Running and fitness ki Duniya

Words/terminology/expressions

Explained: थोड़ा सीधा-थोड़ा  टेढ़ा

Photos courtesy: BNP GR friends and Pexels.com

 

 11/50

Recovery

One of the most essential, but most ignored, purposefully not understood word/term/process related to any form of physical exertion.🤷‍♂

 

Doing heavy weights‍♀🏋 in the gym is sexy as you can assume that you are impressing the girl/s around.😎

 

Doing BRM again and again 🚴and behaving as “Mr Know-it-All” to rookies in cycling Or running round 🏃🏻and round in the stadium for 24 hours (without feeling giddy) Or beating your own Ultra PBs Or becoming a  multidisciplinary sports person : duathlon/triathlon  ;all of this/any of this can make you a demigod.😇

All the activities when you are in action can give proof of your supremacy.

The most perplexing aspect of the fitness world is what really happens when you are resting during recovery! And it(showing the process of recovery) cannot even be used to impress anyone!

Just imagine, you posting your sleeping pose on facebook or twitter!😂

On the second thought that you must do it, you might create the max reaction record to your post which will be obviously taken as THE TROLL. You may beat the trolling record of Trump! (best comments will come from your best friends)🤣🤣

Recovery is strictly “off doing” anything. The best recovery time is when you are having sound sleep. (Non-REM phase can be better for body repairs and tissue regrowth.)

When you pump in weights in Gym, you are inducing microtears in your muscles. There are fancy names, if, one digs into muscles anatomy, but what is interesting is that the muscles get repaired and grow more during the recovery phase. It’s a beautiful cycle of controlled muscles use, or you may say abuse followed by repairs and better build up. Use it/load it smartly and they grow, and ironically if you do not use/load/challenge your muscles, over the period you lose whatever you have.

 

Recovery starts with rest and proper nutrition care.

What? You have not read above till the end? Oh, fell off to recovery(sleep)?

 

 12/50

Brick Workout:

 

You are a newbie and in one of your own LR, you meet a few elites of the group running together. You have some vague readings: One of them is actually doing something linked to target linked running and other is there to help her/him

 

You overhear something like:

“Oh she/he is doing brick today and I am pacing  her/him”

Now what an earth do bricks have to do with running? Are there actual bricks/loads to be lifted during the run as some kind of weight-run training?

You are too embarrassed with your own stupid thought process.

brick workout: basically, when you execute cycling and running at one go ( or with very less time leg) you are basically stacking two disciplines during the same workout, one after the other with minimal to no interruption in between.  You can have more than two disciplines to make your brickwork challenging! It can be Swimming+cycling+running.

Why is it done: To train for duathlons/triathlons. You are preparing yourselves for the real race day situation.

Why such a weird name for this work out: There are various reasons, and none sound great or interesting for this weird sounding name.

1)Brick like feeling in your legs when one switches from cycling to running.

Maybe this is to do with blood circulation( a more interesting term: blood shunting !)the heart-brain -blood recirculation system has to readjust once you switch from cycling mode to running which has more impact and body weight balancing challenges.

2)Brick also indicated some kind of stacking: one brick on the other. Running stacked on cycling

3) Brick can even be linked to some one’s name\surname who must have first proposed the race like sequence as part of the training. Whatever the reason it will only sound sexy only when you have promoted yourselves from a simple solo discipline like running to duathlon or triathlon …..till then running matters😉!!!

Interesting experiment: If you are part of only runners group, you guys can have a friendly brick work out for your own members.  For one of the group run day, group cycling   followed by running for the planned duration can be scheduled, just to have that brick-like legs feeling during the run😉😝  More enthusiasts can do swimming and then join the group

13/50

Heart Rate

दिल दा मामला है

(It is silly- related to the heart)

How we wish that we were trained with the concept of 💓 rate much earlier in life(before we started running seriously).

Ideal training is when heart rate methodology is strongly incorporated in your life.

Situation 1/training ground 1

You are young and ready to indulge/explore: just out of class 10

Now in junior college: 16 years old You are standing in some silly queue (there will be many in your educational journey)

One of the most happening girls from your class approaches you (you have been desperately wishing to get her recognition: however fleeting it  maybe )

She to you: Excuse me!

You:(almost automatically jump as your heart is thumping) 210

{(In bambaiya logo: ये तो 210 वाला माल है oh this babe is 210 (she is so mesmerising that my heartbeat shoots up to 210 b p m.}

As a girl or boy, you are well aware that love/infatuations/lust are linked directly to the heart and hence you all know the essential terminology.

