Climate Change and Running/Jogging/Walking/Cycling

 By Rameshon                               Time Published - 2 20pm

(Marathon Best Performance - 2hr 24min 22sec, Chiengmai SEA Games, 1995)

(Masters in Education - University of Western Australia, 2005 to 2008)

It is from Greta Thunberg that I come to know about Climate change. Having seen the action to change to a more environment friendly energy, she has been pushing many countrys' government of the world to change to more natural energy so that the world will not go through calamities. I have seen her being rebellious in this, sometimes being dragged away into a police car, as she wants to send a very strong message to the world now that it is not good to delay in Climate change effort and push them to act fast as time is running out. She is not satisfied with the action of the world leaders for now. It would be good for her to calm down and wait as things a moving, but she is very aggressive in this. My hats of to her, but I believe that she can constantly push if goals not met, after planning by the world leaders, and to be patient at the same time.  

In retrospect, I really did not know much about the knowledge on climate change. In fact, I could not see a difference between electric and petrol/oil. Either way, I felt that calamities of the world are inevitable. 

Lately, this was brought up to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,an enlightened master from India, on Climate Change. Usually, he used to answer on overthinking, happiness, how to be happy and jovial, on meditation etc. He is a person who is able to give satisfactory answer all questions posed from the crowe. One of the feat he still do is to ask all the questions, 10 to 20 questions. Then, he will start to talk. He usually answers from one topic and go to the topic in just one talk. After his 20 to 30min of talk by answering the crowd's question, he will ask, whether he has missed out on any question that needs to addressed or bbe reminded to answers. It is a miracle that he answers all in one go of his talk. 

There was once a person who asked on Climate change. I thought he will answer on energy, But, instead, to my surprise he started talking on exercise. He told that if people walk or cycle, a lot of the emisstion from the petrol will be curbed. He is not against using car as a transport but to make people to walk or cycle to work, etc. If one has a long journey to make, it is, as a collective effort from the population, we can instead take bus as a transport or the mass rapid transit or tube, to move from one place to the other.  

He expounded on other ways to not emit gases from petrol. However, I will not discuss on that as the blog is more about exercise. As he brought out on the need to walk, cycle, or take bus or mass rapid tranisit, we can come to a conclusion that we also can be part of a community to curtail carbon emission. 

Now, I know it is hard to tell countries and leaders this as many countries have their own opinion. I am not bothered about that. Since, if we can jog or walk to work or cycle to work and using electric friendly transport, each and everyone can contribute to less carbon emission. One can create a blog and write to people to exercise or take bus or mass rapid transit to travel and this in a way also gives us the benefits of long life and free from diseases and sicknesses. 

In a way, health and fitness can help one to save money and from going to see doctor more frequently and to keep oneself fit and strong and age strongly. Only, if one has a very busy job etc and need to travel by car and on petrol, then, it is alright for now to travel on petrol driven cars. This is a piece of good news for health and fitness enthusiast, as I used to drive a lot in the past and, in a way, I myself have conrtributed to pollute the environment. Lately, I have been cycling or do walking to market or places and restrict in even taking buses, to use the latter transport only if necessary. 

Importance of Thoughts in Manifesting your Dream

 By Rameshon        

Date -26 Nov 2024                                            Time Published-5pm

Marathon Personal Best Time - 2hrs 22min 24sec

(Masters In Education, University of Western Australia, 2005 - 2008)

Buddha told that it is thought that becomes our action, itself. Positive thoughts lead one to positive action. The outcome will be happiness. It is reverse and otherwise for negative thoughts. So, we must be careful in entertaining the thoughts that come through our mind. By meditation method, one will become more aware of the thoughts processing through our mind, and it takes time to observe this. One can change the thought. For instance, sometimes the mind will be thinking, " I am weak". This will make one weak, definitely when we channel thoughts of weakness. By becoming aware, I can say, " I am feeling strong" one will see positive action coming from the body. So, if you say that you hate running, you will not run the marathon and also will not feel good to do a 3km jog. Reverse the thoughts to positivity and see what happens. Satisfaction only is the outcome of positive thinking.

A champion's mind is usually positive. Therefore the outcome is positive. In Loughborough University of Technology, England, 1992 to 1994, we went through mental training practise, meditation and relaxation during our psychology lesson, for my degree programme. To hit a gradual goal or sub-goal time,  athletes imagine that they perform mentally and achieving the result successfully by entertaining on thoughts and imagery that one can accomplish it. 

