Friday, May 29, 2009

A transition

I will always remember Sunday, 24th May, 2009. The location was Marai beach near alleppey. We were on holiday and I decided to run instead of my usual brisk walk. This came about after I interacted with a fellow fitness enthusiast at the International Stadium during my regular work out the previous day. So I have to thank that good man.

There is a raging debate about which is better - walking, running or swimming. I have friends who insist that swimming in the best. Others claim that a brisk walk is good and some websites also claim that walking is better than running as it helps you cover more distance. I do all three, although swimming not so frequently.

Coming back to last Sunday, I managed to run (was better than jogging speed) 10 kms in one hour. It was an amazing feeling. People who have not done it have no idea what they are missing out on. It is a barrier, more a mental one. Of course physically you have to be reasonably fit to achieve this. But if you ask me, it is more a mental thing. When you manage to run for 1 hour without stop and cover 10 kms, you sort of feel that you have arrived. The feeling is incredible and the high you get rivals most things you manage to achieve in life. Of course, as always getting there is the easier part, staying there is a harder job.

The first time after you do it, you realise that you can indeed achieve it. But then you start to get a feeling that perhaps it was the high adrenaline levels or the thrill which took you over the line. Well, I crossed another threshold. I managed to run again consecutively for 2 days and cover 8 kms each in 48 minutes. So it was not a flash in the pan. The emotions that one feels during the various stages of a run are hard to describe. You know can do it, but the body sometimes just does not co-operate. And you want to stop. Those are the hard times, the real hard ones, when you have to start thinking positively and will your body on. And then the end, the blood sort of rushing through your veins when you stop, your body drenched in sweat, exhilarating stuff indeed!

So what's next, keep this going and aim for the next level. To put things in perspective, a half marathon is about 22 kms and the world record is an hour and six minutes. Thanks for the reminder.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Money and I

Occasionally I will post some external links. These are about topics that are dear to me or reflect my philosophy. More aptly put, a reflection of what I have been thinking of at these times. Here is a link to Yahoo! finance posting by Ben Stein. Speaking of Yahoo! finance, if there is one thing that Google has not been able to catch up with, it's been the finance website of Yahoo! which is miles ahead of the competition.

This guy, Ben Stein, attracts a lot of flak from vistors at the site. But he does come up with some gems at times. The opinion at this link is something like that, or so I believe ;-)


By the way, workouts are on track. This has been by far my longest without too much of a disruption. Is there a connection with this blog and my workouts, I think so and then maybe not. Let's see.