Situation 2/training ground 2

You have slogged for two nights (even sacrificed the India -Pak live cricket telecast with friends on a large screen)

Office: you have just started your powerpoint presentation and your tyrant boss shows his true colours. You are insulted and humiliated once more in front of everyone.

You : (observing the volcanic anger within you ) 195 and rising    .अब तो एक ख़ून माफ़ !( Oh God, grant me just one murder! )

So what if we were not well trained with दिल धड़कने दो-धड़कन को गिन लो टाइप  ( dil dhakne do -dhadkan ko gin lo type, let the heartbeat so we can measure the heartbeats) one can still explore Running based on heart rate method

You have joined running for fun.

Soon you realise that FUN and RUN are just rhyming words.

Running world is full of technical jargons, mathematical formulas and a lot of science

Your max heart rate: Difficult to find out from simple methods. Ideally, you need to have a good number of running log trials with heart rate being measured. Study your own logs to find out your lactate thresholds (max lactic acid built-up )and interpolate max heart rate.

Once you have a good estimate of heart rate you can work out 1 to 5 heart rate running zones.

(You can scientifically get your max heart rate calculated by combining your VO2 max test)

Simpler way: magic number 220( Phil Maffetone magic no: 180 )

Deduct your age from this no.

So if you are 40 years then your assumed max heart rate is 180 b p m.( of course like in all mathematical formula there are always some margins-corrections: injury, fitness level, health, age etc will either add or knock of few digits here or there)

What is left is the maths which relates to different scientific studies and theories which will either challenge the established numbers or come up with new ones

Running pace which has heart rate measurement of 80 to 85 % of your max heart rate can be your marathon pace. ( if your fitness level is well maintained )

Your running training can be divided into 1 to 5 zones of paces which are linked to heart rates. ( zone 1 can be 50 to 60 % of your max heart run, zone 2 can be 60 to 70 %, zone 3 can be 70 to 80, zone 4 can be 80 to 90 and zone 5 can be above 90. One can custom made her/his own zones and heart rate running programme)

On the other end of the spectrum is your resting heart rate. When you measure your heart rate after a good sleep ( ideally you should measure this without much movement)

Days when you are not well, your body will indicate by showing a higher number of resting heart rate. It is the body’s way of telling you that your recovery is not proper.

How to measure:  wrist-mounted smartwatch, chest belts can give you heart rate readings and you can maintain logs. Running a 5 K at your maximum heart rate ( with pace held consistently throughout )can give some indication which can be closer to max figure.

You can work sincerely on your “touch and feel sense” and start measuring/counting pulse using your finger/s and read the pulse from your neck side or wrist.

Running within safe heart rate remains more into an aerobic zone ( Maffetone method is all for aerobic zone running ) and your muscles do not easily go into the oxygen-deprived zone.

So now you may join दिल धडकने दो टीम:dil dhadkne do team ( dil to hamesha dhadkta hi tha-ab bas aapne bus us dilki dhadkano ki ginati shuru ki hai )

{ let the heartbeat- weird expression: as the heart is alwayd beating, all you have done is: you have started measuring the beats}

4/50

C25K

Is it some kind of code?

Password?For some online account?

Crude chemical representation of some carbon and potassium combo?

Some SMS lingo?

Obviously none of above!

It’s the most tech sounding-mathematically inclined running term given to exclusive club/batch of any newbie🤓 :

Couch(representing a very sedentary lifestyle) to graduating to the running distance of full 5 kilometres.

It is also meant to convey to the newbie🥳 that running is not about wearing some sports shoes and start moving your non-moving couch-loving butts, but the whole new world of fitness and crazy sounding terminology (to make the whole thing more interesting )and entering into the exciting rabbit hole.

The C25K batches/clubs are usually started by running coaches or experienced runners who  have handled thousands of kilometres (it is cumulative running milage of their group )

For them preparing a coach potato for just  1 km or even  2 km is a kind of depressing! On the other end, the Potato Sahab himself is confused and full of self-doubt. For him, there are three most difficult task to overcome

1)sleep at reasonable hours(by sacrificing parties/movies/late nights ) and opening the eyes wide open in some insane morning odd hours

2)getting up from the bed

3)somehow by  God’s divine intervention reaching Borivali national park / any park-club so as to be with the group.

