Sipper, Saddle and the Shoes

Brands that make us Grand

2011-12-21T09:15:00.002+05:30

Let us have quick run to acknowledge all the sponsors and partners behind the tour. Tamilnadu Cycling Club shares immense pleasure in the relationship that builds a great tour and build great memories for 36 riders in years to come.

Title Sponsor

TI Cyclesare manufactures of cycles and other fitness equipment. They are patrons ofcycling in all formats like racing, touring and fitness. BSA, Hercules andMontra are their brands.They carry the needle and thread to stitch the holes in the wallet of all the riders who might otherwise have to shell out a lot more to be part of this experience that offers ample comfort and support.

Associate Sponsor

StarHealth insurance services provide health insurance to individuals, corporategroups and families. They ease the life of injured and diseased meeting themedical expenses in time.

Tourism Partner

TamilnaduTourism Development corporation promotes tourism across the heritage andnatural wealth of Tamilnadu. They are our partners in promoting eco-tourism. The association with TTDC have raised the level of the exposure about the tour across all government agencies and helped us ease through permission from Collectorates to Cops.

Safety Partner

108 – an emergencyresponse service run by GVK-EMRI along with the Govt of Tamilnadu providesemergency service to medical needs and works under sophisticated network andequipment across the state. They are the backbone for safety across the entire tour.

Logistics Partner

AshokLeyland is the manufacturer of heavy vehicles and pick-up trucks across India.They are the partners for the transportation of bikes and baggage every dayduring the tour.

Track and Trace partner

MyTVS isthe 24X7 support system for car service and breakdown handling. They arehelping by providing GPS devices that can be used to track the positioning ofriders and linked with the Call center of MyTVS.

Goodies Partner

Wildcraftis a branded product for outdoor and adventure gears. They are happy to beassociated with the tour by providing their bag as part of the goodies

Hospitality Partner (Tuticorin)

GRT group of Hotels run premium hotels and resorts across the state. They are proud to host us in their facility in Tuticorin during the tour.

BSA TOT 2011 - Launch ride to Vandaloor zoo

2011-12-18T17:31:00.001+05:30

It was a cold December morning when people started pouring into the Island grounds at 5:30 AM. The occasion is no big holiday exhibition or to park vehicles for the Chennai Marathon or for a Political convention. The occasion was in support of a green cause.

Tamilnadu Tourism development corporation partners with the Tamilnadu Cycling club in spreading a green message and promoting eco-tourism. As a mark of thanking the cycling community in Chennai and the sponsors who make the event happen on the roads, a symbolic launch ride was organized from Island Grounds to Vandaloor zoo. Though there was expectation of large number of regular TCC members, the occasion flavored with a lot of new faces and first timers.

The occasion was flagged of by the Mr. Santosh K Misra, IAS, M.D of TTDC. Our title sponsor TI Cycles was represented by Mr. KC Ramamurthy, Head of Retail, TI Cycles. Mr. Prabhudoss who represented 108 emergency services on a lighter note said "Unlike the other sponsors and partners, we wish that you need not use our services though they will be available along the entire trip".

The big bunch of 40 riders broke across the entire route in few minutes. The ride was well supported by 2 mechanics, 2 pit stops with refreshments and backup truck along with ambulance in the tail. The 52 Km ride ended in Vandaloor zoo. Thanks to Subash for coordinating and arranging an awesome lunch at Hotel Tamilnadu in Vandaloor zoo. All riders were transported back in tourister vans to the start point while the trucks carried back their bikes.

Now that the test drive is over, the count down for the real game starts!! Welcome to join us in Madurai on 25 December 2011.

BSA TOT 2011 - Chennai Launch

2011-12-13T19:11:00.001+05:30

We are very happy to announce the BSA Tour of Tamilnadu 2011's launch ride at Chennai.

This is a mark of our thanks to the cycling community which largely comes from Chennai and also to thank our sponsors for leading us to the last moments of preparation before we set out to the tour on 25 December 2011 at Madurai.

Once again we welcome you all. Please register for the event here. The registration for the event will close by 3 PM on Friday, 16 December 2011.

BSA Tour of Tamilnadu 2011 - "Cuisine"

2011-12-12T21:31:00.001+05:30

Welcome to BSA Tour of Tamilnadu 2011 - Cuisine.

Watch out for all interesting stories on the build-up and the every day updates here!!

Kodaikanal - liquid leap

2011-04-22T17:14:00.002+05:30

The victory ride:
After the Sirumalai ride, good food and contented world cup win of India allowed us to take a good 6 hours sleep and woke up by around 5:45 AM. Got our selves ready and packed our backpacks with all the stuff thrown around the previous evening. We decided to take it easy and call it a victory ride celebrating India's Cricket world cup victory.

The back pack:
The most questions asked around a self supported ride is "What did you carry?".

Dinesh carried only one pair of alternate dress and only one pair of Jersey-shorts on which he rode on both days after washing it in the evening of the first day ride. He did not carry water bottles and used the 2L hydra pack that was part of the backpack. The tools and spares went into the saddle bag. The gloves and helmet were part of the riding attire.

Backpacks: Dinesh - 20L and Bharani - 27L

On the other hand, in spite of the optimism to take is self supported, I always think with little bit pessimism and carried enough alternates. The bag included:

2 T shirts
1 shorts
1 pants (went wearing on Day 0)
1 T shirt (went wearing on Day 0)
2 cycling shorts
2 cycling jersey
2 pairs of gloves
1 Sweat shirt
2 pairs of socks
1 cap
1 towel
1 point shoot camera + charger
Garmin forerunner + bike mount
MP3 player
2 mobile phones
1 Blackberry charger (mini USB port works for mobile, Garmin and MP3 player)
1 emergency mechanical charger (acquired only the day before the trip).
1 head light + tail light
1 Sunglass
Swiss knife
Puncture kit + Spare tube + Mini tool kit + Chain tool + Pump + Spokes wrench (part of saddle bag).
Sunscreen, Plaster, Antiseptic powder, pain cream.
2 water bottles (loaded on the bike)
2 plastic bags (for just in case..)
Toileteries

All the above items packed tightly in a 27L Quecha backpack and took the ride easy to carry no numbs back home.

Grey marks between the Green masks:

As we started off from the hotel, it was already near 7:30 AM. We were late by over an hour. We took some local guidance to chose the road. The elevation was varying from 1100 ft to 800 ft along the road until Batlagundu. We took a short tea break. When we were just thinking of buying a newspaper to read cover stories on India's WC victory, the shopkeeper was telling that he ran out of all the newspapers by 3:30 AM!!.

Green!!

The road was very much bound by dense coconut plantations on either sides of the road. Dinesh did not even want to miss the 'Padhaneer' (coconut toddy) along the route. At Batlagundu, we had our idli - vada - dosa breakfast and loaded well enough owing to an uncertain place for lunch.

The G'HOT' road:
As we started from the hotel after breakfast, realized that there is some problem with the rear derailleur. The chain was slipping too frequently and found the gear cable to the rear derailleur in some trouble. Fixed the components in desired position, reinforced with some small sticks and laid a plaster around the set up to save further damage while going up the climb.

The fracture fixed!

The trouble around the gears got reduced and we moved steadily towards the ghat roads leading our way to Kodaikanal. A lilly pond, dense trees on the road sides and few advertisement hoardings to few hotels - this is how diversion from the national high way started.

Once we reached the beginning of the ghat road, the trees disappeared and my watch was showing 38 C as the temperature. We took a short break (even a nap for Dinesh) and continued further.

Gifted for naps

The ghat road starts

The 48 Km ghat road to Kodai was really hot to begin with and I almost emptied over 1 L of water in the first 1000 ft of the climb. But the climb was steady and the roads were awesome to view. On the left side of the hill, the coconut plantations started shrinking by size into bushes after 200 ft of climb and almost turned into green patches as we reached over 500ft for an excellent areal view of the Manjalar dam.

Manjalar dam

Breaks and bites:
Breaks - yes we had lots of them. But bites - we had very few of them. It was was more of sips all day. We took our first break at a tea shop after climbing nearly 900ft. There was no natural drink to quench the thirst. We emptied a bottle of 7up each and filled water from the can placed there for public use. Not to miss mentioning the fun part of spectators around: This time my saddle bag was presumed to be 'battery' for the bus driver who was standing around!!

From there on, we took frequent breaks when ever we found shades. Though we were not literally together along the ride, we kept crossing each other every time some one took rest and stopped at the next tree shade. Survived mostly with water and Dinesh's familiarity of the route helped in timing ourselves for breaks at places where we can get some food. Tender coconut, Chocobar, slice, Tiger biscuits, apple juice, water, H2O, neelu, paani, thanni, vellam - all that made us survive the day as we decided to skip the lunch owing to worry of feeling dizzy.

Tender coconut and chocobar break

Grey dust to Green den:
As we went up by elevation, the hot and dusty roads started disappearing paving way for lush green vegetation.

The frequency of our breaks increased as the time passed by. We had our own entertainment by engaging local kids, watching some cricket match and some monkey herd charm where ever we rested. We never over did or strained ourselves as our only intention was to reach Kodai for dinner and bed.

We passed through small villages and were surprised to see graffiti work on the rocks reading 'SAVE TIBET'. Later as we roamed around the Kodai town, the Tibetan restaurants and handicraft shops made us understand that there is a considerable amount of Tibetan population in that region. Sat down at Perumal malai for a while and confirmed the distance on the google maps with my mobile. We had 13 Km to go and it was already little past 5.00 PM.

The pleasant surprise:

As I approached the Palani - Kodaikanal ghat road junction, I was suddenly shocked as some one yelled, "BHARANI!!". A lean/fit guy came out of the white car. Was surprised to see the F1 racing star, Karun Chandhok who was on his way to Madurai to catch a flight. As he expressed his interest to ride to Kodai on cycle sometime later this year, I assured to accompany him then.

Silver cascades, Golden sky and Platinum bed:
As the distance to destination started showing up in single digit, we got more motivated and kept pushing on. After a quick photo session at the silver cascades, more advertisement hoardings and the Kodaikanal toll plaza welcomed us through a steep long ride of the last few Kms. The sky was turning dark after some bright golden shine of the sunset scenery behind the hills.

Silver cascades

We had our rooms booked at Hotel Tamilnadu already. Reached our rooms, had a hot water shower, full carb loading dinner and then went back to the room for a tight long sleep. Dinesh started snoring deep after 30 sec of closing his eyes while I browsed through all the funny local cable TV channels and updated the Facebook status before I started sleeping a little before midnight.

Relaxed morning:
We woke up late in the morning went out for a nice Pongal-vada-coffee breakfast and Meenakshi bhavan. We also located the spots where we have to board our buses in the evening and had a nice morning walk. The TTDC hotels had a 10 AM - 10 AM check-in policy. We did not want to shell out double the amount of money for a few hours. We negotiated to take 2 beds in the adjacent dormitory that was empty for the mean time till the evening and paid for it.

Hotel Tamilnadu, Kodaikanal

While Dinesh chose to sleep for a while after our lunch at Kovai Annapoorna (near the Kodai bus stand), I decided to take a walk around.

My own 'Kodai wiki':
While details about the tourist spots can be gathered from anywhere in the web, I here put some interesting observations of a man traveling new to this place.While this city has almost everything ranging from South indian cuisines to Tibetan momos the pricing also range from road side idli shops to Pizza corner. When it comes to accommodation, we had been bugged by almost half a dozen men on our way to Kodaikanal offering cheap and good hotels. As I walked down across the streets of the town, I located tin sheeted dormitories to individual bungalows offering holiday stays. I would rather vote for a hotel like "Hotel Tamilnadu" which is definitely value for money.

Walked down to the Kurinji andavar temple with the help of Google maps and on the return located the famous "Vellaiappan movies", the only cinema theater that I found around there. It was then screening, "Ulagam sutrum vaaliban" - one of the super duper hits of vathiyaar MGR!

For those who want to explore the city on their own, there is a cycle for rent facility available in front of Paradise Inn.We get Hercules Ryders series geared bikes at Rs. 30/ hour which I would say is definitely reasonable for a couple of friends to roam around for few hours.

We picked some home made chocolates later from a shop near the bus stand and boarded on our respective buses to get back home.

More pics on the Sirumalai and Kodaikanal trip here.

Sirumalai - a banana split for hill lovers

2011-04-06T22:10:00.003+05:30

The long due:
The date of the previous post in this blog should tell about my long holiday away from tours. Missed to blog the MTB Himachal experience though. Due to various commitments at work and family, I had to let the Tour of Tamilnadu and Tour of Nilgiris go last December. The conversation among the TOT riders about the Kodaikanal climb had always turned my stomach in to a Tandoori oven. After a long break off the bike, some long rides along the Chennai desert heat, hot climb of Yelagiri as cherry on the des(s)ert got the legs ready through the March. Dinesh is some one who decides on getaways at short time and even makes it alone most of the times.

