Image courtesy of sean dreilinger

Have you heard of babies start running without learning how to walk? Most probably “NO” unless there are some special cases that is happening to the baby. What I am trying to get to you is that we all need to start something no matter how small the event might be, once these baby steps are formed, we will slowly start to see some progress or success.

Today’s topic is about taking baby steps to success and through my running schedule for preparing for a few upcoming marathons this year, I have learnt that we need to start something and carry on till we reach our destination. Currently, I have managed to run pass the 10KM mark in a single run and I can say this is something significant for myself as I have not run more than 5KM in a single run in my past entire 23 years. Through this running experiences, I have learnt that if I start something no matter how short the distance is and carry on repeating and improving it, I will be able to achieve something great. Personally, I have set a promise for myself this year to complete a full 42KM marathon and I have been training since last year November (2009). When I first started my training schedule, I didn’t even start with anything close to 10KM as I have not even run pass the 5KM mark in a single run before. I started with the distance that I feel comfortable with which is 2.4KM and slowly increase another 1 round (400M) per week to build up my stamina and confidence.

After running pass the 5KM mark, I realized that it is something achievable and I felt that I no longer will feel tired so easily in the first 5KM. Through repeating the same process and increasing the distance every week, I am getting more used to my own body conditions and I believe that achieving my goal of running a 42KM marathon this year is not a difficult task at all.

To end this post sharing, I will like to summarise what I have learnt so far through my running experience and the following will be in pointer form for easy reference:

1) Set a specific goal or promise to yourself of what you want to achieve in a given period of time. (eg. Completing a 42KM marathon this year)

2) Start with something no matter how big or small it is and set a schedule till the desired achievement date.(eg. Started with 2.4KM and run twice a week on every Wednesday and Sunday. Increase 1 round (400M) per week to build up the body)

3) Review the progress along the way and make changes accordingly. (eg. Signed up a 16KM first and monitor my own condition)

4) Keep on repeat the process and build up the confidence in yourself till you achieve your goal.

Cheers
Javier

P.S. Hope I have shared something great with you but remember no matter how small the first step is, most important is to take the action.