Hello 2017!

Its been quite sometime since I blogged here. Yeah, I am also aware that lately all my posts get started with the same rant. 2016 was a very eventful year for me, staying away from my family, shuffling between Bangalore and Delhi has made me realize a lot of new things. Some things as trivial as the airports flaws, and some things more deep, but lets not talk about them here

Like always most of my post might hover around running. 2016 has been a pathetic year for running for me. I have started thinking of myself as "Once a runner", this was mostly because of the fact that work took most of my time. Whatever time I got apart from work, I used it as a luxury to spend time with my wife A and the sunlight of my life C (my daughter). Whatever experiments I have been trying with my life lately, wouldn't have been possible without the sacrifices of A and C.

Gained some weight as well in the last one year, to be specific I gained around 2.5 Kgs. This is mostly due to irregular lifestyle, irregular sleeping habits. Food was mostly sane. Having said that, I am all the more determined to change that starting today, its a new beginning.  I need to burn the same fire inside me which was there in 2010, when I trained really hard and ended up running ~2800 KM in training that year. Not that running a lot of distance is any proof of good pace, but at least it is a proof of the commitment and discipline

I am also thankful that I am surrounded by some very good friends here in Gurgaon, who keep my mind busy in a lot of things, that way I miss A and C a bit less on some days. These guys are my family in Gurgaon. Thanks A, D, T, M. Love you guys a lot! However there hasn't been a single day in Gurgaon when I haven't missed A and C

I have signed up with a coach in November and has been trying to get back to serious training. So far things have worked out ok, but I do end up missing 1-2 runs every week. This is the part that needs to get changed now. I have revived the desire to run Comrades, when will I do that, that needs to be decided. There is plenty of time for that. But this is the year that I want to utilize in making a comeback as a runner, as an amateur athlete that I once was.

Also, would keep this page more live with updates from my end. Be it running or non running

Bike to work and beating the Monday morning blues

Ever since I have resumed biking to work, I feel more excited in the mornings and look forward to my ride. There is always something exciting happening on the roads, even if the exciting thing is the wind in the hair.

So my work place is 30 km one way, to start, I am biking 2 days a week. Which makes it 120 km week on the saddle. The first couple of weeks were kind of tough with the bums ending up sore in the evenings. But now, it seems that the body has gotten used to biking pretty well again. No sore muscles at all.

The only side effect of biking is, the day I am biking to work, I feel hungry all the day. So I have to watch carefully what I am stuffing in my mouth, basically stay away from junk and eat more clean food.

For Bangalore, the other big problem is the rain. Well atleast I love riding in the rain, but the problem is the laptop. So one has to figure out a way to save these electronic gadgets from rain and water. For me, I leave my laptop at work the day I am biking

Most important piece of advice: NEVER use an earphone while riding a bike. Your ears are your rear view mirrors, DO NOT block them

To many more stories here! Stay safe, bike hard!

Get a bike, Break free!

Musings of a Lucknowi food lover

- Biryani = Gosht Biryani
- There is no Biryani called the Veg Biryani, it is called a Pulav
- Chicken Biryani doesn't qualify for a Biryani

Humanity is dead

132 Children died yesterday. Humanity died yesterday. I am still shocked and sick, a place to impart education has been turned into a graveyard.

May god give strength to all the Peshavar families. As a parent, as a father I can understand what all those 132 families are going through. Life will move on, but some part of us dies there yesterday.

To all those people claiming that Pakistan shelters terrorists and hence this happened, TRAGEDY IS NOT A COMPETITION. Something which is wrong, is wrong in any part of the world.

