Musings of a runner: On Intensity

Intro

This blog as might be apparent from the title has to do with running, biking and basically other outdoor individualistic sports, sometimes extreme, such as rock climbing . But don't be surprised if you find articles on work, personal life, music and even philosophy, this blog is an exception in this aspect in the blogosphere of running blogs and I am trying to revamp the blog to make it more runner friendly. You might want to look at the sidebar titled 'categorised', which as is obvious, categorizes my posts into different areas of interest.
The other thing that might interest many people is a section on 'running videos' and 'general videos' on the side bar, which I keep updating now and then.
I plan to bring in more posts on running and biking, with some added colour, so as to make them 'complete'. That's about it for now.
As a post-note, I have run a half-marathon, but I am yet to attempt a marathon, which through some concerted effort and time should happen in the future, but that ofcourse is not the culmination of this blog, it would on the contrary be something to jumpstart this blog onto new vistas.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

On Intensity

Just finished my spring quarter. Pretty intense 5 days I had finishing up projects. I went hiking to Tiger Mountain I, two weeks back. It's one of my favorite spots. Tiger III is the more popular one during the weekends. But Tiger I is usually deserted. Atop Tiger I is a small bench and there is also a hut made of aluminum sheets nearby called hiker's hut for shade. This trip saw me enjoy the sunny weather. I reached the top at 5:15 pm and sat on the bench, enjoying the view of Mount Rainier and the valley nearby. I then settled down for a pleasant 30 minute meditation, with little birds chirping around and the wind brushing against my face.
Coming down from the Tiger mountain was pretty intense. Why? I had a deadline to meet!!
I had to catch a bus at 7 pm(the next bus was at 9 pm) and I left the top at 6:15 pm. I under-estimated the time it would take me to get down. Jogging down the trail is not easy with lots of small stones, wood, and slippery edges around. You have to be totally focused on the trail. A second's error could mean a slip which may or may not be fatal. It was pretty intense for me for this reason coupled with the fact that I had to meet the 7 pm deadline. 6:50 pm I had almost reached the base of the hill and the highway in sight. Now I had to just make a sprint to the finish. Wow, this reminds me of my undergrad running sessions of around 5kms.. It was pretty intense. We were three guys and we started off slow, atleast I did, but I would catch up with others and then towards the end, in the last 1km stretch we would be pushing our limits in order to beat the other guy.
This 7pm deadline of catching the bus reminding me of that intensity... It's like, when you are done with it, you tell yourself, you are not going to do it again.. Not at that level of intensity anyway, but you do it anyway. Intensity. It's good to befriend it.
Coming back, I reached the bus stop at 7:01 pm. But guess what? The bus was late by 10 minutes!! But this intensity that I felt while jogging or sometimes running downhill (going with the grade) made me wonder if I could apply the same intensity to my work more often.
I had the opportunity this week.. One of the most intense weeks I have had. But it's a different kind of intensity, involving lack of sleep and stress. I prefer a quiet kind of intensity, an inner intensity, that doesn't necessarily express itself as stress in the body, and an intensity that's long-term, and an intensity that's sustainable.