of meditation explainswhy we loose track of our goalsand how to make a come back. By reading that book I realised I was bring over ambitious and also lost track of my goal and motivation. Will talk about my revised goals latter. Juggling - didn't work a bit and so no improvements. Reading - I finally finished Nelson Mandela's book about long walk to freedom. Ordered half a dozen new books and read a couple of them. Self discovery - I discovered my hidden love for sleep , just joking..

Waiting - that is what this post was all about to be. While travelling too we are waiting for our destination but we call it as travelling time. May whenever or wherever we queue up, we easily classify it as waiting. Its like I am ready to eat but waiting for food to arrive. I am all set and ready to go, but waiting for bus. Had to take a break to get some prints, but still waiting.

One aspect about writing on mobile is that I feel the post is big n too much is written n on seeing it on web it seems small. Hope this is small too..

See you all in post induction post..

Critical Last Month

I am late by 2 3 days, but that is it. Last 4 weeks to go before I go on my first full time professional duty. Another title of this post would have been 'Changes in New Year Resolutions' or 'New Short Term Goals'. Before going further you may read - Start of 2 crucial Months.

12 hours of sleep minimum per day, that is how I can describe best my last month. Made a visit to Pune to meet some of MTech classmates and met my Sister too. Travelling is fun with your Bestie, no matter how short or long it is. So, back to Pune. Wasn't a well planned, rather not a planned one at all. Made some of friends awake till mid night and my Sister too. About Pune, well the homes I visited were Breezy. Climate Cool and shops remain close in noon. For me that was little tough, also public transportation, well it is rarely used by localities. 2 Wheeler dominate the streets. I learnt Bike riding too, better late than never..

Remaining time of the week was spent reading some books, hardly 30 pages a day. At this slow rate I was able to finish just 3 to 4 books, some half, some full. Read couple of books on kindle and sometimes getting a comfortable hold becomes difficult due to the touch screen. Anyway, I read a book 'Power of Habits', it consists of some case studies, some experiments with lots of people and tries to link the theories with real world events like a boycott movement at national level. Have heard a lot that - if you repeat something for 21 days continuously, then it becomes a habit. If you too believe the same, then please read the above book to find out the truth.

Running- there is a book by Bill Hudson (an Olympic athletes coach), Run Faster from the 5K to the Marathon: How to Be Your Own Best Coach, and he talks about adaptive coaching. It consists of 6 7 different types of running drills to be performed for a better performance. It doesn't talk about cross training, nor about gym, it just supports and advise high volume workouts.One simple logic - marathon world record pace is just less than 21 kmph and we all can run faster than that, so why aren't we world record holders. We definitely have speed, but the endurance to carry that speed over longer distance is missing and book talks in depth about the building up that endurance. Additionally it suggests 8 to 10 secs of steep hill sprints to avoid injury and its working for me so far. Finally it talks about self assessment and how to how to plan your workouts.

Currently I am back on canvas shoes, and hope each pair at least lasts for a month or 500 kms, whichever is late. I ran some 10 milers in July. At the end of July, laziness again caught me and I skipped many days of exercise. I hope to go upto 15 miles this month. Then 20 in September and 25 (26.2 miles is Marathon) in October. Although my speed is 10 to 11 mins per mile, very slow, but I wanna focus more on mileage building. Also read about Milind Soman and few others competing in Ironman. Triathlon or Ironman was always on my list, but main focus was ultrathons. So, I searched for triathlons in India and realised that, like marathons, here too there are varying duration and distances and each have its own qualification criteria. I can run and cycle, but not swim (not yet). So the short long term plan is as follows

Jan 2016- Full marathon (already registered)
Till mid- 2017 - run at least one ultrathon (more than 75km run)
2018- One basic or entry level or Olympic distance triathlon.

In 2016, I will be starting and focusing more on swimming and occasional running. Hope the 2016 Marathon goes well. Also I was worried about post marathon depressions, but now I have few targets for next 2 3 years to help me be focused on strength and stamina build up.

To finish off, let me talk about few secondary activities. Gave up on Guitar learning. Lost the motivation and too difficult to start off. Language, I am not sure I will go any ahead with any of them for next few months. Juggling, after 4 ball, I am just not able to go ahead. Five ball juggling seems a long long dream to accomplish. There are 5 to 6 steps to reach upto 5 ball juggling and I am currently struggling with 1st. It is just 15 to 20 mins of practice per day.

Signing off, hope to catch up with you readers once more before the month goes by !!!