Turning back the clock
In August or September of 2004, I stumbled upon a book that changed my life forever. The South Beach Diet proved to be for me the catalyst for weight loss, a healthier lifestyle, more informed eating habits and subsequently 3 full marathon and 1 half ultra finishes, not to mention a bunch of half marathons. Some of my friends from my cricketing days labelled me "fatboy slim", a tribute to my weight loss from more rotund days as a cricketer. What followed my weight loss was something that probably defined me and continues to define me in terms of my identity: that of a "runner". My second identifier in life I would say after being labeled a "cricketer" for a good 12 years of my life.
Much water has passed under my muddled and sometimes confusing existence but I kept coming back to the south beach book over the past 12 years. I am back to it again now and on day 6 of phase 1. I'm hoping to clean and balance out my blood chemistry. Wean myself off the nasty cravings for processed sugars and bounce back to my hey days of 2007-08 when I probably was the fittest I have ever been in my life. My full marathon time on a humid, hot, unforgiving Mumbai day of 4:40 is testimony to that. 4:40 isn't even an averagely good time but when I think about just how poor my training regimen then was, just how little I knew about preparing for 42 km without all the tech and nutrition I now have access to, it was a feat worthy of recognition. I had no GPS, no distance tracker, no gatorade, no gels, no books, no nothing. I just ran. and ran and ran. And God was I strong. I want to rediscover that. I want to be back in that place. The journey again as always begins now.
I dream of a 100K. I dream of an Ironman. I yearn to push the limits of what I've already achieved and see what else I can do, what other identities I can garner. This isn't a push for glory or prizes. It's an all-consuming inner desire to discover more and learn what else I am capable of. I don't want to look back in 20 years and think about what could have been. 2017 may well be the year when I rediscover that 2007 level of fitness and strength. But it begins now. One life. As that striking Under Armour ad puts it, "It's what you do in the dark, that puts you in the light."
Much water has passed under my muddled and sometimes confusing existence but I kept coming back to the south beach book over the past 12 years. I am back to it again now and on day 6 of phase 1. I'm hoping to clean and balance out my blood chemistry. Wean myself off the nasty cravings for processed sugars and bounce back to my hey days of 2007-08 when I probably was the fittest I have ever been in my life. My full marathon time on a humid, hot, unforgiving Mumbai day of 4:40 is testimony to that. 4:40 isn't even an averagely good time but when I think about just how poor my training regimen then was, just how little I knew about preparing for 42 km without all the tech and nutrition I now have access to, it was a feat worthy of recognition. I had no GPS, no distance tracker, no gatorade, no gels, no books, no nothing. I just ran. and ran and ran. And God was I strong. I want to rediscover that. I want to be back in that place. The journey again as always begins now.
I dream of a 100K. I dream of an Ironman. I yearn to push the limits of what I've already achieved and see what else I can do, what other identities I can garner. This isn't a push for glory or prizes. It's an all-consuming inner desire to discover more and learn what else I am capable of. I don't want to look back in 20 years and think about what could have been. 2017 may well be the year when I rediscover that 2007 level of fitness and strength. But it begins now. One life. As that striking Under Armour ad puts it, "It's what you do in the dark, that puts you in the light."
posted by Abs @ 8:59 AM
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