Back to running after 5 years

I started running about 5 years ago, when I was doing my undergrad in Baroda . I had tried some apps before which tracked my cycling, like google fit, which would give me a brief analysis on the distance I had covered. I particularly did not like the UI and the experience of the app. In search of an alternative, I stumbled across Nike Run Club, and to give the app a go with some excitement and wanting to test it out, I tried running one evening in Baroda's Kamati Baug. It was a 5k at 27:25.

At that time, I thought it was impressive for a first run. In the coming 6 months I improved this time to a 22:48. But then I stopped running because I could not keep up my final year work while running wild every morning.

Fast forward to March this year, I downloaded Strava, feeling somewhat motivated to pick up running again and I feel like I have an entirely different perspective towards approaching running and training.

This time I have a lot more knowledge when it comes to food and nutrition. Thanks to my 1 year with weight training. But I am also way slower, thanks to about 2 years of smoking daily.

This time, I am running more for the pleasure of the sport, for community and meeting new people and going to new places than just breaking my PR numbers. Though I really do want to get faster, because faster is fun. In the last three months, I have had a best 5k of 26:59. Which is nowhere near my old numbers, but the progress has been faster than I could have anticipated.

In the last 4 months I had the opportunity to join Capital Trails, a trail running club based in Delhi, I ran a 10k race at Jawaharlal Nehru stadium and very recently ran my third HM at 2:27.

I think it would be fun to keep a journal. I don't really know how running is going to be in the coming days, the uncertainty seems exciting. I have one concrete goal for now. I have to get a sub 5 hr marathon time ASAP.