The April bird appeared sexy with its wings of weekend stretched to Monday once and later to Friday again. Wrote a one line mail to Dinesh and everything else happened just 3 days before the weekend with Ugadi on Monday. Cooked the plan, booked the bus and on Friday morning booked the rooms as well. All of a sudden, it appeared like a well planned trip.

Why Dindigul? Why Sirumalai?:
Was first thinking of going to Batlagundu directly by bus and start climbing to Kodai. But the chain of action had 2 broken links in between. One unfortunate and another irresistible. We were not able to get tickets to Batlagundu as our plans were mend only in the last minute. Added to that, we did not want to lose the cricket worldcup action. So reserved our tickets to Dindigul, booked rooms at Hotel Rockfort palace after calling and confirming that the TV is in condition! We had the whole morning to kill and found the unsung hill "Sirumalai" just 25 Km away from Dindigul.

Sleep - Stop - Map - Gap - Nap:
I took a sleeper bus from Chennai and got my cycled transported in the boot. Dinesh also did the same from Bangalore. After some sound sleep, I reached Dindigul earlier than expected. Though I got down at the bypass road of an alien city, I just got down, set the bike and kept pedaling down to my destination with the help of my mobile GPS and Google maps. Both of us took some nap in the gap and got refreshed for a short ride to Sirumalai.

Pepsi cola --> Paneer soda:
Bovonto and Paneer soda always rule my tongue every time I escape out of Chennai to my native place. We pedaled out of the city with help of directions from the the hotel receptionist and shops on the way. We decided to have our breakfast at a small thatched roof hotel before the detour road to Sirumalai from the highway. No wonder 2 big idlis + 1 dosa was only Rs. 18. The chutney was really hot for Dinesh to digest comfortably. We started riding through a scenic road bound with trees on either of the sides and crossed a forest check post towards the ghat roads of Sirumalai reserved forest.

We decided to keep our ride logistics simple and cheap. We filled out water bottles at a public water tank on the way. The best fact was that we almost did all our water refills from mud pots at tea shops, large blue drums and public taps but no water bottles through the entire trip. The 20 Km ride to Sirumalai from there on included a 2500ft climb through 15 Km ghat road and 18 hairpin bends.

The ride was hot for a while as it turned little over 9 o'clock in the morning. Dinesh wanted some breaks on the climb as the chutney evoked some uneasiness. It was a very chatty and relaxed ride. We neither missed the wide spread tree shades nor the small temples on milestones to the small view points adjacent to small churches. There were some great words scribbled and were worth tweeting during the break there.

Some light between the shades..

Translation: Be a slave to vodka but not a woman.

We stopped and sipped every bit of the greenery around sipped every refreshing drink we got. Started with the local flavoured Color then to Paneer Soda and then some Nanaari Shorbet up in the Sirumalai village.

An areal view

Paneer soda.

The Royal Banana:
The Sirumalai hills are known for the famous "Malai vaazhai" (hill banana). We got to see a lot of plantain plantation along the sides when we climbed up the hill. During the off season time, these bananas sell at over Rs. 100 /dozen in the cities. When we wanted to have some refreshment at the small tea shop at Sirumalai, Dinesh had his eyes stuck at the "Royal banana". Got a dozen of them at Rs. 3/ piece.

Well, how did it taste? The expression says it all.

Sirumalai - the local wiki:
When we crossed all the 18 hairpin bends, we started seeing signboards and wooden buildings denoting some cottages that were run by some resorts around there. We moved down further in to the core village main road to see more people in activity. Though a small hand post along the road read 1600 metres above sea level, my Garmin read as 3400 ft (1030 metres). A chat with the tea shop old man along with some banana and shorbet enlightened us about the unsung prosperity of the locality. Sirumalai, Sirumalai pudur and Agasthiar malai (no roads) are the prominent regions of the Sirumalai hill with over 5000 families living around there. The local school facilitates up to class 10 while the higher studies and college requires a bus ride to Dindigul everyday. There is only one ghat road connecting to the Dindigul main road while the locals know a lot of routes along the foot to the reach the foot hill.

While plantation is the main occupation, most of them have 10-15 acres of land where they do cultivation of bananas to some spices. We can see a lot of graffiti work of political symbols oin many walls in lieu of election. When asked about their choice for this polls, the old man gave an innocent but firm smile showing his 2 fingers. I was little late to notice the 2 leaves painted across all the walls of the building owned by him that has 5 different shops functional. This naturally wealthy hill but still underdeveloped in many faces comes under the Natham constituency for the Assembly polls. "Vellimalai swamy" is the prime God that most of the people worship and the famous temple in the locality.

The only thing that turned my face frown was the bus stop of Sirumalai. There was a soup stall, a gambling game with half a dozen sitting around and some coir dump?

Base, Biriyani and Bed:

The chat seriously invoked some deep interest to explore the region beyond the Sirumalai village and trek along the Agasthiar malai forest. But as the clock was ticking, the stomach also started ticking. We had a big lunch awaiting at the famous Venu Biriyani and a bigger match there after. We had to return the place half minded and made a swift downhill ride back to the base. Had a quick Biriyani lunch and was back on the room to follow the match from the third over on our beds. While I did not miss a single over from there on till nerve breaking last over, Dinesh had a loud snoring sleep during the Srilankan innings.

Hot day - Cool ride - Hot Biriyani - Cool room - Hot victory - Cool climb awaited. The day can be summed up precise that way.

C2T1D - Chennai to Trichy in 1 Day on a cycle

2010-08-04T01:05:00.006+05:30

Background:
The ride was cooking in my mind ever since I learned about our college's Silver jubilee celebration and an alumni meet (24 July 2010, Saturday) as part of it. Had been digging the map for over weeks at late nights and create contingency plans for myself. I did not want to expose the insane idea and get it dumped for obvious reasons like my close friends and family would discourage the insane attempt. Personally it would be a mock up for me for B2C1D (Bangalore to Chennai in 1 Day) that is planned for a long time. The next day of the origin of the idea was my 232 Km ride to Pondy and back. The purpose was to test if a 200 Km ride comes under my comfort zone. After making some optimization of plans to my speed, food, luggage, etc., wanted to have a feel of the NH45 which is supposed to be a high traffic road compared to ECR that we used to ride regularly. Subash and me set out on a ride 2 weeks back along the GST (Grand Southern Trunk).

Final week of preparation:
Though I exposed the vague idea to few friends at some occasions, I exposed the plan for the first time to few of the close and motivating TCC members last Sunday and the response was very encouraging with lot of tips to be taken care. I told my mom about the plan on Monday evening and she was little worried about my ability. She never knew that I have done a couple of 200K rides last month :-). She thought that I was just back from a long ride and late. Convinced her about my safety precautions and got acceptance half minded.

The threat that arouse in the next 3 days made me worry. It was raining heavy and lazy On and Off around the city. I was also running with some bad cough and cold after getting drenched in the rain on a ride back from office. As a back up, booked a railway ticket to Trichy in Friday night along with few friends on Wednesday morning. The plan for return was to come by train and booked that as well next day. The weather was getting better from Wednesday evening and boosted my confidence.

The last confusion to be sorted out was the choice of bike. My calculations suggested that I might have a difference of around 1.5 hours between the road bike and mountain bike. The problem of a road bike is handling of the bike in case of problem during the ride and safe transportation on the return. Whereas I can afford my mountain bike to take some hard blows. Decided to take the mountain bike finally and borrowed a rear view mirror from Sundar that can be attached to the end of the handle bar. Got the bike serviced and washed on Wednesday. It took rest on the whole of Thursday.

The eve of C2T1D:
Started back to home early from office and went to BSA Go Kodambakkam to pick a spare tube and few other accessories. Suresh wished good luck for the long ride with a Sigma tail light as his motivational gift. The final add-on that I made in the previous night was that I removed the aerobars from my roadbike and put it on my MTB. Aerobars on a mountain bike? Crazy!! But I felt like doing the ride little more easily with that. Was thinking of buying and carrying some sandwiches along with me. But my mom volunteered to make some Chappathi - Aalo rolls. Though my mom was reluctant when I said about the idea of the lone long ride earlier that week, she started asking questions about safety and other factors. Felt good that she was assimilating it and for her last bit of satisfaction, prayed at the Ganesh temple in our apartments and broke a coconut offering prayers for a safe ride.

From C2T1D

It was very late by the time I acquired all the stuff required for the ride and pack them. My back pack included:

Horlicks Nutribar - 7
Gatorade powder - 6
Eclairs chocolates - 10
Pants - 1
Shorts - 1
T shirts - 2
Inner wear - 2
Towel - 1
Small towel - 1
Deodrant
Soap/brush/paste
Plastic bags - 3
Wet tissues - 10
Alternate gloves - 1 pair
Mini air pump
Camera
Mobile charger
Plaster
Antiseptic cream
Cotton
Copy of map for reference
Copy of return train ticket
Few business cards
Wallet and enough CASH with change!!

The puncture kit, spare tube, tool kit and truing key were loaded in the saddle bag.

Wrote down my name, blood group and emergency contact numbers on cardboard using marker pen and held it in the top of the easily accessible pouch in the bag.

Originally intended to sleep by 8:00 PM but was awake till 10:30 PM. Packed everything intact and put my mobile, Garmin, Camera battery everything to charge all night. Checked the weather report for one last time and made my ride plan go public for the first time beyond a circle by posting it on Facebook and Dailymile.

Restless Sleep:
I did not want to miss my alarms at any cost. Woke up once at 12:50 AM and when I logged into Facebook from my mobile, I already saw some 10 comments and motivations. Went back to sleep again and woke up sharp at 1:55 AM.

At last, I am starting:
Brushed, took a cold shower and woke my mom up. While she was preparing the Chappathi, I checked air for one last time and started recalling the list of items for the third time in the morning. Gulped in 2 rolls of chappathi - aalo at 2:50 AM and followed was a cup of milk with proteinex. After getting blessings from the Gods in our Pooja shelf and mom, got into the shoes and went down stairs with the head and tail lights glowing.

Started from my home at little before 3:15 AM and turned the Garmin Forerunner ON. Took the well lit roads in the city and took it very safe and careful as there used to be a very fast traffic of cabs in the early hours.

Home - till first forced stop:
The road was all safe and good to ride except for some early morning city bus traffic and some thrash trucks. Kept it easy in the dark parts of the GST road - St Thomas mount, Pallavaram and Chromepet. While riding on the aerobars, I was able to realize the gentle ups and downs on the road near Pallavaram. The road became narrow after Tambaram and had to negotiate the gaps very carefully with some trucks. The speed was so far varying from 20 Kmph to 25 Kmph.The vision was very difficult early in the morning against the headlights of vehicles coming in the opposite side and intentionally wanted to ride slow until it was dawn.

Little after an hour of ride, suddenly I had some weird feeling that it was getting hard to ride. I know for sure that it was not an uphill. Am I tired so soon? Looked down if I got a flat. Got down and knocked the tire and felt that it was sound. Just rotated the wheel to find that the wheel was bent. Took out the truing key that I carried handy and tried rotating the relevant spokes. OPPS!! ONE OF THE SPOKES IS BROKEN. I know for sure that I will not be able to fix it anywhere at 4:30 AM. I had done only 32 Kms by then and was near Vandalur. Recalled my old lessons and tried adjusting the neighboring spokes to get some shape. Also loosened the brakes little bit to get the wheel rotating freely. Lost 15 mins in this unscheduled break. I am moving away from my target of reaching Chengalpet before 5:20 AM.

Picked some pace:
Keeping in mind that I lost some time in between, I wanted to make up for the time lost and slowly increased the speed. As I crossed Maraimalai nagar, there was a slow big truck driven in the left lane of the road. Started drafting it for a while to 31 - 33 Kmph and felt comfortable to make up the time to some extent. The truck picked up some pace and moved to the next lane leaving me alone. Reached the first Toll plaza on GST by 5:20 AM. There were lot of trucks resting around the toll plaza and a busy business of selling tea was going on by some vendors on cycles with a tea can. Stopped for a couple of minutes, checked the brakes and wheel, started biting an energy bar and slowly moved out of the place.

More motivation:
Trucks may come and trucks may go. There had always been alternative motivations available in instance. I decided to avoid as much intersections and small town possible. I started using the flyover in the bypass of Chengalpet and the carrot on the climb was a Dhoodhwala on a TVS 50 with 3 big cans, steering up. Kept chasing him on the gentle climb and over took on the descent in the other side. Later during the day, it was the school children trying to over take me zipping past by looking at me calling for a 'race' with out knowing that I had already done a century and looking for 2 more centuries.

Small hills on the flat terrain:

From C2T1D

Elevation profile of the entire route from the map.

As every one knows the terrain of the road from Chennai to Trichy is almost flat. But the road had its own small hills for the benefit of speedy reach to destination. There are many small towns and state highways going through the NH45 which are likely to cut down the speed of the high way traffic. There were flyovers built in every road intersection and in the bypass of every such town. I would have counted some 15 - 20 of such flyovers in the entire road. They used to be challenge for containing my speed and picked some pace on the descent of those bridges that I would use for the next few Kms. But as the hours passed, after 200Km, I hated every one of those flyovers.

