Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Run


The other day I was thinking about how I got to running. One day I was walking along Rose garden road/Lakshman Rao park road in Jayanagar. I saw a friend of mine run and i thought of accompaniying him to beat the boredom. That week the 'Runners for Life' organised a 5K run in office to select our corporate team for their annual 'Urban Stampede' They invited anyone interested to run. this is where I ran my first marathon with timing+bib. I also found the idea of being served water or electrolyte or oranges and bananas on the run interesting. I found myself running easily after these. Thus began my tyrst with running.

Now I run because I want to train myself to run a full marathon (42K). I also find that I am stress free after a run. My mind frees up of any stress I have and I also get some thinking time alone, if required. Running just gets better with time. I ran my first 10K in Bangalore Sunfeast 10K at about 77mins on tarred roads across the central Business district. My next 10k was at Mysore along the trail of the river Kaveri. This was a trail and needless to say untarred. This was tough considering the many ups and downs on the trail and the weather in Mysore was not helping. My time was again close to 77 minutes. This was an improvement considering it was a trail run. or that was what I told myself. Then came the regular 10ks at office on Wednesdays. Since this was again on tarred surface I saw that I finally made my sub 1Hr 10K for the first time last week.

I decided to 'up the ante' by registering for the Bangalore ultra under the 25k category. This was needed as I wanted to run a full marathon in the next 1 year. A saying by a great runner motivated me. never stop if you are tired. Thats a way the brain feeds you false information and says go home. If you are exhausted, stop. Go home. thats when you are actually done. I took about 3 and a half hours to cover the 25k trail. This was tougher than the Mysore KTM run as this was an even more undulating trail and Bangalore decided to be hotter that day. But surprisingly I was not tired when I completed 12.5K (50%) of the run. I was surprised that I covered more than my usual distance of 10K without being tired. I used to stop at 10K earlier thinking that was my limit. Turns out I can do more. I was also surprised that I was not exhausted after 25K but dog tired. A couple of half marathons and I am on track on completing a full marathon in 2012 or latest by the Mumbai marathon in Jan-2013.

I learnt a couple of things this last 2 runs. Staying dry through out the run helps a lot. I bought myself a dry-fit Tee and shorts for the 25K. It is nothing but a cloth made of spandex, polyster, nylon and a small amount of cotton. Staying wet (hydrated) through out the run helps. Drink a lot of water the day before. Keep drinking water in small quantities through out the run. Do not drink a lot of water as it makes you feel filled up and you cannot run. This was the mistake I made last time. Also, empty your bladders before the run. Get yourself some bare minimum running shoe.

Do let me know if you need any info regarding running. I don't know most of it. But I know some professional runners from whom i get you the info. To lookup running events in your country please visit: http://aimsworldrunning.com/Calendar.htm


Update: I did my first full marathon in Non 2012 in Mysore and the second on in Jan 2013 in Mumbai. Finally I keep my word to myself. 

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Goodbye America

I am surprised that I am a little sad to be leaving the country, on the contrary, I am way too excited on coming back to India. A couple of things I liked here in the past 18 months:
Courteous people, by courteous I mean, very courteous people. Good roads to drive on. Good clothing at affordable prices (all made in India :)). 

It is always people that make your life beautiful. I was lucky to befriend a whole lot of people here on a professional and a personal front. They made my time here go quick. They will be missed.Starbucks coffee, you will be missed. But I prefer the filter coffee and tea available back home to this. I'll miss the High speed Internet, the one which allowed me to download the entire FRIENDS series in one night.IHOP, you make nice delicious pancakes and real filling omelet. You will be dearly missed. But you will be the bar against which all future omelettes I try will be measured.

I am looking forward to some major changes in the months ahead. Looking forward to running on a daily basis. I have 2 marathons to run in the next 30 days. I am looking forward to getting back to my clicking. This has been untouched for a long time.

I will be home in a couple of days. Looking forward to meeting my friends. There is a whole list of things I am looking forward to, before I do those, let me touch down safe. A bon voyage to me. There are many other people back home who make me happy about life. Looking forward to the next phase of my life as a married man. Yes, I would still say, Life is beautiful.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The diet, retry number 008

I am on a diet, I declared triumphantly after completing a day on a diet. Earlier declarations used to be before the start and hence always failed, or so I thought. I walked into a supermarket and the ribs with grease never smelled this good, not that I eat those. I felt the whole world is against me fitting into my favorite Tee again. So I realized it was me against the world. I came out from the super market with just a fruit. Ha, World 0 - Me 1

Did you hear 'Borders', one of the biggest book chains , is going out of business. They are having a sale with everything priced at 10-50%.I walked into the store and saw some of my all time must read books on sale. Books like, 'Chicken soup for the soul' 'Who moved my cheese' 'Nobody moved your cheese' were on sale. Reading the names made me hungry today, not for knowledge. So it's the world against me again!! But still, World 0 - Me 1.

