Regrets about Europe

a) Got caught up in the peer pressure to go out and 'network' which involved visiting bars and thus long nights

b) Did not train hard enough to run a marathon and thus lost some of my motivation to run

c) Could have travelled to exotic places to run but chose to stay in Milan

Luckily, I will be coming back to Europe atleast 2-4 times a year and so this is something I can and will change.

The idea is to stop drinking to save on time. I have not had a drink for 2 weeks now and I feel great.

Home, Running, GMAT

I moved back from Thanjavur to Chennai and I think I love this city although I miss a few people back in Thanjavur. The plan is to start our own microfinance organization in Tamilnadu and give back to my community in my own way. Ofcourse, it will be a commercial entity with some strong development goals. We still have to name it, get the legal structure right and get a team together. We have been talking to a few people and everyone is excited about the idea.

Tomorrow morning is going to be a new day. My tendons have giving me some issues but I am going to start running slowly tomorrow morning. Also, enrolling myself in a local swimming pool and the plan is to read a lot about freestyle swimming. Swimming will make me a better runner and provide me with overall body strength. Also, reading a book called Barefoot which is ofcourse about running but I'll have to save that for my next post.

Prepration for the GMAT has started in full swing. September 2009 I will be in a school like Wharton and there are no two ways about that. Watch this space. I am going to keep updating this more often now than the last few months.

Another Reason to Run

I can think most clearly when I run. I can relate different events of a life to each other and I think much faster than usual and come up with simple philosophies that I believe makes me a better and a more sensitive person. It also makes me highly immune to pain/struggle and I know both mentally and physically I can take more pain/struggle than an average person. Pain itself is very addictive. If you don't experience it for a while, you start missing it which is why I think I love to run.

The 10k training is coming out well. I am running faster and harder than before and my speed has been improving. I am able to do an semi difficult 10k in 50 minutes and if I push myself, I am able to do it in 45 minutes (after which I want to throw up :)). I have a few more days left in the first cycle of training and I feel great already. Also, cutting back on beer makes me feel a lot lighter and less dehydrated.

At a personal level, I feel like I have lost myself somewhere in the last few months. I see myself incapable of falling in love and I find it hard to trust people. I'll leave this rant for later though.
Just that I don't feel like myself anymore and I hate it.

Training for Sunfeast

I happened to miss training again twice this week. It is time to step up starting today and run the remaining 4 days without over-training.

Today's schedule is a 10k easy run and I hope to get off from work at 6:00 pm to get an hour of running.

YMCA Nandanam Run

I got back to town at 5:00 am this morning and reached YMCA Nandanam for a run at 5:45 am. Venkatesh and I planned on a road run and the the idea was for him to push me as much as possible to do the 8.2 km run in 35 minutes. We stretched intensely for 15 minutes and started the run at 6:30 am. We pulled as much as we could for the first 3kms and then continued a good pace until the 7 th km. Venkatesh shouted out long which means long strides but not too fast for the next 600 mts and then we raced the rest of the distance to finish in 37 minutes.

Venkatesh is a YMCA nandanam celebrity. He is 48 years old and he races like a 22 year old. His fastest 10 k timing earlier last year was 35 minutes which is world class. He practically knows every possible athlete walking into YMCA. I even got introduced to Anu Hassan who hosts Coffee with Anu on Sun Tv. My parents love that show. I think thats because she talks and smiles like a cousin of mine.

40 kms and 4 beers down

It should have been 50 km and 5 beers down but due to work pressure yesterday, I was unable to catch my evening run. So, decided to go for a beer instead and increase the guilt quotient in my body exponentially. I woke up this morning at 6:18 and the run went smoother than I thought. I got the 10 k done in 57 minutes.

I hope to catch a 12 km run with Karthik and Sandy tomorrow morning and a 18 km run with the group on sunday morning. Lets hope I can rise and shine early in the morning.

Another Poem on Running

A friend of mine from Delhi, Neha, wrote this poem on running. I met her through a friend, Mahesh, and ran with her once when I was in Delhi. We did not keep in touch mainly because I am extremely bad at keeping in touch with friends. She got my email from my friend and sent me this poem on running and for the first time in my life I am impressed by a poem. Seriously, I am not the arty type but this is good stuff. The only part I don't understand is "listen to music" but I guess I'll start accepting the technology aspect of running sometime soon.

