Your 1st workout will be weak, but your 1000th will be strong

Had an interesting interaction on Twitter earlier this week. I got this question a couple of days back. Having taken-up running more than a decade back and continued doing so with the passion of a beginner, i felt compelled to share my perspectives and learnings.

Kshitiz Anand‏ @kshitiz Apr 8

Did a 5K run this morning after a long time. Need to improve timings though. Now the key is to go from 5k to 10k. Any tips and guidance? #fitness #running

My Response:

1. Increase distance gradually. Say 1 km a week. 2. Listen to your body and adapt to the situation. 3. At any moment, Focus on next step, not the finish line. 4. It's ok to mix walk and run. 5. Find the rhythm that works for you physically and mentally and stick to it. 6. Forgot to add one last, but important tip- Don't worry too much about timings as long as you reach finish line without injury and strong. Speed may or (more often) may not help achieve the mind-body rhythm. It's a run, not a (rat) race after all. 🙂

In summary, when it comes to building endurance-

1. Patience is a virtue.

2. One got to be Ok to go through the grind daily, but in smaller chunks.

3. Suspend all the comparisons with others. Only comparison worth doing is with yesterday's self.

This tweet from the author James Clear beautifully sums up the mindset i am proposing in this post:

Your 1st blog post will be bad, but your 1000th will be great. Your 1st workout will be weak, but your 1000th will be strong. Your 1st meditation will be scattered, but your 1000th will be focused. Put in your reps.

Thank you for reading. Please share your thoughts, comments, experiences.