Century and Breakfast:
After the spokes' forced stop, stopped once after Palar bridge to bite my second nutribar and then stopped next at Melmaruvathur to stretch and send updates by message to a set of biker friends and family.

From C2T1D

Dawn near palar bridge

From C2T1D

Melmaruvathur

Had my breakfast at around 7:45 AM just after completing my century and before Dindivanam. I chose to have my breakfast in a small roadside shop. Had 6 idlys(carbs) and 1 vada with lot of Sambhar(Protein) and chutney. Refilled the water and went further.

Sunny and windy:
After crossing Dindivanam, for the first time started feeling strong head winds and the Sun was going up slowly making is tough to push to 21 - 22 kmph. This is where the aerobars made a big difference. Bending down on the aerobars easily gave 2 - 3 kmph additional speed on the same efforts. Only the back pack was preventing from holding in the position for longer time. Occasionally drafted an Aavin milk truck for few Kms. While approaching the roads near Vikkiravandi, for the first time felt if I was riding in some other country. The broad roads with white lines appeared so majestic. By pumping up and limping down, slowly reached Villupuram (155Km) just before 10 AM.

From C2T1D

TN 23 Z 0645:
Why would I remember a vehicle registration number? This was the truck that boosted my confidence and completing the ride successfully. This truck was carrying "Grasim" suitings and I caught it at some 3 Kms after Villupuram. Slowly drafted it for around 10 Kms at 32 - 35 kmph until it stopped for some tea in a roadside shop. I had me fuel tank full with water and stomach was good. The weather was also getting better with some clouds surrounding the Sun on it way over my head. So used the momentum for the next 25 kms and thus reached Ulundurpet (39 Kms from Villupuram) in 1 hr and 20 mins. Carried on the tempo till Veppur after which I stopped for my second food break in a small tea stall. This time had the Chappathi - Aalo roll from home and quenched the thirst with some 'Panneer soda'. WOW!! It felt very great. I had crossed 216 Kms by then.

From C2T1D

My Lunch host..

From C2T1D

A century to go.. and he is strong!

My black shorts had some interesting designs in white color with the salts pumped off with the sweat. My legs below were B&W designed with the dust and salts. Used 2 full bottles of cold water to wash everything and started over again.

Mentally long miles:
Those miles that came after that were just numbers to go past. I stopped looking at the speedometer after 240 Km as it might pull my mind down for the figures that I had never seen before on my speedometer. I loved looking at the double digit values read as distance to Trichy. The roads turned more lonely with smaller villages and less traffic. Drafted a 12 wheeler truck to pick some pace to reach Perambalur. Had some lemon rice and refilled the water. The length of my breaks shortened and kept moving on.

Interesting Ignorance:
There were lot of ppl on the way who asked curious questions, motivated and some even irritated.

Where are you coming from?
Me: Chennai
Where are you going?
Me: Trichy
Started yesterday?
Me: Only today.
Will reach there tomorrow?
Me: No. Today.
Riding for world peace?
Me: No.
Riding in plea of some quota?
Me: No.
Cost of the cycle?
Me: 5k (usual one.. )

X: See da, gear cycle.
Y: What are the 2 bottles?
X: Big one is Petrol and small one is oil.
Y: How to put gear?
X: Just 2 rotations on the pedal and press the button (pointing shifters).
Y: What speed will it go?
X: I saw this guy chasing a lorry on the way. So it should go 100 kmph easily.
Y: Then I will sell my Bajaj bike and buy this one.
Me: LOL (by heart).

Some Melmaruvathur pilgrims near Veppur offered me lemon juice when I was stretching under a tree and an old lady blessed with some 'kumkum'. An educated family near Perambalur made some curious interactions and their 5 year old kid offered a bottle of pulpy orange juice. There were lot of thumbs up from the passerby cars and motor bikes that made me push little better.

It is Trichy finally!:
As I approached the Samayapuram Tollgate and the diversion for bypass road, it was just 3:45 PM and I was far ahead of my target time. It read 310 Kms in my speedometer and I took the bypass road in the left to catch the road to my college. I was expecting a bumpy bad road at this stretch and it was an awesome road that I flew over the fly overs forgetting which part I am riding over through. It took some time for me to identify important junctions and it was a flyover even over the TVS Tollgate below which I had to take left. Finally understood the roads and caught my route to Pudukottai road. NH45 ends and NH210 begins.

From C2T1D

The road and safety:
I was very careful about the safety part right from the beginning that I planned about this trip. Had 2 red blinkers behind and a headlight around my forehead. Added to my white Jersey was the orange safety coat that made me visible from good distance. Many were concerned about the erratic truck traffic in the national highway. But all the trucks were very safe and those that would go slow were the ones in the left lane and the other fast ones were in the right lane. The most erratic vehicles to my opinion were the SETC buses. They were just ripping past closely giving some shake to the front wheels. Most of them horn very late or do not. Other wise the roads were so safe as far as we keep riding in the service lane and occasionally draft slow trucks with eyes all around. On a comparison note of safety, if ECR scores 4/10 for safety then GST scores 8/10.

NH210 - cramping and munching memories:
After 319kms, it started cramping in my left leg. I stopped, stretched for 5 mins, drank water/gatorade and had one more bite of nutribar. Started over the bike again. But every time, I attempted to cross 25 kmph speed, it started pulling. I had another 25 Kms to go. Took it slow from there on and took few pics of the way. It started turning dark with the clouds and drizzled little bit. Packed the camera safely and pushed further slowly. There were lot of pilgrims in yellow who used to go by walk every year during that time. Not just for the cramping legs, this stretch of the road was the toughest of the entire ride. The roads became narrow with more traffic. This is the part of road where the rear view mirror was used fully to guard myself on the road. Finally managed to do the last 25 Kms in nearly 1.5 hours and reached the college.

From C2T1D

Cramping night and recovering reunion:
It was cramping in all directions over the night. It was lucky that I was given a room alone with 2 beds and I was rotating 360 degrees in deep slumber. Updated the ride in Facebook and Dailymile before sleep and was drinking loads of water with out excreting for the entire night.

From C2T1D

Resting at room in the next morning.

It was a huge turnout for the reunion. But I was tired and drowsy in the afternoon though I managed to interact with full energy in the morning with the friends and staff members. There was a special mention about me riding to the college by our Chief Executive in the welcome address of a gathering of over 1000 people. I was meeting a lot of friends for the first time ever since I took up cycling and there were lot of curious questions and many are seriously interested to start cycling soon.

Started at around 6 PM from the college and rode back till Trichy railway station slowly. Booked the bike under luggage which costs just Rs. 35 and an additional expense of Rs. 10 for a black slate to write address and booking number. That night I slept with no disturbance until the train reached the destination of Chennai Egmore in the morning.

Conveniences:
Aerobars: Thank God. Otherwise it would have been midnight to reach there.
MTB: Would have aborted the ride for a broken spokes on my road bike.
Roads: Best I have ever ridden.
Motivation on mobile!!: Was receiving continuous motivation by message from Vibha, Srinath, Sundar, Gops, Venky and my sister on the mobile. But for which, it would not have been possible to push that far on a lone ride.

From C2T1D

Culprits:
Backpack: Ouch on the back and hips. A big mistake.
Cramps: Not enough salts?

Consumption and Statistics:
Idly - 6
Vadai - 1
Chappathi & Allo - 4
Lemon rice - 1
Water - 9.5 litres (Should have been 12 - 13 litres and I did not take enough.)
Gatorade - 5 packs.
Enerzal - 1 pack
Eclairs - 4
Nutribar - 5
Coke - 500ml
Pulpy orange - 400ml
Nimbooz - 350 ml.
Cane juice - 500 ml.

Start time: 0310
End time: 1740
Total distance: 344.8 Km
Total time: 14 hours and 30 mins
Time on bike: 12 hours and 50 mins.

From C2T1D

Team Time Trial - Winners!!

2010-04-01T19:42:00.001+05:30

Back ground info:
Gops gave a hint about such an event coming up by a Chain ReaXion initiative. But received a mail about the event only 4 days before the actual event. We did not even have a weekend between to train and discuss. In short, it will be a Team Time Trial of 3 members in each team and the finishing time of the third person will be considered as the team's timing. Every team will leave with a 2 min gap in between. Event on 27 March 2010 at ECR Toll Plaza.

I have done a few individual time trials in the past on my MTB and had always finished with the best time in the category of MTBs. This time, we decided to field the best possible. I teamed up with a beast, Sachin and another animal, Vaz. Sachin was in good shape as I observed him the previous week. Vaz had an injury during his bike ride in Jan and had not been on his Road bike since then. Though the team appeared good in a general outlook, the 2 weak points were that I did not have a road bike and Vaz is not in the best shape. To rectify one, I borrowed a road bike.Vaz's position was something that we could not refill.. :-)

Race day:
I rode along with Kandappam starting at 4:45 and had a realxed ride. It was a good turn out with 15 teams and lot of cheering group for the TTT today. It was decided in our team that Sachin and me will take the wind for most of the time and Vaz will draft. Sachin did not have a cyclocomputer and we had to make calls to take turns. The teams were named as A, B, C... So we were the ninth team and our Bibs read as I 001, I 002 and I 003. There were only 2 teams with all road bikes and the rest of them were a mix of all kinds of bikes. Thanks to Vibha and Murthy who took care of the registrations and Vibha's valuable tips yesterday.

The Race:
When we started, I was the one to set pace initially and started riding at 33 - 34. After 1 Km, Sachin took the turn and jumped over to 40 - 41 Kmph as he did not have a cyclocomputer. Vaz took the lead for 500m and later decided to stay behind and draft through the ride. It was all going fine for 12 Kms and we observed that our pace slowly started falling. Vaz appeared tired. The head wind was moderate. But a ride after 2 months, recovery from injury should definitely not be a Time Trial. :-( But I wonder if any one else would have done it that far.

There were many instances when we accelerated the gap widened and we tried closing in by reducing the pace to 30 - 31 and keep moving together. I was tracking the miles for Sachin and yelling at ever 2 Kms. All the plan of pacing from 36 - 40 kmph in the final few Kms were dropped and we switched to the plan of sticking together. At the sight of the crowd near the finish line, we started ramping up the speed to give the best. I peaked the best pace of 49.2 Kmph near the finish line and finished the race by Sachin and Vaz finishing behind in 2 - 3 secs.

Podium finish:
Waited for all teams to finish and the 'I' team won the event with a nearly a minute saved over the second team. The second was our own Vibha, Murthy and Gops. Peter from Auroville and his 2 partners Dominic and Filip on MTB managed to get the third position. We all got some Gift vouchers from Track and Trail bike showroom and a T shirt.

Position 1: Bharani, Vaz & Sachin

Position 2: Vibha, Gops & Murthy

Position 3: Filip, Dominic & Peter

What went well:
1. We kept ourselves together all time. The understanding was good in spite of no practice sessions.
2. I did not push hard as I used to do on my MTB though this avg was achievable for me even on my MTB in a group ride.

What went wrong:
1. Sachin should have had a cyclocomputer and would have avoided the initial drain out pace from him. The interactions and calls kept the pace in control later.
2. Vaz was riding afresh with not much miles under the legs.
3. Drop - down bar - Ouch!! Did not feel much while riding. But having not used to the positions on a road bike, I felt some back pain after finishing the ride. Even the saddle was casing some pain.
4. Should not have allowed gaps in between. That eats away the energy in parts from all riders. This happened at few stretches.
Could have saved 2+ mins from what ever factors I discussed with Sachin on the way back. 41 mins - Target for the next race for the same distance.

Thanks to the Chain ReaXion and Track & trail team. More such opportunities can grow the tribe.

Chennai - Pondy - Chennai: 200+Km night ride

2010-03-13T19:08:00.002+05:30

The !dea:
Ever since we entered the month of March, the mercury level is shooting up and up. But the enthusiasm among the bikers in Chennai was shooting above the mercury levels with century rides flowing every weekend since the first anniversary of Chennai Bikers in the last week of February. The motivation was going high that the adrenalin rush was ready for a 200 for many of the bikers.

Plan elevated:
Taking into concern the burner factor above the sky and the good response for the Fun ride in the city, Murthy proposed a ride to Pondy and back - ALL IN THE NIGHT. There was very good response in a couple of days of the post about the ride. We wanted to have the size of the group in a size that can be managed and closed the entries with 13 people. Most of the planning went through over the emails and we still had one session of discussion to clear ambiguous points at Sundar's garage, couple of days before the ride. Thanks to Suresh of Balaji cycles who gave his mini truck along with the driver as support for the ride. Vaz volunteered to the primary support and the Pilot for the ride. Sundar, Subash and Amar took responsibilities of procuring fuel fo the riders that would keep us going (Sandwich, Water, Juice, Nutribar, Peanut bar and Enerzal). Most of the riders were from Chennai, but my friend Ramesh came from Bangalore for the weekend rode with us. I borrowed a bike for him and got things ready by Thursday evening. Not to forget that he was just back from a daunting ride the previous weekend in Bangalore. 350 Kms in under 24 hours!!