"I want to play the game, again

With my shadow

In the moonlight

And, listen to the music

My feet make

With concrete and grassblades

I want to soak in sweat,

Feel the breeze

At the back of my neck

And, let my mind stretch

Stiffened muscles of my legs

A bit more, just a bit more

I want to take a deep breath

And kill the stitch in my chest

Before it seizes me

And, run conversations

In my head Finished, unfinished

I want to see if

I can push My crackling knee

Up that slope

And, let pain beat pain

As I run with myself

And against me again

I want to enjoy the rhythm

Of my body floating

As if, in and out of reality

And, claim the earth

Beneath my feet

Claim the horizon beckoning me.

30 kms and 3 beers down

So, the train ride was not as pleasurable as I imagined it to be. Too mamis (older women) of my own kind - iyengars, switched on the lights at 2:30 am and started gossiping. Classic Iyengars man!!! I told them to shut up but they would not. They just ignored me and acted as though they were dazed and continued speaking again. The punjabi man next to me spoke to his subordinate for a while and then started snoring. Overall, a bad experience !!!

Thats my reason for not waking up and going on a run.

However, I made up by doing a 10 k in the evening which was immediately followed by drinking two beers and eating some thair satham plus a huge masala dosa. I also officially quit drinking water when I am on field trips - I drink only gatorade.

I also realized that my favorite swear word is God F *@#$%^ da%^...not bad, atleast I have God before those words that are not appropriate during marriages, dinner with parents and on your first date.

Thanjavur Trip

Strangely, I am excited about my train journey to Thanjavur tonight. I sleep like a log or Nakata when I travel and I love my sleep. I am also happier these days to get out of Chennai to a place without too many friends since I can focus on running exclusively. It will be great if I can wake up the next three days and meet my running goals.

On friday evenings, I am also really happy to get back to Chennai to enjoy a relaxed weekend here. Hit me up on saturday afternoon or sunday afternoon to do a few beers.

Sandy, a guy who runs and drinks beer with me writes describing his ECR Race #6

"Something about the human psychology that says that suffering in a group is better than suffering alone. This is found to be true across cultures. There is an age-old saying in that ancient language Tamil.

"Gumbal-oda Govinda"

A powerful invocation to the great God Vishnu, where sufferers claim kinship with each other and the lord.

Chennai Runners is one such motley crowd that believes in group suffering. Running every other day almost across different parts of the city - mostly CP Ramaswamy road or Marina and thereabouts. When you run 20 k you can cover many neighborhoods."

For more read:

http://ratracerunner.blogspot.com/

Monday Evening Workout

Rode up to the gym last evening and decided to start the week with a 12 kmph 10k run. I started off way too fast - I just never seem to learn that starting fast will never get you anywhere in the long race and - and paid for it. I had to stretch myself out after the initial 3k and start off slow again to finish the 10 k in 53 minutes. However, running on the treadmill is much easier than running on the road and thus the timing does not matter.

The gym is quite nice. It is small and compact and people are more serious about working out than in fitness one. There is also a room for floor exercises which I use to stretch, do push-ups and abdomens. They have about 7 treadmills and almost everyone runs unlike fitness one which is full of men who walk while talking loudly on their cellphones.

I leave for Thanjavur tonight but the plan is to get another 10k at 10 kmph and get some lifting this evening before I leave. This weeks aspiration also continues to be 70 kms and I hope to get more runs in the morning.

In other news, I watched Race with Janhavi last night and the movie was very much like a usual bollywood flick. They have tried a few twists out of which some of them worked well. Katrina Kaif seemed to look hotter than Bipasha Basu but her acting sucks.

Things to Learn from the Japanese

Read this in a Japanese forum and I am really impressed by this post. As my friend Jay says, " the Japanese man...."

