Wednesday, August 10, 2005

5x1 mile intervals: On Running and Nirvana

The interval workout on the Stanford tracks every Tuesday are probably even more difficult than the long runs. This time, it was bit of a sudden increase from 4x1 mile repeats from last Tuesday to 5x1 mile repeats. Or so it felt. This inspite of the increased recovery time to 3 minutes between the repeats. Anthony organized the Group-two-ers (my new group, I had to abandon Group#1 -- that elite group of fliers -- after my left leg shin pains). Time intervals did not turn out to be too bad: 7:38, 7:26, 7:18, 7:04, 7:22, but I was ready to give up after #4. Mile#5 was never to happen if it were not for the group, or Anthony.

That man - Anthony - is simply awesome. He inspires you and gets your best out. Sometimes I reflect late Tuesday or Wednesday about how I did my track workout. I wonder whether I could have put in a bit more effort. My answer has been usually "yes"! (Note: it never feels that way while being in the middle of them). But it was just not the case with yesterday's workout. Anthony took all the juice out of me. And he did it in a way that I can only be extremely thankful to him about. He shouted several times to me that "I could catch up to the leaders" in the last lap of mile#4 and I was indeed able to, with the gracious help from Aravind (who was leading along with Vignesh and Chandu, but actually slowed down just a bit, turned around to look behind at me, and stretched his hand back and out to make a gesture to me to speed up towards him). Thanks Aravind and Anthony!

The exhilaration that comes after the Tuesday workouts is an invaluable gift. While driving back from the tracks (a short 7 min drive for me), I was thinking about why the experience is so exhilarating. Yes, yes, I know about the endorphins... But I think it is quite a bit to do with the feeling of having participated in something really cool... something that we at this age don't do any more.... that is to just go for it without holding back and without thinking of all the reasons to hold back or not... to be simply free from brain's idle scheming and calculating (well absence of choice helps :-). Pardon me for the leap, but if this bit of freedom is so exhilarating, how happy "Nirvana" must be.... And what's the lesson? "Just go for it"!!

The following verse from the Buddhist text, Dhammapada, captures the instruction beautifully:

"Bhikshu, empty your boat! It will go faster."


(Bhikshu means monk)

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