Ride day - Home to Toll Plaza: Murthy was doing all back ground work before the ride to call all riders and ensuring that they are all in time at convenient places. The drop outs were refilled and big thanks to Samir who put us in touch with TNRDC, for their support in the night time along the ECR for emergency case.

I had a meeting till 6:30 PM and had to rush home to get things ready. The plan was to assemble at Sundar's place at 7:15 PM and help to see that things are in order. Sundar called me in the evening to caution that the bike I borrowed had a flat in the rear wheel. After reaching home in the evening, I ordered for a 'Maggie' from my mom's kitchen and went ahead to dig for my shorts, Jersey and other stuff. I reached Sundar's place a little later 7:30 PM and first changed the tube for the bike. Murthy was already waiting there, looking for the truck and a little later, Gops, Subash, Srini and Ramesh dropped in. Just when every one of us were about to start, I saw that the pedals were for 'cleets' and Ramesh rides with ordinary shoes. Oops.. I borrowed a pair of pedal from Sundar and changed the cleets.

As I did everything, I realized that I do not have a spare tube for myself and also forgot the keys for my home which might be locked by the time I come home the next day. Rushed to my home on the way to the Toll plaza and picked up stuffs that I wanted and jumped over the crazy Friday night traffic along the ECR to reach the Toll booth at exactly 09:00 PM.

Toll Plaza to Mahabs:
Some riders were already ready there and some more joined in a few mins. Sundar got a driver for his car as another back up. Knowing the limits and the variety of the riders in the group, we felt that the support was enough: 2 cars + 1 truck for bikes. As every bike got ready and every biker got shaped up, Shuhaib was waiting for us to cheer a good start. Took some pictures and started rolling ahead in 2 packs which made up to sync at Mahabs.

Vaz was setting the pace at 20 - 22 Kmph and it was very comfortable and relaxed ride through the way. Venkatesh was little tired already reaching the Toll after getting a flat on the way and his MTB was pushing him down all the way. He came in as a late entry to refill dropouts and was not ready for a century ride. He opted to keep the group moving and got into the truck to support the group riding.

Relax, chat, fun, eat:
The pace increased to 23 - 24 Kmph after Mahabs and the group had lot of fun chatting all the way. We had already started consuming energy bars and Sandwiches at Pit stops. We decided to have Pit stops at 30 Km intervals. Some 'pace' riders were interested in adding some pace and started pushing Vaz :-). The entire group was packed between Vaz's car and the support truck which was showing light all the way. In places when the support truck had to slow down, we realized that the road was actually blind dark and we were traveling very safely between the guidance of lights. Praveen opted to join the support team for one way acted as the Photographer of the ride taking pictures by sneaking out of the car. I am afraid if any one else in the entire group had the shape to do so..

Pace, Pain and Pondy:
After the second pit stop, we decided to increase the pace further and kept moving on. I truly missed carrying my camera during the ride for some nice and funny pics. For a long time, I stayed behind and saw the flash flaming often. I just realized that I missing to be caught in the memories of the ride and I went towards the Pilot car along with Srini and Ramesh for some pictures.

After crossing 80 Kms, it was fun watching people from behind, stretching their bums in unison by getting out of the saddle.. Truly, that was the only part that pained for most of us in the entire ride.The miles started diminishing very fast and all the riders were fresh and energetic even after crossing 95Kms. Venky, Vibha, Murthy and me(?) were desperately waiting for some pace.

When it was just 3 Kms to go for the Pondy toll gate, I saw venky breaking away before the Pilot car. Vaz cautioned to be safe and broke open the road to ride at own pace. Murthy and Vibha started pushing forward and I decided to take off on my own way. I paced at around 38 - 42 Kmph in the stretch and crossed the toll booth with a WIZZZZZ.. Had to recover from the exhaust and rode further for a while and returned back. Most of the riders rode further to make it a 100K as the distance from the Chennai Toll to Pondy Toll was only 99 Kms.

Relax, Rest and Refill:
As every one reached the Toll booth in few mins, a mat was spread in a well lit place and people were planning for a small nap before we could start again. The rest of the sandwiches and juices were consumed by a group while the others stretched laying flat. Sundar, Gops and Venkatesh decided to start back home and went back in Sundar's car. Rajendran who also started biking only recently, decided not to ride back, but still decided stay as support along with Vaz.

Slow, sleepy ride:
We started again a little past 4:00 AM and continued to maintain a steady pace of 21 - 23 Kmph. Most of the guys felt drowsy and there was not much of interaction for the first couple of hours. The truck driver was definitely very tired of riding very slowly through the night with his toes on the clutch and decided to break away and find a corner to rest and sleep at some point. When we realized that the truck was missing, Vaz went back and found him resting. The ideal option would have been to let him rest for a while but the young boy felt energetic after a small nap and joined us patiently. As the time in the analog clock stretched to a vertical line, the east started appearing blue. As the day broke out slowly, the pilot vehicle was not required anymore and the bikes started moving ahead of him. I was still riding slowly when Vibha, murthy and Venky went ahead. We stopped for a tea on the way which Ramesh wanted desperately.

Kalpakkam - Mahabs - Toll:
After riding with Srini and Ramesh for a while, I realized that the Sun was getting energized and I started picking up some momentum and broke away from Srini and Ramesh. I started zipping at 30 - 32 Kmph for the next 15Km and reached Mahabs. Vibha, Murthy and Venky were waiting there at the usual "Sukku Kaapi" stop. Hap a Sukku Kaapi and waited for the rest to come. As they reached in another 10 mins, started galloping the remaining sandwiches from Vaz's car.

The rise of the Sun alarmed most of us and started adding speed to our wheels. Murthy and me managed to keep ourselves together and incremented the speed to 31 - 33 Kmph and kept rolling. Consumed all the water in the sipper and reached the Toll plaza. Kandappa just arrived in the car and greeted us. As we waited there and stretched, all others came in another 15 - 20 mins. When every one found some vehicle to put their bike and get a ride back, I refilled my sippers and started riding back. After refreshing myself at home, came down for a nice breakfast at Hotel Bharani. It was very a contended ride with 6 of us making a double century ride, 1 century miles ride and 5 century rides.

Bharani: 234 K
Murthy - 215 K
Srini - 201 K
Ramesh - 201 K
Venky - 205 K
Vibha - 201 K
Subash - 180 K (High motivational pull)
Sundar - 100 K (to Pondy)
Gops - 125 K (to Pondy)
Rajendran - 100 K (to Pondy)
Praveen - 100 K (On the return. Was supporting with Vaz and taking pictures while going)
Amar - 100 K (to Pondy)
Venkatesh - 45 K (signed up in the last minute and was not prepared enough for the CB speed merchants.. Will do a century next time for sure)

Vote of Thanks:
Vaz - for the motivation, support, patient driving as the pilot and all the fun time..
Sundar - For all arrangements for Sandwiches, juice, water, Mat for resting......
Subash - Energy bars and peanut candies
Amar & Srini - Enerzal.
Praveen - For the risky trick shots to get memorable pics.
Suresh (Balaji cycles) - The support truck sponsored
Shekar - truck driver for the patient tail ride showing us lights
Kamaraj - Backup driver for Sundar's car.
TNRDC and Samir - for their support to make this memorable ride happen in ECR safely.
Shuhaib - For turning at the start point to give a encouraging start for the ride.
Murthy - For the thought and perceiving the shape till the end!!

'Holi' day lunatic ride - First 200K!!

2010-03-01T18:55:00.000+05:30

Another milestone ride.. Did 201 Km in 7 hrs and 29 mins @ 26.9 Kmph.. (01 March, 2010)

100 miles ride?:
The original plan was to do a 100 miles ride before the summer is awaken. But had to cut my Sunday ride to a 100K ride as I had to go to some other work in the morning. Lucky that Monday was a holiday for Holi. Went to bed on Sunday night with thoughts for a 100 miles ride next morning.

But when I woke up in the morning, thoughts changed. The burner is getting hot and hotter out there in Chennai. I have to wait for 4 - 5 months for another long ride. So why not better my previous best of 160Kms? I did not carry my hydra pack as it was not cleaned since TFN. Took a pain spray for just in case, 4 Nutribars, 3 packs of Enerzal and loaded my sippers with water.

Dark knight:
Started at 4:50 AM and had no time targets. All I wanted is to better my previous distance and come back home safely. Yet under 8 hours was the target for the pace. Just in 5 Kms, I reached a steady pace of 26.7 Kms and was jumping on an average of 0.1 Kmph less or more. One of the most impressive facts of the ride was that I managed to maintain the same pace through the ride till I came back to Tollgate and then pushed little bit to finish at a 26.8 Kmph average.

Fog knight:
It was cold with little fog till I reached Mahabs. Continued to be cool till the sun came out completely. When I thought that it is going to get hotter as I saw the sunrise, I was in for a bigger shock. As I crossed Kalpakkam, the fog was getting dense. The worst stretch was when I was going over the Palar bridge as the fog was so dense that nothing was visible beyond 10 m. I slowed down, took out the headlight, turned the blinkers ON and rode at 15 Kmph till I crossed the bridge. The fog started reducing later and the burner above the head started the job. I managed the first 89 Km with 1 Nutribar and 1 litre of water. Had a refill of water and took some biscuits. Was looking for some hotels with no crowd where I can park my bike and have breakfast safely when I come back that way.

Milestone reached:
Crossed the board "Kaipenikuppam" which was 2 Km before Marakkanam and the meter read 100 Km. After stretching at 100.5 Km mark, I returned back and had a nutribar on the ride. Missed the small restaurant that I noted as started drafting a TVS 50 moped for 0.8 Km.

Broke fast, rode fast:
Found a Dhaba restaurant at 126 Km mark and shared the table with a tourist from Austria who was traveling around south Indian coast on a Motor bike from Goa. Again refilled the water, had some juice and continued. The heat consumed more water. Another water stop in just 20 Kms. Then decided to stop only after crossing Mahabs. The head wind was very stiff as I approached mahabs and my average suddenly dropped to 26.5 Kmph. After crossing mahabs, gave a pat for myself on crossing my previous best of 160 Kms and started adding more pace. The usual shop at the Scenic spot was closed and I had already emptied the water. Stopped at a shop near crocodile bank and refilled water with enerzal. Nimbooz was the booster.

The pace increased as I started nearing the known territory and started fixing time targets. The 8 hour mark was moved to 7:40 after mahabs and later to 7:30 at Tollbooth. Did not have a sip of water after Uthandi (14 Km to go) and then had a tough fight with the traffic against my time target during the last 7 Kms. Reached Thiyagaraja theatre for 201 Kms in 7:29. Happily stopped the timer and walked home.

Breaks out of the saddle:
60 Km - Stretch
89 Km - Water refill
100.5 Km - Stretch
126 Km - Breakfast
149 Km - Water refill
172 Km -Water refill

Food:
4.5 litres of water
3 packs of Enerzal (salts)
2 Nutribar
3 Biscuits
6 Idlis
1 Vada
2 Slice
1 Nimbooz.

Chennai Bikers - Anniversary fun ride at night.

2010-02-27T18:37:00.001+05:30

The !dea:
The idea of a night ride had been in the desire for me and Murthy over a period of time. But there were different concerns of safety, thought about the turn out response, etc. But as the winter started fading, we thought that the only way of keeping the enthusiasm of biking to be ticking is to add night rides.

Targets:
1. An opportunity to find hot spots in the city after shutdown. (Kayendhi, Masala tea, Kulfi ice cream...)
2. An opportunity to find some riders who never turn up for the weekend rides because they wake up late. :-)

Our intention of the ride was to have 10 - 15 riders and have a relaxed fun ride. But the response was so over whelming that we had nearly 30 riders on the night of the ride, 26 February 2010, Friday. Wow, that was the biggest ever turnout for a bike ride by Chennai Bikers. Looking at where we were exactly an year back, this is an excellent turnout and growth.

Recce rides:

As the enthusiasm was building and we started discussing various routes across the city, Vibha proposed the route that would cover the beach road and the Anna Salai. Our group's enthu king did a couple of recce rides along the route and also captured few pictures and made a video to tempt the 'mail readers' to become 'night riders'.. Wow.. his piece..

Chennai Bikers Night Ride. Join us ! from Srini Swaminathan on Vimeo.

The ride night:
It was the plan of ppl from Thiruvanmiyur and down south to sync near Hotel Bharani and start riding from there. It was 10:05 when we started from there and reached Sundar's place and I was already excited to see more than 10 ppl. As everyone got ready slowly, myself and Praveen took off from the place and wanted to be in time at Light house to help the newbies who may be waiting there.

We were there at 10:30 exactly and Amar was already standing there. There was another group waiting in the service road and they all joined in front of the light house. Soon in another 10 mins, there was a big group that I had never seen for a bike ride by the Chennai Bikers. Srini already started rotating his handle bar fixed with the camera and started shooting pics and videos. Vaz was there on his car as support and the tail of the entire group. He took a pic and said, "I had never found it tough to catch a group of bikers in one frame". :-)

From Chennai Bikers - Fun ride at night.

