10K10d: Welcoming 2014 by running 10K on 10 consecutive days

Wish you all a great 2014. May all your dreams for 2014 come true.

Running has become a passion or even a life style for me in the last three years. However due to lack of discipline to maintain a training regime has ensured that my progress (measured in terms of length of the runs and/or timing) is limited. More often than not, I drop off from the program for couple of months and need to start all over again (I extensively refer to the training programs (5K, 10K, HM and FM) given in the book Run Less, Run Faster). Fortunately, I've two friends whose head I'd be eating regularly for guidance and motivation (both are accomplished marathoners themselves) and one of them had recently run six HMs (half-marathons, 21Kms) on six consecutive days to celebrate his birthday. Inspired by him, I thought I too would do so, albeit 10Ks - this was a "spur of the moment" decision (both my friends mentioned above have this capability to inspire by their talks and deeds). I then had serious doubts of pulling it through, as I had only run 10K on two consecutive days and generally get tired at the end of 10K.


However on the night of 25th Dec, I was discussing with my friend, this wonderful article 15 Business Lessons I Learned Quitting The Biggest Race of My Life). My friend pointed out a quote from the article that read - "Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever". I personally liked another quote "Learning to “tough it out” is a life-long skill worth mastering" and I made another "spur of the moment" decision to start the very next day to run 10K for a week, each day. So, in the next 8hrs of having made the decision I was on the road on my first 10K of the week.

Hence started my 10K week on 26-Dec. I did pretty fine on day two also and decided that I should now instead make it 10 consecutive days and thereby by stretch it to 2014 and possibly make it my way of welcoming 2014.

Then the inevitable happened on Day-3. I "heard" something going wrong in my right leg (calf muscles) and sure enough it started to feel different. I had just completed about 3.5 kms, and this was just the 3rd day (and immediately after keeping the goal at running for 10 consecutive days). I decided to run through the pain atleast for this one day and I completed, by literally having to drag the right leg for the next 6.5Kms. I could see that the whole body was moving as if it were two parts - the whole body except for the right leg and the right leg itself. I wanted to quit several times, but just kept moving. After I reached home, I could see some swelling. Decided to do more stretches/cool down exercises and started liberally applying the magic spray - Volini, through the day. The objective was just to somehow run on the 4th day, then the 5th, then the 6th day and then eventually the 10th day. Am I glad I did it!


Its been crazy 10days. Getting up at 5:30AM on a chilly morning when the whole world is on vacation and start running. I like running in the dawn, to savour the early morning "chili-pili" of whatever birds that are still around, moon on top of you, very few folks on the road (mostly joggers/walkers) and the beauty when the sun rises and darkness disappears. Eventually the run ends, a satisfied smile appears, the aroma of sweat starts spreading and the great feeling when you do stretches. One feels truly blessed.

Except the scare on the 3rd day, rest of the days went peaceful. Though the going became progressively difficult from 7th day onwards. Running became very very difficult after 5-6kms on 8th, 9th and 10th days with heavy legs, couple of blisters and tiredness. The mind was asking me to quit about 10 times every kilometer. I decided to "tough-it-out", increased my walk percentage, ignored the timing (it was never great anyways) and somehow made it. Recovery too started taking more time. Couple of blisters developed, both legs have became sore and heavy.  Nevertheless I enjoyed the experience. Also made a few friends that are early morning runners and got some valuable suggestions and loads of encouragement. About two years ago, I had run my first 10K and had documented a few lessons learnt. I did learn quite a bit with this 10day running even too and just thought of documenting here:

1. You never know what you are capable of, until you try for yourself.
2. Most constraints we place on ourselves are coming from the "lazy mind" and we should learn to ignore it.
3. Nothing beats the sense of satisfaction we get when we complete a stretched goal.
4. Goals have a magical way of making sure you "prepare" (I read somewhere that almost all the people have a "will to win", but very few have the "will to prepare to win" - and I understood the meaning of the same little more better).
5. When you enjoy doing something, nothing seem to come in the way (Even getting up at 5:30AM was an event I was looking forward to).
6. Never underestimate the influence of great friends/mentors/coaches to inspire one to achieve higher levels

Based on the confidence gained from this experiment, I now see a realistic chance of running a half-marathon (21kms) atleast this year. Need to work on gaining little more speed, reduce weight and do lot of "strengthening exercises". Life continues to be in perpetual beta. Love it.

Have you had a similar experience? Would love to hear.

Reading list for Jan-14

Wish you all a great 2014:

- May you find time to read all the books you always wanted to read
- May you find time to summarize your insights of the books that you just read
- May the books you published get into more reprints
- May you start/complete your next book

I've come-up with my reading list for the whole year 2014. One new year resolution is NOT to buy new books till I've completed reading the unread ones (about 150+ at the last count), so that I can stick to my reading plan. Here are the books that I plan to read in Jan.



Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How we Live, Work and Think by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger
“Big data” refers to our burgeoning ability to crunch vast collections of information, analyze it instantly, and draw sometimes profoundly surprising conclusions from it. This emerging science can translate myriad phenomena—from the price of airline tickets to the text of millions of books—into searchable form, and uses our increasing computing power to unearth epiphanies that we never could have seen before. A revolution on par with the Internet or perhaps even the printing press, big data will change the way we think about business, health, politics, education, and innovation in the years to come. It also poses fresh threats, from the inevitable end of privacy as we know it to the prospect of being penalized for things we haven’t even done yet, based on big data’s ability to predict our future behavior.

In this brilliantly clear, often surprising work, two leading experts explain what big data is, how it will change our lives, and what we can do to protect ourselves from its hazards. Big Data is the first big book about the next big thing.

Confidence: The Surprising Truth About How Much you Need - and how to get it by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

We're told that the key to success in life and business is confidence: believe in yourself, and the world is your oyster. But building confidence can be a challenging task. And, as leading psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic argues confidence can actually get in the way of achievement - self-esteem is nothing without the competence, the core skills, to back it up. Confidence is feeling capable. Competence is being capable. None of the figures whose success is put down to supreme self-belief - Barack Obama, Madonna, Muhammad Ali - could have achieved their goals without the hard-won skills (and years of training) behind the confidence mask. Successful people are confident because of their success, and not the other way around.

 

Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind  - Jocelyn K. Glei

 Stop doing busywork. Start doing your best work.

Are you over-extended, over-distracted, and overwhelmed? Do you work at a breakneck pace all day, only to find that you haven’t accomplished the most important things on your agenda when you leave the office?

The world has changed and the way we work has to change, too. With wisdom from 20 leading creative minds, Manage Your Day-to-Day will give you a toolkit for tackling the new challenges of a 24/7, always-on workplace.