Myself being a runner and an avid book reader, getting my hands on Born to Run is like igniting a fire again
I found the book gripping enough to finish it off in one day. Tried to put some text from book which might make you interested to read and possibly run!
That also pushed me this weekend for 5k runs on both days.
Got this book as a gift from Shajan Samuel (Jan 2021) Thanks Shajan once again!
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Enjoy the day and your life. Don’t forget, we are alone in this grand universe and may not get a chance to live again.
In case you have any questions/ queries, please feel free to reach me through Contact Form
Do spread the word among your peers, family members or anyone who can benefit from this blog and asked them to subscribe. But be selfish and take care of yourself first by subscribing before they do.
Enjoy the day and your life. Don’t forget, we are alone in this grand universe and may not get a chance to live again.
This article tries to delve into answers on weekly mileage which almost every new or intermediate runner is dealing with and most of the times, remain in dilemma. Honestly, I did struggle in start with same questions and went on running, whenever i can, without much thinking. Luckily I did not get injured. But now i see that as a brutal mistake from which i escaped unhurt. What are these questions which can really hamper your progress if not answered well? Let’s see
How many days to run in a week?
How many km to run in a week?
When to start thinking of weekly mileage?
How to increase weekly mileage?
If we have a look at different types of runners and their weekly mileage, it varies from 30-40 miles a week for a high school runner to 100-130 miles a week on the other extreme for elite runners. Yes you read it right. 130 miles. That’s approx 200 km in a week!!!
But is that much really required for people like us? To answer that question we have to understand first
Who are we? Can we run that much?
An Average reader of this article has done mostly nothing in terms of serious running in high school, college. He has started to give running a thought when he is around 30 yr old or more and start thinking of remaining fit somehow. Moreover he has a full time job, a family with a kid or two, possibly having a nuclear family so apart from office work, he has to get involved actively in the mundane things as well. He is normal person who has not run much but want to do something in running. He visualizes a fit body but could not get up in morning. He take a fitness resolution every year but could not do much.
For such an Adult runner, weekly mileage is of no use. Rather he should seriously work on yearly mileage firstand
keep on increasing the yearly mileage consistently, keep a log and after two to three years of consistent running and a good base formation, he should come back and start segregating his runs in terms of weekly mileage.
I can share what i did when i was a beginner and what i did in 2015, 2016, 2017. I was a utter failure in 2015. I thought of setting a pretty low goal of average running of mere 1 km/day and as evident from snaps i failed. Yes i did capture snaps and keep logs of my runs
2015 yearly mileage log
But i did achieve something very beautiful after i failed in 2015.
"confidence that i can do better"
That confidence helped me to increase yearly mileage and built a good foundation for my next year runs. As you see consistency helped me achieve my higher goals in subsequent years.
Plan should have bit of flexibility and not a rigid one.
Without making plan complicated, these are the basic principles one should keep in mind.
Basic Running Template for weekly 40km
So, as you see, with this basic plan, we are able to fulfill most of the basic principles by only running 5 days a week at this weekly mileage. This plan is flexible as one can shuffle one day here and there plus it focus on interval training, rest day, recovery days as well
Now, keep this mileage consistent for 3 months or more.
It will build your base endurance and no wild swings in weekly mileage for few weeks will also keep you injury free.
Until you really crosses weekly mileage above 50 km, it is advisable to have not more than 5 days running. It will give your body adequate time to recover and efficient running strength on running days.
A basic plan for a weekly mileage of 55 km will have only one rest day. So the other rest day will be transformed into easy day
Basic Running Template for weekly 55Km
Amazing things start happening in your body when you reach 60 km or more in a week. At that time, You can also plan to do doubles and a basic plan of 70 km with doubles will look like one below. Here the easy day should be treated as rest day Doubles mean running twice a day with splitting the total run of a day in two parts. e.g. 9km on Monday can be divided into 5km in morning and 4 km in evening. There are people who have done singles and who have done doubles and both kind of people are successful and it really depends upon how your body copes up with extra stress and judge what is better for you.
