Breaking new ground

So I'm back! It's been some days since my last post and no, I have not skipped my morning routine. It's now six months since I started out and while February was intermittent, I have now decided to be regular come what may - and that means pushing myself out of the bed and the apartment door unfailingly despite sleepy eyes and tired legs from the previous day's work. Oh, and that doesn't include the detail of getting up earlier than usual to feed a six month old toddler who lets out a loud whelp to advertise his hunger pangs! Why am I so hard on myself, some ask. Well, because if I don't run, I know it's going to play on in my mind and basically ruin my entire day.
Anyways, yesterday morning I changed my workout ground to a better maintained park - the lawns there are so well manicured that it looks like someone's private garden rather than a public space. And cleanliness to an extent that you could pick up food droppings off the grass and eat it without fear of any infection - no really, I am not kidding. Besides this, the jogging track is much longer which allows me to push myself to cover a longer distance than usual. And so, instead of the usual 5 kilometres, I am now covering 6 kilometres on a daily basis (well, it's just been two days, so let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?)
Of course, there were several more pretty faces in this park than in the previous but then, focussing too much on them can mean a mis-step, so an occasional glance now and then but that's about it! Looking at the gentry there one would be forgiven to think that Indians are now largely health-conscious (that could be a fallacy!). Everyone seems to be engaged in some sort of activity, be it a stroll, a brisk walk, running, jogging, yoga, calesthenics, et al. And there are some who want to remain connected and wired to the world around them even at 6 am - chattering away on their cell phones as if cutting a multi-million dollar deal in another part of the world. Some of course just come to sit and gossip and chat without exerting any part of their body except for the mouth and vocal chords. No, I am not critical of these fellas, just amazed at their sense of priority. But then, as they say, it takes all kinds to make this world and they do provide some amusement and mirth!
Yesterday though, while doing spot jogging, my attention wavered a bit by I can't recall what (it certainly wasn't a pretty face - I would have remembered!). And that nano second resulted in my foot landing improperly. It was a sudden tinge of a stretch that I felt in my knee and while there's no pain, I know I need to get it checked before it becomes any worse with advancing age. That should be a reminder to me and others - concentrate on one task at a time.

Running through my mind

The last time I went running - which was two days ago, so yes, I have skipped it for two days at a stretch now - I was tired, having reached home at 2 am the previous night. All that I could think of was getting through the grind. My feet were lead that morning and moving them in tandem to form a jogging rhythm was task indeed - neither the lift-off nor the landing was smooth and effortless, like they usually are. At times like these when the overwhelming desire is to curl up in bed and snooze till the cows come home, it's bewildering what makes the body keep ticking, lap after lap. Thoughts about my infant son's disturbed sleep in the night or his poor appetite of late often flit through my mind, as also thoughts of my own personal hell which I wouldn't like to go public with right now. All these and more of course ran through my mind as I ran the track, also worried about not being able to get the equation for the cover story right. To be honest, I wasn't much enthused about the subject - it wasn't my beat, though that doesn't even qualify for a lame excuse!
Still I ran, and surprisingly, covered more ground in the first instalment than I am usually able to. I often wonder to myself what is it that I am seeking to achieve with my daily grind - honestly, I don't know. It's fun though, and sometimes I wish someone would start timing me, just to know how I fare against myself.
But two days I have been absent from the tracks now and am raring to go tomorrow, being a Sunday. Tomorrow, I shall run unfettered by the bondage of time.

Runners World

As a starting block, this is no great shakes - I run, therefore I am. I love running. No, not from the beginning - in fact, if anything, I used to shirk from running and would often find myself out of breath after jogging just a few hundred metres. No, my love for running developed some months back when tipping the scales at 90kg with a pot belly and a spondylitis threat and a life really going nowhere, I decided to don the track pants and running shoes and literally hit the dirt. Yes, I do feel better, even if I don't really look that much better! It's an addiction now and for a man who's pushing close to 40 (okay, there's still half a decade to catch up!), running gives me a craving start to my day - so much so that the day I skip it, I am just not happening.

I marked my progress - starting with brisk walking and then graduating to slow jogs, limited to half a mile, then a mile and so on. Today, I run as long as I feel like, sometimes pushing myself beyond my known boundaries. Yes, there are times when I have given up after setting new personal endurance levels but something on the track beckons you the next day - at times teasing, at times encouraging but mostly, just a silent companion.

For the first time, I probably realised the practical implication of the phrase 'to compete with oneself' - pushing myself to cover more and more ground in less and less time. It's strange though how the mind refuses to blank out - filling itself up with inane and mundane thoughts. Sometimes, troubled by happenings or events of the previous day, I have found myself sapped of all energy while just starting to run - focussing your energies on as simple a task as running at times appears more difficult than ever imagined.

Yes, running for me has also become an escape for the daily tribulations that life thrusts upon us - escaping into my world where the only thing that matters is pounding the track for as long as possible. Of late, running has taken precedence over my work - it excites me and consumes me and I find myself spending more and more time on the track. I enjoy it, and sometimes it scares me how much I am enslaved by it. Work is a chore - it wasn't always so! I love writing, words for me are toys to tinker around with which is why I became a journalist, giving shape to stories that would as informative as interesting. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy writing, but perhaps of my own accord rather than being thrust with some idea that I don't feel a connect with. Is it a midlife crisis that set in a wee bit early in my case or am I just craving for yet another change in my life - after chucking my well established career as a hotelier to become a scribe? As with other things in my life, I feel there are no answers - and I really envy people who find answers to their life's questions or can uncomplainingly accept what life gives them. Is it really that difficult, to get on with life on an as-is-where-is-basis or does that require some special talent which seems amiss in me? More questions! More, later...