The First

There has a been big buzz lately regarding Running in India, suddenly many running events like airtel delhi half marathon, hyderabad half marathon , mumbai marathon, etc have surfaced. So what is this buzz all about why is everybody running.

I am Saurabh Gupta, Male, Age-29, by profession I am a Mechanical Engineer and am running a manufacturing industry in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. During my college days I was Football goalkeeper and decent Cricket All rounder, was neither fat nor thin and an occasional gym goer.

After college and joining my company in Allahabad, my work required 9 to 7 commitment and frequent out of city trips thus couldn't get involved in regular GYM or any sports activity. Four years passed since my college and I found myself from 74 kg to 93 kg (my height is 5' 11"). Slowly I started suffering from knee pain, laziness and lack of interest in work, all these signs were alarm for my current unhealthy state and more pain in future.

The realization

One fine evening I decided to change myself but then next morning I found myself too lazy to get out. These failing commitments where common but change in health was not coming easy.
I enrolled in GYM class and found myself skipping it after 2nd week, then I joined Tennis class but again the same result but within a week, bought my home GYM Barbell and Dumbbells but again no improvement.

Walk

My father is diabetic and his health started deteriorating so I decided to take him for a walk every morning. The time spent walking with him was the best time of the days and after several months of 30 min walking for 4-5 days a week I was feeling good but not active, lethargy had caught me and was denying to let me free and my weight remained were it was i.e. at 93

RUN
One April, 2013 morning as usual I went with my father for walk in Chandra Shekhar Azad Park and on this day Airforce had organised a 5K running event. I was late to participate in it but was excited to see the final winners. The race ended on high note but a new dawn had come upon me. I thought I tried cricket, football, badminton, tennis, gym, swimming and walk but nothing killed my lethargy so lets try Running.

So next morning I started running and after 100mtr run I was panting like its my last breathe and eventually had to take a bench. Disappointed I searched on internet for some running training plan and found a Couch to 5K program with 3days a week running program and run/walk approach. Still something was missing, I was not enjoying the runs, the knee pain were increasing and running of more than 30 sec was like running a Triathlon for me and then I started to lose interest in Running.

After trying for two months and suffering fromintense pain in my knees, I had to stop my runs for four months. I had decided that I will not leave this sport so I used my break in researching my mistakes and getting tips from experts
After intense research, I found following faults

1. Was striking heal first.
2. Was running too fast.
3. Had no breathing control.

On my upcoming posts
I will focus on following list of topics

• Beginner Running tried and tested training plan
• Beginner motivations
• Common running mistakes
• and my journey into running world
• Good running forms
• and RUNNING in INDIA

Currently I am striving to achieve my first 5 km run and will gladly take all of you along with me into this fun journey and beyond (I feel already excited and will start 10K training as soon as 5K is achieved)

Hope to see you soon.......