In C25K , newbies are slowly and scientifically introduced to the world of running. The whole aim is to make them stronger runners with greater mileage journey, keeping injury-free training in mind.

There can be different types of newbies.👇🏻👇🏻

 

15/50

Newbie /newbee (The Korean equivalent word sounds more interesting: Chobo”)

A new entrant not only into the world of running and fitness but in most aspects of life.

Obviously, there can be a variety of newbies (तुलसी इस संसार में भातभात के newbies)

Variety 1: “The middle-aged”(ages:30/35 plus ): basically now ‘officially’ known as uncles and aunties but have joined running and fitness with strong desires such as to rock their पुरानी jeans\ get back their college look🕺💃. Many may have been addressed as “uncles and aunties” at a relatively younger age only because of their continuous indulgence in food and total neglect towards the body. Few may have joined running-fitness programme assuming it as a रामबाण ईलाज/नुस्ख़ा (one final solution for all )which will solve all their problems. Few months into running and voilà: looking great again😎

Variety 2:  The “medically” challenged.

They were continuously failing every day’s self mirror test. Like a frog in water which is being heated very slowly over a long time period(wherein frog gets heated up along with water), they could see themselves every day in the mirror, but were missing the reverse kind of Kaisen (very slow and steady self deterioration)

One day after having enough of modern medicine, rising medical expenses, series of never-ending tests and having one of theराजरोग or the heart\limbs\brains have had enough; or any body part which declares itself “kaput”

Now you have  been prescribed some fitness programme: भाईसाहब,​ ज़िन्दगी में 45 minutes walking करो। थोड़ा योगा -वोगाकर लो (you slowly realise the unsaid words “बाकी ज़िन्दगी भर के लिए तुम्हे ढ़ेर सारी गोलियां खिलाने के लिए हमने ढ़ेर सारी दवाईयों की कंपनी पाल रखी है।उनकी भी दुकान चले-हमारी भी चले -सबका कल्याणहो” {unless or even if you take care of your health now (which by timeline is pretty late now), we are always there with a plethora of lifelong drugs, tests and our medical bills)

Variety 3: “Please the boss/group/colleagues types”.

They are into running/gymming/cycling/golfing as they want to belong to the right corporate/social peer group. Running with the boss, for the boss (yes, obviously with less pace than boss😛) is their mantra. Taking care of boss/seniors’ running programme, running an extra mile to get their bibs/T-shirts as part of their commitment.

Variety 4: The Self-doubt types.

They are somewhat couch potatoes. They have surrendered to modern tech for any movement of any of their limbs. They dream/own cars which are fully automatic: the AC is started 10 minutes before they get into the car, the boot opens/closes automatically. They do not have to use much body part which can use any three classes of levers based motions.

Home to office, office to panwala (for afternoon smoking) office to home/mall any kind of movement is by modern machine. For them running  1 km is like climbing Mount Everest. Will I be able to do this?

Initially, they must remain in a large runners group to remain motivated.

Variety 5: The Networking types:

They join running/gymming/ cycling or anything which provides them with people and a chance to connect.

Some may use the network for their own professional goals, but many are comfortable in the constant company of others. Running gives exclusive time to be with someone and this can be the sole reason to be into running.

Variety 6: In some super hurry:

On 3rd day into C25K running programme and “This time I have to do Mumbai Marathon (tata Mumbai marathon ).”

{Basically Bhai Sahab is into some well-known marathon sponsoring IT company and right from company’s CEO to one of the office assistant, everyone in that company has run at least one marathon.}Bhaisahab has realised that “oh, I have been left out”

So for him, there has to be some super fast-charging battery type of running programme. set-go and you are at selfie point with your friends with a finisher’s medal.😃

 

16/50

EPO

EPO??

For those who suck at jokes:

Since it rhymes with GPO so it must mean electronic post office ( general post office✉📪 and electronic post office📧)

(Or worse) it can be read as an electronic purchase order.

Or someone can really link it to electronic point of sale: ePoS💳

Erythropoietin: EPO

The way in which the modern sports world is introduced to EPO: It’s a performance-enhancing drug, banned since the nineties. EPO was made famous by Lance Armstrong 🚴🚴and internet is full of stories on EPO and its influence on some Kenyan and Ethiopian runners🏃🏾🏃🏾🏃🏾🏃🏾

The way in which modern medicine will try to introduce: Erythropoietin (EPO) is a naturally occurring substance in the body that aids in red blood cell (RBC) production.

