By the end of this week, I would complete the six months since the day my prep began and I feel humble to see how far I have come so far.
The first half of 2020 done, excited about the second half!
Day 1 – Sunday, June 28, 2020 – Quarantine Day 104
It was an awesome way to kick off the week in style & we had to drive a couple of hours to enjoy this hike/beach day. This couple hours’ drive was totally worth it, after experiencing the hiking and some beach time.
The place was Saugatuck Dunes State Park. The good thing about this hike was that you had to hike at least 2-3 miles to get to the beach, so there was not a huge crowd at the beach, which gave us a little relief to go in water, given the Covid19 situation that we are in. The only people that were at the beach were with the boats and a handful like us who hiked to the beach.
It felt so refreshing to be in waters after so many months and I had a blast experiencing the fresh waters. By the time we headed back from the beach and reached the parking lot, we had already covered 5 miles of hiking, which was a good amount of work for the day. This was taken during one of the picturesque locations during the hike.
And this was the first glimpse of the beach. We could feel the cool breeze of the water and felt great as we were exposed to sun for more than an hour of hiking.
Day 2 – Monday June 29, 2020 – Quarantine Day 105
Monday couldn’t have been better. I ran THE PR FOR A 10K!
When I started the run in the morning at around 5.30 AM, I wasn’t planning to run that fast, but the cool temperature and my new shoes helped me finish the 3 mile mark before 30 minutes. That is when I realized I can go for a 10K under an hour. I started picking up some pace and felt really great about it. Unfortunately, my Apple Watch got soaked in sprinkler’s water and ended my run at around 3.39 mile mark, started an indoor run for a mile or so and then started a Soccer activity after that. I was so pissed because of this. Why can’t Apple figure out how to distinguish between water and my finger? FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS, I guess!
Anyway, based on the start time of the first activity and the end time of the last activity, I could figure out that I made it barely by 3 seconds and finished the 10K in 59:57. It was a huge thing and a personal milestone for me and will remember this for a long time.
Day 3 – Tuesday June 30, 2020 – Quarantine Day 106
The second run of the week and it couldn’t be more relaxing. Like yesterday, I wasn’t going for some pace for this run. I just wanted to enjoy my run and some Sun.
I have been using my usual route for these morning runs for a few weeks now and I realize the distance covered before my Apple Watch notifies me, so, it was awesome to realize the 5K distance covered with almost 10’ pace and went a little further to cover more distance before stopping my run. It was a good efforts with 3.5 miles under my belt.
The evening was really joyful with an hour of soccer with the kids. They are improving on a daily basis and have come a long way when we started the soccer practice a couple weeks ago.
Day 4 – Wednesday July 01, 2020– Quarantine Day 107
One more month down. June is finished and we are in the second part of 2020 and it doesn’t seem to get any better as the second and more destructive phase of COVID19 positive cases across the US.
We are all bracing ourselves for the more damage by the COVID19 crisis and at the same time, I am trying to keep things together and stay healthy and motivated.
I have been reading The 5 AM Club and that’s why starting today decided to follow the morning routine mentioned in the book. I will talk more about the morning routine in a separate post, but, to put it in a single sentence – the author has recommended to use the 1 hour from 5AM to 6AM for personal growth and improvements. That’s why, even I woke up at around 5AM, I didn’t go out for run at that time.
I was working on things mentioned in the book, when suddenly Mr. Arnav started calling for help. I think he was just having some nightmare. So, I had to stop whatever I was doing and comfort him. After making sure he was okay, I wanted to get back to whatever I was doing, but he insisted I stay with him, and hence, I decided to skip the routine for the day and start it from tomorrow. That’s where my entire morning went.
After wrapping up the day’s work and working more than usual, I decided to go out for running. I always dreaded running in the hot weather. Something about high temperatures and its effects on my body give me chills. This is one of the reasons I started running in the morning. Today, things were different and to achieve the run for the day, I had to face my fear and run in 86F temperature. It was something that I hadn’t done before, so I thought it would be interesting to find out whether I can sustain this brutal weather or not.