Thanks to the excellent co operation and people who turned out in time and we need not have to wait long for anyone. Suresh rode in along with his celebrity customer and singer, Mrs. Anuradha Sriram. She rode amazingly on the Bianchi hybrid bike.

Letz Go:
We started riding towards the war memorial, turned back and came to the Gandhi statue. We synced together there. Myself and Praveen made sure that we will be the last people so that no one is left over behind and the group is intact. There were some cops who questioned us about what we were are all upto and as we explained, they were happy to wish us with a smile and let us go on our way. A Kwality icecream guy took my number and said that he will call and be available to serve us icecreams when we are back there. We started going along the Radhakrishnan salai and reached Gemini fly over. Amar and Guddi broke away to ride to their home after that as Guddi was trying hard on the old single speed MTB.

Packed intact:
The good thing about the entire group was that they stopped at particular points for everyone to join and continue together. The group was waiting near the Gemini flyover and then we started riding towards Nandanam along Anna Salai. We again got synced under the Flyover at Cenatoph road - Chamiers road junction. We had our cup of joy and fun at all stops and continued riding.

From Chennai Bikers - Fun ride at night.

All Eajj well:
We took a long break at Madhya kailash. Thanks to the delicious and soothing Sandwich from Sundar along with Frooti and water. There is where a veteran's presence makes a difference in an event. Had some chat and pictures there. Our celebrity enjoyed the ride so much that she wanted to ride to Mahabs right away. Our group started breaking after that and some chose to ride back home. The police guy at that spot shared our sandwich and was happy to help us continue our ride from there on by stopping the vehicles in the Sardar patel road to cross the road.

From Chennai Bikers - Fun ride at night.

Kulfi at 1 AM!!:
We were still 12 of us who continued to Adyar signal - Besant Avenue - Elliots Beach - Besant Avenue - Adyar bridge and completed our ride for the thirst of ice cream back at Light house. The ice cream guy called me twice in between to make sure that he does not miss his business. We all had a cornetto or mango duet ice cream and the sponsorship was left over to me for my successful TFN completion. As finished this, we spotted the "Kulfi" guy for whom I came for this ride. We had some excellent and cheap Kulfi. The desperate wait for 2 weeks for this day, cannot resist me having 2. :-) This time it was Srini to Sponsor.

People started dispersing from there on their bikes and cars. Was an excellent ride with loads of fun.

Thanks:
There were not many efforts to organize this ride. The ride was some thing that happened truly out of mutual co operation. Sparked by Murthy and Bharani, supported by the particiants signed up and turned exciting by Srini's recce rides. Thanks to Vaz for his support on car and pictures. Thanks to Suresh for the bringing in the celebrity and getting Rahman bhai for support.

The essence of the day was again captured by Srini..

Now, I have the mobile number of the Cornetto guy and the Kulfi guy to make sure that they are available in time at the right spot for our next ride. Planning to add a Masala tea point and should be made available in time when we reach there. May be Dollars and Pounds tea stall can give some Hot Masala tea @ Madhya Kailash. I am already tempted and planning for the next ride... To keep the rhythm going and not to get bored of doing too often, shall we plan for the next one on March 26th?

Maiden Full marathon - Auroville 2010

2010-02-15T15:23:00.001+05:30

Path to the Full marathon:
Ever since I started running accidentally and realized that I had more potential than I thought, was trying to escalate myself in my limits. My first half marathon in July in ECR 10 and now my first full marathon in February 2010. I carefully planned to perform well in my aspirations between cycling and running for the past 6 months.

When many of the Chennai runners registered to make their Maiden Marathon in Mumbai, I did not even start running seriously then. More over, I was going on a cycling tour in December and I did not have enough mileage to attempt my maiden full marathon in 20 days. I never wanted it to be a "fool" marathon instead of a "full" marathon. So, I safely decided to stick to Auroville. The night when Ram sent the mail on Auroville marathon registration, I was waiting to hit the buzzer and registered immediately. No wonder that Ram registered first and the 2 maiden marathoners, Ram Prasad and me followed him. :-) 1001, 1002 and 1003 - our bib numbers.

One more motivation behind Auroville marathon is this video

Training:
I started my training from the last week of December and had been trying to add miles to the legs consistently. I ramped up and down the Sunday runs --> 15 - 21 - 35 - 21 - 10. The weekday runs were mostly in the evening. But I made sure that I ran at least 5 days a week. Thanks to me newly acquired possession, Garmin 305 and the highly motivating community Chennai Runners along with my daily calendar - Dailymile.

Pre race day - Auroville Marathon 2010:
I fixed my ride with Shameek. Shameek, Puru, Vikranth and me started before noon and reached by around 2 PM to the Auroville Visitor's centre. Balaji was waiting there with the bibs and slowly people started pouring in. We received and bibs, heard the route to our Dorms and left from there. I was not much difficult to find "Mitra", the dor for the full marathon, but roamed around for 2+ HOURS in search of the Dance hall which was supposed to be the accomodation for half marathon people. Neither the security people, nor the Auroville residents knew a place called "Dance Hall". We started groing in hunger and anger when we learned that there was no "Dance Hall" in Auroville as mentioned in the email and the accomodation was in the "Bilingual school". Finally we reached the spot and settled the bags and then we started going around in search of lunch at 4:30 PM.

We walked all along the roads and checked at all "Pizzerias" and "Hotels" just to find that there was only tea and coffee. Finally we found an Italian restaurant and got pasta for lunch at 6:00 PM. We came back to the Visitor's centre, met all other runners, got my CR T shirt, had dinner again @ 7:30 PM and left to our dorms.

In dorm, we spent an hour fixing the bibs on the T shirts, group photo, preparing the marathon belt and started to sleep from around 9:30 PM. There were runners from Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad for the event apart from the Chennai Runners. I massaged my legs and knees with volini and started sleeping in Shavasana. Actually, it took a couple of hours for me get to sleep.

Race day - Auroville Marathon 2010:
The whole dorm woke up like an alram at 3:00 AM. I washed myself, dressed up and packed other stuff by 3:50 AM. The bus started at around 4:15 AM and reached "Certitude", the starting point in 10 mins. The place was already arousing with lot of cheering Auroville residents and visitors. We had our photo session and stretching session while a very motivating commentator already started ramping up the momentum with his nice commentary. Hats off to this buddy. His enthusiasm was the same for even the person who completed at noon. we picked out torch and the the race started at around 5:02 AM. There were a bunch of cyclists cycling around the runners to help them not miss the route and encouraging them in the later stretch of the run.

0 - 21.1 K:
The roads were pitch dark except for few places when we went through some villages. I inserted the tiny torch light inside my wrist band and managed well for the first 2 - 3 Kms. I was running with Puru and we maintained a consistent and safe pace. Once we started entering the forests, the trail was uneven and had lots of bumps and pot holes. I slipped a few times. Then I started using the lessons learned from cycling and started shouting like "Careful", "Bump", "Pit".... Soon as other runners over took us, started warning and helped other runners to run safely. This stretch was essentially a team work of co-operation among the runners. It was dawn slowly and we started enjoying the sun streaks slowly trying to enter the dense trees. We also started seeing more people standing and cheering at various points. Wow... We managed to increase the pace little bit and completed our half in 2:03. My shoes were already red because of the sweat and the sand taken by the sweat.

21.1 - 42.2 K:
Puru twisted his ankle once during the first lap and he wanted to slow down after 25K. I wanted to keep up the momentum gained and wanted to make up for the pace lost in the darkness. But definitely, I forgot all the timing targets as it was more important to finish safely. I was safely running a good pace when ever I saw flat stretches and reduced the pace down in case of uneven stretches. When I was crossing 29K, my upper thigh/bums started paining and had to reduce the pace. May be because of improper landing at some steps. I saved the Gatorade in my fuel belts for crunch moments and also had 3 nutribars. The support stations were awesome though I felt in the last 10 Kms that there could have been 2 more.

The sight of a support station made me run instead of walk and started spraying volini in all the 3 support stations at the end. The did not miss to enjoy the nature, but only for few secs. God damn, this should not have been a run. This should have been a nature walk to shoot with a camera or pen as a poetry. I did not miss the drums as well and danced to the tunes along the run. Every support station was a glucose trigger and ever running buddy i got in the last 10 Kms dragged me for a Km or two. I never knew that there was a trigger button in behind my lower back bone. A Bangalore buddy gently pressed from behind and started running with me. Till then I was running at 6:20 min/Km pace and the trigger helped me follow him for another 2 Km at 5:40 pace. I found more such inspiring buddies on the way and thanks to all of them. Some moments, I had to yell myself and keep moving. One yell, created a big roar from the support station and chased me for one more Km. From the last support station, my cycling buddy Peter was there and was cheering me up all the way near the finish line. At about 300m to the finish line, a lady said "it is just around the corner". I cannot limp and jog any more.. I heard the sound of the roar at the finish line when some runner was finishing. The Garmin said. 41.89 Km. Wow.. I am almost there. I started taking long strides. Balaji was paving way for me at the entrance of "Certitude" and started running along. I was in my full throttle and sprinted the last 100 m to finish at 4:21:32!! MY MAIDEN FULL MARATHON. The finish was very cheerful and a big crowd roared..

Post run:
Got my medal and walked around for a while. Met some of my Tour of Nilgiris cycling buddies from Bangalore and then slowly removed my shoes. Washed my self, dipped my legs in salt water... Wow!! Felt gr8. There was complimentary massage for all finishers. But the pity part was that the cramped and tired Full marathoners had to wait for a while while the 5K and 10K people who reached earlier were having their massage :-). But really that Japanese lady who did the massge for me was throwing some spell on my feet and calf muscles. Was watching more of the Chennai Runners finish and then collected the T shirt through Puru. Met other runners who finished and then had my breakfast. Walked back to the Dorm, had a shower, packed our belongings, had lunch on the way and reached back home at 4:30 PM.

Lessons:
1. Should have tried doing a couple of trail runs. All my training was on road.
2. The only attempt that I made to increase the pace in my training was to taking long strides, which eventually was more dangerous in this trail. I should try increasing my cadence.
3. Run from 32 - 42 is not something you can learn from hearing, reading or running 10 Km everyday. It is an experience and you have to do it once and try to better that next time.

Thanks to all Chennai Runners and looking forward to build more miles...

Chennai Cyclothon - My first ever race

2010-01-25T15:21:00.000+05:30

Path to the Cyclothon:
Chennai Cyclothon was a kind of mess in the organization part right from the beginning. They got their sponsors late and the registrations were open less than 2 weeks before the event. Still there was a nice crowd that turned out today. The publicity of the event and the enthusiasm of the citizens of Chennai to be appreciated. But this was too big a crowd to be managed by CWI (Childen of World India)

The day before:
I collected my bibs from Vibha yesterday itself and was happy to receive a complementery T shirt from Shuhaib for Chennai Bikers as Firefox's Sponsorship. So we have a T shirt for Chennai Bikers atlast!! Thanks for the efforts, Shuhaib and Vibha.

There was a kind of confusion in the 60 Km category route. But got cleared today morning during the instructions. Thanks for the inputs from Vibha for the Chennai Bikers in advance. I was struggling with my ligament pain after the TFN for a while and was worried if this Cyclothon is going to mess it further. I did not have any ambitious dreams for the Cyclothon and wanted to hear my body speak and mind order the legs. Still I prepared my bike well with 72 psi (for an MTB) of air, brakes checked and chains lubricated. Rested for while in Shavasana before I fell asleep in the night to get relieved of the pain and feel better for the following day.

Race day:
It was inspiring to see a bunch of Tamil Nadu state cycling team with moderate biking gears, good to moderate bikes and some young boys even in bare foot. Tamilnadu cycling Association was officiating the race and some of them are the coaches of the young lads. The other end was the KYNKYNY biking team from Bangalore with whom Matt barrett from Chennai rides. I was thinking of holding on to Peter from Auroville and Murthy of Chennai Bikers to hold on and draft with them.

High pulse ride:
It was a neutral zone from the Anna University campus to Madhya Kailash (starting of IT express highway). The teams grouped and took positions at the starting point. There was also a bunch of normal enthusiasts on single speed and normal utility bikes. At the flag off of the race, the bunch started to move to 30 - 31 kmph in the first 1 Km. I was on my first ever race and had to learn a lot about what people do in a race. It was usually the turn of the TNCA (Tamil nadu cycling Association) team to attack and the KYNKYNY with the rest of the crew follow to make up the sprint. Peter was with his friend Giorgio, who was a semi pro racer from Italy. I was some how managing to keep myself up with the lead group through the stretch. Over the entire race there would have been some 10 to 15 attacks where they go to 45 - 50 Kmph and I survived most of them to get back to the lead group to ride at 33 - 35 Kmph in the cool mode. I was the only MTB in the gang of 15 - 20 ppl in the lead. There was one more Hybrid bike in the gang, who was giving me company everytime I had to make up for the gap during an attack. I realized after the race, that it was none other than one of India's fastest man, "Karun Chandok". There was lot of nice chats all through the ride and I thoroughly enjoyed.

