Impact of cheer up on speed

:-) is one of the most widely used symbol in the world. Cheering up others fuels energy in self; I experienced this in Bangalore ultra. How exactly this works is something that needs another blog but this works very effectively for sure!

My preparation for this run was not very well organized. I was just doing my regular run of 3 kms on Saturday, and Sunday. I woke up 3 weeks before the run, so it was just 3 weeks of preparation.

Minus 3 weeks:  6 kms in Ulsoor lake, wanted to do more but it was dark and had to come back. And 5 kms in nearby park during alternate week days.

Minus 2 weeks:  9kms in UIsoor lake; again stopped at 9kms due to dark.  And 5 kms in nearby park during alternate week days

Minus 1 week:  15 kms in Ulsoor lake, 5 kms run in nearby park on Thursday and rest for rest of the days.

One of my friend who does full marathon regularly, suggested replenishing energy while running, with sports drink or candy bar. I couldn’t get candy bar nearby area but got Gatorade in nearby superstore, so used Gatorade in practice sessions.

On the run day, I got up at 3.30 and took one banana and few Parle G biscuits and then got myself ready for the run. Drove to Hessarghatta Our Native Village, and realized that Gatorade bottles I was planning to use during the run are left in home. Went to flag off place, organizer said that there are people who would be running 100kms, would be on their 3rd or 4th lap while u are on 1st lap, so please make a way for them and cheer them up.

I started at fast pace and after some time pace came to default automatically. I was trying every second to increase the pace, but was not able to run for a larger distance at faster pace. I took first very small quantity of electrolyte at 6th kms mark and orange (took only juice and spitted out solid). My earlier experience told me that immediate energy comes just after taking orange juice. And going forward I took orange juice and half cup of electrolyte at every water station.

I realized at after 8 kms I was slowing down, I tried to put my mind of fast pace but it was difficult, so I diverted my mind to somewhere else. Suddenly saw that one old person is coming in purple color bib, I cheered him up “wel l done, well done, run run run…” . And I do not know out of where energy came inside me that I started running faster. I over took many people for another 10-15 mins before coming to default speed again. I cheered up every single person who came from front during this time. After at default speed for some time, I thought of cheering up few more people, and realized that I am again running faster. And it didn’t take much time to realize that cheering up others is refilling energy in me. So I started doing this every now and then, cheer up runner coming from front with: well done, go, go , go..”. So “cheer up, run faster, default speed and cheer up again” became the mantra; did the same thing in whole run again and again.

At some 16th km I stumbled upon a stone, almost fell down but saved myself from full fall. Looked like my ankle is gone for a moment, but it wasn’t anything, very next moment I was on run again. Orange juice at every water station was helpful and in the last 1 km I was humming “run run run”, to myself as no one was coming from front. I was trying to speed up with full of my energy and humming “run run run” to myself. Was thinking of going for 37.5 kms lap also when some 3 kms were left but when I reached the finish point people clapped, photographers clicked and one person came with a medal and I stopped?  Only after resting for 3-4 minutes and taking water I realized that I didn’t try for extra lap. I will try next time with proper training. I was happy with new discovery and fact that I was not tired after the run.

Cheering up helps, not only to person who is cheered up but also to the one who cheers up. This is the best findings of Bangalore ultra that I will keep using in upcoming runs. :-)

Before the Run

After the run

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Aashi Yoga Research Academy
http://www.aashiyoga.com/
Hatha Yoga, Pranayama, Meditation
Yoga classes in Bangalore
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Getting a faster weight loss

Many people are looking for weight loss now-a-days; some get it easily, some get it with very hard work and some don’t get it all. So what makes someone to get results faster is in everybody’s mind.

Weight loss is a highly customized thing for every person. Everyone has a different metabolism rate, and a different lifestyle, even people with similar lifestyle have different rate of weight loss as their metabolism rate differ. However there are some phenomenon that are common.

Some of the popular tools that can be used for weight loss are:

·        Gym: cardio, stretch, weight training

·        Aerobics

·        Yoga and Pranayama

·        Sports

·        Other activities e.g. dance classes

Any of the above activities can induce weight loss if done smartly and with proper food. Using combination of some of above activities is generally more productive.

One of phenomenon I have observed in gym and running sessions is that people do these activities excessively and do not get results. Some complain that they have put on weight immediately after few weeks of not going to gym or run sessions.

Once body gets adapted to one type of exercise, weight loss rate may come down drastically. Once an exercise provides no more challenge, it’s time to change it or do variations in timing or speed, e.g. reduce timing but increase speed or difficulty level.

Important thing in all of above is proper healthy food; that is also sometimes called diet food. Diet food has got a very negative connotation as people do not eat and stay hungry to get a slim body. However, staying hungry is one of the most dangerous phenomenon; that can have very negative effect on health. Diet food means healthy food that doesn’t get stored in body as fat but provides all the necessary ingredients of a diet as protein, carbohydrate, fat, minerals and vitamins. There is nothing that needs to be completely avoided, quantity and frequency can be reduced or increased as per need. Key to healthy food is balance of all ingredients that comes with proper quantity and frequency.

Watching the progress also is very important, it may so happen that someone is doing lot of workout but there is no result, this may happen due to various reasons e.g. excessive one type of exercise or improper food. So if someone is facing such problem it is a good idea to look both exercise and food.

Last thing is about choosing the activity, generally great results are produced by activities that one loves to do, not because someone is doing to get weight loss. So if someone chooses activity that he/she really enjoy doing, results are bound to be better and faster.

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Aashi Yoga Research Academy

http://www.aashiyoga.com/

Hatha Yoga, Pranayama, Meditation

Yoga classes in Bangalore

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