With regard to this, I have checked on the importance of mental thoughts and mental training with my former coach Alan Guilder whether he had practised mental training before he attained 13min 32sec for 5km track. He told me he does not know about mental training, as a matter of fact, and he has never done or practised any. That made me to learn something from here that some top runners don't really practise any form of mental practise or any kind of visualisation. However, after with some few steps of running, as we were running on the pavement of the road in Loughborough, he paused and revealed that he used to imagine that he was going to take part in a future race, and entertain his mind of mental imagery, which came to him in an autonomous fashion, that he is running fast and go through a mental play of having done well and even getting good prize for the run. Alan has come in top position in races in some parts of England. In one race we did a 15km race and he did 48min plus, while I came in 5th for men open doing 50min 18sec in a race, where both of us ran in the same race. 

So, in some good top runners' mind this automatic thoughts and imagination comes in and they are not really aware of what is going on in the mind. Good that Alan was aware and he shared this with me. Eventually, I realised that with or without mental practise or doing visualisation, people like Alan do positive day dreaming during runs and picture themselves accomplishing it. There is a mental play which has taken place. No wonder they keep improving and become elite runner. As for those who are not able to go through this day dreaming while running, it is a good idea to do conscious mental practice by imagining that you are going through the mind, creating a scenario of achieving the goals or sub-goals in the mind.

This correspond to what Albert Einstein have mentioned. He said that imagination is higher than intellect. Obviously, the person who visualises and pictures themselves successful by first imagining in the mind. Upon doing that, there is this miracle of believe that the environment collaborates with the individuals mind creating opportunities for the individual to achieve the reality from the imagination fed to the mind by mental practice or visualisation practise. 

In short, in psychology, it is mentioned that our thoughts are more real that the solid things that we see outside, in the environment. There are alot of u-tube, instagram, face book and other media where right now individuals who want to be enthusiasitic in running can reach. Like I have mentioned, the more one reads, writes, talks and listens on running, the more there is this action to perform and one can become addicted to running in the long run and achieve tremendous result, according to one;s progress and capacity. This applies to top runners or runners who are not concerned about being a top runner but would like to have some improvement in running, and over time, being able to complete a marathon with a reasonable time, irregardless whether it is sub-3hr or sub 4hr or sub-5hr or sub- 6hrs. The most important thing is to get hooked to running and keep excising to keep the body and mind healthy, which should be every runner's ultimate pursuit. It is to do exercise as a lifelong pursuit. 

How to like Running and even run a marathon

 By Rameshon            Date 25/11/2024     

Best Marathon performance 

2hr 24min 22sec (Chiengmai South East Asian, Games 1995)

Masters In Education (University of Western Australia 2005 to 2008)

There was once where I gave a talk on running, around the year 1994. The group consisted predominantly of nurses, male as well as female.

I gave a presentation on how to train for a marathon, and had a question and answer session, after the talk. I was able to answer all except one. I had answered to my capacity. It will be good to share this here as I was wondering how to answer this particular question that I am going to answer now and  to my satisfaction. It took me quite a while, in fact, some years, to come to a realisation on how to confront this perculiar but smart and thought provoking question.

The question was on what gives us the motivation to run the marathon. What is going on in the runner's  mind. This was asked by a male nurse. I was not sure what he was asking and I asked him to repeat. He repeated by rephrasing the question so that I can understand. 

I was puzzled by this question as I found it weird, and I answered that I just like running. As for the next question, the gentleman told me that it is boring to run, so he was wondering what was going on in my mind. I was telling myself that I should have watched my mind throughout the run and become aware of it. 

Simply put, the gentleman was wondeing what were the thoughts going on in my mind and he wanted to know. As for me, I was running because I like and enjoy it. I did not need anyone to push or force or strongly encourage me to run. It was automatic. What thoughts are going on. It is something that I did not bother to find out all my life when I was running. For the male nurse, he felt running as something grueling, and he was wondering on whether we enjoy or suffer while running. Even after the next 20 years it was a question I kept it aside and keep it in view and was hoping to find the answer myself. 

Innate runners who like running are intrinsically motivated and don't need to be told to run. But there are those who hate running but hope that somehow there come a time that they will be motivated to run. Some even consider the marathoners as mad. 

The answer to this is simple and it really took me a while to understand. It is thoughts formed in the mind that forms your action. What you read, write, think and listen forms your thoughts and mind, and your tendencies. If one keeps reading about running, writing a diary or sharing experiences after a run, a training log, discuss with friends on running, especially with same interest in running and also listen to u - tube, instagram, blog etc, the media, on running topics, they will gradually be an automatic process to get themselves interested in running. 

