Hmmm so the previous post comments section has been quite… turbulent.
Let’s move on.

Today we shall explore the stages of exercising, or jogging/cross-country running in particular. There are 4 phases (the way I see it, from experience)

1) Stage 1: Torture Phase

Yes this is the phase when we drag ourselves to change into our physical activity outfits, wear our sports shoes and socks. Some might even have to drag themselves out of bed in the wee hours of the morning if they go for morning jogs, or from afternoon naps if they go for evening jogs.

Most people never get past this stage, or they are unable to even embark on this stage. They think about it, but never put their thoughts into action. They end up not running/jogging/swimming etc at all.

2) Stage 2:  Pain Phase

The next stage consists of the warm-ups and the first few rounds of the jog round the park or in the gym. The legs are unwilling to move fluidly, the hands feel heavy, the legs are sore, the stomach cramps due to insufficient warm-up, etc.

Every step is a pain. In this phase, the mind constantly reminds you that the body is in pain and that you should stop running. Most of the time, we give in by reducing our speed or worse, stopping altogether. The eyes stare at the floor while the runner runs. The breathing gets heavy and irregular.

3) Stage 3: Flow Phase

The pain gradually wears off, and then runners would “flow” in their run. The run becomes more fluid, the body responds better, and the runner consciously looks forward far ahead while running instead of looking down. The mind constantly blocks off the pain from the other parts of the body and determines to go ahead with the run. It refocuses the attention from the pain to the right posture of running, the right rhythm and pace, as well as the right stepping of the legs.

Sometimes, the runner finds himself counting to himself indefinitely to help him go on. “1, 2, 3, 4, …, 99.” The breathing gets more regular and becomes more at ease.

4) Stage 4: Ecstasy Phase

This phase takes some practice to attain. After we have “flowed” in the previous stage, the ecstasy phase comes in when everything, from the mind to the body, goes ahead with running in harmony, free of pain and full of good feeling. Perhaps at this point the brain releases some chemical which causes runners to be in such an ecstatic state.

The ecstasy can be attributed to the fact that you are cruising past everyone in the marathon or jogging park, and people simply wonder at how fast you run. You feel encouraged and then continue to overtake every single person you see in the marathon or park.

I experienced Stage 4 briefly in the Singapore Marathon last year, but later slipped back to Stage 2 when the stomach cramps came back in. My secret technique: As I ran and swung my hands, I used them to point forward. You cannot believe how much power such a simple gesture brings. “Forward, forward, forward,” so says the fingers. I was overtaking everyone, for a while at least, at the end of the marathon. Quite cool. But it didn’t really last very long. About 20 minutes or so.

So the moral of the story is that you can actually move from a more advanced stage to a lower stage during the run. It takes a constant state of mind and much training to sustain the ecstatic stage or to move up the rung fast from Stage 1 to 4 quickly.

Oh, the agony!  =)

If you are one of those who have a desire to start running or jogging, bear in mind that Stage 1 and 2 are really all mind power. To think of it, the whole thing is mind power, since the body responds to the mind anyway. If you can’t do it, it’s really perhaps you lack the mental will to do it. Hmmm, that might jolt you a bit.