"The Japanese keep no secrets about their running. They are not secretive at all about their training.First of all, they are PATIENT. Right now there are about 100 young ladies in Japan who are running under 33 for 10km and about the same number of guys running under 29. They all have coaches, and they are all aiming to run the marathon, but they will only do so when their coaches allow them to.In Japan, yes, they do run for money and there is NO money in track. It's all in Marathons and Ekidens. Their training is carefully planned out and perfectly executed. When a runner is asked to run a 20km run at 3:30 per km, believe me, it's going to happen, no excuses or complaints, and it will be finished almost exactly 70 minutes later. When a training run is supposed to begin at 11:00am, it is not going to start at 10:59 or 11:01. The Japanese are extremely serious about their training. In Japan you find very little in the way of open spaces to run. For example on that 20km pace run I did with Mizuki last week, we did a double out-and-back on a 5km long narrow path along a river with a bunch of tight turns. Not exactly perfect terrain. I've seen athletes in Japan do 30km tempo runs on a track. I've seen middle school girls doing two hour jogs at EXACTLY (and I mean exactly!) 2:00 per lap, with a staff member recording the time of every lap on a notebook.Most importantly, the Japanese, both men and women are TOUGH. I've done workouts with Yoko Shibui, Reiko Tosa, Masako Chiba and Mizuki Noguchi. When they are running hard in training, it sounds like they are in agony or about to give birth. I can't imagine what they will sound like during the last 8km of a marathon."

NewYork Marathon Registration

Registration for the Newyork marathon is $210. They should have special developing country rates in the future. Its probably a great experience but I just cannot afford it.

I'll rather do a marathon in Asia this year and wait for a pay hike to do this race

Can't Love You, Can't Hate You

I hate it when you set my alarm off
I hate it when you make me sip water without eating any food
I hate the taste of dates that you make me eat on an empty stomach
I hate the time you demand from me
I hate the space you take in my brain
I hate the guilt when I sip beer
And the early nights that you make me do
I hate your skimpy shorts that I have to wear
And I hate the way you make me sweat
I hate it when you make me laugh
And I hate it even more when you make me cry
I hate it when I don’t do you
I hate it so much that it makes me sick
But Mostly I hate the fact that I can’t hate you
Not even close…
Not even a little bit…
Not even at all…

Dallas Robinson - Inspiring or what?

“I believe I’m going to end up in the Olympics,” Robinson, 25, said. “I don’t know how I’m going to get there. But I guess if the mountain were smooth, you wouldn’t be able to climb it.”

This sprinter is 6 feet 4 inches and runs remarkably fast and weighs 210 pounds, 40 pounds more than most of the guys competing for the olympics.

Introduction: “Hey, y’all. My name’s Dallas Robinson. I’m really nobody. I’m a 6-foot-4, 210-pound white guy that lives in Kentucky. I train myself. A lot like everybody else, when I got out of college, I went and started working. For a year, I was miserable. I wasn’t doing what the Lord created me to do, and that’s run.”

Rough Childhood - Robinson lived what he called a troubled childhood after his parents divorced. A series of stepfathers moved his mother and her four children around the country. They ended up in Richmond, Ky., his mother married to a man who put up fencing for a living. Robinson declined to discuss his upbringing in further detail.

Whats his thing? - I don’t have the straightest smile, the straightest nose. I’m not the smartest guy in the world. But my legs move fast. That’s one of my gifts that I feel I can share with Kentucky, with my friends at S&S Tire, something that would hopefully make my family proud. It’s the only thing I have to give back right now.

How his goals changed? - Robinson started last summer with the hope of qualifying to run the 100 meters at the United States Olympic trials this June, which meant being among the top 32 sprinters who run under 10.28 seconds. After his first race, he upgraded that goal to making the finals. After his times this winter, he said, he hopes to make the Olympic team.

Some lessons for life from Robinson's coach:
“How come when we’re kids we want to be astronauts and firefighters and Indian chiefs, and then when we turn 20 years old we give up on our dreams?” Young said. “Dallas is a good example of a guy who’s still trying to be an astronaut.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/sports/othersports/06sprinter.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

Running is the best therapy I've ever had

Lets kick some ass guys. Training starts tomorrow morning !!!

"Research shows exercise can help people with depression because it releases feel-good brain chemicals such as endorphins. It can also improve self-esteem, through better body image or achieving goals, as well as relieving feelings of isolation which can fuel mental illness.