As you know my room-mates were searching for a new room-mate as I am moving out. They found one, who does not have much interests in cooking. Out of the blue he decides to cook, not that he cooks everyday. And guess what, he can work magic with spices in a dish with some help from our all knowing savior, messiah from Him, Google. The aroma from the food was magical, like the one I had never smelt before. So again it's the world against me. I slept with just a fruit juice, not succumbing to pressure from the forces to be.  World 0 - Me 2

Happy that I could complete a day, I went to bed early to avoid further temptations. Fruits have a strange way of working. Even beer would not wake you up at the middle of the night for the nature's call, but fruits do. I woke up in the middle of the night and after finishing my business, I realized that I was hungry. So it's the world against me in the middle of the night.

I walk into the kitchen and see that there is some left over from dinner and that's when I realized that the world kept dropping hints to not diet at all. I now respect the decision of the forces to be and no longer even attempt to diet. I know the world is a wonderful place meant to eat drink and be merry. So eat up people. Dear world, I give up, You win. Let's not keep scores any more

Monday, July 11, 2011

Online since...

I went to Mumbai for the first time in Dec-2006 for the new year's. I was amazed by the city and decided to blog about it. So on January 5, 2007 this blog was born. I used to post at a different address but later on moved to this link.
My first post was ' Local trains faster than Planes, vada paav better than 5 star hotel buffet'
,inspired by a friend's post about Delhi when he was there for his training.

Why the name?
I decided to blog and at that time was deciding on a name. I saw a book (diary sorta) my wife used to maintain. It was named 'Rich-Tales' and got that idea for this blog.

Why the blog?
I wanted to maintain a diary no one at my home snooped into. An actual diary never worked. So went online. I knew they would never find out ;)

On a serious note, wanted to write a travelogue and started this as a trial. No travels happened after this Mumbai trip. Correction: I did not get a chance to travel after this Mumbai trip for about 6 months.  So moved on to maintain this as a journal for my jibber-jabber.

What else?
I got into photography by this same time. Once I thought I was ready for an SLR, after 2 years with my point and shoot, bought one and started publishing my pictures here  since Mar 9, 2009.
This was my first flickr post

Wanted to check out twitter and tried out this. Not very active there. Very Active these days.

Why this post?
Read a couple of blogs talking about their humble beginnings. So wanted to check out how long have I been blogging. It's been 4 and a half years. There it is, my humble beginning and the humble present ;)

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Trip Report: Miami, FL. Part-3

Day 2 ended with just sign seeing around Key west. Day 3 was filled with activities.
We thought of going to another one of the beaches. We lost our way and ended up at the southern most tip.
Found a guy selling tender coconuts here. We quenched our thirst with coconut water and headed to a beach
Felt like home with coconut water and a beach
We decided to visit Smathers Beach.
This beach is know for its shallow waters upto a mile. We walked about 1/2 a mile in the water. This beach does not have waves hitting the shore. A lot of activities happen around here. You can either hire a water bike and roam around or you can get a peddling boat or a kayak or a surf board on rent. We decided to hire a kayak
Kayaking is tough as you are fighting against  forces of nature, wind and water. I was scared when ever my kayak was facing sea. I could see just water and got the feeling of being mid-sea and lost. Thanks to wind which turned me back again and I could see the shore. Kayaking was a good experience, though a tiring one.


Saying bye to the beach is a tough task. We said bye like Ross said bye to the room in Barbados. Back to our mundane lives, back to our busy schedules, back to work. It is at times like these we look back to how we forget that we can manage our time well. The division between all these is only in our minds
The fence created when we say, Sorry, no time
And its almost time to plan the next trip, followed by a trip to India

Trip Report: Miami, FL. Part-2

None of us wanted to get up on day-2. We were dog tired by playing in the beach the previous day. After the initial fight of who gets ready first, everyone was ready for more of Miami. After an English breakfast we decided to drive to Keywest, FL. This place is the southernmost tip of the 48 contiguous states of the US.
A group of 4500 islands together are named 'Florida Keys'. So every place we passed through was called something key. More here
The drive to this place is scenic. Its a 160 mile drive. It reminded me of the East Coast Road (ECR) which runs from Pondicherry to Mahabalipuram to Chennai. Its a two lane highway with a lane in each direction, water body on both sides.

