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If 2012 was the year I started finding myself, 2013 was the year that I found wings and started learning how to fly. As is the case with many young hatchlings, they try to fly away too far too soon. The same was the case with me – racing week after week, wearing brand new minimalistic shoes without any prior barefoot running experience to a killer Full Marathon, IT Band issues, racing through a fever and viral, jumpstarting a 4-week FM training (short sighted) with a high intensity 10K (asinine move) and off course topping it all off with a podium in Early 2014 at what can be called one of the most prestigious races in the country ( what a hero!!); its easy to see in hindsight that I pushed my body beyond what would be considered “smart” or even structured training even though there was inclusion of the the required tempo, intervals, LSD’s, hill and what have you.
The body will take and take as much as it can but, at some point it will request you to give it some respite, stop abusing it and let it recover from the constant shock that you are putting it through. My body gave me multiple little signs, which I chose to ignore, until it reached a point I couldn’t ignore it further.
From that day until today, it has been over 10 months and in this time I have come a full circle. From someone who would roll out of bed and do a 10K as a warm up, today I struggled with my first 8K on the road since that time. Are there any regrets? Maybe, Do I wish that I had been able to continue training? Hell yea!! but at the same time, I am truly grateful for this time off from training where I have been taught very different but supremely important lessons in life.
Simple things:Patience and Humility: How do you kill time and not hurt yourself further in the process? What do you do to pull yourself out from the misery that surrounds you? How do you change perspective and make your experience work better for you?
Perspective and Applying yourself in other roles: Now that I know I can’t train, what is it that I can do? Apply my experience to ensure that others do not go through the same hardships and exhausting trial and error that I had to go through.
Friendships: This time off has also bought into perspective my friendships – as is always the case – its those that stand by you through harder times that deserve to stand by you through the good times.
Knowledge: I have a curious mind and a tendency to completely immerse myself into whatever is around me. This time, it was training and injury – serious training and serious injury. I was lucky enough to have a coach,a doctor and a physio – all three of whom are very giving with their knowledge – the more I probed and asked – the more they explained and made me understand.
Faith: This too shall pass and that this is where I am meant to be at this point and by being here, I can learn and imbibe more, than wishing I was somewhere else. I have always believed that there is no such thing as coincidence – all of us are exactly where we are meant to be. I have faith that this will make me a stronger and better person.
Weight- gain is inevitable: When your body is used to such high intensity workouts, and you do not have a very high metabolic rate, and you completely stop your workouts, you WILL put on weight – no matter how much you control your diet and its OK!!- oh! and everyone around you will keep reminding you that you’re getting bigger ( like a whale!). Listen to only those who tell you to stick to a balanced diet and who keep reinforcing that it is a matter of time before you start shedding those pounds.
Most importantly, Learning to let go and accepting that it doesn’t make me a quitter. There is a time and place for everything and this is my time to rest and do things other than training.
This last year also gave me an opportunity to expand my horizons and move into organizing of events. Right from the smaller Community Runs organised for our trainees, to bigger events like Snap Fitness 10K to the Mega Shriram Properties Bengaluru Marathon – all of this was a huge learning curve – now, each time I go into an event I look at it with a very different outlook than I would have a year back.
As always I managed to get a fair bit of reading done. A major boost for me was meeting in person some of the athletes that I have always looked upto. This year I got to meet some phenomenal athletes in person – Carl Lewis, Usain Bolt and Haile Gebrselassie – this was a humbling experience and each one left me wanting more.
So you see, in my learnings and exposure, it has been a fairly decent year. I do have a long way to go in terms of training since I restart from scratch. But isnt that the story of the spider that never gave up and was eventually successful? Isnt that what athletes are meant to do – consistently keep working and persisting – the results will show eventually – Life is not a destination, it is the journey that matters.
Here is to another beautiful year filled with incredible memories! Like I said – 2014 – you have taught me well and 2015 – I look forward to what you have to offer – Can’t wait!! A very Merry Xmas and Happy New Year – mujhe to lagta hai – Bada mazaa aayega.
