We all strive to run a Personal Record / Personal Best, no matter the distance, and more often than not, we end up obsessing. We find ourselves trying to fast-track the process and forgetting to lay the foundation for a prolonged, healthy running “career”.

This week, our Fast Friday features a runner who has put in the consistent work, trusted the process and as a result, is reaping the rewards.

Meet Chandra Subramanian, an avid runner from Bangalore, India.

Chandra has been running since his school days, mainly as a middle distance track athlete, but also venturing into the longer 5000m and 10000m events.

His best times being 2:02 for the 800m, 16:40 for the 5000m and 36:42 for the 10000m. Very impressive times indeed.

Life Happens...

As is often the case, life happens and as a result, Chandra took on the corporate lifestyle and is running was sidelined somewhat to the occasional weekend trot.

Fast forward several years and in 2013, he left the corporate rate race and decided to take up running again, this time shifting his focus to 10km road races and subsequently graduation to half marathons. 

Chandra’s passion for the sport saw him starting a running team, The Trail Blazers, targeting both adults and children from the community with the primary goal of promoting health and fitness.

In 2015, Chandra got injured and has been struggling with Calcified Achilles Tendonitis and as a result, his running has taken some strain. Constant pain and not getting any faster left him slightly demotivated and frustrated. It wasn’t until November of 2019 when he found the helping hands of a trusted physio and got him back on track, kicking his running off again in January 2020.

Then, as well all know, the nuisance COVID struck, halting all his plans of returning to racing as it has done for so many of us.

It's time to rely on the experts...

In August 2020, he decided that he was done experimenting with his training and decided that it was time to do things in a more structured manner. It was after attending the Coach Parry Faster Beyond 50 Masterclass, that he joined forces with Coach Parry, looking to take his running to the next level.

Chandra committed to the process and while he’d be the first to admit he hasn’t been as consistent with the strength training as he would have liked to be, he has chipped away week in and week out, ticking boxes and as result, started running times he last ran prior to 2015. 

It is inspiring to receive ongoing feedback from Chandra in our forum, with his delight in regularly achieving personal best times. Since joining Coach Parry, he has seen daily improvement and has actually run a new PB every month, across 5, 10, and 21.1km distances. His times as follows:

5km - 22:22 (November 2020)

10km - Where he managed to PB twice (!) 48:12 in October and 46:00 in December 2020

21km - Where he got close to his lifetime PR of 1:48, running 1:49, coming back from 2015 where he could only manage 2:02 consistently!

We asked Chandra what the hardest part of achieving these goals has been:

“So the hardest part was to convince myself that I can run fast and won’t get the pain. In the initial phase of the program I was a bit conservative and would run slower than the given pace.

"Once I got that confidence back I am getting faster by the day.”

With the confidence and having found his running “mojo” again, there is no doubt that Chandra will continue to improve, and he looks forward to getting back to racing and challenging himself further in that environment.

Keep up the hard work and Chandra and we really look forward to hearing about your next achievement.

“I have enjoyed my 5 months association with CP. It’s great to see everyone’s success being celebrated by all the coaches, no matter how small or big the achievement is. Thanks to all of you at CoachParry as this keeps us all motivated.” - Chandra Subramanian

If you'd like to discover how you can run better (and faster) well into your fifties and beyond, then save your seat in our upcoming Faster Beyond 50 Masterclass below: