A year of running

When Mark Zuckerberg wrote about his physical challenge for 2016 I was game. His ‘community’ resolutions are simple habits that inspire people all around the world. His goal was to run 365 miles in a year — a mile a day. Easy-peasy, right?

I did the math: 365 miles = 587 KMs. Since the time I started running regularly in April 2015, my mileage had been 2–3 KMs per run and I would run only 3–4 times a week. An average of 8 KMs a week is 416 KMs in a year. I knew I wouldn’t be consistent, so I set myself an easy target of 365 KMs rather than 365 miles.

I ended up running only 340 KMs in 2016. I was a tad disappointed, but I am happy that I could make this a regular habit.

A snapshot of my 2016 running activities captured on Strava

Running on the same track can get boring sometimes. I try to find new places and new friends to run with. I make it a point to carry my running shoes whenever I am travelling. The extra luggage is a good motivation to wake up early and get out there

Agara lake. Bangalore has a lot of good places to run

Good old Cubbon. You will always find runners here at any point of the day

My relatives live in good scenic areas near Mangalore. Always a joy to run in the woods

Ran up some random hill during my vacation in Koh Samui, Thailand

My biggest high was when I ran the beautiful Kaveri Trail Marathon. It took place in Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary near Mysore. This was my first 10K and I had no time to train. The event was slated to happen in September but it got postponed due to public tensions in Bangalore and Mandya over the Kaveri issue. This fortunately helped me fix my training

A good plan, but I couldn’t stick to it :(

And the result was this. Quite proud of my achievement :)

Psst.. I use Strava a lot to analyse my runs. You can follow me here

Constant injuries would break my streak from time to time and I have run through pain on a few occasions. My primary goal for this year is to run consistently without any injuries. This will need a lot of cross-fit training to build my core and improve endurance.

One thing that helps me focus on my goals is making my goals public. So this year I have set a modest target of 500 KMs i.e roughly 42 KMs a month.

Here’s to a healthy 2017. Happy Running! :)