Other than the familiar sounding title, this hasn’t got any other similarities with Aamir’s run in one of his popular movies. Can’t imagine where I would land attempting to do something like he did in the movie here in China.
The background – What’s with the title then? 3 weeks to go for the Shanghai marathon 2022, I had applied for it hoping to get qualified and started with the preparation. Till then I had participated only in 1 half marathon in 2021 in Wuxi, China with a completion time of 2 hrs 39 min (pace of 7 min 34 sec/km, nothing much to boast about). I wanted to prepare for a better show this time. To expedite the preparation in the short time of 2 weeks that I had, I decided to challenge myself with 10 km run every day for 10 consecutive days (total of 100 kms run in 10 days), improving pace by 10 mins by Day-10. That’s my Dus-Dus ki Daud or the run of 10-10. I completed the 10 kms run on Day-1 in 69 mins (Pace 6 mins 53 secs/km), hence my target for Day-10 was less 10 mins i.e., 59 mins (Pace 5 min 53 secs/km), so I had to improve pace by little over 1 min each day for the 10 km run. Seemed fair and doable on paper, till I hit the road.
While I started my run with focus and commitment, I took a key factor for granted, which unfortunately didn’t go as expected. On the 3rd day I got to know that I haven’t got selected in the draw for the Shanghai marathon, but on the positive side by then I was hooked to the Dus-Dus ki Daud and wasn’t going to give up on that.
When it comes to performance, there is no better teacher than a sport. While you would get to know what I achieved if you choose to read further, something that I got as a bonus while reflecting on the experience of 10 days are, 10 valuable lessons on performance.
- Day 1 – Consistency for predictability, Inconsistency for potential
(10 km, Time Taken – 1:09:00 hrs, Average – 6 min 53 sec/km)
There were 2 distinct methods to choose from:
Method 1 – Time consistency, maintain consistent speed every km
Method 2 – Push yourself harder in a km or few, might result in energy drain sooner with speeds dipping in few other km runs
I chose to sprint 150-200 mts in any one of the km legs which helped me in understanding my potential speed (6 min 19 sec/km)
Do not miss the opportunities to sprint, it helps to identify potential
- Day 2 – Good start or good luck!! Either can help mitigate uncertainties on the road ahead, while you can choose one, the other chooses you (or maybe not)
(10 km, Time Taken – 1:07:43 hrs, Average – 6 min 46 sec/km)
Average pace target for Day-2 was 6 min 47 sec/km. I decided to go better than the average in the 1st km so that I could improve pace and assess the efforts required for every km of run to the deliver the target for the day.
First km better than target average, helps estimate the relative efforts required every km to achieve the target
- Day 3 – Hard work not visible = hard work not done. Every milestone achieved is important to success, make all of them visible
(10 km, Time Taken – 1:06:59 hrs, Average – 6 min 41 sec/km)
Reflecting on the running route results of Day-1 & 2, I realized that when I chose to take a U turn at a milestone on the way back every km completed overshadows/overlaps an earlier milestone, example – if I take a u turn at 6th km and return on the same route, the 7th km milestone will overlap with 5th km, 8th will overlap with 4th. Is this a concern? Maybe not, however from a bird’s eye view one can see only 6 milestones on the map and not 10.
Milestones must be timed and spaced well to be visible, so that they aren’t overshadowed
- Day 4 – Horses for courses is step 2, first is familiarizing with different courses to make the right choice
(10 km, Time Taken – 1:05:58 hrs, Average – 6 min 35 sec/km)
3 consecutive days of run on the same route started causing a bit of boredom, but the bigger concern was developing complacency due to familiarity of the route, it was more like home turf now. Where to speed up, when to experience the hurdles, the work arounds, etc all were well identified now. Thanks to a friend, on Day 4 I figured a racetrack close to my home. The sight of a racetrack initially gave a good feeling as the boundaries seemed defined. One just needs to keep running round in circles for 10 kms and you are done with it. The complete route for every km is visible to the eyes. I started with high energy in the 1st km scoring the best pace of 6 min 6 sec/km till that day, only to realize later that this was getting so monotonous. Running 2 ½ times around the ground to complete every km, meant I would have to run 25 rounds. Familiar surroundings every time, not much technique to apply, just gather energy to improve speed. This felt much like working for home. However, by the end of it I realized it was a good decision to do the tracks which threw a completely different set of challenges.
Try different turfs, to assess performance in different environments and related challenges
- Day 5 – Proactive or forced? – Do not wait for the last mile to sprint.
