Last Updated: February 9th, 2021
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One f**king year and no improvement…Everyone seems to be faster than me…Why Am I So Slow At Running?
Are you often bothered by these question?
My friend Rick, definitely is…
Rick and I have been friends since school and he is the longest relationship I ever had…part from my recent crush Garmin vívofit 2 Activity Tracker
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Why Am I So Slow At Running?
When Rick asked me this question, it was after that day’s run.
He was pretty upset about his little to no progress in the last year.
And the worst thing is, this poor fellow is putting in so much effort to improve.
Like, eating right, running every other day… But, speed and stamina seem to be elusive of him.
Since I’m just a beginner, I had no answer to his question… 🙁 But the friend in me, wanted to desperately help him…
So, I started doing some research…
I came across this wonderful article about the reasons for slow running by Jason Fitzgerald.
Immediately I called up Rick and forced him to meet me… This is what happened next…
Once seated comfortably with our huge Lattes (Hey! Don’t Judge…one sin is allowed. Trying to comfort a friend…remember?), I shot my first question at him…
What is your current lifestyle like?
He raised his left eyebrow sarcastically but answered it anyway…
It turns out, he has been overworking…
Since he got promoted last year as a project manager, his job has become very demanding.
It was very stressful and sometimes he is not getting enough time to eat.
He gets up around 4:30 AM in the morning most of the days for a workout and goes to sleep only by 12:00 AM
He still feels there is not enough time in the day…
Listening to this, I was thinking…OMG…How can someone work so much? :O
He definitely did not hear about The lazy project manager
BTW, previously I didn’t tell him our meeting reason 😛
He would not have met me..now I sound like a “
But hey..
Anyways, now his curiosity peaked….and I revealed the grand purpose of our meeting…
Why Am I So Slow At Running?
He laughed at me and
Let’s finish our coffee and head out… 🙁
Momentarily I felt so stupid…but I was not ready to give up…
I literally begged and pleaded him to stay…..and gave him
And yep…it worked…..
Aha! time to bell the cat
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This variety of tea not only acts as a muscle relaxant but also helps in better sleep
Less Sleep
First of all, we all underestimate the power of sleep…
This is one of the most important aspects of our fitness that is often overlooked…
Rick is sleeping way too less…only around 4 and 1/2 hours a day.
Our body needs for proper recovery at-least 7 hours sleep for a full recovery…
Which means he has to increase his sleep by 2 and 1/2 more hours.
He screamed at me… “THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!!!!
What do you want? Should I sleep for the entire day?
Don’t you know that I’m buried under work?”
✅ Tip: If you are feeling overwhelmed and need some instant relaxation, sip some hot tea without sugar and milk.
This specific kind of tea has relaxation power and gives you instant calmness
Method of Preparation:
- Bring a cup of water to boil
- Then turn off the heat
- Put a heaped teaspoon of the tea in the water
- Let it steep for 5-10 min
- Strain before drinking
Let’s continue…
I’m also not ready to back down…
I calmly said, don’t do it in one shot…
Try to increase it by 15 min every other week…
Aha! Now he is listening…
Some more Q&A revealed, that he is a control freak at work…
This has stopped him from delegating anything…even the most inconsequential ones.
This must change…
So, I gave him his first task…..In the next 7 days, he will find out some no-brainer to delegate.
Those tasks should be something like pulling out reports or responding to some trivial emails, etc.
Also, since he is not comfortable, he will only delegate this to his top team members.
He gently was nodding his head…meaning he is agreeing to the plan
Time It Right…
Another major problem was…he is skipping meals often…
Imagine, how his body will feel…
In the morning he is forcing it to run, and in the afternoon he is not providing it with food.
Poor thing…it is worst than torture
No wonder it is not able to perform…
As I’ve learned from the book Don’t Lose Out, Work Out! our body needs food after every stressful event
Otherwise, none of our efforts will work
But the question here is why?
Why was he not eating on time?
He is working with some important clients based in Singapore and the UK.
Singapore is ahead of India, by 2:30 hours and the UK is around 3:00 hours behind us.
So, the best possible time for him to have a meeting is 1:00 PM Indian Standard Time or our lunch hour
These meetings get dragged most of the days.
By the time its over, our lunch hour is over and he has to run to another meeting…
So, unwilling he has to skip the lunch or make it very short
The problem is…
I cannot force him to eat lunch at 1:00 PM…
So, my best bet was to ask him to eat it early…
We decided the time can be somewhere from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
He agreed to block his calendar from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM so that nobody can schedule a meeting at that time.