When you build a solid base of 2+ years at 30 km weekly mileage and done atleast 3 months to 6 months of consistent 40 km weekly run then only you should come to think of increasing weekly mileage.
Again there are certain basic principle that need to be taken care of
1. Don’t increase by more than 5% per week for first 10 weeks
2. Reset the weekly mileage to T-3 week mileage after every four week
3. Don’t increase by more than 10% per week in worst case
4. Don’t try to jump over the weeks if you have to skip certain weeks because of injury or health issues. Start from T-3 weeks mileage when restarting and regain endurance.
5. Don’t cry over what is gone and risk yourself to injuries
Below is a plan which shows how to increase mileage every week
Increasing weekly mileage by 5% & reset every four weeks
So as you see, by having a basic plan and keeping basic principles in mind, you can enjoy your runs and slowly reaching the running km which you have never thought of earlier.
Is this everything about running ? NO. But this gives you an idea on to build up to a certain level in running.
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This is in continuation of the 1st article and I seriously recommend you to read Running: Getting started before you further read this article. In the whole journey of running, everyone goes through learning steps which might be little different as per one’s age, height, weight and circumstances as well. So it’s important to develop the skill to learn the dots and connect the dots as you progress.
Although this article is for beginners but is equally relevant for intermediate runners as well
I came across many people who want to run or want to restart after few years gap but lack motivation. After multiple discussion with coaches, mentors and people involved in running and analyzing the outcomes, one of the definite conclusion is What beginners are really lacking is a GOAL. Once you have a goal to achieve, you will also get a motivation to achieve it.
I would definitely recommend a simplest and bit of challenging goal for beginners and that is to
Sign up for a friendly 5K race
Fun runs associated with a particular day like women’s day run or runs associated with some health awareness issues like diabetes, blind people, Cancer awareness runs or a famous city run like TCS Majja run are perfect ways to get excited about running. And if these runs are organised by your office, society or friends then you will be having a good time while you’re at it. And you will get company as well for training.
We mentioned preparing for a running plan to meet certain objectives in the last article and we will see how we can make one for ourselves.
Remember the unforgettable simple objectives we discussed 1. We will train for injury free running. 2. We will follow discipline in running
Section : Injury free Running
Lets understand the things which we need to keep in mind to have a injury free running
Properly warm up with a 5 min jog or walk and do dynamic stretching before actual run to remain injury free. Avoid static stretching.
Proper cool down for 5 mins in order to help with muscle soreness and to loosen tight areas
Have rest days in a week to allow your body to heal minor issues and keep your legs fresh.
Know your limits. Doing too much, too soon or too fast has to be avoided whether you are a beginner, professional runner or coming back to running after a long time.
Consciously try to run with a proper form (see image). Poor form can lead to undue pain and injury, leading to shin splints etc. and limited performance
Run on proper surfaces. Avoid hard or uneven surfaces like concrete roads or too much trail in beginning of your running weeks
Listen to your body and learn to differentiate between pain and discomfort
Avoid coming back to running too soon after injury or flu. Understand that losing a day or two is much better than losing a month or so.
Correct Running form
Section : Disciplined Running
Lets understand the things which will help us in conquering initial Running roadblocks
Make a schedule and stick to it. Running will be much easier if you are consistent. Make sure to run/walk at least three to five times a week. Make a schedule based on your existing lifestyle. In case of really tight schedule on a particular day, still make it a point to go for a 15 min run/walk before running into your tight schedule.
Find a running partner or a running group or running club. This is one of the best ways to get you into running on days when you are least inclined to.
Focus on time spent and not on pace or distance covered. In case you thought of running 40 min. on a particular day and start feeling not to run more after 15 min. and get back home , try to make it a point to finish the time of 40 min. by walking if not running. Believe me, most of the times you will running back after 5 min. of walking in such cases.
Get involved into some strength training for 2 days a week. Bicycle crunches, Planks, Push-ups, V-hold, Flutter kicks may be few exercises which should be taken on alternate days to running. Not only your body core will be strengthened but also help you make faster runner.
