Saturday, November 22, 2008

Bangalore Book Festival 08

The last time the book festival was here, i took three days(4-5 hrs per day) to finish scanning all the stalls. This time, i was short on time, and did some quick shopping.(read 4 hrs). Bought books for ~3k. And feeling good abt it!

My favourite stall: BookWorm

The books i bought:
- Every second counts - Lance Armstrong
- The God delusion - Richard Dawkins
- Six easy pieces - Richard Feynman
- Motorcycle diaries - Che Guevara
- The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch
- White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
- The meaning of it all - Richard Feynman
- Kepler's witch - James Connor
Classics:
- Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
- Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
- David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
- Around the world in 80 days - Jules Verne
- Time Machine - HG Wells
Novels:
- Vector - Robin Cook
- Invasion - Robin Cook
and 5 Star Trek novels

Current mood: confused turning in all directions
Currently listening to: Brothers in arms - Dire Straits

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Dead@Die-athlon

Event3 from earlier post did not happen as my rear derailleur blew up(literally) on my way to the venue (And i had to push the cycle 10 km). So all i did was sit (plus sleep) at the supplies tent through the night to help Santosh do his 24 hr run (plus Doc Rajat and Shumit doing 100+km too, and Gaurav hovering around on his cycle through the night). Had good company from Balu, Anita and Santosh's parents through the night, plus tonnnes of yummy food. Carbo-loading got a new meaning that night!

Morning came and Event4 (Bangalore Ultra 2008) was calling! And the weather was perfect throughout the run! But yet i screwed it up. Didn't end up doin 75 km. Mismanaged my run! Did my first coupla 12.5 km laps way too quick. And that screwed the rest of the run. Third lap was sorta ok. But in the 4th lap, killed lot of time walking. Got disgusted at the slow pace i was moving at. I wasn't down n out. But muscles were sore. Mathematical possibility of completing 75km within deadline was out too. So, lost enthu.... Quit at 50 km. Could have done another lap too. But didn't see the point.

Things that went wrong for me:
Lack of training: the longest training run i had done was the half marathon at KTM. (But domestic n work situations didn't spare me any time)
Trail was trickier and harder than last time: Some sections were pebbly. So, doing a slightly longer by-path which was slightly longer would've been smarter. There were more elevation changes, thus slowing me down more as i was doin walk-the-ups-n-run-the-downs.
Did the first two laps way too quick: Did first lap in 1:35 and second in 1:45. Much too quick for my capacity. That definitely affected my next coupla laps. Shud've followed what A1 once said, "run as slow as you can, and then try running even slower".
Lack of a challenge: There was no one to discourage me this time, and thus no sense of fighting back.
I was plain sucky: I guess that doesn't need much explanation!

But still happy in being part of history in at least some tiny way..... in helping Santosh becoming the "Indian who covered the longest distance on road in 24h" by doing 156 km. Just a tad bit short of 100 miles.

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I'm sorry for so few pics, and that too this crappy!
Reasons (read excuses): The sun wasn't out. As a result, the lighting wasn't that great. So was the colour composition. Plus i had a real bad mood close to the end. Yeah, but if u look at Anita Bora's pics, u'll figure out that i'm just giving excuses.

Current mood: Restless
Currently listening to: Suicide note Part I - Nirvana

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Die-athlon update!

Event1 mentioned in earlier post skipped! Yippee! Thanks to me being a good boy and making a good ppt early. So caught sleep on pre-talk day
Event 2: Talk went well! Now heading out for Event 3 and 4

And i fell yesterday on my way back home. Nothing much, a bruise on my knee and something screwed up on my left hand. My running shouldn't be affected i guess. But will have a hard time on the cycle i presume. On a test ride today morning, left hand was hurting bad while tryin to hold the rear brake. Hope i can manage.

Current mood: Hyper jittery
Currently listening to: In the Bleak winter - Bert Jansch

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Tour oF Nilgiris (TFN08)

910 kms | 7days of cycling through picturesque surrounds.
Chk it out:
Plus the goodies u'll get sponsored by Wildcraft

Current mood : Jittery abt Upcomin sequence of events described in previous post
Currently listening to : Tetsujin (Matrix Revolutions OST) - Don Davis

Friday, November 07, 2008

The die-athlon comin up

Well, its more than cycling and running that makes this one up.

Event1: sleepless preparation for Event2
Event2: The NCBS Fly-meet where I'll be giving a talk
Event3: Just after finishing event2, hurriedly cycle to Hessarghatta for Event4
Event4: Cycle ~100km from 6pm to 6am to help Dr. Rajat on his 200 km in 24h run.
Event5: Run 75 km at the Bangalore Ultra

Now that makes a great die-athlon

Current mood: Odd
Currently listening to: Silver rain fell - Evanescence