For years O'Sullivan has suffered from depression which resulted in mood swings. In snooker's 2006 UK Championship it caused him to walk out of a quarter-final against a stunned Stephen Hendry. He was fined £20,000 and docked 900 ranking points.

He says he has tried many things to combat his demons and was on Prozac when he won his first world title.

"[Running is] the best therapy I've ever had," he says.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7240545.stm"

Murakami on Running

SPIEGEL: And what did running teach you?
Murakami: The certainty that I will make it to the finishing line. Running taught me to have faith in my skills as a writer. I learned how much I can demand of myself, when I need a break, and when the break starts to get too long. I known how hard I am allowed to push myself.
SPIEGEL: Are you a better writer because you run?
Murakami: Definitely. The stronger my muscles got, the clearer my mind became. I am convinced that artists who lead an unhealthy life burn out more quickly. Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin were the heroes of my youth -- all of them died young, even though they didn't deserve to. Only geniuses like Mozart or Pushkin deserve an early death. Jimi Hendrix was good, but not so smart because he took drugs. Working artistically is unhealthy; an artist should lead a healthy life to make up for it. Finding a story is a dangerous thing for an author; running helps me to avert that danger.

Running and Other Updates

After saturday's run, I got on the track last evening to do a 45 minute casual run. Moods change and the run also changed. The run turned out to be a 20 minute tempo run with a 15 minute warm-up and a 15 minute cool down. I did not measure my timing but I am quite confident that I ran my fastest yesterday :)

An old basketball friend called around 10:00 pm to give me an invite for his wedding. I really did not expect an invite as we have not been very close over the last few years. Pasu, arrived in Chennai to join the Sports Authority of India hostel in 1998 with the ambition to make it big. Basketball was his life and he would practice for atleast 6-7 hours every single day. You go to the ground at 5:00 am and you will see Pasu there shooting by himself. Back in college, this kid could not afford shoes and he used to play without shoes. We would practice together and we would keep switching shoes that a cousin of mine had sent me from the States. So, at any point of time, one of us had to sit out. Guess that really laid the foundation of us being friends for life.

This guy went on to be the captain Madras Christian College and finally made it into Southern Railways through basketball quota. He is now working as a blue collared worker in the Southern Railways. I left to go to the States and we lost touch. He has taken to serious drinking now and is completely out of shape. We stepped out last night for a beer and he confessed to me that he feels really bad these days not to play in the main 5 and really wants to get back. I heard a lot of sad stories about the guys on the team - one guy has a steel plate on his arm due to injury, another kid has hurt his back seriously etc. etc.

Pasu is getting married this sunday in Tirupur. I really want to go because it will be great to see my old basketball friends from MCC. The problem is I hate attending marriages but it is hard to explain that to the guy who is getting married. Most of them are completely out of shape and have given up basketball. Almost everyone is married and have little kids running around. For me the saddest thing possibly is to see athletes fall from their peak. Sometimes, it makes me question if the peak itself is that important because the fall is inevitable.

What Math Topic Are You?

a) Profit and loss
b) Simple interest
c) Quadratic Equations
d) Set Theory
e) Mensuration (?)

I feel like I am the "time, speed and distance" type. My head always is concious about the number of miles I cover every week (distance), the time taken to cover each of these distances (time) and the speed at which I cover these distances (speed).

Goalless Training

I recently read on runners world that it is important to do some goalless training in order to improve your performance. While training for a race, you can easily become a slave of the watch which takes away the joy of running from you. You keep looking at your watch and you keep cursing yourself for not beating the clock. Goalless training helps you just run and enjoy every bit of it. You just tell yourself you are going to get an hour of running and just go out and get it.

I met a runner in Bangalore who has been training professionally for the last 6 years. However, she mentioned that the peak does not last for more than 6 months and your body crumbles down after that.

Training for a marathon is a lot of fun. It teaches you a lot about discipline, goal setting and achieving those goals. However, believe it or not, it is really easy to get obsessed with running and place it above things like human relationships, your professional life and overall personality development.

I do not plan to run a marathon this year. I plan to work on running some half marathons to just enjoy running and with the goal of keeping overall fitness. However, apart from keeping up my weekly mileage threshold goal, I don't plan to have any other running goals. I am going to use running to increase my fitness base and maybe run a marathon injury free when I am ready for it.