Don’t cry over spilt milk. What it means is get over the guiltiness of missing a running day in the week. You can not change that but you can start from where you left. Don’t allow a missed day to set you back by a week.
Employ a walk/run method initially and then switch to run/ walk method before finally moving to run/run method
I have put up a practical sample plan for a 5k run goal below ( in a two months time). It is freely downloadable and can be customized at your end. Feel free to customize rest days, run days as per to fit your lifestyle.
In case you have any questions/ queries, please feel free to reach me through Contact Form
Do spread the word among your peers, family members or anyone who can benefit from this blog and asked them to subscribe. But be selfish and take care of yourself first by subscribing before they do.
Enjoy the day and your life. Don’t forget, we are alone in this grand universe and may not get a chance to live again.
If there is a story for a sportsperson, then athlete would be on the top of the list and more or less every runner has a story. From being confident to overconfident, messing up on start line or finish line with premature celebration, making that one simple mistake that turned the entire experience into a bad race day.
After months of training, nobody wants a bad race day. Not only it can be extremely disappointing but also perhaps dashing your dreams of a new PR.
This article is about the awareness of the common failures that happen on pre-race day, race day and after that. I hope most of us have heard about Murphy law “whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.” . We need to avoid that as much as we can to have a nice race day and achieve our PR
Logistics issues like misplaced bibs, timing chips, Not aware of parking areas, Miscalculation of time to reach start line from parking area, missing out race station for hydration etc
Plan everything a day in advance from clothes to transportation etc. Do not leave any small or big decision for race day. Be aware of your running route and planned breaks
Trying new foods on race day like a gel shared by a friend or pre-race breakfast by organizers. May lead to stomach upsets during race
Stick to pre-planned race day breakfast or mid run snacks tried and tested during practice runs
Going empty stomach to race. This is the other extreme and by the time you eat, drink from race stations, its too late and too little
Eat pre-planned race day breakfast 90 mins before. Try to avoid high fat, high fibre foods
Too Fast too soon. You start the race with full pace in excitement and gets caught with fellow runners momentum and then you hit a wall
Set a pace for your first 2 km of the race and then ease into race pace. Speed up as race progresses and finish with negative splits
Drinking too much water before race will lead to side stitches or bloated feeling. You might need a loo break in between
Start hydrating yourself 3 days in advance and increase the water intake on pre-race day
Arriving at a race Too Exhausted. You kept on training till last day to cover up missing days
Always follow a taper plan of 1-3 weeks depending on race distance and catch up on sleep. Generally we can’t sleep fully on pre-race night due to anticipation, excitement etc
You start the race without a proper warm up and then you finish with injured ankle or calf spoiling everything for next few days
Plan for 10 min time before race to do dynamic stretches, short strides or a easy jog to avoid injuries
You sign up for race in a different city and planned to roam around to see tourist places with your friends
You should plan to rest on pre-race day and avoid exhaustion. You can always roam around after achieving PR.
You are a social person and keep partying till late night before race day
Just hold your party for a day and see the enjoyment of a party with new PR in hand
Stopping immediately after the race and missing cool down. May lead to cramps, soreness, body pain
Walk for a while after the race to allow your heart rate to come down gradually and do some static stretches before heading for food corner. Your body will thank you for that
Last but not the least, you forget lubrication and struggle in the race with chafing, itching. Body chafing is most under known among new runners
Identify problem areas beforehand and lube up with Vaseline. Avoid wearing new clothes, shoes on race day to avoid chafing, blisters
Failures on race day and how to avoid them
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Enjoy the day and your life. Don’t forget, we are alone in this grand universe and may not get a chance to live again.