(10 km, Time Taken – 1:04:49 hrs, Average – 6 min 28 sec/km)
The monotony on Day-4 created lot of pressure in the last 3 kms. I had to run the last km at a never done before pace to salvage the day (6 min 3 sec/km). There was too much pressure and any lapses in those last 3 kms would have resulted in missing the target for the day. On Day-5, I committed to pushing myself to have the high performance of the last 3 kms of Day-4, in the first 5 kms. That way I would probably plan to deliver and not get forced to, like on Day 4.
Delivering target is not a choice, planning it proactively is
- Day 6 – Bringing down inefficiency (too) = improving performance
(10 km, Time Taken – 1:03:51 hrs, Average – 6 min 22 sec/km)
It’s Day-6 and I still had 1 km which took 7 min to complete. Having to clock around 6 min 15 sec/km on Day-7, 7 min+/km pace was a big deterrent causing inefficiency. While I try to improve my pace in every km each day, every 7 min/km is building that much pressure and inefficiency. Aiming to get rid of the 7s on Day 7.
Best of efforts can be neutralized due to inefficiency
- Day 7 – Mutual admiration while retaining competitive spirit. That’s the magic of effective teamwork
(10 km, Time Taken – 1:02:38 hrs, Average – 6 min 15 sec/km)
Every week we have 10 km team run with office colleagues. Usually with 3-6 colleagues joining every week, this week there were only 2 of us. I had to clock a pace of 6 min 15sec/km, get rid of 7’+/km pace for any of the km. If there were more people I wouldn’t feel as much guilty running at my self-committed pace, but there were just 2 of us here. I had 2 choices, either settling for the pace that suits both of us and keep this day out of consideration or share with the colleague what I am up to and excuse for speeding up during the run if I end up doing so. I chose to align him, and he was courteous enough to acknowledge and offer to try to catch up. The result that day was, I did an average pace of 6 min 15 sec/km while he did a 6 min 14 sec/km.
Lessons learnt – Keep transparency of your actions in teamwork, teamwork has the potential to get better results, never underestimate the caliber of a colleague, learn, observe and then comment. And yes, teamwork can help you get rid of your inefficiencies, I finally got rid of the 7+ min/km today
- Day 8 – No learnings is a learning too
(10 km, Time Taken – 1:01:13 hrs, Average – 6 min 07 sec/km)
There was nothing special about the run today, other than it drizzled during the last 3 kms. We need not try hard to find learnings in everything we do, some days do not offer anything special, and probably that’s very much the learning from those days.
- Day 9 – Break the routine – Follow and respect routine, but do not be a slave to it
(10 km, Time Taken – 0:59:54 hrs, Average – 5 min 59 sec/km)
At the risk of draining my stamina for most of the run, I decided to go sub 5 min/km and even managed a 4 min 56 sec. I need an average of close to 6 mins/ km this day, hence there was no need to go for a sub 5 km/min as such. But this was Day-9, and not a bad situation to take risk and break the routine.
Following a routine helps get discipline to your approach, but it can make you that much predictable for others to decode
- Day 10 – A target delivered is just the beginning of another
(10 km, Time Taken – 0:56:22 hrs, Average – 5 min 38 sec/km)
I got a call in the morning of Day-10 from a friend that there are some slots available for the marathon in the city of Huzhou (about 150 kms from Shanghai) on the same day as Shanghai marathon, suggesting if I am interested, I can get a sponsored invite. Fate got me a completely unexpected opportunity to run a marathon on the same day that I had initially wanted to run. So, on the Day-10, I had 2 choices – after already achieving the 10 mins improvement target on Day-9 itself, either I maintain the same pace or go for the kill and try to get whatever best can be got, which might set the base for the half marathon at Huzhou. I did 10 kms in around 56 mins (pace – 5 min 38 sec/km). This was close to 13 mins better than Day-1 versus a target set of 10 mins. The last day saw a leap by 3 mins which was on an average close to 1 min every day for the first 9 days. Was it owing to the urge for delivering well in the half marathon? Visibility of a new target can change the dynamics significantly. Most often it is difficult to escape this target servitude, hence attempting to make it motivating may possibly make life better.
That concludes my Dus-Dus ki Daud with the planned target achieved. The experience as exciting as it was in many parts, it was also a grind running for 10 consecutive days out of which 9 days were solo runs. I felt like giving up on 3-4 occasions during the 10 days but fortunately that didn’t happen due to my commitment towards the target. Later I managed to complete the Huzhou half marathon run in 2 hrs 08 mins with a pace of 6 min 6 sec/km. The interesting part of that was I took 54 mins to complete the first 10 kms of the half marathon (further bettering my pace) and then suddenly the pace started dropping. I had been practicing 10 kms runs every day so ended up bettering time on that front, however the other 11 kms of the half marathon of 21 kms turned out to be a different ball game. So, while I plan my next to tackle 21 kms (half marathon) better, you might want to pick up a sport and plan your story on performance.
Views expressed are personal.
