My Tryst with Distance Running

It’s 5am on a Sunday morning, a God forsaken hour for most of Mumbai.. What am I doing? Donning my running gear to hit NCPA for a 15km run. Not a jog… a run.

Who am I? Entrepreneur, Head of User Experience at plugHR, mother of 2, artist.. What the hell am I doing, you wonder? I am training for the Mumbai Marathon, due in January 2013. And… I run with a 300+ strong group, all in their mid-40s (I am not necessarily talking about myself here!); all running enthusiasts, not sportspersons.

My initiation into distance running was a freak accident. However, I never, in my wildest dreams, thought of it as such a life changer.

Distance running, in as much as it's a physical sport, is also a mind game. It is a play of mind over body, a willing mind over an unwilling body if you will. The mind is setting a seemingly unrealistic goal for the body to deliver.

What does it take for the mind and body to deliver on this goal? To break it down simply, I will say:

BELIEVE – ACHIEVE – BELIEVE more

BELIEVE you are upto the task, believe in the training you are putting in.

Then ACHIEVE intermediate goals, win some mind battles,

Hence BELIEVE some more that you will achieve the bigger goal too.

So, when you smoothly run 5km without major heartburn, you convince yourself that another 3k is not such a big deal, so on and so forth.

Its not all smooth sailing mind you. There is the occasional calf pain, knee pain, twist in the ankle, there are bad running days, there is bad weather, there are shoe bites, there are late nights, and there are bad terrains.  At times, the body simply refuses to take direction. Be kind it says!

Therein lies another lesson… very early on, it is amply clear to any runner, that a good run is just that - ONE good run. You understand that “Past performance is no guarantee of future return”. If and when you begin to become smug in your achievements, nature very quickly deals a sobering effect. So, you learn to take each day as it comes. Each run is “the” run, each run has its own outcome. There is no time to celebrate one good run, and no time to gloat over a bad one. You just basically get on with it!

Of course, this also takes other kinds of preps:

1.    There are the groaning and back breaking stomach crunches, knee exercises,  pushups – yes, those too!
2.      .    Don’t forget, the carbohydrate loading, throwing all weight loss dietary habits to the winds
3.     And then, and this is the tough part, no partying late into the night, watching the booze intake, watching meal times (all the boring stuff)

The focus always being on conditioning the mind and body to endure the rigors of training and the mental and physical strain you are about to inflict on them.

Why endure all of this you ask? Well, the buzz and the adrenalin rush that you experience on crossing the finish line, with breaths to spare, are altogether something else!

So - and here is where I get philosophical - are there lessons here to use in a corporate setting? The lesson, to my mind, is in the area of performance management, goal setting, motivation.

·      How do we create an environment where people are able to experience and live out the cycle of BELIEVE – ACHIEVE – BELIEVE more?

·      How can rewards and recognition be fine-tuned to not only pat a good run on a bad day but also support a bad run of an otherwise smart runner?

·      How do we put enough stress on fortification while all the hype is on the run?

Would love to hear view on some of these.. 

Writer is Entrepreneur, running enthusiast, artist.

Running in Loops is Easier

In context of Mind-Body-Spirit, running is a contest between you and fatigue. Commonly fatigue is perceived as a physical problem you envision like rise in blood acidity or a lot of muscle tension, no doubt these are the causes of the tiredness but functioning of the brain plays a significant role in feeling drained out or energetic.

If your brain believes that your body is struggling it starts taking measures and defensive approaches that hampers your performance.  So actually, it is not that always your potassium levels are high but most of the times it is all in your head.

External factors affect running on a huge scale like running in a straight line or a loop. It is by far easier to run in loops as it provides the change factor that in turn motivates the runner. Looking at the same path, running the same course stagnates your performance and makes it highly monotonous. The monotony of running in the long straight line without being able to see the destination will eventually affect the person psychologically.

When a person begins to run in a loop, he is aware that he has to arrive at at the same point where he has started from. This creates a sense of known and awareness that are direct confidence boosters so he can judge accordingly the distance he has to cover and control the fluctuation in energy levels, while straight lines give a sense of unknown. You cannot see the finishing point that essentially drives and motivates you to reach at that point. 

Meeting our targets is the most motivating factor to get out and run. Loops create a mirage and make the distance look lesser to cover. Mind perceives the distance as an achievable short-term goal.

Ultimately, one needs to find out what works best for that little chamber of neurons to stay activated and send the signals to the body to run better. Whether it is focusing on a destination or enjoying Eminem on highest decibels.