Non-negotiable milers

Several years back, While in Pune, I’d resolved to spend every weekend outdoors. The plan was to get out of home before the break of dawn, head out to one of the umpteen number of forts and villages on the outskirts of the city and spend the rest two days just being out there. The weekends were an interesting mix of some terrific hikes, long bike rides or just days of hopping on and off arbitrary buses with no specific destination. The goal was also to write about my experiences. Arguably, that turned out to be a good vicious circle. I’d travel to write and write to travel. Looking back those were some of my most memorable days.

Couple days back during a regular stroll at Larz Anderson, the crisp air really got me thinking. Over the last year – work, exams and several other things have taken up a lot of my mind-space and I realized, I badly needed something else to get me back on my toes. Something to look forward to everyday and to keep me going. This, coupled with my want to enter into a better running regimen got me to consciously commit to running every single day. To start with, the goal is to run at least a mile every day, irrespective of weather, health or anything else the mind tries to concoct and come up with. It’s been just a few days since I decided to do this and I already see how hugely rewarding those ten – fifteen minutes being out there in the dark is. In a few weeks, I do want to significantly build up the mileage and hopefully be in a better shape for the TARC DRB next year.

Eventually, I do want to blend in more non-negotiables (reading, chanting, writing and whatever I think I’d ideally like to do every single day). Let’s call it ‘Deepening the non-negotiables bucket’. For now, here’s to more miles, trails and everything else that’s in between!