May the little souls rest in peace

कल कुछ बस्ते घर से निकले पर वापिस कभी न पहुंचे
आज ऊपर वाला हंस  रहा होगा, इंसान इस कदर खून का प्यास हो गया की अपनी ही औलाद का खून कर रहा है 

The legend of Dandi

The year was 2010, Prateek, Meher and me were already in the middle of our toughest training schedule which we ever followed untill that year. I got married 2 years back and since then the time on the weekends was always a premium. We would always find it tough to squeeze in a long run in our weekend schedule along with all the socializing and chores that new life brought in. It was only now I realized why Pankaj has always been so busy on the weekends :-)

It was the Ananada Yana run organized by Santhosh Padmanabha, and as usual the koramangala/HSR gang went to the venue in the Red Dragon, those who are part of BHUKMP know what a red dragon is. Just before the run started, we saw Anjana came running to the venue, I asked her the reason, and she told me that she has serious time crunch these days on the weekend, driving her daughter to different places and classes, visiting relatives and finishing office work, so she thought why waste time driving to the venue, but instead start a little early, run to the venue, do 5K run there and then run back. This seemed like an amazing idea to me and Prateek!

We thought of implementing this idea next weekend, as we thought that driving to cubbon is an utter waste of time, additionally you go there and finding a parking was a nightmare. Our mileage was already peaking, and we were required to do 32K+ runs on Saturdays, this would also mean atleast 7 loops of cubbon, and we would be dead with boredom at the end of it!

So we floated the idea of running to cubbon and then taking a bus back. The initial idea was, we will run to cubbon from ET via Hosur road, which would be close to 8K and then run in cubbon. We discussed this idea on the next run (where we obviously ran to cubbon) with Rishi and Amrita. Rishi immediately proposed , why run in cubbon? we (the cubbon gang) can do a reverse run on hosur road, meet somewhere midway and then run towards ulsoor and then around ulsoor and back to cubbon! Hence the first dandi route was devised!

During the same time, we had a new guy (newly shifted back from the US) running with us, his name was Vishy, initially we knew him as the guy who was mostly quiet on the runs but had a big online presence, we all became a fan of his blog right away! He used to live in Raheja Residency those days, and he liked the idea of a Saturday run to cubbon, we all started running regularly to cubbon, and then sometime in July 2010, Vishy proposed the name for this run as Dandi! Why Dandi? because we meet other runners en route, and we all run towards our target. Everybody loved the name and this was the point of birth of the Dandi runs in BHUKMP!!

As we came near the marathon date (KTM was the first marathon of that season) our mileages started increasing, I remember Praveen was doing 75K at the Ultra and hence he needed a longish run or 4-5 hours on foot kind of training every Saturday. So to increase the mileage, we all decided lets start going to cubbon via the Sony World-inner ring road-Domlur-Trinity Circle-MG Road stretch. The blessing in disguise was, Bhasker and Rajaram can also join us at Domlur! This was the point of birth of the actual route of Dandi

The Dandi runs were formed and we all were pretty excited about them, all of us started following them religiously, at certain point just before the Bangalore Ultra, Nari suggested that instead of going on the MG road from Trinity circle, lets go to Brunton road, the benefits: it is about a KM longer, and there is decent incline on the Primrose road, which is good for training. The idea was discussed in the security council meeting on the same day and was immediately approved!!! Rishi then suggested that before he started running with us, he used to run along the BGC and its an amazing place to run in the mornings, hence we started going from cubbon to Sankey and back, when Siddesha suggested that why not include the serene IISC also in the loop!

The last approval was the final approval for the run, which the entire Bangalore knows today as the Dandi run!

The concept was started by Anjana, name given by Vishy, route formulated by, Pankaj, Prateek, me, Praveen, Rishi, Nari and Siddesha this is democracy in true sense! :-)

Thanks to Dandi runs, that year my training mileage went on to 2,200 KM! And the show goes on!

SCMM Training starts

On Tuesday I started the training for Mumbai marathon. Got a new plan from my coach, and the paces look challenging. The speed and long runs are not my concern, i think I can still manage them

The runs that I absolutely hate are the tempo runs, it just doesn't end, and moreover my weak point has always been tempo. My legs hold on, I start getting breathless. I also plan to do most of these runs now with the heart rate monitor. This will give me a good insight on the breathlessness part.

Every year is a new learning. This is the 10th year of my long distance running, and still I have a lot to learn.

All the best to everyone running and training towards their goals!