Crash... Escaped:
The worse part of the race was waiting in the last stretch. When it was almost 5 Km to finish, we were waiting for some attack from behind and sipped ourselves with some water. As a surprise, it was Peter this time attacking from behind. The TNCA and KYNKYNY followed them, suddenly there was a slip from one guy which resulted in a crash of 6 - 10 bikes. I fortunately escaped the crash by inches and now the lead group before is gone and I am left behind the crash. I had to start from 0 Kmph to rise to 35 Kmph and ride all alone against the head wind. The open traffic 1 Km before the finish line made me to slow down again and when I was going further and looking for a sprint, there is a crowd taking photos and after crossing a white line, I realised that I just crossed the finish line.. This was the complain from the other guys who finished before me, they were saving their energy for the final sprint and it is already finished. There was no indication/board/ribbon that said that it was the finish line. Giorgio and Prashant from KYNKYNY were caught in the crash and would have expected them also to be the top finishers.

In all I did 59 Kms in 1:36. Nearly 36.9 Kmph average. The Best ever average for any distance more than 5 Km.

When we came back to Anna University, it was a big mess with all the other categories cycling around inside the campus and we wished that we escape that place. Went out to the Elliots beach to have breakfast at the Murugan idli shop.
I learnt a lot about racing and hope that I can to much better with a roadbike and subtracting 10 Kg off my body. The next race for me will definitely be on a road bike.

BSA Hercules Chennai Cyclothon - A brand stunt show. Better to have given it a miss, if you are not a serious racer. I heard from the groups that came behind that he traffic itself was not closed for them and they had to stop at all traffic lights. The 25 Km race was cut down to a 8 Km ride. Thanks to the Pilot vehicle that helped in reducing the mess for us.

Tour oF Nilgiris 2009 - Day 8

2009-12-30T10:00:00.000+05:30

December 23, 2009 - Ooty to Bandipur

Reluctant morning:
It was a reluctant morning to wake up and then later to get on the saddle. Many started sharing numbers and scribbling on their Jersey as a souvenir. It was expected to be very cold in in the downhill as it was a steep downhill for 20 Kms with nearly 12% gradient. It was 9 AM when every one had their breakfast and got ready to reach the Hotel reception. We had a very cheerful group photo that all of us would cherish for years to come.

From

Pic credit: PeeVee

Screeching downhill:
We started moving out of the hotel from 9:30 AM and re grouped near the point where the actual descent started. When every rider crossed that point, we warned them to have a feather touch on the brakes and go down carefully. Shay, who started as the last person went down in full swing to reach the bottom. Many took breaks along the hairpin bends for some pictures of the valley and some for some 'touch up' in the mirror at the hairpin bends. That was Reena!!

I enjoyed the downhill but carefully. Found my own excuses of saying 'Hi' to some riders waiting for pics and then helping two with their flats. As we completed the downhill, we rode through "Mudumalai" wildlife sanctuary and there was a support station there. Regrouped with Sharath and Rajesh Nair to continue my ride through beautiful roads through the wildlife sanctuary. We saw another group of bikers moving towards Ooty and later some Sabarimala pilgrims on cycle. We stopped at a point for some tea and had lot of chat along the way. We crossed the borders to enter Karnataka and the forest continued as "Bandipur".

Pack up:
At the end of the forest, we reached our destination of the rides. Had a big lunch and packed all our bikes to be loaded in the trucks. we refreshed our selves and it took a lot of time to get our ass loaded into the bus sponsored by KSRTC that carried us all the way to Bangalore. The dumb charades continued here as well and later transformed into some spelling game. Our evening snacks was arranged in advance on the route, but we started late and were very hungry that we started consuming even the most hated stuff after the tour :-(

The left over in the list are Maaza and dry fruits :-)

We had a very nice snacks session in the evening but was not enough for our hunger and filled more on order. After reaching Bangalore, bit bye to every one. I knew that I was missing the cool of party that was scheduled the next day, but reaching home for a rest took priority. Took a cab along with Muthu and rode back home to Chennai the same night.

Thanks not to be forgotten:
Chennai Bikers:
Sundar - Motivation
Vaz - Ride captain
Vibha - Tech Guru
Murthy - Pull out of limits
Kandappa - inspiration
Praveen - My single speed partner
Sachin - The pace setter
Srinath - The Coach
Matt - For the Time trials that made me realize my limits.
Suresh, Shuhaib and their team - For their timely help with materials and service.
Big thanks to all other riders who shared the moments in the early morning for the rides that tuned me to a level above.

Dailymile and all my friends there that acted as the biggest motivation for all my training rides.

Emmeskay, my company that encouraged my activities and permitted the long vacation for the tour. The meeting on the day of my return to work started with the first slide to congratulate me.! :-)

BSATFN09 Team:
After finishing the tour, I felt that there should be a page for the volunteers in the website. Truly sweet and patient lads..
Vasu, Ravi, Sameer, Arun, Devkishore, Ashish, Kamesh, Deepak, Soumya, Karthik, Rakesh, Salim, Francis, Supreeth, Dr. Renu, Soji, Rhea, Neelima, all truck & SUV drivers, PeeVee, Gaurav, all co-riders and whom ever I have missed in this list and had been part of my time on the tour.

BIG THANKS to my Mom and family for the motivation from the root.

Will be back for the fun in TFN10, stronger and may be on a Road bike....

Tour oF Nilgiris 2009 - Day 7

2009-12-30T09:00:00.003+05:30

December 22, 2009 - Sulthan Bathery to Ooty

More height, less weight:
As this was going to THE DAY of the tour, I chose to ride with least weight. No hydra pack, no camera, no towel and not even the jacket that many dropped at support stations. I had been following Rajesh Nair in daily mile and his tough targets for the Ooty climb. I was shocked to see him with some plaster in the hand in the morning. He had not been feeling well all the night with vomit and fever and had been running AV over the night. All the speedsters were little down with this fact but still he was cheered up for the drive.

The awesome five:
As we started riding from the hotel in Sulthan Bathery, I tried to pick some steady pace over the down hills. Gaurav Dwivedi who started little bit earlier was waiting at some point for Rajesh to join. I did not want to stop any where other wise for a support station or leg pain. In another few mins, the pace line was formed and it was Rajesh, Shay, Dr. Arvind, Gaurav, Shahid and Ullas. I managed to join the line of roadies on my MTB. It was good to have me riding in the lead when we went through some villages and I was ringing my bell... "cling cling, cling cling". Ullas and Shahid dropped out after a while. Vasu was taking pics at different points and cheering us up. We reached the first support station near Gudalur and it was THE RIDE of the tour for me.

Rajesh, Gaurav, Dr. Arvind, Shay and me in line...

Up Up Up...
I could not stand the sprinting of Gaurav and Rajesh and slowly dropped down as we crossed Gudalur. There was a steady climb for 20 Kms from there on. I managed to stay at an average of 11/12 Kmph on the climb and waited for not more than 2 mins in the support stations. The ligament pain started showing up again slowly that I stopped at every 10 Kms and spent 1 min to spray and massage my legs.

It was all fast counts under my heart was looking behind to make sure that there was no road bike chasing behind me. I decided my target at the second support station. "Ooty by One thirty!" - sounded rhythmic. I was hungry and the ligaments were paining hard. I knew that I was riding slow after some while but was surprised to see Rajesh, Shay and Arvind climbing hard at one point and confused. Just then, I heard a whistle blow and found a support station there. Vasu and Rakesh were waiting there. Vasu asked, "Bread Omlette"? I had no mood to wait for anything and started spraying on my legs. By the time I ate an energy bar and refilled water, Vasu was back with a "Bread omlette". Had a quick bite of the hot one and started going ahead.

Kamesh was on his motor bike on the way back from Ooty and gave some quick idea of the route like, "finger post", "left", "right", "straight", blah blah.... I just heard that there would be some one who will help me reach the hotel. A guy showed me direction at one point to turn right. I went in that direction and was searching for the "Old grave yard" that was mentioned in the Rider docket. Took a wrong deviation at that point and again chose the right direction with the local help. Thank god, Ooty is in Tamil Nadu!! Again took the wrong direction exactly below the sign board to "Queen's residency" and when I was sure that I was almost near the hotel, it was a KILLER CLIMB just 100 m before the hotel. Reached the hotel at 1 PM. TARGET ACHIEVED!! I was the fifth person to reach. 1 hour after Gaurav and 30 mins after Shay, Rajesh and Arvind.

The last TFN night:
I was very hungry. Changed my dress and came back to the restaurant for a nice food. Some wanted to go out to buy some Nilgiris special items and I was the local guide with the power of language. We saw people riding in slowly one by one. We bought some home made chocolates, tea had some Pizza and took an Autorickshaw back to the hotel. It was long evening as it was the last night of the tour that we stayed together. Had a late dinner and went to bed with out changing the dress and not even removing my knee cap from the paining leg. It was already told that we will not start before 8 the next morning.

Tour oF Nilgiris 2009 - Day 6

2009-12-30T09:00:00.000+05:30

December 21, 2009 - Iruppu to Sultan Bathery

The day can be explained in Anand Mulky's one line:
"For the first half I felt like Neil Armstrong riding on craters, for the next half, it was like being Lance Armstrong on the Tour de France."

This was the first time that we crossed borders of state in the tour and it was very interesting to see the evident change.

Through the Craters:
Most of the bikes got serviced over the whole of previous day and it was a very tiresome day for Nelly and Vasu with other experts to fix issues in many bikes. The route for the first half was to see only above the waist where there were lot of greens and traditional buildings while the one under the wheels were just broken craters. The feel of Kerala and the change in the language was felt as we rode through the Kutta wildlife sanctuary. We were told to ride in groups in concern of the wildlife that we might come across. But unfortunately we saw only birds. :-(

The distance for the day was short (less than 60Km) and cannot miss the Unni appam stop where I did not miss to have 4 of them followed by Kattan chaya(black tea). I was riding with Nischal, Reena, Shilpa and Yogesh and had lots of fun chatting all through the scenic forests.

Picture credit: Yogesh

The glance of Lance:
As soon as the forest ended and we entered the territory of Kerala, I cannot any more see above due to the hot sun and cannot take away the eyes from the road because of the excellent road with white lines. I had bid bye to the girls as I got tempted and started zipping up. There were lot of ups and downs and none of the support stations were ready on the way (some logistics issues). I was riding slowly with Manish and Manjula for a while and started knocking local hotels on the way for some food. Finally as we reached the last support station, there were a lot of them waiting there for the food to arrive and there were lot of cops waiting for us to guide through the way. Wow.. Bhaskar Saar's magic worked beyond territories. But we were in no mood to stop for the food and went ahead in search of our hotel.

The hotel was very nice with a pool, TT table and more for recreation. We waited for the tour's food packets to reach us. But when we heard that it was lemon rice, we changed our direction of interest to Kerala cuisine. Went into the restaurant and had some Parrota with Kadalai curry. Yummy.. The Parotta was large and costed only 7 Rs. It is all worth it.

Explored the "Battery":
Sajan was a native of the locality and a tweet friend for some of the TFN riders/volunteers. He arranged for some media coverage of the tour in Kerala and also for a visit to the "Jain temple" which was later turned into 'Battery' to store ammunition during the period of Tippu Sulthan.

A puzzle on the wall. Trace from head to tail:

From Tour oF Nilgiris 2009

Wayand tweetup:
The occasion also marked the first Wayanad Tweetup which was held in the lawn of the hotel in the evening. There were eminent social activists from the town who explained about the city, history and the situation today.

After the tweetup, we had a solid dinner to load carbs for the next day. Some of us wanted to have some ice cream which they did not serve in the hotel and I went out with Anand Mulky, Shay Mandel and Rajesh Nair for some ice cream in a shop nearby. How ever, Rajesh was dragged out from us for a 'paan' on the way.

I was very cautious about the ligament strain that I was carrying in my left leg and the pressure that I had been giving with my right leg started some pain in the right knee. I spoke to staff nurse and got a Knee cap which was told to be the 'last piece' and he gave me secretly. After the third day, many were riding only with the knee caps. I also managed to get a pain spray which was at least half full.

Tour oF Nilgiris 2009 - Day 5

2009-12-30T08:00:00.000+05:30

December 20, 2009: Rest day @ Iruppu

Lazy morning:
Woke up late, had some nice home made bread and Jam instead of horrible idli. Manjula was busy distributing ballot papers to vote the "Most sportive and supportive" rider. PeeVee was busy making us poise for some funny pics. That turned out really well.

Walk/drive to Iruppu falls:
A gang of us decided to walk to the Iruppu falls. But was uncertain of the distance after walking half way. Took a ride from the personal cars of one of the TFN riders and reached the falls. After more walk up the hill, reached the falls and had some nice cold shower. Thanks to Dinesh's Olive oil massage.

From Tour oF Nilgiris 2009

Saw more people at the falls who came all the way walking and returned back to the hotel for traditional massage arranged. Many of them had their wife and family enjoying their weekend with them.

