Sep'20
Kms - 103
Speed - 7:13 km/hr
Calories. Burnt - 5866
Time spent - 12.5 hrs
YTD Sep'20
Kms - 766
Speed - 7:15 km/hr
Calories Burnt - 42890
Time spent - 92 hrs
Since end 2015, when i picked up running, i realised the joy of running and after effects of run in the form of runners' high; just keeps you going on this habit. Its close to 5000 kms now for me (will touch 5kk in Oct).
And i wonder, how a paunchy lazy non-sport geek was able to pick up running as a habit. I remember the diabetic genes i have and the non-workout sedantry lifestyle of my forefathers - people who just run businesses sitting in a clothing store. And by tradition eating lots of ghee, sweets, fried foods and all. Then, how i was able to break free and move in a different diection to call myself a runner?
It started with making a choice. Not a resolution. Not a goal. But a choice of being a person with an identity of a runner - a physically fit person who can run long distances and enjoys every bit of it. (In runners parlance, if you have stress or muddy mind, just go for a run - that kind of attitude.)
And 2 beliefs helped me on the way - picked up from books.
1. Power of compounding - Read about it a lot in financial space, but thats something on track helped me. As i waded thru my initial runs of 1-2k to 3 to 4 to 5 kms; i realized that effort spent in increasingly lesser. Running as a skill seems to compound over distances.
2. Beliving in the identity - Read in Atomic Habits (by James Clear); book i always recommend as a life bible - When u want to adopt a habit - move over from a goal, and behaviour to identity.
Most of the time, we set a resolution, a goal to do sth, say run 100 km a month.
Then we work on our behaviours, the method of attaining the goal. We start running and keep measuring cumulative kms. But then somewhere in the journey we skip a day, 2 days and then it starts becoming daunting and we give up. We come up with excuses to say, had a beer night yesterday, lets skip today. Or had a huge work pressure or that morning review and lets skip it...i am still doinf better than what i thought.
What can keep us going is the belief of having an identity of the person who can achieve the goal, say the runner here. And ask at each point of giving up, as to how the runner will think. Will he give up a day of practise becaus of a presentation? Will he skip a beer party over a morning run? It starts making easier if you work on the identity piece first.
Long post, but i am proud of myself, having maintained this habit to close to 5 years clocking approx 1000 kms annually (except 2019 - 950kms). This year is proving all right as well.