In short, thoughts form action. So, if you want to succeed in completing or even doing very well in running, it is a good idea to watch more the media and these forms thoughts, the motivation to do the action of running. Compared to the past, the new generation are blessed with instagram, facebook and u-tube and what not. Watching, the media, especially on running, again and again, and watching other variety of u-tube will form thoughts and this pushes one to run. It is because of the media, as one of the main reason, that the world record keeps getting better over time, as a matter of fact. 

It is a similar situation of one don't feel like doing yoga exercises. However, the moment you watch the u-tube, step by step yoga sequences, one will feel the push of wanting to do. It is that simple. 

Benefits of Running - Not Just Physical but Mental and Spiritual as well

 By Rameshon  

Date - 25 Nov 2024   

Time published - 10pm

Personal best marathon - 2hr 24min 22sec (Chiengmai - Thailand -South East Asia Games - 1995)

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia - 2005 to 2008)

I have spoken about a number of benefits of running and it is found in this blog, itself. One can use the browser from this blog and type - Benefits of Running. You will see my write up on it. There are numerous benefits that are found and there are tons of research to support this as well. 

On the topic that I am discussing now, I would like to keep my story short and sharp and, if possible, to make an IMPACT on avid readers. As I have been meditating at least 20 to 40min a day, some insights are coming within me, on the benefits of running. I would like to share this with you here. During my days of running, teaching and coaching of about 30 years or more, I was actually not aware of this interesting fact, infact. 

People have asked me on my exercise frequency. I have told them not to ask me whether I exercise everyday. I told them that to exercise everyday 1 to 2 hours or minimum 30 minutes is a norm for me. It is better a person who can ask me whether I exercise everyday, twice, as I believe in doing double session of exercise. The more you do, you will only see your life come to order. Running just gives you happiness, as it has been found that we tend to have an increase in serotonin, endorphon and dopamin in the body. The more you run, there is more the calmness in you. 

Please take note that I am not talking about running to the extreme. There is a Tamil saying which says anything in excess is poison. So, one should exercise more but it is also good to know one's limit, according to your capacity, physical and mental preparation, and the ability to take pain. 

My angle of discussion revolves around doing 20 to 30 mins of exercise at least 3 times per week or throughout the week for my fellow readers that I am sharing this. 

There were altogether three schools that I have taught and coached - namely, Clementi Town Secondary School (1989 to 1992), Catholic High School (1995 to 2000), Hwa Chong Instituiion (High Sch - 2000 -2005), Hwa Chong Institution - College - 2005 to 2011).

As I have trained talented runners and those not talented but are hardworking and very interested in running, never once I have come across students going into mental problem or going through any kind of self harm. I was also told by discipline teachers that the athletes I train are very disciplined in class and school, and that they don't get into any kind of problems or issues in school. This insight has just come to me,very recently, only when I look back at my past experience, in teaching and coaching. As people have gone through the Covid 19, many people have opened up on the issue of overthinking. I feel that if you run, there is no any kind of overthinking that you will be going through. Trust me! The mind tend to be more positive and you will get through the day easily, so long if you have a frequent exercise sessions per week going on.

This has now been explained by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and enlightened master from India, who taught me on breathing technique. He say that in order not to go into an overthinking situation, one just have to go for a jog. The moment you jog, you will find it difficult to think, as you need to catch your breath.it gives you a break from thinking. It is known that when the mind thinks, its tendency is to go to negativity.

 Thus you will focus on your run, instead. As soon as you finish your run, there is one thing you can be assured of. It is the feeling you get from the run. You will feel the restlessness from the body is gone. and you will feel a sense of relief of not able to think much, WHILE YOU WERE RUNNING, and this make you to avoid and prevent any kind of overthinking. You will feel that the baggage of negative mental thoughts are no more bothering you for that particular day that you did the run. 

Aging Strongly : Chia Hern Kok

By M. Rameshon 

Date : 25 Nov 2024, Monday

Time Posted - 2pm

The author has a personal best of 2hr 24min 22sec for marathon, Chiengmai South East Asian Games, 1995, he also has a time of 2hrs 34min 02sec marathon time - Singapore International Marathon 1994, local time)

PE and Sports Science (Bsc (Hons) Loughborough university of Technology -1994)

Masters In Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Mr Chia Hern Kok 

I met this gentleman a year back and would like to write about him. He is 80 years plus, currently. I had an informal interview with him, a year back. 