More Focus on building habits and Less focus on results or outcome
Focus on building good habits and results will follow
It is so easy to get caught in results but whats is more important is to focus on is to see what kind of habits will help you reach those results. Most of the times, we are focused on numbers of other persons e.g. he lifted 100 kgs, he ran full marathon or he cycled 300 km in a day. Instead we should focus on that person habits, e.g. he goes to gym 4 times a week and lift weights progressively or he ran/cycle 3 times a week and choose multiple variations to build stamina. This focus on habits will help you to achieve seemingly impossible goals
Be in it for the long run always
Fitness should be part of your life and not something you do for a month or a year. You shouldn’t be the one who’s running, cycling or hitting the gym for a month at the start of a year and doze off till next year start. Fitness should be a lifetime commitment evolving with ever-changing goals as you progress. Your target should be to achieve and live a longer, healthier life and that’s only possible if you are committed for lifetime
Make SMART Goals
SMART goals
SMART means
Specific – Goal should be direct, detailed and meaningful
Measurable— Goal should be quantifiable to track final results
Achievable — Goal should be realistic and you should have resources to achieve that
Relevant – It should make sense with overall fitness goals
Time bound – Goal should be time bound and must have a deadline
So instead of writing WEIGHT LOSS as a goal, you can write as ” I want to achieve 10 kg (Specific, Measurable) weight loss with a progressive weight reduction of 1 kg/month by controlling junk food intake(achievable) in a total of 10 months (time- bound). With that I will help myself to reduce from 100kg to 90kg weight(relevant)”
This will help you to keep on track for the goals you create
Don’t burn yourself out quickly
We know a lot of persons will take up crazy diets to achieve weight loss and get back to junk food within a month or a friend hitting a gym two hours a day in January and becoming a potato couch February onwards.
Be reasonable when you set goals. It’s impossible to make a sudden, drastic change in lifestyle that has build up in so many years. It will take time to change. Its nearly impossible to get noticeable change every day.
Be patient and try to slowly change your diet, lifestyle, fitness. It should not be a hard landing into a new fitness regime or diet. Its something that you are adopting for decades,so take your time to slip into new regime or diet and stick to it.
You don’t need to drive the new Fitness goal faster, but you need to drive it well
Have a Consistent Approach
Consistency is the key
Having a daily routine or a scheduled regime at same time of the day will help you to be consistent. One has to create a workout routine or a fitness program to be more efficient in achieving goals. But don’t worry or stop your fitness activity if you dont have any specific regime.
Only showing up daily will work wonders in the starting phase and as you progress, you can create a regime or take the help of professional trainers to make one.
Remember just turning up daily or on the scheduled days will won you half the battle. You will know what to change in regime only when you turn up
Try something out of your comfort zone
Out of Comfort zone
Believe it or not, its always great to try your hands at something you are afraid of once in a while. Not only it activates your immune system and nervous system but also mitigates your fears.
Only thing you have to remember is not to go overboard for such activities and the new thing should add to your fitness regime.
e.g. if you are a runner on a regular basis, try doing swimming once in a week. That kind of cross training may help you and activate different muscles.
Register a Quick win
Quick win in the early stages matters
Try to identify the weakness which if addressed in starting itself will give you a huge quick win and you will want more of same. e.g. Currently you can’t run 200m at a stretch and If your target is to run 10 km continuously , break it into 1km continuous run in the first week, 2km continuous in the 2nd week. That way your mind registers a small win and give a confidence boost to you for bigger target.
In case you have any questions/ queries, please feel free to reach me through Contact Form
Do spread the word among your peers, family members or anyone who can benefit from this blog and asked them to subscribe. But be selfish and take care of yourself first by subscribing before they do.
Enjoy the day and your life. Don’t forget, we are alone in this grand universe and may not get a chance to live again.
Nowadays every big city is cashing on the trend of running and calling road/trail race of any length a MARATHON. A misuse of the term definitely but its not uncommon.
We see this is being commonly mis-used for events described as 5k Marathon, 10k Marathon and so on
Every race organizer wants profits for organizing a race. How to do that? Simply by allowing YOU to boast of ‘Participating or Running a MARATHON‘ with a nice finisher medal and breakfast with a nice TEE.
Of-course there is as such no harm participating in such events. You will definitely derive some benefit out of it and same about organizer.
But remember, every race is not a MARATHON.
You’re not going to like it but we have to tell you about it.
2K is not Marathon, 5k is not Marathon, 10k is not Marathon and for that matter even 21k is not Marathon. So what is Marathon.
