Endurance Training!

So come on ! This post is going to tell people about my experiences with Endurance Training. Well! When I was back in college, I once decided to train for the famous 6.6 km race. 6.6 km was something then. What it meant was 3 full rounds in a competitive environment of the campus circular road. I remember then, at the prime of my youth ( that was 4 years back) , how I struggled to complete 1 round. the day my trainer asked me to do the 2nd, I managed it okay. But my body was never geared for that kind of stress, so that 4.4 was the last when anybody heard of me. I still recall I took 4 days to recover from the physical wear and tear.

Coming into my 3rd year at IIT, I was more regular with the "Medium Aerobic" form of endurance training, which basically meant running 3-5 rounds of the 400m loop at the Gyan Ghosh stadium in Kharagpur(about 12 minutes).It used to be preceded by a top-to-bottom warmup(7 minutes) and succeeded by a deep stretching cool down(15 minutes).I did not really scale up in those days as I was severely conservative about my own limits in endurance.

My move to IIM and Lucknow made me more receptive to solo exercising and those lush green surroundings and the quietude of the roads encouraged me to restart fast paced jogging and challenge my limits. I used to alternate running with badminton workouts and gym sessions. I initially used to run behind H-12, the football field of IIML that was never to be.

Then I gave it up and stepped on the tar. The campus had a lovely circular road measuring 2.65 km and I could only do around 1.5 kms when I started. But I gradually raised the bar to reaching the curb at the water purifying station and then finally started completing the lap. This progress took one full year at the campus.

The real kick in my endurance training pursuits came with the announcement of the selection of two athletes for the Himalayan Base Camp that was organised by a mountaineering enthusiast at IIMC. The event came at a time when I was just finding the loop too easy to do. I was aware that my fitness level was one of the better ones in the entire IIM Junta, where exactly it lied remained to be seen. I was grappling with the problem of Shin Splints which was an obvious result of excessive frequency and/or excessive running intensity on metalled roads. I was aware of the negative impact that running on metalled road could have on ones lower limbs but I was just too excited about the prospects of being a part of the base camp expedition.

I trained hard and often alone. My timing started with 26 minutes but I was shaving off 20 seconds every time. I must have done 3-4 full 5 mk stretches before the ultimate race. I finished at a personal best of 24min:26 seconds! Good but not enough, I was only the 5th best guy and I failed to make it. But what I learned from this attempt was how stretchable my body was , what was the challenge in stretching it further, and what was the reward on achieving the targets!


Endurance Training

fit yours!

When I went into a pre-anaesthetic check-up a week before an operation, the intern at the hospital told me that I had a low pulse rate. "Is that bad doctor"? , I exclaimed. "No , not at all, its good in fact", retorted the doc.

"Is it that you take up physical exercise regularly"?
Oh yes, I do!!

so there's some reward in my conscious pursuit of fitness and related activities. I grew up playing sports, badminton, cricket, hockey, football, marbles, chess, kite-flying, volleyball, You name it, I played it. Though variety galored, discipline and structure lacked. Then there was time when I submerged myself into the deep sea of academics. My study table became my life and my only change from my "hideout" was the post-lunch walk with my bro.

But it changed all in college, cos then I took to structured sport but that too under an academics shadow. Sports require equipments, arena and most importanly , atleast one competent partner if not a full size team. If you play it hard, you lose the fun. If you take it too easy, you never improve. So I shifted to solo exercising that jelled better with my nature of "flying solo". So cricket, football were out and in came jogging, stretching,sprinting, working-out, cycling, Yoga, swimming, wall-practice in tennis + shadow practice in badminton were in. Set your own targets and surpass them and then raise the bar, isn't it simple enough to be applied everywhere in life.

Fitness is integral to my life. I attempted a valiant shot at qualification for an Everest trip while in my post-grad. I ran 5 kms in 24.5 minutes when I struggled to complete 4.4 kms in my undergrad. Yoga on weekends, badminton shadow 3 times a week, gym for the other three days , that was rougly my routine in post-grap college.

I am out of college now, and I still have a nice portfolio of fitness related activities. But most other don't." Have no time", my sleep is too dear to me", " I would rather diet my fat away",
" How can you not eat french fries!!!", "Yoga is hazardous if not done under a teacher" , "There are no open spaces around my house". " What can be more boring then running alone"? "This is my last cigarette today", "Water might not be pure enough, let's play safe, have a pepsi", " I can't think before I've had two cups of coffee"...ufffffff.. These are some lame excuses for those who do not care to make fitness a part of their lifestyle. "Heck, who are the tryin to fool"!! I say.

I as you might have guessed lie at the extreme end. I do not indulge, be it spicey restaurant food, be it trendy clothes, be it hip lifestyle, be it genx gizmos. And I feel that people who like to keep things simple and don't run around luxuries can develop that self-drive to reach those higher levels of body-mind co-ordination, breath control and flexibility that yoga and other fitness exercises aim ultimately at.

This blog is gonna run long!!! That's just the beginning of the making of a treatise :)