With his lunch routine set, he agreed to block his calendar from 7:30 PM to 8:00 PM for early dinner as well…
Now we have to attack his 3rd problem…which is…
Stress…
By this time Rick became pretty interested in the process…
He was seeing light at the end of the tunnel…
Now it was not only about running faster, but he felt that this process can help him to have a much healthier lifestyle…. (We are still in Starbucks…irony 😉 )
For me, this one issue was a bit of a challenge to tackle…
I didn’t know what exactly was causing him stress…apart from work…of course…
With some further probing, he said that he has lost a lot of money in the stock market and is going through a financial crisis…
He said that it is becoming overwhelming for him, with mortgage, family, kids…and it seems like he is not doing enough…
Ouch! I know how that feels…
But what is the way out of this…
✅Tip: Learn to plan your finances early in life. It will help you in your rainy days
These resources will help you to put together a financial plan even if you are a dummy
Count your blessings…AKA MONEY…
This is a trick that I’ve figured out during one of the most crisis-hit times of my life…
I’ll not lie to you…this did not solve any of my problems…but took some stress out of it…
With a cool head..I was able to think clearer….and was able to get out of it
I thought to show Rick this trick…
He confessed that he lost almost 20 lacs in Stock Market… in dollars, it will be around $33 grand
WOW!!! that’s a lot…
Anyways….who am I to judge…
So, I asked him to take a piece of paper and write down what are the financial assets he has…
It turns out…
He has 50 Lacs in Fixed Deposits
50 Lacs in Mutual Funds
1 House worth 3 Million
Some Bonds of 70 Lacs valuation and some more…
He actually was astonished to find out that he had around 20 lacs profit in his mutual funds
Now was the time for me to scream at him…
WTF…
With so much of assets, why was he stressing over 20 lacs…Not saying that it is a small amount…but…
It turns out, his wife manages most of his finances…especially the investment part…he is never good with it
But he kept stock investment hidden from her as she was against it…
He could not let go of the thrill of doubling his money (I don’t get it why people don’t learn it first. there are so many good books like The Intelligent Investor or The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing)
So, the decision was easy…he would come clean to his wife first…
And then start following the below plan…
We needed a simple plan to prevent him from getting stressed…
I cannot do anything about his money issue…but can help him to reduce stress…
I suggested him to skip his strength training class for a day in the week and go for Yoga
Also, meditate, for 20 min in the morning and evening every day.
But as always…..starting slow is the key…
The Plan…
So, now we have a plan in place…
- He will gradually increase his sleep time from 4:30 hours to 7:00 hours daily…
- He will delegate those repeatable no-brainer tasks to his competent employees…
- He will block 12:00 PM To 1:00 PM and 7:30 PM -8:00 PM for having lunch and dinner respectively
- He will meditate for 20 min every morning and/or evening every day.
- He will maintain a journal
The disadvantage of knowing a friend for a long time is that…you know them too well…
I knew that he will relapse and will not follow through the plan…
So, to keep him accountable…we agreed to meet once in every 15 days…to discuss his progress and challenges he was facing…
Our first meeting is on 17th Of June…
Conclusion
Though I’m a beginner in the world of running, it felt extremely good to be able to help a friend out…
The feeling is out of this world…
I don’t know whether he’ll succeed or not…but now at-least I’ve an definite answer to the question “Why Am I So Slow At Running?”
What are the reasons that slowed you down and how did you overcome it?
Loved the story? Share It…
Madhusree Basu
Author, Admin
Blogger and a fitness enthusiast. She loves running and Yoga and everything in between. She started running to manage her weight and to eat to her heart’s content. A true foodie at heart she shares whatever knowledge she has gained throughout the years about weight management and fitness.
I want to start running, however I don’t improve my pace every time I start . I loose hope and eventually stops
Hi Rampa, This typically happens if you try to compare your speed with the last time you stopped. I would suggest you do this…go for a morning or a evening jog. Don’t think about speed or anything. Just go for a jog. By the end of it, check how much you have run and in what time. Again, don’t compare it with your previous timing.Take that as your base speed. I think you already have a target speed in mind. To achieve that, just break it down into small steps. They work on each step and try to improve from your base speed. Don’t try to achieve it all at once. Give yourself as much time as needed and track it.
Also, your speed may not improve if you have a weak core and hip. Check out my hip flexor strengthening article. Work on strengthening them.
I bet you will improve in no time. Let me know if you still face issue. I’ll try to help you out with whatever little knowledge I have