Turns out, I was worried for nothing. Not only I survived the entire run without water and food, I maintained such a stellar pace throughout the run that I outdid my previous run by more than 3 minutes. It was such an amazing feeling to find out my timing after finishing my run. I found out so many things about my body and the way it works in the high temperatures, but, most importantly, I found out how good my new shoes are and why they are treated with such respect in the running community.
I finished the 3.4 miles run at 9’35” pace, which is an awesome pace for me.
As soon as I got back from my run, I took a quick cold shower and headed out again with the kids for the evening soccer practice.
Day 5 – Thursday July 02, 2020– Quarantine Day 108
Today was the official last work day for the week as the US prepares for the 4th of July celebrations over the long weekend starting tomorrow.
Happy to say that I started my morning routine and today was the Day 01 of it. It will be a long 2 month time until I reach my goal, so I will keep you posted accordingly. I am just living in the moment and taking it one day at a time.
After finishing up my daily routine from 5AM-6AM, I headed out for my run and ran quite handsomely at 9’33” pace for 3.2 miles. The only difference between this run and the other runs was the route. I have been quite frustrated with all the bugs chasing me down while I am running in the morning. Even after putting on bug spray, I don’t seem to get away from them, therefore, I decided to run in the open and on the street in the community itself.
This was a big decision for me, as I love spending time in nature and get excited by being in the wildlife. But, this is a new thing which I desperately wanted to try and I was glad that I could do it.
Like yesterday, after finishing my run and taking care of some last minute requests from different teams at work, I headed out for soccer practice with kids. They are improving every day and today, they surprised me with their dribbling skills and awesome passing.
Day 6 – Friday July 03, 2020– Quarantine Day 109
It is finally Friday and I am ready to relax on a Friday after so many days.
One thing that you should know about me is that my most favorite thing in the world is AN AFTERNOON NAP. Nothing makes me happier than a good afternoon nap and sometimes if a nap is strong, I drool too. For the fast few months, I haven’t had a chance to enjoy my afternoon nap and I am okay with that as long as I am doing some productive activity.
The reason I told you that little story is to give you an idea about my personality so that you can relate and don’t think of me as some special person. I am just like you and I function in the same way.
Anyway, the day started as usual. I got up before 5AM today and started my routine at exactly 5AM. I was surprised to find out so many things I could do in just an hour. After finishing up with the routine, it was time to head out for run; but, I was so exhausted during the first hour of the day, I didn’t feel like going for a run. Having said that, I forced myself out the door and that was one of the best decisions I made today. As soon as I took the first step for my run, I found my hidden love for running and then I couldn’t stop myself. I thought I would finish just a 5K, but ended up completing 5 miles. I explored my community and the neighboring too. I was glad to see so many people out running and walking. As I forced myself to run, you can see, I ran with the slower pace than I expected, but, I am okay with that as long as I get some miles under my belt. I finished the 5 miles run in around 52 minutes.
The evening was uneventful, going through different stores shopping for groceries and then calling it a night a little late (around 10 PM).
Day 7 – Saturday July 04, 2020– Quarantine Day 110
Happy Independence Day, USA.
What a perfect way to celebrate the 4th of July by running a 5K in not-so-early in the morning. Waking up at around 5AM and going out to run has become a good habit now and when I couldn’t do it this morning, I felt not so great about it. I think because I went a little late to bed made me wake up a little late than usual, at around 7AM and I didn’t feel like running, but, as always, I dragged myself out the door and with a little help from my awesome shoes, could complete the 5K that I hoped for.
Though I took more time than I initially thought, I was okay with the pace and glad that I could at least finish the distance that I had hoped for.
Here’s the photo of the lovely breakfast that I had after this quick run. All thanks to wonderful friends, Monika and Anupam. ♥️
After finishing the breakfast, it was time to go for hiking, but we scrapped the plan due to too much heat and too many things to finish. However, I got a chance to go out for a mile of running in the evening with the kids to commemorate the 4th of July celebration. I was surprised that the kids finished a mile in just 13 minutes and few seconds. More amazing thing was this was in 90F temperature, so I was really impressed.
After running a mile, our adrenaline wasn’t quenched and we went for an hour of soccer practice. It was a leisure activity to give some refreshment to our legs, so enjoyed it and ended the week in a perfect way!
It was a pretty busy week, I must say! Here’s my running journal.
See you next week!
stochasticity 