An Important milestone

Base time - 62'

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Day 1 - 56' 07"

(back from rest day)

Day 2 - 54' 56"

Day 3 - 54' 01"

Day 4 - 53' 50"

Day 5 - 53' 57"

Day 6 - 53' 41"

I never imagined that I will be able to arrive here so quickly. Just goes to show that nothing is impossible.

It was just 40 days back that I started running regularly instead of walks and after traversing through a lot of aching joints and a plethora of other discomforts I am at a stage where the body is pretty well tuned now. Many people stop when they experience pain in different parts of the body. While that's what the medical journal would recommend, it is important to know your body too. Try to recognise the kind of pain as most of them just disappear if you keep pushing. The muscles and joints are just reacting to new or increased activity and using them more and more will eventually make them accustomed to such activity. So do not stop at the slightest sign of discomfort. If you ask most sportspersons they would tell you that they learn to live with one discomfort or the other and are never rid completely of such irritants.

The most difficult part is when you awake in the morning,the legs are stiff and the heels and the feet are aching.But a few steps is all it takes for it to dissipate. So ignore these minor irritants and keep pushing forward.

Now to the milestone, I started off running 10 kms in about 62-63 minutes, 6 days a week so that's 60 kms for the week with a day off for rest and rejuvenation. By the middle of the week the time stretches by 2-3 minutes. This morning I achieved 10 kms in 56 minutes and 7 seconds, a good 6 minutes off my regular time. I was coming back from my rest day so the body was well rested. To say that I am chuffed would be be an understatement. It is a very important progression in any fitness regimen, improvement in speed. I never imgained that I can achieve it within 40 days. I am realistic and do not expect miracles but my goal is to see the watch at 30 minutes after a 10 km run. The long term goal is of course, the half marathon. But a lot of things have to fall in place before that and with some luck I should eventually arrive there too!