Marathon is 42.2km distance (42.195km to be precise), any lesser distance is not marathon. A 2K is a 2 K run, 5k is a 5K run, 10K is a 10K run, 21.097k(~21K) is half marathon
Marathon means 42.2km (historical reasons and other details), that’s a lot of distance and precisely the reason, it has a premium tag attached. Please keep this tag reserve in your mind and heart and wherever you can, so that when you do run the marathon, you will feel proud of that premium tag. Keep that tag as a motivation to push yourself.
Is it difficult to do Marathon? Yes it is as its stretches the limits of body and mind but not impossible. Everyone can do it and the moment you do it, it will change your life forever.
Leaving you with a great quote and a goal to pursue 🙂
Run a Marathon to experience a different life
In case you have any questions/ queries, please feel free to reach me through Contact Form
Do spread the word among your peers, family members or anyone who can benefit from this blog and asked them to subscribe. But be selfish and take care of yourself first by subscribing before they do.
Enjoy the day and your life. Don’t forget, we are alone in this grand universe and may not get a chance to live again.
In one of the earlier posts, I talked about creating a running plan. Before we create the running plan, lets understand what part rest plays in the plan and how to go about taking rest days. This article/post will help you with answers to the questions that are commonly heard from runners especially beginners as well from experienced runners.
Why rest days ?
To feel better and stronger during run days after rest day.
To reduce the stress hormone which can cause fatigue, depression or sleep related problems
To give the time to the body to repair itself. This is the time when muscles get stronger.
To reduce your burn-out feeling.
To avoid getting bored of running.
When to take rest days?
For Beginners, a combination of 4 -5 running days plus 2 -3 non running days can work fine. Other approach is to run every alternate day and rest alternate days.
For Experienced runners, weekly mileage of more than 30-40km per week definitely triggers a rest day, it can be before a long run or after a long run.
Best way to take rest days is to plan them so that your consistent approach to running is maintained.
Most importantly, start listening to your body and learn to distinguish between pain and discomfort.
It depends upon how you schedule running and non running days. if your fear that rest days will break your running habit then I can suggest you to take up 30 min casual walking on rest days or some form of non-exercise related activity like gardening, playing out with your kids in ground or take your dog for a walk.
How to avoid guilt of rest days? or What to do on rest days?
Treat rest day as a part of workout
Plan to do some kind of muscle strengthening
Plan to do yoga or cycling or swimming
Let’s see Expert views on Rest days
before your mind tells you to stop reading further and take rest!!
The most important workout in any running program is rest. Rest days are as important as training days. They give your muscles time to recover so you can run hard again. Actually, your muscles will build in strength as you rest. Without recovery days, you will not improve. pic.twitter.com/YxtStnVxGJ
I hope that you are now aware of rest days and make them part of your training.
In case you have any questions/ queries, please feel free to reach me through Contact Form
Do spread the word among your peers, family members or anyone who can benefit from this blog and asked them to subscribe. But be selfish and take care of yourself first by subscribing before they do.
Enjoy the day and your life. Don’t forget, we are alone in this grand universe and may not get a chance to live again.
Before you jump and say That’s what I want to do (from everything) — I literally do not mean that!! OR It’s not for me, I’m in my 40s, 50s blah blah blah — It’s an activity which span ages!! OR I don’t have treadmill — also as per you, lots of people don’t have brains — People still survive and thrive!!
This write-up is towards helping you to start a fitness sport or a routine which you will enjoy for a long time in your life like millions do. Running is a simple fitness activity which span ages, requires no equipment, relatively inexpensive and can be done almost anywhere.
One only needs –
A Good Pair of Running Shoes & Socks A Dry-Fit Tee & Running shorts. And a Road/Trail/Track to run, that’s it. Nothing More, Nothing Less (To Start Running) (We’ll come to know with experience what else needed)
In case you are too spiced up by now, do add “Willingness to start and succeed”
Lets understand some of the Benefits
of Running before you ask why should I run if its not easy.