Massage:
We went to the cottages near the pond where the massage was going on. As we were waiting in the Que, we tried our hands on some rowing..

Completed the massage after waiting for 1.5 hours and then had our Lunch at 3 PM. Then washed my Jersey, shorts, took bath and then had a wonderful Quiz session. When I was announced about the Quiz session conducted by Dr. Harsh, Nischal asked, "How about people who are ignorant about cycling?" and I replied, "It is must for them to be there to learn". To all surprise, she was the winner of the contest.

Manjula had consolidated the results in the mean time Arun de Silva gave the build up to announce the results and was surprised that some one voted for me too. :-). The ultimate winner with a large margin was Shay Mandel. Honestly, he is a great rider on the saddle and had never passed any one standing aside the road with some trouble in their bike. He was always there to help on the saddle and off the saddle. The chosen one also gets the Bamboo bike.

No Dumb Charades this night. Slept off after dinner. I felt that the room was hot the previous night, so went to the terrace for a nice sleep under the stars.

Tour oF Nilgiris 2009 - Day 4

2009-12-30T07:00:00.002+05:30

December 19, 2009: Madikeri to Iruppu

Pulling legs? Pushing pedals?:
As I was already there with my knee cap on, I thought of keeping myself slow and steady through that day. It was told that this day had the worst roads of the entire tour and we had Talacauvery on the route which was made optional keeping the long distance and bad roads in the mind. The day started with a "screeching" sound of brakes as we were moving downhill from our hotel gate. Vasu triggered me yelling, "Bharani, you are on an MTB and it is your day! Why are you hiding behind the roadies?" Huh.. I started increasing my pace slowly and after a while we got some good roads. I over took most of those before me and was finally pumping hard with small gap between me and Gaurav, the speed stud. We both reached Bagamandala, where we had our first support station.

From Tour oF Nilgiris 2009

The Hit of the day:
Talacauvery was a 8 Km climb and then descent along the same road. I loved the steady climb and enjoyed overtaking another group that had come there for a weekend biking trip. Took around 35 mins for the climb. We spent more than an hour there as we got to have Bhaskar Rao with us for special puja and temple visit there. Bhaskar Rao recalled his days of being the Superintendent of Police of the Kodagu region a decade back. I should honestly tell, for day 4 - "Talacauvery for the hit and everything else was Shit!"

Clicking camera and the ticking time:
We suddenly realized we already spent a lot of time there and had more than 90 Kms to go for the day. It was already 11. The roads were bad, but the scenic beauty across the coffee plantations could not resist me stopping. I stopped at few places for some profile pics for my bike.

From Tour oF Nilgiris 2009

When I slowly saw more and more people started crossing me, I realized that I was wasting lot of time stopping here and there. Threw my camera into the bag and started pedaling seriously.

Rude road ride:
The road started getting worse past the noon and there was no food in the third support station when we wanted. The support guys struggled as there was no mobile signal as well. Finally the chappathis with aalo came and i gulped a couple of packets. I left leg grew worse and I did not want to stop any more. It was paining badly every time I got off my bike. Started pumping my legs steadily and always slowed down to rest and never stopped. Manjula was my sole moral support for the lsat 50 Kms and we pulled each other. When we started after lunch, we said "It is a tough day to reach by 5 PM. But we will fight to ride all the 140+ Kms on the bike without getting swept".

Had more eatables in the last support station and it was already past 5 PM there. We had another 25 Km to go and we slowly started pedalling through the narrow broken tarmac road. Our "White arrow marker" Sowmya was standing at a point on the route and said "10 more". That added some energy and increased my pace to reach the hotel and crash. Manjula and me reached the hotel at around 6:15 PM.

The tough day:
The day was very tough and only 20+ riders did the entire route. Some of the road bikes skipped some parts to protect their bike. Few skipped Talacauvery and few others were swept along the way. Lot of them rode with their own head lamps and some with Vasu's bullet's head lamps to reach home that day. Had a big chat and fun of some hilarious Dumb Charades which many will never forget for years to come. Took some massage from the nurse and slept late.

Photos: Bharani, PeeVee.

Tour oF Nilgiris 2009 - Day 3

2009-12-30T06:00:00.000+05:30

December 18, 2009: Hassan to Madikeri

Off roads/Hop Roads:
With out forgetting, today I started with the towel, spare underwear and battery fully charged for the camera. It was pre told during the briefing session that it was not going to be a day for the road bikes. We enjoyed taking pics at various spots and manged to keep Rajesh Nair down in his speed. For the first time in the tour, I was drafting behind him at 15 Kmph. Courtesy: Bad roads.

From Tour oF Nilgiris 2009

After the first few Kms, we saw Navin being helped with medical aid and heard that he just slipped of the road and had a fall. It was a very unfortunate fall that after an hour from there on, he joined the support team due fracture in his arm.

The Damn Dam:
We got special permissions to cycle through the Gorur dam. The tour photographer and the blogger were waiting to catch a bunch of cyclists to have some nice photo shoot. We spent around an hour in this place and 7 - 10 bikers served as models for his photographs including Rajesh and Manjula.

From Tour oF Nilgiris 2009

We took a small coffee, tea and threptin break some where on the way and from there on, me and Rajesh slipped out of the group and started pedaling on our own pace. The previous day, I spent all my evening on the broken leg of my bike and did not bother about mine. Now it started crying. I managed to reach the next Support station by keeping in pace with Rajesh Nair for around 20 Kms. We took a long break in the next support station while Rajesh loaded himself with loads of Krack Jack as lunch.

Pumping legs, limping low:
Took some pain spray around my left leg and wore a knee cap before I started from the support station. I waived off to Rajesh as I decided to do the upcoming Madikeri hill climb at my own pace. I stopped where I ever I saw good green and took some pics. I was slowly overtaking few of the guys on the way in the climb. But one person who really turned me into 'awe' was Malvika who was just dropping down in the down hill with free arms. This was the day that I noticed that this strong girl from Delhi rides with no saddle bag, no gloves, no hydra pack... Just a small water bottle, helmet and bike!

From Tour oF Nilgiris 2009

The towel used!:
As I was just counting down the miles on the climb with a limping left leg, there was a support station when I thought it was just 5 Kms to go. Francis located a very nice spot with a small water falls nearby. I could not any more resist using the towel. I heard that I had around 8 Kms to go and had 2.5 hours to be swept. Went into the trunk that I had brought along, had a nice and soothing shower. Came back - finished 2 packs of lunch - started riding again with Dinesh to accompany. There was a welcome drink with a small tetra pack when we just entered Madikeri, organised by the local police station. Reached our dormitory by around 4:30 PM.

I did not even enter into the dorm, but spent a couple of hours just sitting there and cleaning my bike's chain and cassette. That was a great feel after I finished it. There were more people washing and servicing their bikes later that night and some work was done in the middle of the dorm as there was no light outside.

From Tour oF Nilgiris 2009

Had a long wait for the dinner that night and had to do some massage for myself with some Volini cream to get the legs ready for a very long day coming up.

Tour oF Nilgiris 2009 - Day 2

2009-12-29T18:39:00.013+05:30

December 17, 2009: Mysore to Hassan

The right alarm:
The previous day was a bad sleep day and this time, I had a very nice sleep. I opted to take the third bed on the floor and gave the other 2 beds to the people who shared the room with me. Though I had the alarm set at the right time, it took a lot of time and I had to hurry up dumping things into my baggage. God damn, I should have brought one big baggage where I can throw all things easily and get ready.

Melting Mustache:
I was packing my toilet kit and oops.. I then realized that I forgot to shave. Why shaving? I wanted to have a different feel of myself every day and Dr. Renu used to call it as "Aerodynamics".

Watch out for me in different photos on different days...

The drizzle:
I chose the day to be an easy day and started of with the camera. But the gentle drizzle during the start made me lock it in the ziploc. It felt very good drafting between Peter and Sudhir. We reached SS1 which was a small bus stop. Bhaskar Rao followed us in few mins and received the ceremonial respects that he used to receive while visiting all the places.

From Tour oF Nilgiris 2009

Photo shots & battery short:
I was shooting all things around me from there on and it was mostly a single handed ride from there on for a while. Me and Sudhir managed to get down to the Paddy fields and try some agricultural stuff. It was not very late that I realized that I was running out of battery and then have to reduce my stops for photos.

From Tour oF Nilgiris 2009

The Spokes spoke, "Stop":
Just after refreshing at SS2, I started pedalling slowly and I realized that the wheel was wobbling due to broken spokes. There would not have been any one so lucky in the entire tour to get a loaner bike in 1 min of my stop. Sridhar was just following me and he offered his personal MTB that he carried in his personal SUV. Bike replaced and from there on I go. So Sridhar was one of the most instrumental person for me in the tour who helped me get a loaner bike at the right time and made me complete the tour on the bike.

I was still making my own pit stops where ever I can. I was really disappointed by seeing nice streams and rivers on the way and having not brought my towel to get down in and get drenched. I was not ready to get wet with the padded shorts.

Tested for pain:
Though Sridhar's bike was not the best fit by size for me, I managed to raise the seat post to the extent possible. Still, I started developing some pain in my left leg. I managed to slow down, find partners to ride (Thammiah, Shilpa, Anand Mulky,...) with at various point and took it at my own pace of enjoying scenery around. I took a long lunch break and the last support station and almost had 4 appy and 1 lit of pulpy orange.

Excess 5mm = Extra 2 hours:
I skipped the local ride that few of the bikers started to go around in search of a church. All my thoughts were around fixing my broken spokes. Luckily(?) I had even got spare spokes with me. Got an appointment with Dr. Harsh, the orthopedic surgeon to fix the broken leg of my rear wheel.

In the evening, when we removed the cassette and attempted to put the new spokes, we realized that it was 5mm longer than the desired size and we will not be able to adjust it. Venkat was already running around in search of spare tube for him through the small city of Hassan. One of the cycle shops assured to fix it. I got the address over phone and took the wheel to the cycle shop. The spokes they had was also 2 - 3 mm longer. Already busy in other business going around, the mechanic there managed to fix the spokes in my wheel and true the wheel (remove the bend). All these affair took only Rs. 50 inclusive of to and fro Auto rickshaw. But the 2 hours I spent around for this is plenty.

Dr. Harsh's laundry recipe:
The dinner along with game hosted by our RJ Gayathri was very feeling after a tired evening. Later in the room, I decided to try Dr. Harsh's formula of laundry on my Jersey and shorts. Wow! a magic it was.

Here is the secret (as copied from the mail he sent),
"If its not a cotton jersey or shorts - its easy to dry them instantly.
- You need a very absorbent thick towel.
- Drip dry the garment as much as possible.
- Lay the towel on the ground and over it spread the garment (short or jersey).
- Roll both together lengthwise of the towel.
- Ask someone to hold the opposite end.
- Give is a real hard twirl - pulling it at the same time - so that it does not coil.
- Unwrap and put the garment at a different position on the towel or a second towel if available. Repeat the twirl.
- The garment will be so dry that you will be able to wear is almost immediately.
- Do this the evening before, and it will be absolutely dry in the morning.
- You cannot damage the garment this way as long as coiling is avoided."

I washed the clothes at 11 PM and it was dry to wear at 4 AM.

Tour oF Nilgiris 2009 - Day 1

2009-12-26T15:44:00.065+05:30

December 16, 2009: Bangalore to Mysore

The false alarm:
I had my alarm set at 4:00 AM to start for the next day when I slept on Dec 15. The alarm rang, I switched off the alarm, went to the wash room, came back and saw that the time was 23:02. Oops, some one has called me at that time, I thought it was an alarm, I snoozed(rejected) it, flushed the waste out of my body, felt fresh to start and then I had 5 more hours to start actually!! I was not able to get back to good sleep after that and was looking at the time every 20 mins from then on. Finally jumped out of the bed at 3:45 AM.

The TFN Jersey (Tight Fit New Jersey):
I took a small shower and started getting myself dressed up. When I was wearing the jersey, I felt that it was little tight. I chose a Large size and was thinking if I should have chosen a Xtra large. When the jersey started moving up, exposing my belly, I removed it and found that it was "M". Another Oops. I did not check the size of the Jersey that I received the day before and landed up in a struggle. I cannot loose much from my torso with just few hours for the flag off.

Koramangala indoor stadium:
With the belief that if I go early, I can get my Jersey exchanged to the right size, I went to the Flag off venue and found that Ravi was the only other person standing there apart from few sponsors. Was looking for Satish, Vasu, Salim, Saurav, Abhishek and others who ever can get my exchange done. But finally learnt that they are part of the truck that takes all our baggages and cannot to accessed. I was the last person to get in to the TFN 09 jersey and by that time, there was already a lot of media people and local supporters.

