This Olympics has been significant for me. Not in the least because it is the first Olympics that I am trying to follow (of course I may never have realized if the older ones were significant since I never followed them). Like any proud Indian, I must rejoice that India finally put up a handful of medals on the scoreboard to show the world that this one billion+ nation has some sport left in them.
But thats not of much concern to me. I have been for (and still am in my heart a sprinter) specializing in the 100 metres in my haydays of junior athletics. 11.4 seconds personal best ever is a far cry from the present WR (9.69 sec). I don't by any stretch of imagination imply that I am in the league of Usain Bolt. However, I can connect more with his incredible feat than can most people. It took me four years of intense 7 days a week / 2+ hours a day training to bring down my time from the late 12 seconds down to 11.4 seconds. During the last one year, I hardly made any perceptible improvement to my timing. It was an uphill task to maintain and stay at my best. Usain Bolt made 9.69 seconds seem like a piece of cake. Thats the best and worst part of the 100m sprint. Its over before you know it. Often, I realized after the race that I had just run one. There is no time to think, to react to the situation. From the time the gun goes off, you just run and run hard. You don't even have the time to tell yourself to run faster. It's all over before you can tell yourself. You need to be mentally prepared long before that pistol goes off.
All said and done, its an exhilarating feeling to sprint. I did some quick calculations. 12.5 seconds ( I reckon thats my speed now) for 100 m or 8m/s. . That comes to 28.8 kmph. Thats pretty darn fast still even if only for a brief stint of time. If you consider time lost during initial acceleration or 80m in 8 seconds, I'm doing 36 kmph at full speed! Amazing! Pretty proud of myself. The head rush you get is better than the best chemical high I have known ;)
Michael Phelps shattering all those records in one Olympics. Swimming is the one sport that I pursue regularly nowadays since my torn ligament put paid to my hopes of sprinting again. This is not really a post worth putting here except to remind me of those good old days that I could turn a head with my sprinting. Cheers to sprinting and swimming.
But thats not of much concern to me. I have been for (and still am in my heart a sprinter) specializing in the 100 metres in my haydays of junior athletics. 11.4 seconds personal best ever is a far cry from the present WR (9.69 sec). I don't by any stretch of imagination imply that I am in the league of Usain Bolt. However, I can connect more with his incredible feat than can most people. It took me four years of intense 7 days a week / 2+ hours a day training to bring down my time from the late 12 seconds down to 11.4 seconds. During the last one year, I hardly made any perceptible improvement to my timing. It was an uphill task to maintain and stay at my best. Usain Bolt made 9.69 seconds seem like a piece of cake. Thats the best and worst part of the 100m sprint. Its over before you know it. Often, I realized after the race that I had just run one. There is no time to think, to react to the situation. From the time the gun goes off, you just run and run hard. You don't even have the time to tell yourself to run faster. It's all over before you can tell yourself. You need to be mentally prepared long before that pistol goes off.
All said and done, its an exhilarating feeling to sprint. I did some quick calculations. 12.5 seconds ( I reckon thats my speed now) for 100 m or 8m/s. . That comes to 28.8 kmph. Thats pretty darn fast still even if only for a brief stint of time. If you consider time lost during initial acceleration or 80m in 8 seconds, I'm doing 36 kmph at full speed! Amazing! Pretty proud of myself. The head rush you get is better than the best chemical high I have known ;)
Michael Phelps shattering all those records in one Olympics. Swimming is the one sport that I pursue regularly nowadays since my torn ligament put paid to my hopes of sprinting again. This is not really a post worth putting here except to remind me of those good old days that I could turn a head with my sprinting. Cheers to sprinting and swimming.
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