Benefits of Running 1.Running is simple. Just get out of the door and you are on the RUN, literally. 2.Calories Burn off: Running is one of the most efficient ways for burning calories and helps to increase body’s metabolic rate. Do note running can not outrun your diet. 3.Physical Health: Running helps to raise the good cholesterol levels in body. Improve lung capacity, Improvement in your cardiovascular system and boost of immune system will help you to lead a healthy life. 4.Mental Health: Running increases your mental toughness, helps to increase your focus and concentration throughout the day. 5.Weight loss: Running can be used smartly to lose weight or get in shape. 6.Stress Buster: Running helps to reduce stress, relieve anxiety, boost your mood and increases your confidence & self esteem levels 7.Me time : You will get time with yourself. A must have in a life which itself running so fast ironically 8.You learn to live in Present. Especially when you run long distance, you just focus on the moment. Thoughts will come and go and over a number of runs, you will be in a meditative state and as a habit you will start to live in present. 9.Runner’s high: Something amazing happens when you run. You release endorphins, good hormones and you will achieve a runner’s high.
Am I missing so Much?
As I’m writing this, I’m feeling a rush of adrenaline, want to get out and RUN but before you share the same feelings and actually going out for a run, Please WAIT and understand some basics, most importantly if you have never run in your life
Hey, you told me its simple (Benefit number 1), now you are telling me to wait? Insane or what? Not only I told you its simple, I also brought Mark into this blog who told a bit more “..its not easy” and I hate this statement as much as you will in coming time
Love Hate Relationship for years to remember
I want you to be fully with me in next few minutes as I want
you to enjoy running through lifetime and not curse yourself or running or for
that matter me as well.
‘You have to start where you are, not where you think you should be”
Don’t visualize Usain Bolt or Milkha Singh or PT Usha in yourself yet. Have their posters to motivate yourself if at all. We are what we are. Mostly a potato couch and probably wasted a year or so thinking I will run from tomorrow or this weekend or 1st of next month and so on. Are you still thinking and getting lost into daydreaming to start from New year just like every year. Get back and focus. That what running will teach you. Start as early as possible 🙂
Pre-Running readiness Get a go ahead from your doctor especially if you are on medication or not active for over a year or so. He may advice you with right precautions. Choose the type of running surface –Road, Trail, Track, Treadmill. Not an urgent task but will help you in next step Buy right kind of shoes/gear –Get Gait analysis done and understand your running style and combine it with running surface before finalizing a shoe. Also make sure the shoe fits comfortably Buy a Dry fit tee and shorts which will help you keep dry while running. Avoid cotton wear as much as you can
Running: First steps Properly warm up with a 5 min jog or walk and do dynamic stretching before actual run to remain injury free. Avoid static stretching. Employ Run/walk method — start with a Run/ walk ratio of 1:3 meaning 1 min run and 3 min walk and as you become comfortable, move to 1:2 ratio or 1:1 ration or to complete running. Running should be done at a conversational pace and not faster . Focus on time spent and not on distance or pace. Start with min 20 minutes of run/walk method and gradually increase to 40 mins preferably within a week/fortnight or when you’re comfortable. Don’t get upset if you missed a day in between. Plan to do it 5-7 days a week for run/walk method or alternate days for full run method Listen to your body and learn to differentiate between pain and discomfort. Do a proper cool down for 5 mins
Post Running essentials Have a proper nutrition (including both Macro and micro nutrients) in the day to recover well for next day run. Keep yourself hydrated with proper drinks
Remember the simple objectives
1. I will train for
injury free running.
2. I will follow
discipline in my running. (stick to your wall
or laptop or mobile screen)
To achieve these objectives, you must start preparing for a running plan which may sound silly at this stage.
Lets focus more in details in upcoming articles (Running :Beginner Guide II) and i hope this article has given you insights about running and motivates you as well
In case you have any questions/ queries, please feel free to reach me through Contact Form
Do spread the word among your peers, family members or anyone who can benefit from this blog and asked them to subscribe. But be selfish and take care of yourself first by subscribing before they do.
Enjoy the day and your life. Don’t forget, we are alone in this grand universe and may not get a chance to live again.
‘You have to start where you are, not where you think you should be”
ALPHA AFFAIRS 