The muscles locha and running :

As you run hard and fast, you trigger a chain reaction in your body. The pump (heart) works hard to pump in more blood to the “now challenged muscles” (and the other body parts).

cells are factories that take the raw materials along with oxygen and turn them into energy.

The blood has red cells which carry vital oxygen (the increased demand was also fulfilled by your lungs). As your ‘crazy love for running’ demands more work from muscles, mind-body detect now a lower than required level of oxygen:

ये साला सुधरने नहीं वाला (this running freak is not going to understand!)

and the body releases the required hormone EPO. The EPO stimulates an increase in red blood cell formation. Increasing the number of red blood cells in the body increases the ability to deliver oxygen to tissues

With the extra oxygen our aerobic capacity increases. If the cell factory runs out of oxygen, it turns to anaerobic metabolism, whose waste products shut down the ability to perform.

So where is the big LOCHA (problem): Synthetic (manmade) EPO was originally developed as an external drug in the early 1900s to aid people with poor RBC production or other disease pathologies such as anaemia. Soon sports world adopted it as a performance-enhancing drug.

An interesting aspect: Use of EPO as a performance-enhancing drug was immediately banned in the ’90s but reliable anti-doping tests for EPO were evolved and accepted only after the year 2000.🤦🏻‍♂🤦🏻‍♂😂{ it’s a different matter that whatever research is proven today can be/will be challenged tomorrow😉😛 ).

Overheard

R 1 (runner 1): I have found out from Google guru that if we take 6000 unit of EPO 3 times a week, it will increase the Hb by 2.4 g/dL. Can you tell me what will be overall improvement.?

R 2 (runner 2): Oh great फ़िर तो तेरा  sub 2  pucca.

(Dude if you stick to these dosages you will definitely finish a half marathon within 2 hours .)

【what ??????Now you also want a prescription for EPO?…..Oh, you want to improve your PBs in BNPGR’s Endurathon and Satara half Marathon.     🤦🏻‍♂🤦🏻‍♂🤦🏻‍♂🤦🏻‍♂🤪🥶😳🤥🤐🤐】

 

7/50

Foot Strikes

Disclaimer: I am only doing the gustakhi of explaining the term and not trying to be judgmental.

Runners high (one more expression which will be explored later )can make you sing:

आज कल पाँव ज़मीं पर नहीं पड़ते मेरे

बोलो देखा है कभी तुमने मुझे उड़ते हुए

(R.D.Burman/Gulzar /Lataji/Ghar)

(Nowadays I am always elated, always floating, my legs hardly touch the ground)

If you add a  good number of podiums and personal best than the song gets modified to

जो भी चाहूँ, वो मैं पाऊँ

जिंदगी में जीत जाऊँ

सारी दुनिया पर मैं छाऊँ

मैं बन जाऊँ सब से बडा

(Jatin-Lalit/Javed Akhtar/Abhijeet /Yes Boss)

{Oh whatever I wish must happen now, I want to remain the winner )

Whatever may be your list of achievements as a runner, Or even if you get to wear Nike’s custom-engineered Zoom Vaporfly (very interesting नामकरण: again talking Gulzarish: related to Flying only😀) elite marathon shoes( of sub  2 hours project ),still when it comes to your contact relationship with mother earth, it is usually one of the following three ( and nowhere related to flying😛)

1)*Heel strike contact

2) Midfoot  strike contact

3) Forefoot strike contact

Heel strike: As a runner when you run with this form, your first point contact with the surface is your heel, with toes pointing up.( To a perplex  newbie one can say: Ankle is dorsiflexed 🤔😉 )It’s kind of V sign when you hit the surface. As you land there is an impact below your ankle joint. In heel striking, the collision of the heel with the ground generates an impact transient, a nearly instantaneous, large force. 🎳(This force may send a shock wave up through the body via the skeletal system.) What follows is the proper foot rollover and the final force is generated which propels the runner. Graphically this is represented by two peaks, the first one is heel strike one and the second is the main force.

Forefoot striking: Here runner usually lands on outside the forefoot (the ball of the foot). There is no other impact transient, but a kind of smooth rising and falling force/impact vs time curve.

Midfoot striking: It’s a मध्यम मार्ग 😇(The middle path). Life at times tells us not to choose extremes. It is not easy to be at one end or the other.😟 Working on the two extremes always requires different skill sets. In midfoot runner lands on the area just behind the ball of the foot (and someone may smartly add “just ahead of the heels”🤣). The surface area during the contact is quite large in this style.

