A fresh start to a fresh year, as Kymaia begins working on her strength and agility, flexibility and speed after having built her endurance over the past year.
I had been warned by several well-meaning and professionally qualified people to not allow Kym to run distances longer than 3km, and after a lot of thought, reading, and discussions with various experts, we had decided that Kymaia’s long-distance running days would be over after she ran her last 10km race on 26 January 2022, when she was slated to run the final round with Ashish Kasodekar, now a world record holder for running 60 marathons in 60 consecutive days. Unfortunately, Covid intervened and Kymaia could not run her last 10km as scheduled. But we went ahead with our plans of easing off on the longer distance anyway, starting yesterday.
We found Mr.Vidyanand Yadav (‘Yadav Sir’), a young sprinter and coach from Yerwada, who was training his 20-odd pupils at the racecourse on Monday, and asked if Kym could join them from the next morning. He asked me what she can do, and when I said 10km, he immediately said that if I want him to train her, she has to stop long-distance immediately and he should be able to do his thing. That is exactly what I wanted to hear: A confident and assertive coach. So, for a nominal fee of Rs.1,000 per month, Kym is now a student of Yadav Sir, where every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday morning, she trains at the racecourse with him and his team, and on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, at the hill shrine of Tarkeshwar, a beautiful Shiva temple perched on a hill overlooking the river and its two bridges, one new and one ancient, with its quaint charm and early morning prettiness making working out even more relaxing and energising.
Today, her second day in training, Kym had a lot to learn from her training-mates, even though she has not yet connected with either of them as team-mates. But I guess that will happen by and by. Like physical fitness, teams take time to build; friendships, even longer. But then, at 7, she has a long life ahead of her. And much to experience.
Here’s hoping for a successful pivot executed in time (hopefully) and for little Kym to quickly find her groove again.
Pune from Tarkeshwar Temple Hill
Tarkeshwar Temple Early Morning
Tarkeshwar Temple Hill Training Long Shot
Tarkeshwar Temple Hill Training Release
Tarkeshwar Temple Hill Training Core
Tarkeshwar Temple Better Light
Tarkeshwar Temple Hill Training with Yadav Sir
