week ending 25th july

interesting week with two speed workouts - tempo run of 35 minutes on wednesday and fartlek of 10 rounds of 100 metres each on saturday, interspersed with easy run on thursday and long run on sunday. total mileage including the speed workout days - 39 kms. Disapppointed at not doing more on sunday, now for next sunday's i-race at IIT Powai, Bombay.

The Cradle Will Fall

Just finished reading "The Cradle Will Fall" a medical murder mystery by Mary Higgins Clark, my first book by her. The narrative is patchy at parts and goes up and forth many times. Clark does'nt come upto the level expected of her, overall a racy book, but no comparison to the queen of crime Agatha Christhie.

The Undomestic Goddess

Just finished reading "The Undomestic Goddess" by sophie kinsella, my first one by her. It is a light hearted wodehousian type comedy, never a dull moment, the narrative is brilliant and ease with which she goes from comedy to romance to comedy and back is very good.

Bandra-Churchgate Run 18th July 2010

Fantastic run today, we started at 5.45 a.m., while it was humid in Bandra, the moment we crossed Mahim the humidity ceased, sun did not peep out today, except for a few moments when we were reaching mahalakshmi race course, probably to see whether runners were still on the road. Pedder road climb and Kemps Corner flyover were a breeze probably due to the intense workouts we do in Aarey and BNP, crossing into Marine Drive we were into a pleasant surprise. Rain gods showered its blessings on the runners in plenty – running in marine drive in the rains was a dream come true. The entire stretch from Wilsons College to NCPA was the best part of today’s run.




MANY THANKS to Jayati for organizing water & bananas at poddar hospital with her friend Amit who also run with us, to Krishna for arranging tempo with water all throughout the route and for tirelessly going up and down with water for the runners and to Sundaresan for arranging water, bananas & glucose biscuits at the finish point. MANY THANKS to Genieve for arranging a video shoot of the runners – that was awesome Gen, you friend was stupendous. YOU GUYS ARE THE REAL HEROES OF TODAY.



We had 36 runners in all, with a four member team (Zico, Amit Joshi, Raj & Sohanlal starting from Goregaon and doing 32 kms in all – super effort), Apurba joining us from Dadar, Sameer from Worli, Ganesh & Mohana running all the way from Sion (magnificient effort that!), Jayati & Amit joining from Poddar Hospital, Khushro Patel from Worli & Sundaresan starting from NCPA and meeting the runners at Poddar Hospital (Grand effort that!).



We had few first timers – Sameer, Manav, Ashok Naidu, Sukesh, Abishai, Jayati, Amit, Arun Prasad – many thanks for joining us – hope you keep coming for group runs and races to be organized in future.



Great leadership from Milton and great support from Giles.



Missed Roshni, Kavin, Mike, Veera, Qureshi, Bharatbhai and his team, among others today.
A few photos are uploaded here

10 best foods for runners

10 best foods for runners, Click here

Running Injuries

Link to information about Running injuries here

Kitchen Confidential

Just finished reading "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain, the high profile chef who is seen regularly on Discovery Travel & Living Channel. This is a high octane book, destroying many of the myths surrounding the restaurant business.

Trek to Kothaligad fort

Had been to Kothaligad Fort on trekking with friends on 4th July, 2010. The day started with apprehensions because the previous day i.e. Saturday, it was pouring rains all over Bombay with some parts of it severely flooded too. Two or three members dropped out possibly due to concerns about transport, safety etc. Even my family was a bit apprehensive, but since I was one of the leaders of the expedition, I could not have backed of.



Few phone calls made to friends on Saturday evening to iron out last minute glitches, if any – everything seemed go - everybody was enthusiastic about the trip, rains notwithstanding.



We started of at 5.45 a.m. from Borivli National Park in a 25 seater bus which had its first pick up at Aarey forest and then onwards to the JVLR picking up few more people on board – last one being at Powai. Everybody was joking, jovial and light hearted. Rains continued to pour throughout the trip to Karjat.



At Karjat, we stopped for kanda bhajia, vada pav and some tea. Suitably refreshed, we set off again to the base camp, which was about 10 kms away through a narrow, winding, broken road Enquiries made at the base camp which had a local entrepreneur offering refreshments etc. – we were on the right path.

We set off at 10 a.m. through a winding upwards road, which had stones on it, so walking was a bit difficult, had to concentrate hard in order not to lose footing and twist ankle. This went on for about an hour by which time we came to the base of the mountain. The party broke into two groups, one going ahead with a purpose and the second party at a leisurely pace taking photographs on the way. So at the base of the mountain, we again made enquiries whether the advance party was on its way and having been re-assured, we set off climbing the mountain. From this part onwards, the breathing became hard, (though since we were all long distance runners the endurance levels were extremely high), the climb was tough at parts, few people took support and we reached the base of the fort which had a cave in it.

Again local entrepreneurship was visible, we were offered limbu pani, which was like nectar to us at that stage. The cave was just one room with a seating ledge and views through slits to the mountainside. We sat down for a while, took photographs etc., cracked a few jokes and then started off again – this time we had to climb 98 monster steps, each step like three steps of a building staircase. The steps were narrow so only one person could climb at a time, taking support of the sides. It went on like a spiral, some people counting the steps, others deeming it unholy to do so. At one point, when we were climbing the steps, it jutted out to the mountainside which had a sheer drop of about 1000 feet, so one had to be very careful with the footing. At the end of the steps, we reached the top of the mountainside, which had a small plateau and a beautiful view of the entire mountainscape all around. It was sheer breathtaking beauty in itself.

Lunch packets brought out, each one nibbling a little from each one’s box, we relaxed for a while and soaked in the atmosphere for as long as possible. The climb from the base of the mountain to the top took 90 minutes.

We started back at 2.00 p.m. again encountering the steep steps and this time the cliff side descent was tough on the weak hearts. Few more photographs on the way, we were on the way back first down the mountain and then down the winding path. On the way, we came across, one village which had its typical village houses, quaint little verandahs, little shops, children playing across the road, dogs et al. Returned back to the base camp at 4.30 p.m. had delicious tea at the base camp restaurant with few of the lunch snacks. Suitably refreshed and thoroughly satisfied with the day’s trek we set back to Bombay at around 5.30 p.m., few people dozing off, others chit chatting and all of them asking for an encore – more treks in the near future.

week ending 11th july 2010

finished week ending 11th july 2010 with only two runs during the week - a 7.3 km run on tuesday in slight to moderate drizzle, which completed my 100 hours of running for the year 2010 and a 13 km run on saturday at aarey forest in a hill climb, which resulted in a groin strain, due to which i had to terminate my run sooner than expected.