The highlight of this road trip is the '7-mile bridge'

Being the holiday season there was lot of traffic on the way to Key west. We took a lot of brakes and clicked pics whenever we found the traffic moving very slowly.
After reaching Key-west we rented out a house (yes, my first independent house stay in the US) and went off to see the sunsetat Fort Zachary Taylor Beach
After clicking 100's of photographs we were off to 'Mallory Sq' for the sunset celebration.
This is a street which wakes up after sunset. There streets are filled with street side vendors selling everything. I would say on a busy day, the night life of Mallory square beats the one in New York.

Part-3 to come soon.
Sunset is an art-work. Every sunset is different. You watch every sun set as if you have never seen one before. The darma in the sky when the sun sets is mesmerizing. Those colors, those cloud patterns, those reflections are all new, everyday. You get a sense of completeness of the day if you watch one. Here is a couple who are in the process of being mesmerized.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Trip Report: Miami, FL. Part-1

A simple way for a trip report this time. I kept tweeting the entire trip to Miami @richtales. Its easy to recount the trip even after  while.
After the hectic packing on Thursday night, I picked up my stuff and went off to office. Plan was to park at the airport and take the flight to Miami in the evening. I reached Miami  by 9 in the night and went off tot he rental place. This city has a nice rental solution, simplified. A bus comes every 5 minutes to the airport. Just hop on and it drops you to the Rental place. The rental place had around 5 floors and a floor with offices of all the rental companies. After hiring a car we went off to our hotel.

Next day was spent just driving around the city. The whole city has this tourist place feel with palm trees lining the roads We headed to the south beach. As the name suggests, this place is famous for its beaches. The waters are multi colored with white sand on the beach. The sea is not deep upto about half a mile here. The wind is mild presenting very small waves ashore. I was a bit over dressed for the beach. I realized this when I saw bikini clad babes sun bathing. I realized this again when I saw the board that read "Caution: Clothing optional on this beach. Beyond this point you may encounter nude bathers"
After playing in the water for about 3 hours we searched for an Indian restaurant and grabbed some food before heading back to the hotel. BTW sand goes places.

This is the end of part 1. Don't know when would the other parts be coming.
The ocean makes you forget everything. you become a child again. You play as if you were just released out of a prison. Time flies by on the beach. You forget all differences to come back with a relaxed feel. The smell of the sea is refreshing. You are tired yet fresh, hungry for more yet content.

You can shout out what you need. You can stare at the sea for hours together without getting bored. The sea never remembers.  

Thursday, May 26, 2011

A drive to remember

As you know I have been driving to and from office everyday. It's a 35 minute drive. After a couple of weeks I got bored and started to do some things to keep me awake. This is one such incident.

I started observing the drivers in whichever vehicle was driving behind me. Once I saw a nice, good looking, young, (other adjectives are toned down here) lady behind me. To show off I started speeding as I was in front of her. Being a good sport, as all girls are, she too chased me. She had a good car, infact a better car. After a couple of signals we were on the express-way and now was my time for real show-off. I sped a good 20 miles over the limit and she was still on my heels. After a while she switched on her police lights indicating me to stop :) Ofcourse she had the complete history of my 15 minute drive with all the speed violations.

Disclaimer: The above story may or may not be true. It might or might not have happened to me. I might or might not have oggled at the lady in the car behind me. All this may or may not be my imagination. All in all you should or should not believe anything written here over a period of time. I may or may not have got a speeding ticket. I may or may not have paid the ticket yet.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

They consider kannada too

Flickr has this habit of telling 'Hi  username' in regional languages. I see Kannada today :)
me happy happy.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Yearly ritual, better late than never

Here's wishing you a happy new year.
Each new year brings with it a time of retrospection. A time where you sub consciously think of what you set out to achieve and what you actually did. These are not to be considered as failures. May these setbacks build determination in you to achieve more. May you and your loved ones prosper. May your wishes come true

As I think back about the year gone back, it has been a very sweet one for me personally. As one of my dearest friends wished, it turned out to be the most important year. Of course there were some small setbacks which made the things that worked out year even more sweeter.