This is not an excel or visualization post. So feel free to skip it 🙂
As told earlier I have finished my 10 k run today (actually 13 k). Even though running 10 kilometers is not a big deal for many people, it is a HUGE deal for me and I thought I would write a small post sharing my experience of crossing this important milestone.
- Ice cream: I love ice cream. But I know damn well that even a scoop a day is dangerous for me in the long run. So my wife put in a quota system for my ice cream binges. If I ran 3-4 times in a week, she would allow me to have a few scoops in the weekend. Now I don’t feel guilty when digging in to that black raspberry chocolate chip ice cream.
- Ipod: Like most working people, I also dont have much time to listen to good music. I use running as an excuse to escape to melodious world where songs and lyrics would motivate me. When I am running I carry only 2 things, My keys and an ipod. No phones, no internet or anything. Just music and the road.
- Nikon D40: Believe it or not, a digital SLR camera is the motivation for both of us to go from usual night walks to a running couple. That is right! When we wanted to buy an SLR, we decided to link the camera with running. For every kilometer each of us runs, we would allocate a dollar to the SLR fund. With in 3 months we had 450 or so tick marks on the calendar and we bought the camera. But once we are used to running the motivation wasn’t really necessary.
- Commitment: A friend called me today morning and asked me if I wanted to go skiing. I said a no even though I know he would be disappointed. I didn’t want to fail myself when I said I would run 10k.
- The Sheer Joy of Running
If you had never ran or thinking of running this is probably the time to start. I am lousy example, but if I can run 13k then you can too. When I first started running, I ran 0.5 km and panted and vouched to never to go near anything that looks like a treadmill. But thanks to motivation from friends, I have discovered amazing benefits of running. I hope you will too. 🙂
6 Responses to “5 things that helped me run 10k”
great dude! 🙂 Keep walking ..err Running!!
Great job, Chandoo. But you are missing out by not making an Excel post out of your running progress. I used to do a lot of cycling (obsessive would be about right) and I tracked everything in Excel. I tracked my heart rates, average and top speeds, distances, and so on. That really fed my motivation. There's something about being able to chart your speed vs heart rate that's just... well, maybe to geekish for words. If only I'd known about pivot tables back then. 🙂
Superb. I liked the DSLR idea!!
Cheers,
D.
Chandoo, great lifestyle choice, and a neat idea on buying something you want (I must try that one!).
I used to log all my training (London Marathon) and once set myself a target of running 1,000 miles in a year for charity. Now, that's only 3 miles a day, or so, but when you have done all the rest days first, it soon mounts up 😉
Stick with it, it is definitely good for your heart.
Thanks for this post.
And congratulations on the 10K!
I am at the beginning stages of training myself. I used to be in such great shape --- when I had a workout partner....
Now, doing it alone, I am finding it very hard to motivate. But your post gave me some good ideas....
Thanks everyone...
@Tim: you are right. I could have used excel to track every movement, but I never bothered to collect much data. Now that I have bought a pedometer, I am hoping to track some data.
@John... 1000 miles an year is a very good thing. Even though I enjoy running, I somehow run only every other day. So it is more like 500 miles an year for me 😀
@Jen: having partner sure helps you alot in running.