So, what is your running style?.  Or how many from your group are heel strikers and doing very well? 🏃‍♀🏃🏾Maybe one should do a little survey.

It is also difficult to self-analyze your own style when it comes to long-distance running vis a vis the pace at you are running for the complete stretch/distance. You may have self-declared yourself as a mid-foot strike runner, but the slow-motion of your own running footage may give some other picture.

So, enjoy your running, keep striking the ground again and again, and sing along

Aaj mein upar, aasman niche,

Aaj mein aage, zamana peechhe

(Jatil-Lalit/Majrooh Sahab/Kavita K/Khamoshi the musical)

(today I am above the sky, I am much ahead of everyone)

 

18/50

RONAR

(With this I am taking the liberty to introduce new word/term coined by me related to the world of fitness and running.🥳I have not come across this term anywhere on internet, so I express my moral rights on the word/term🤦🏻‍♂🤦🏻‍♂😛)

Overheard

P1(person 1): we had the usual review meeting.

Ashish (the name used only as an example:it could be any name) just couldn’t explain the fall in the numbers!

P2 (person 2): पता था !, (I knew it )You need the depth to understand the dynamics. उसे कहाँ से समझ में आएगा? He is not a runner

(How will he know? He is not a runner )

Confused ???? Maybe you are not a runner or maybe you have not reached the required “runners psycho levels”

RONAR: Runner Or ‘Not A Runner ‘

This term is coined by me🤦🏻‍♂😛 and it is a salute to the latest classification/segregation in today’s corporate/working world/Housing complexes/Society in general

Runners working together in any company or runners belonging to any housing complex have started wearing new glasses 😎to see and classify the world. They see the world from a different perspective. For them, serious running transforms you. They know and are convinced😂 of the following facts

As one’s running  journey evolves,

1)she/he becomes more focused

2)she/he is better in time management

3)she/he is a quick decision-maker as compared to a non-runner.

So what if it is some sales review meeting? For them, the executive can perform better/analyse the dynamics better if she/he is a runner for quite some time

So if you are a runner and during the new job interview if you find the HR head(a fellow runner) taking your interview…start also talking on *cadence and strides*. Compare *different races* and agree to her/his viewpoint. You are sure to get the job.

😁🤩🤣

19/50

 Expression: “terrible too’s”

Most runners take on the newly found mantra of *more the better*-when it comes to running.

Many runners are in a huge hurry just to recover on the lost opportunities/period.

Just imagine that you have been in the sedentary life mode for quite a lot of time.

By the grace of doctors and inflated medical bills, you realise that it’s high time that you stop abusing your body and start caring for it.

You are newly introduced to running/gymming and you really like it.

“Oh man, I have been doing wrong shit all these years. I should have been into gymming/running long back…Oh how much I have missed”

You love what you are doing and behave like a new convert.

You are now full throttle.

You get into all the running races. You travel outstation just to participate in marathons. Soon you do back to back marathons and the world starts praising you.

When you are not physically running/gymming then you are on social media showing the same thing.

In the gym, you hit all the machines and start comparing your biceps (dole-sholes)with others and look into the mirror after every rep.

You are now Mr Unstoppable.

But Mr Unstoppable is not aware that now he is  suffering from

terrible too’s

Too much, too fast, too quickly, too soon.

Soon you get to know one more *too*

Me Too: injured

🤐😉

20/50

सब की दुनिया (literal translation: everyone’s world)

Q: Does it make sense?

A: Yes and No

How about

Sub की दुनिया!?

Reaction: Yeh, but…Sub can be…

Read/Heard

“Nike spent Millions of  dollars on Sub 2 project.”

“You need to be a Sub 5 to qualify.”

“She can easily do a sub 4, but she is not pushing herself enough.”

“Yes, this time it was Sub Nine in the comrades “.

Welcome to one more world where less is sexy.

Your recreational running activity soon turns into the full-fledged competitive sports. It is fashionable to proclaim

“I am not competing with anyone but myself “ but the truth is that we are conditioned to excel when pitted against someone.

You get motivated to do better and soon learn the language.

You also realise that running a half marathon under /within two hours time duration (i.e say 1 hour 58 minutes) does not sound sexy and as you want to be on the correct side of the flow, you start using Sub Two is what I am training for my  next half

 

In the end, it is better to realise when someone says सब की दुनिया , they mean an exclusive Duniya of super achievers😎

😀😂😛