Random Thoughts

Its been quite a while since I have updated my blog. Work life was very hectic over last several weeks. Ater spending 4 days away from home every week, weekend time was spend with family and in all this, I somehow managed to take out time to fulfill my 2010 resolution of 1500 miles. I cant believe we are already on the 24rd of Feb in this new year. Time flies faster than you can ever imagine.

First, let me start with some updates on my resolution. Here are some stats - After 54 days, 253.64 miles completed, burned 38700 calories, reduced 12 pounds weight and ... inspired 3 friends to hit the gym or workout atleast 5 days a week. The current run rate is 4.7 miles per day and the required run rate is now only 4 miles per day. I really didnt expect more than this. Everyone was very skeptical in Jan when I publicly announced my resolution. Not that I did a News conference or anything, but informed everybody on my social network :-). There was a reason for letting everyone know my resolution. According to a survey if you make your resolution public, it just makes it a little harder to abandon it. This worked for me. Atleast so far...

There are 10+ more months to go in this year and I will make sure that I meet my resolution. If I cannot run, I will walk. If I cannot walk, I will crawl. But I will complete 1500 miles...

Cheers,
Anil

Check out this link for my daily log and graphs

21 days...

I am feeling very happy today. Reason is obvious. At the end of 24 days, I have been able to maintain the run rate of 4+ miles per day. Last week was not so good because I was down with severe cold and had to miss my walk for two consecutive days. Making up for the lost days is very difficult. More than physical, it requires mental strength and I am glad I was able to bring up the run rate.
You might be wondering why the title of this post is 21 days. Well, I once either read somewhere or someone mentioned this to me that if you do something continuously for 21 days, it becomes a habit. In my case there have been some gaps in between, but I can still say that I have been able to maintain the run rate for more than 21 days now. And Yes... It has become a habit now. If I do not hit the gym, I feel restless and that for me is a good sign. I don't want to get over-confident right now, but I really felt I should convey my happiness.
I still have many miles to go and keep wishing for me so that I can complete them.

And yes... I forgot to mention. I am down by 7 pounds :-)

Cheers,
Anil

Two Maiden Overs and then steadily covering up

Last Thursday and Friday were not good for my resolution. Both days were duck days for me. Thursday I was travelling back home and my flight was delayed and Friday was work from home and it was almost an 13 hr work. So in short, I could not run even a yard on these two days. My run rate at the end of Friday dropped to 2.75. I had to cover up on Saturday and Sunday and I am glad I did. On Saturday, I completed 8.42 miles and on Sunday I did 6.58 miles. The graph is back to some decent point.
10 days of this year are over and my run rate is 3.7060 with an required run rate of 4.1210. I think if I maintain a run rate of atleast 3.75 by end of Jan, I will be able to make it up in the following months. Lets see how it goes.

Hers's how the latest graph looks like

Hoping for a good next week as well. Ok folks, time for me to do my packing for tomorrow morning. Remember its monday morning and forme it will start at 3:30 am...

Cheers,

Anil

Jan 10, 2010 8:52 PM

Monday Marathon

I don't really intend to post daily on my blog, but I could not resist myself from posting the fact that never before in the last 1.5 years, I have been able to hit the Gym on a Monday except this Monday (Jan 4th). You might be wondering, what's so special about Monday. For me it's not special, but it is a day that starts even before Sunday ends. My Monday starts at 3:30 am because I have a catch a 6:30 am flight and its almost an hour drive from my residence to the airport. Such an early start followed by a hectic day in Office leaves me with no energy by evening. However, yesterday I did go to the Gym and dutifully carried out my task of running for the day. Completing 1500 miles in a year will require me to walk/run at an average of 4.1096 per day. Missing out on any single day will create an uphill task for me in the days to come. I therefore did not want to have a duck day on the 4th day of the year. The most intricate task was entering the Gym. Once I was in, completing my 4+ mile was easy as a pie. (Need to admit, my ankle is hurting a bit). Leaving pretty late from office and then completing my 1.5 hr in gym, my monday ended at 11pm. It was really a very long day.
I just thought may be I should track my miles like a cricket score. Anil Patil's 2010 match with 365 overs and a asking run rate of 4.11. This is how my graph looks after 4 overs. Not too bad eh?

Score at the end of 4 overs: 14.41 miles

Cheers...

 

Resolution 2010

Hello Friends,

First and foremost, let me start by wishing you all A Very Very Happy and Prosperous New Year.

With a new year comes new resolutions. Sorry, not new resolutions but the same old resolutions that one has been promising year after year. Sound familiar? I bet it does. And I am no exception to this. Year after year I have been making resolutions and as the year progresses, my resolutions are forgotten faster than a speeding bullet. Guilt creeps in because I broke the promise and then I console myself saying the resolution was really my flight of fancy. How in this world could I have kept my resolutions. I should have never made such a impractical resolution in first place. With these words, my resolutions are gone for a toss till the January 1st of next year. There is something very fascinating about January 1st. It always brings in a ray of hope, even for a person like me who is lethargic for the whole year-round (only for personal priorities). I always accuse my professional commitments for not taking out time for myself. Needless to say, these are lame excuses.

This year, trust me, I made no resolutions on 1st Jan. Instead, I took some time to introspect myself and I kept on asking the same question to myself again and again. What would have possibly happened, that a person like me who jogged for more than 10 miles everyday at the age of 25 could not even jog for 1 mile at 35, a person who was often quoted as a perfect example of an athlete in his friends circle now falls in the Obese category? What could have gone wrong? Did I not try in the last 10 years? Ofcourse I did. But the one thing that was lacking was Consistency. Did I not know that I wasn't consistent over the last several years? Yes, I knew. But did I do anything? Nope, Nothing. Again my first excuse while I was looking back at my gone years was that May be my mind was willing but my body was not. This time,I played the role of a Devil's Advocate myself. I questioned, does the body ever have a say? does the body ever control yor mind? The answer came in negative. It was always my mind that kept on telling me that my body was tired. It was always my mind that kept on telling me that I have way too many professional commitments and hence I cannot spare time for myself. It was always my mind.

This year, I made my mind tell me that I can do it. The moment I did that, I laughed. Isn't this what everyone does on Jan 1st? I paused for a moment and just then it clicked. It wasn't Jan 1 for me. I was actually talking out time introspecting myself and I made some resolution on Jan 2nd. I googled to see how many people actually keep their new year resolutions. The results were not very encouraging. Roughly only about 7% to 10 % of the people keep their new year resolution. I looked at it from the positive side and told myself that I am going to be one from that 10%.

This year, I am going to walk/jog/run 1500 miles by end of December 2010. This will include the walk/run on the treadmill but will not include the casual walking I do for everyday chores. In addition to this, there are some other resolutions as well, but I just wanted to share this one with you all because I think there are many others like me out there wanting to get fit again. Weight reduction, overall fitness is my goal, but this year I want to track it differently. This year, I will make it happen.

I will look forward for your support and motivation. I will be regularly posting my progress on my blog.

Cheers...
Anil

9.84 miles completed. 1490.16 miles to go as of Jan 3.


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