Category: Personal Kaizen

Time For Personal Bests

Shoot for the moon ...

We are just a month away from the Oxfam Trailwalker event. Many a weekend has gone into preparations, away from family time & chores. And many a personal record created – longest walk, most calories burnt, etc. And, that is not all.

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As you see from the updated image above, professional commitment has consumed one of the Team MOTR members. Satya has stepped away from a supporting role, to a primary team member role. While Navin will hop, skip & jump across continents on work.

When I ran my first half marathon (HM), I was thrilled about my new personal record for longest distance covered. Coming after many months of running & training, I had no expectations of bettering this in a hurry.

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Now here is the thing about lofty goals – they expand your limits & surprise you by revealing how much more you are capable of!

Within two months, I’ve not only come close to the HM distance 4 times, but also set a new personal best for myself – 27kms. This being walking (& not running) does little to dampen my sense of achievement.

Shub Ram Vivek

What is even more satisfying is that I’ve not be alone in this journey. All of us in Team MOTR have new personal bests now. And for those of you who don’t personally know the team – for at least one of us, this journey can be compared to Salman Khan giving up the gym to take up long distance running in search of a lean look. Transformative, I’m given to understand, might not be too far fetched.

Picture courtesy Tasos Kostopoulos.

MOTR_Seperator_thumb[4]Mocha On The Run (MOTR) is our initiative to raise funds for Oxfam India by undertaking the Trailwalker challenge – a 100KM walk in 48 hours. You can support us & Oxfam by making a donation here.

Oxfam India’s vision is ‘Right to life with dignity for all. Oxfam works primarily through grassroots organizations to bring about deep rooted sustainable changes in people’s lives through long-term development programming linked to positive policy changes at various levels.

By supporting a Trailwalker team, you are making a significant difference to the lives of others. The money you raise builds the lives of some of India’s most disadvantaged communities but people you support don’t want to survive on aid and assistance forever. They have the right to lead a dignified independent life.

Progress For Team MOTR

From wondering if we will ever raise 50k, to targeting the top of the leaderboard. From tracking progress based on number of exercise days, to having weekly team goals. From (30min walk + 30min chit chat + 30min cafe) routines, to (3.5hr walk + 30min cafe) routine. It has been progress for Team Mocha On The Run (MOTR) over the last week.

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Jayanagar. Koramangala. Kanakpura Road. HSR Extension. Finding a locale convenient to all these starting points for our long walks was the first puzzle. Lalbagh has been a good answer. It is a 12km / 30min drive at 6am for the furthest of us. But it offers a 4 km walking track (extreme outer path) and includes a good mix of flat stretches, steps, uphill and trail walking. 

The week was not without pain. A couple of us are (painfully) discovering the phenomenon of skin chafing for the first time. An old heel pain problem resurfaced for Navin, which compelled him to sit out the last few KMs on the long walk. Wrong choice of shoes for Vivek also took its toll. 

NOTE: If you have inputs on handling the heel pain problem for runners / walkers, please share the same in the comments section.

We had the first two recruits into our support team as well. Roshan offered himself as the “stepney” in case of unexpected dropouts, along with remote cheering services from Singapore. The Oracle Bangalore cycling star Satya inspired us by joining us for one of the long walks. He gave some valuable endurance training tips and was great company. 

Thanks to the encouragement of friends & the determination of the team, we hit our first 15k walk goal as a team. Satisfying!

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What’s our next goal?

  • Building Distance: Doing a 20k together
  • Practicing Recovery: Doing back to back long walk days
  • Gear: Settle down on our choice of walking gear

MOTR_Maiyas

Maiyas continued to be our unofficial team motivator. The weekend long walk culminated with kesari bath, dosas, vadas and cold badam milk. Maybe it is time we added healthy eating to our team goal!

MOTR_Seperator_thumb[4]MOTR_FB_Cover4[1]Mocha On The Run (MOTR) is our initiative to raise funds for Oxfam India by undertaking the Trailwalker challenge – a 100KM walk in 48 hours. You can support us & Oxfam by making a donation here.

Oxfam India’s vision is ‘Right to life with dignity for all’. Oxfam works primarily through grassroots organizations to bring about deep rooted sustainable changes in people’s lives through long-term development programming linked to positive policy changes at various levels.

By supporting a Trailwalker team, you are making a significant difference to the lives of others. The money you raise builds the lives of some of India’s most disadvantaged communities but people you support don’t want to survive on aid and assistance forever. They have the right to lead a dignified independent life.

First Week Of Training

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Day1: 6:30am Lalbagh
Uncharacteristic morning showers on the day meant that we got drenched. The first day enthusiasm & talks about the impending Maiyya breakfast took us through to the end of a 2 hour work out.

Day2: 9:00am Cubbon Park
In between figuring out the logistics at this first time training location & the lure of a visit to MTR, we managed to squeeze in just about 4kms of walking.

Day3: 6:30am Lalbagh
Some new gear (Runkeeper on all phones, new shoes / t-shirts / shorts for the shortest team mate) & the goal of doing 10k, took us far on the day. Not only did we complete the 10k, we did it in good time & managed a smile even after the session (proof attached). Badam halwa at Maiyyas was the carrot to set longer goals for the next weekend.

15k x 4 team members is the goal for the next weekend.

MOTR_SeperatorMOTR_FB_Cover[4]Mocha On The Run (MOTR) is our initiative to raise funds for Oxfam India by undertaking the Trailwalker challenge – a 100KM walk in 48 hours. You can support us & Oxfam by making a donation here.

Oxfam India’s vision is ‘Right to life with dignity for all’. Oxfam works primarily through grassroots organizations to bring about deep rooted sustainable changes in people’s lives through long-term development programming linked to positive policy changes at various levels.

By supporting a Trailwalker team, you are making a significant difference to the lives of others. The money you raise builds the lives of some of India’s most disadvantaged communities but people you support don’t want to survive on aid and assistance forever. They have the right to lead a dignified independent life.

When Good Isn’t Good Enough

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On her blog Create As Folk, Laura Simms makes the case for why you should leave your good job.
 
“Most people are so firm in their belief that how things are is how they have to be, that they won’t work towards change. Why would they? They don’t think it’s possible. And that’s why most people will spend their work lives clocking in to build someone else’s dream.”

It was an interesting introspective exercise to apply this philosophy to a few areas beyond the good job scenario.
  • In this information age, is it good enough to get to know of Kailash Satyarthi only after the Nobel Foundation has found him?
  • Are you giving back enough to the society?
  • Is running an ill-prepared half marathon bold enough a health goal?
  • Is it good enough to just ideate & dream about following your passion?
  • It’s good that you got that long pending personal project off the ground. Is it good enough to just get started?
  • Is good stopping you from realizing & reaching your potential?

Picture courtesy Nicholas A. Tonelli.