He is a Chinese, bespectacled person who looks quite stout for his age, looking strong with fine toned muscles. I knew him from year 1990 onwards. Back then, at that time, I was including coaching to my interest in running, as I was more interested in coaching rather than being a top runner in Singapore, instead, then. 

Mr Chia, was from Commonwealth Secondary School, in the past. He was also heading his department of Physical Education. He was about age 50 and was about to retire at age 55. After retirement, he has been seen running, doing workouts with fellow running mates. 

In the past, he was seen motivating and encouragimg his teen male and female runners. Moreover, he used to run with the students. They all look up to him. 

He brought them for races. The students took him more of a fatherly figure and his runners were disciplined. I was more impressed with his running, as he was not only teaching, but also spearheading his Physical Education dept as the Head of PE Department. He was a teacher-in-charge cum coach as well for his team of runners, besides teaching some subjects in the school.  A dynamic person indeed. Later, he retired at age 55 and was focusing on active aging. 

Not only he kept himself focusing on fitness and health, but he also competed in his age group, locally and internationally. I used to see him with some working teachers and some retired teachers and an active principal of a school, running, doing age appropriate workouts on CCAB track at Bukit Timah, Singapore.  

He can be very encouraging to the masters, as he has been consistent and has a continued history, without a break, on running. 

Having spoken to him, very recently, in 2023, I will be doing an interview on him, shortly. He still does his running at least 3 times per week. I will get back to everyone on this. So, stay tuned on this. 

Note

In the meantime, after Covid 19, my observation is, there are people who are seeking for ways to run and reaping its benefits as well. I shall discuss on the benefits first, as people like some goody stuff you get from running and understand as it will make them to appreciate and enable and empower one to do more. So, fellow runners, I will write asap on this. Do watch out for it!!!

Sedentary to active running, from walking to running (Part 2)

 By Rameshon

I have given in the earlier post on building oneself from 10min to an hour of walking. This will give one a progressive, systematic and gradual way to improve in cardiovascular endurance, and one can go on to running over time. 

12

Day 1 - 1 hour of walking 5 to 6 km per hour, with no running 

Day 2 - Rest 

Day 3 - 4min walk and 1min jog / run ....do this 12 times to oneself an hour to do this activity. 

Day 4 - rest 

Day 5 - 4min walk and 1min jog / run ... do this 12 times as on Day 3

Day 6 - rest 

Day 7 - 3min walk and 2min jog / run... do this 12 times till it is for an hour 

Day 8 - rest 

Day 9 - 2 1/2 min walk and 2 1/2 jog/run.... do this 12 times till it is for an hour. 

Day 10 - rest 

Day 11 - 2min walk and 3min jog/run...... do this 12 times till it is for an hour

Day 12 - rest 

Day 13 - 1min walk and 4min jog ...... do this for 12 times till it is for an hour

Day 14 - rest 

Day 15 - 5min jog and 1min walk ........do this for 10 times. 

Day 16 - Try running all the way for an hour or follow Day 13 programme. 

Day 17 - rest 

Sedentary to an active 1hour running, from walking

 By Rameshon

People who are sedentary have asked me questions on how to keep themselves active over time. It should be noted that cancer and heart problems can be prevented by one taking to physical activity. Moreover, one should also do one's own best to learn Qi Kong or Pranayama to prevent all forms of diseases. It is good to indulge on asanas or yoga poses as well as it increases one's health, physically. The importance is seen more when one becomes older and the best way to retard aging is to exercise all the way throughout life. 

Here in this essay, I will put a summary of how a sedentary person can plan out a program to finally do an hour of running and keep doing it about 4 times per week. 

We will start off with walking and over a period of time, jogging and running can be included into the programme, 

Day 1 - 10 min walk

Day 2 - rest

Day 3 - 15 min walk

Day 4 - rest 

Day 5 - 20 min walk

Day 6 - rest

Day 7 - 25 min walk

Day 8 - rest 

Day 9 - 30min walk

Day 10 - rest

Day 11 - 35min walk

Day 12 - rest 

Day 13 - 40min walk

Day 14 - rest 

Day 15 - 45min walk

Day 16 - rest 

Day 17 - 50min walk

Day 18 -  rest

Day 19 - 55min walk

Day 20 - rest 

Day 21 - 1 hour