My 5k run experience...

How many of you participated in a running event? Okay.
How many of you thought of a running event, but didn't really make it? Okay. Let me share my experience.

By definition, marathon is 42.195 kms. Multiple running events are held for marathon, half marathon, 10K run and 5K run. You can start with the 5K run.

Last April, I registered for the sun feast world 10K run. The event was scheduled on May 31, 2009. I had a month to prepare for the event. Just one week before the event, I realized that I haven't started any preparation. Running 10K is not an easy task without any preparation. I raised some excuses that I will be out of station, convinced myself and dropped out of the running event.

This year, few weeks ago, I heard from one of my colleague about marathon relay. 20K is the distance. 4 members in a team and each member have to cover 5K. I quickly thought that “it is now or never” and made up my mind. I confirmed my position in the team and we registered our team along with 10 other teams from our company. Did I drop out again? Or Did I make it?

To start with my preparation, I googled over the internet as I always do. All the training plans I got were for 2 months. I had only 2 weeks to go. My mind gave me a warning signal; you have very less time, back out! I went out for tea break, had my black tea, came back and analyzed the pattern of the training plan. The pattern was something like this. Run for a day, rest or walk the other day and the training starts with less km initially, say 2km, and progressively increases the distance covered. I decided to follow the pattern for the next 3 weeks. Now, what is the distance should I start with? I picked up a distance that fall after a month in that 2 month plan and I chalked out a rough training plan for me.

On the next day, I went to my gym and got on to the treadmill. I never ran more than 1.5 kilometers before, although I do lots of weight training. My target for that day was 3kms. With the mix of running and walking, I completed my target on a relaxed manner. It took 26 minutes. Felt satisfied with the training on that day, went to office. I met the office gym physiotherapist during the lunch. He gave me a tip, “If you are a first timer, you should target the coverage of the distance first. Don’t worry about the time taken. Either by running or walking, you cover the distance. Then you reduce the time taken.”

Next day is the rest or walk day. I walked 1 km and did some weight workouts. On the next running day, I kept my target as 4 km. I ran for the first 2kms, didn’t walk much. Everything was right so far. Between the 2km to 3km, I was thinking, why the hell I gave my name for this event? I would have kept quiet and do my normal activities. I cooled down myself. I walked for sometime, hearing the music. Once my heart rate came down, I ran again. When I completed 4kms, it was 30minutes. To cool down the heart rate, I walked for 5 minutes and I saw it was already 4.5kms. Then I got the motivation and completed 5kms on that day itself and I did so in 40 minutes. I felt satisfied that I covered the distance in the training so quickly.

My second target is to reduce the time taken. I gave 2 days break before the next run. This time, I covered the distance in 36 minutes. With the practice based on the rough training plan, I reduced my timing to 32 minutes. I set my goal as 30 to 32 minutes for the final run.

Finally, the D-day arrived, 8th Aug 2010. That was last Sunday. Reached the venue on time. We all geared up and cheered up by the music and the atmosphere. I completed my run in 31 minutes and 15 seconds, well within my target as a first timer.

Besides the glory and self satisfaction of achieving personal milestones, there is another face to a running race. Many major events are held for a cause and part of the raised money is donated to a charity work. In joining a race or even being there to cheer up the participants goes a long way in supporting a noble cause. Let’s promise ourselves to run for a better self and support a good cause.

Feel Good Factor

After a long break of 6 months in last 3 years, I went to GYM today. Did cardio excercises to warm up and did 2 sets of push-ups and pull-ups. Felt good after the workout! and whole day was energetic!
Hope to workout regularly for the next 1 year without any long break.

Work against gravity on both the directions

In the GYM, most of the folks lift the weights slowly and put down the weights fastly.
Because, while lifting, they are working against the gravity and
while lowering down, they are working with the help of gravity.

This doesn't efficiently work out your muscles.

Instead of this routine, lift/push the weights at greater speed and
lower the weights slowly.
When you lower the weights slowly, the muscle provides the resistance against the gravity.
This is the efficient way to workout if you really want to improve your muscle mass.
Otherwise, you will not see much improvement.

Why I am Obese or skinny?

Why I am Obese or skinny?
Because of your metabolic rate, food habits, and your life style. Everyone has different metabolic rate. Metabolic rate tells you the amount of energy that is required by a person in a day. If eat high calorie foods, if your total intake calorie is too much and if your metabolic rate is very low, the excess energy will be accumulated in your body and you'll be obese. On the other hand, if your total intake calorie is very less and if your metabolic rate is very high, you'll be skinny.Body can accumulate the Fatty foods very easily. To cut down the excess weight or to avoid putting on the excess weight, Try to eat more protien, high fibre foods, less carbohydrate foods, avoid fatty items totally.

If you want to reduce weight, by simple mathematics, consume less calories than the amount of calories you can burn.
If you want to gain weight, eat more calories than the burning rate. Eat healthly foods, and avoid junk foods. In both the case, To know more details about the food items that you can eat, consult a good dietician.

Last but not the least, make sure you do regular physical activities daily. Include an hour workout in the GYM, swim daily, walk some distance daily, do aerobics, etc.

How do you know your metabolic rate?
Metabolic rate is basically depends on the height, weight, age, and sex. There are approximate calculators available online. http://walking.about.com/cs/calories/l/blcalcalc.htm But they are very rough estimation. There are other factors such as active level, muscle mass, etc. There are impedance based tests, which will tell you a better approximation.

BCA - Body Composition Analysis

Okay, If you want some metrics for you to check your progress, you can check the BCA test.
That gives the total distribution of your weight into various sections like Fat %, Muscle Mass %, Protien content %, Water content %, etc. As you do your workout regularly, you can keep an eye on your BCA, you may take once in a 6 months or so.
BTW, if you hit 10 - 12% of fat, you can see your six pack visibly :)

Check out my BCA report, which was taken few months back. Please zoom the image and check the details, this was a scanned copy.

Commitment and Consistency

Lot of people actually wanted to be fit, but they could not achieve it.
It is not the fault of the fitness program that you follow and you have to follow the Arnold's workout schedule to get into the shape that you like.
It is the basic commitment that you make for this activity.
If you commit yourself and become consistent in your workout, you'll definitely see the results :)
Once you become consistent, it takes 6 months to few years to get into any shape that you want. The time taken depends on your current level and what you want to achieve.
I took almost 6 months to see the difference and by 2 years I felt good change in my body structure.
It also depends on your diet, will write about diet in separate blog