FITNESS: A way of life (Part 1)

 Introduction to Aerobic running.

 Hey, in case you are new to my blog, Welcome!!

By the time you complete reading this post, you might find similarity in batman begins (for the lengthy background) but I feel this is a necessity to convey my message in the second part.

Fitness activities have been a make and break relationship for me. Last 3 years were blissful, with minimum focus on running and cycling, and maximum focus on exploring other interests, it has been an interesting journey. I can recall a beautiful quote from Ramakrishna Paramahansa: Experience is a hard teacher. She gives the test first and then the lessons. With experience, I have learnt to balance professional and personal interests. It would be unfair to say that I am good at this art but I strongly believe it is always about doing what gives you satisfaction. Job is a basic need to survive, personal interests are various ways to keep ourselves happy.

A good run uplifts your spirit, your brain functioning is sharper than your colleague who comes straight out of bed and sits next to you in a meeting. A bad run still does the same, it makes you work on it and improve, nevertheless in either case; you will enjoy the rest of your day.

Once you get used to this routine, you can easily make out the difference between a run day and a non-run day. One the lighter side, if you don’t run, you will end up cranky in your house or at office, A bad feeling haunts you. You may call it addiction but all of us are addicted to various things in life, so be it; I am a RunAddict (:P)

What is the fun if you are not good at what you are doing? Well, let me avoid this question for now. I will come back to this sometime later but do not let this question drift away from your mind.

Frequently questioning your decisions makes your next action better. Do not fall into the trap of half knowledge, there is always a better way. Having spent a year in Japan, I was fortunate to learn intermediate Japanese and explore a part of japan with my wife. We spent a fair share of time traveling on our bikes, experienced the rich culture and made a few good friends too. I will save this for another day. In Japanese, Sensei means One born before the other or the one more experienced than you. It is an honorific term for teachers and doctors. It is a general assumption that they are more knowledgeable than us and should be revered. Their experience helps us make less mistakes and learn faster. We pass this on to the next generation; whatever mistakes we make, we learn from it and share the experience.

In summary, trust your teacher or coach blindly. It is their job to lead you in the right path. As Roosevelt said it “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself”. To do it the correct way in the shortest time possible, it is better to stick to the proven ways so that you do not have to put in the extra effort of unlearning the wrong things and learning the right things. This is the common mistake of most beginners. I have finally reached a stage wherein I have stopped correcting their mistakes unless they approach me.

Introspect honestly, have you adhered to what an experienced runner says? The most common mistake a beginner does is increase the pace exponentially or increase the distance and get injured. You would have saved the injury, had you listened then.

Probably this is the longest prelude I have explained before a topic. This highlights the importance of the subject I am going to discuss now.

I am not suggesting that there is one best method to train and achieve your running goals however there is one good method you can follow to experience the bliss of running, reduce your injuries, reduce your weight, and of course increase your pace and distance!

I have around 8 years of experience in running, was fortunate to meet the right people at right times and they have shaped me to who I am today. I do not have the fastest times to boast about, but I have the best intents to learn about things which interests me. I love researching and enhancing my knowledge, aerobic running is one of my interests and proud to say this has immensely helped me. There is one common trait among the Endurance athletes: Least effort, Maximum speed. Does it surprise you?

Mark Allen is a 6-time Ironman world champion, prior to that he lost 6 times to Dave Scott (their rivalry is one of the best in sports history known as Iron war). He says that when he first started, he was running 8:15 mile pace (5:09/km) at 155 bpm. After a year, he was running 5:20 per mile (3:20/km) at the same heart rate.

Is this magic?

Following is an excerpt from his site.

Credits: Website: http://www.markallenonline.com /Default.asp?partner=dua on January 7, 2002

 “During my 15 years of racing in the sport of triathlons I searched for those few golden tools that would allow me to maximize my training time and come up with the race results I envisioned. At the top of that list was heart rate training. It was and still is the single most potent tool an endurance athlete can use to set the intensity levels of workouts in a way that will allow for long-term athletic performance. Yes, there are other options like lactate testing, power output and pace, but all of these have certain shortcomings that make them less universally applicable than heart rate.

 

A man named Phil Maffetone, who had done a lot of research with the monitors, contacted me. He had me try one out according to a very specific protocol. Phil said that I was doing too much anaerobic training, too much speed work, too many high end/high heart rate sessions. I was forcing my body into a chemistry that only burns carbohydrates for fuel by elevating my heart rate so high each time I went out and ran. So, he told me to go to the track, strap on the heart rate monitor, and keep my heart rate below 155 beats per minute. Maffetone told me that below this number that my body would be able to take in enough oxygen to burn fat as the main source of fuel for my muscle to move. I was going to develop my aerobic/fat burning system. What I discovered was a shock. To keep my heart rate below 155 beats/minute, I had to slow my pace down to an 8:15 mile. That is three minutes/mile SLOWER than I had been trying to hit in every single workout I did! My body just could not utilize fat for fuel. So, for the next four months, I did exclusively aerobic training keeping my heart rate at or below my maximum aerobic heart rate, using the monitor every single workout. And at the end of that period, my pace at the same heart rate of 155 beats/minute had improved by over a minute. And after nearly a year of doing mostly aerobic training, which by the way was much more comfortable and less taxing than the anaerobic style that I was used to, my pace at 155 beats/minute had improved to a blistering 5:20 mile. That means that I was now able to burn fat for fuel efficiently enough to hold a pace that a year before was redlining my effort at a maximum heart rate of about 190. I had become an aerobic machine! On top of the speed benefit at lower heart rates, I was no longer feeling like I was ready for an injury the next run I went on, and I was feeling fresh after my workouts instead of being totally wasted from them”.

Magical, isn’t it?

Some of you may have this question now. He is a world champion, he could do it! But How can I?

Practice what you preach is a famous idiom. Let me change it to- Practice before you preach.

Let me share my tryst with aerobic running.

Background:

Really, another one?..

Oh, please! Now this is my story :)

It is difficult to convince an Engineer without logic. If you do not believe me, ask my wife! I have shared some of my running journeys in the previous posts (http://saigiri7.blogspot.com/2015/11/marathon-debut.html ). I had a good share of injuries in my first 2 years of running. 

There are a few stupid quotes we take pride in: No pain, No gain. Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. In the initial days of my running, I assumed everyone undergoes some sort of pain during a run and it is quite common. Mind you, running is not painful. There is gain without pain and there is no suffering in running, in fact the feeling is relieving and transcendental. There is a difference between pain and fatigue. Injury is painful and pushing body beyond limits is fatigue.

Do not run when you are in pain, do not fatigue yourself by doing a pace/ distance which you are not ready for yet.

The Fall:

My first 10K was with a timing of 49:09. I can bet you cannot find a maniac worse than me (In case you skipped the link above, go back). And I was out of running for a few months post this adventure. I rehabilitated and returned to the field. The speed bug would not leave me. I used to do 2 runs of 10km each (which I called them tempo) at 46-47min, 1 speed workout in the range of 3:45 to 4:00/km for close to 7 or 8 kms and a long run covering 32km in around 2:30~2:40hrs (Marathon pace). It was shin splints first, followed by knee pain, then the achilles tendinopathy, swollen toes, twisted ankle etc. I am not exaggerating, let me tell you a secret here. Very few runners come out in the open and confess that they have/had injuries. Most of them feel ashamed to acknowledge , I was one of them.

 Do you want part 2? Comment below.