Lot before the flag off:
- Sign the indemnity bond
- Get the carb pack (electral, dry fruits and energy bars)
- Breakfast (with a borrowed token after losing the one given to me.. :-( )
- Fill water in Hydra pack and sippers
- Speech by Sponsors and politician
- Bamboo bike show case
- Free cycles to deserved and under privileged.
- weight checking for the "weight gaining contest"

Flag off:

From Tour oF Nilgiris 2009

With the the Bamboo bike making the route in the lead, all the other bikes followed it through the city roads and the row of bicycles calmed down all the motorized steel giants into halt for a while when they were going through the city. The road at few stretches were bad and the first flat of the tour made a brand new tire of a Colnago bike burst in under 20 kms of the start of the tour. Ouch!

Reunion, Rest and Restart:
As per the plan, all the TFN riders re united at Kengeri. We spent around 45 mins - 1 hr in a Petrol bunk and did our emission checking and re fueling..

From Tour oF Nilgiris 2009

Around 9:30 AM, we the roads were opened to ride at our own pace. The Kengeri traffic slowed myself down for the first few Kms. After the traffic started fading, I shifted my front gears to the bigger crank and started pedaling in search of the roadies. I knew that I may not be able to catch them from then on, but reach the support station and catch hold of them. My idea was to draft behind a good bunch of road bikes that can stay at 30+ Kmph. I overtook almost all the road bikes and MTBs that was in my vision and a Police SUV helped me draft behind and clear traffic for my un restricted search of speed.

At Support Station 1, it was Sudhir and Muthu standing. I did not intend to wait there. But felt like stretching for a while. I thought that there are a bunch of roadies ahead whom I need to catch hold of. When I asked the support guys there, I learned that there were no one ahead of us. "Oops! The roadies are yet to come and I should be in good warm up to tail behind them."

SS 2, SS 3 and SS 4:
Sudhir and Muthu dropped behind with in 10 to 15 mins of start from SS 1. I was still looking behind for every 5 - 10 mins for a pace line of road bikes. I was visiting all the support stations alone and most them were not ready by the time I visited those places. To me, I did the entire ride in my comfortable good pace and did not over strain following/chasing some one.

"Kannada Gothilla":
The flat road with little ups and downs was very motivating and started pedaling search of loaded trucks and motor bikes to draft behind. The most uttered words from my mouth was "Kannada Gothilla" ("I do not know Kannada"). The excited local crowd was wondering at the alien with the helmet, hydrapack, shoes and zipping through the local vehicles. Most of the vehicles going along stopped to ask "Where are you going?","Why are you going", "Where are you from?" and more but all in Kannada. Many slipped out on my reply and some attempted to ask the same in Hindi/English. There was very good cheering from a Scooty that failed to meet my pace as it was loaded with 2 ppl and a big gunny bag. After trying for 10 mins, the rider appreciated me and dropped behind.

Hotel Regallis
I refused to take the lunch in SS4 and wanted to head to the hotel. Later the support guys realized that there is no lunch in the hotel and chased me to give the lunch on my way into Mysore. I got the lunch, hung the bag in the handle bar and went to the hotel. After little bit of detouring, reached the hotel as the first person on Day 1 by 2:00 PM and had a very nice shower in the bath tub, had my lunch and came down to meet people who started coming in. To tell the truth, I was killing the time being alone there and decided not to reach alone anymore.

Distance covered on Day 1 = 151 Kms

After 2 days, I heard that my ride was covered in DNA. Honestly, I should accept that it was little exaggerated.

Chilled out evening:
After tea in the evening, with the efforts of Bhaskar Rao sir, we got special permission to visit the Mysore Palace and the Chammundi temple in the evening and even the transportation courtesy was KSRTC.

From Tour oF Nilgiris 2009

Tour oF Nilgiris 2009 - Day 0

2009-12-26T12:34:00.005+05:30

December 15, 2009:
The day I had been waiting for eagerly. The day I met all my new biking buddies.

Photo Shoot:
I had decided not to check any emails for the 2 weeks that i am off from home. Heard from Jitin that Rajesh Nair is already in town and wants to have some Photo shoot. Excited of meeting by Dailymile buddies, I started from my friend's place and reached the Wipro office on Sarjapur road - the location that I confirmed with Sameer. I was very happy to overtake Rajesh Nair on my way. Yeah! He was stuck inside an auto rickshaw in the traffic and I escaped through the gaps on my cycle.

Shahid was waiting at the location and soon Manjula, Sameer, Aditya and Rajesh joined us.

We went out into off roads that beyond the Carmelaram Railway station off the Sarjapur road and did some small off road rides to pose for the Pro Photographer. Shit, I would have been in my Cycling Jersey and shorts if I knew that there were going to be nice pictures taken. Just learned how difficult it is to repeat the same stunt again and again and again for one nice pic. Then it was the turn of the road bikes to show up on pace line. After a couple of hours around that region, we went back on our own ways.

From Drop Box

Pre tour Briefing:
I had to do a quick dumping in my baggage of recently acquired enerzal and Nutribars and shave to start to the Pre tour briefing venue in time. The Kyra centre was just 4 Kms away from the place where I stayed and I was the only person who pedaled to the venue with a huge bag on my back. As a rare case, i was late to the venue and the informal talks already started. I had no space to sit and I was standing. I was looking around to tag faces to the email IDs.

The snacks were served and then started the important introductions and the unimportant "briefing" that not many bothered to hear amidst the distribution of Sweat shirts, Jerseys and Yummy yummy eatables. I took myself a TFN jersey to wear for the next day, deposited the baggage after tagging and continued the informal introductions and chats with many fellow riders whom I am going to share the road with for the next 8 days.

From Drop Box

Left home, had a early dinner at 8:30 PM and got on to the bed at 9:00 PM. Smiles to go before I sleep and Miles to go after the sleep...

Tour of "Nil - Giris" to Tour of Nilgiris

2009-12-26T10:47:00.014+05:30

This literally means from touring in the land of no hills to the Tour of Nilgiris.

From Drop Box

History in Short:
I started cycling on a wake up call of Go green realization and austerity measure during recession. But ended up spending a lot more on it as it became a passion. I came to know about the Tour of Nilgiris with in 2 weeks of m cycling addiction and had been thinking of doing it by any means. Slowly with the upgrade of Single speed MTB to Multispeed imported bike and more rides along the ECR, seeded the thirst for a big tour. TFN it is!

I used to visit the TFN site often over the past few months and also registered when the page opened for it. Jack Lee's mail hopped into the inbox for confirmation with only 3 days to decide and get leave as well. Finally got through and paid the Donation to RACF. Finally they managed to get 80G exemption also for the donations!! My worthy tax saving investment for the year. :-)

Paining in training:
Dailymile made most of the TFN riders introduced between themselves by means of competing in miles every day. Thanks to Rajesh Nair and Sudhir for making all my trainings bigger and bigger every week. In November I did 1501 Kms of Cycling, including a week of 600 Km of cycling.

The excitement in the preparation was oiled by the emails within the BSA TFN 09 google group.

Packed to Bangalore:
Jitin was the only other person who came from Chennai as I knew of and was kind heart to bring my bike to Bangalore. I started off to Bangalore on 12th December morning in Shatabdi and received my bike by evening from Jitin's place.

Midnight Marathon:
The unstoppable adrenalin made me do a half marathon in the Midnight Marathon that was held in Bangalore. The entire atmosphere was like that of a party and would have really enjoyed more with more Chennai Runners in place. But was very happy to have the company of Manish, Rajamanickam, Subramani, Puru and few other TFNers who attempted to run there. This time, I turned down my ambitions in time at the start point itself and did a comfortable Half marathon in 2 hrs and 9 mins, protecting my legs for the Mega event. There were many threats for the runners who discussed about this event on the TFN 09 email group. It is safe to preserve your energy and later most of the runners threw their running plans during the TFN.

Usually, I used to carry a bottle of water or my fuel belt and refill at support stations when ever needed. But this event was conducted in view of "Green city". So, I thought that there is no point of running and wasting a bunch of water bottles at the end. For the first time, I ran with my hydra pack that I used for cycling. But my hunger could not resist me having food on a disposable paper plate at 3:30 AM :-(

Manish, me and Raja at the Bangalore Midnight Marathon...

From Drop Box

Cycling in Bangalore:
Having got the most comfortable mode of transport that I would ever love to have, I enjoyed cycling around one of the coolest cities of south India and though its best roads that I used to read in Daily mile - Outer Ring Road, Sarjapur road, etc.

But to the tell the fact, the wide and empty roads on Sunday turned into a flooded steel river with cars and motor bikes on Monday morning. I chose to ride along the platforms at many instances. Met a couple of friends in their offices and was happy to see some cycles parked in the designated area. Chennai has a long way to go where people start to commute on cycles.

Elephant ride to ECR Run

2009-11-25T21:06:00.007+05:30

Elephant ride to ECR Run (aka) எப்படி இருந்த நான், இப்படி ஆயிட்டேன்!

This story was due to be posted over a long time. What triggered? and how it happened?

Motivation:
I skipped loading some of the pics to the public album after my sister's marriage. But had them on the hard disk as a motivation factor, rather as a threat. But I lost them when my laptop crashed a few months back. But there are other videos that used to be a comic for others then and a comic for even me now.

FYI.. That is lolly pop. I never smoked!

Our family did not have a very healthy history. Most of them suffered and died out of heart disease in the Paternal side and diabetic in the Maternal side. My mom used to tell, being fleshy is no harm, but the big belly can store a lot of disease to throw out in future. So get rid of it!

Gym:
My mom attempted to get myself going to a Gym and shed some pounds. Her attempt failed out of my hate to run on the tread mill that used to make shattering sound when I attempted to increase my walking speed on it. Also felt very bad among the young boys with 4 and 6 packs, doing strength training. All these happened some time in May 2008 and I was back to my normal eat and sleep.

Lifestyle Pre November 2008:
Activity:
- Stay at work till 10 PM
- Late night movies (2 or 3 sometimes over a night)
- Chat (fast food) and chat (gtalk)

Food:
- Break fast: Pongal + Vadai @ T Nagar Brilliant Tutorial Kayendhi
- Lunch: Home made Rice + Vegetables
- Evening: Bajji/Vada/Samosa/Puffs..
- Dinner: Idly/Dosa/Chappathi/Adai/Pongal... @ Home
- Popcorn + Chips + Biscuits + Coke in company for movies
- Minimum of 2 ice creams per week (Arun ice creams @ Besant Nagar beach lost business after me quitting ice creams and they locked now.)
- Enjoy the fullest...

Results:
- 111 Kg by weight
- 40" by waist.
- Tummy as if I am going to be a mummy.

I had an opportunity to check my weight some time near a hotel on Nov 1 and it said "111 Kg" (exclusive of the Jeans and shoes). Went into hotel in the idea of having "Chilli parotta" and came out having "Sambar idly". The numbers brought a sudden worry in me that I had not felt on those days when I crossed the triple digit. Decided to have a walk on that evening and was planning of all means of getting things done slowly. Having just completed my sister's marriage, I was not ready to shell out a good sum of money on a good Gym or VLCC or Talwalkers, though I had heard about all of them.

Transition:

The next morning, asked my mom to reduce sugar in the "Chocolate horlicks" that I used to have in the morning and also cut it completely from the day after. Other key activities in a quick run..

My life style Post November 2008:

Activity:
- Hit the bed by 11 PM at max.
- Up by 4.45 AM
- Walk:Run:Walk @ 5:1:5 - 1 hr in the morning and 1 hr in the evening.
- Added some abs workouts after the Run/Walk in the morning as the jelly belly was the target to be sliced away. (Youtube as the only tutor for me then.)
- I hate Gyms, though I tried hitting out of my mom's compulsion for 20 days in May 2008. Not much diff.
- Slow transformation on waist and weight. Waist was very visible as I had to dig my cupboard for old pants.
- Got a weighing machine after 7 weeks of starting my workouts.
- Measure the weight and waist and put it on a table/mark on the calendar (Let some one ask! You will be motivated to show the progress).
- Started cycling to work in Feb 2009 (recession + go green + health!!) and discovered Chennai-Bikers.
- Joined Chennai runners through the contacts there and being with Chennai Runners since July 2009.
- Enjoying life better than ever.

Food: (Rule Zero - No Oil, No Sugar)
- Break fast: 3 idlys @ T Nagar Brilliant Tutorial Kayendhi
- 11 AM - 3 Nutrichoice biscuits
- Lunch: Home made Rice + Vegetables (less oil)
- Evening: Soup/Sundal
- Dinner: Idly/Dosa/Chappathi/Adai/Pongal... @ Home (Non stick tava, zero oil)
- It is OK to break the rule zero for a 'taste' of the food instead of thinking on it all the day of what you missed on an occasion.

Results:
- Walk:Run:Walk @ 5:1:5 ==> Run:Walk:Run @ 10:1:10
- Dummied the Tummy
- 81 Kg on May 1, 2009 (did not follow the food routine much after April)
- 32" waist
- Enjoying the fullest...

FAQ:

How do I measure workout? by time? calories? Kms?
- I workout until the sweat on my T-shirt reaches the belly button. :-)

Rest day?
- Sunday evening alone!!

Pain/injury?
- Got some knee pain due to bad shoes & Tar roads. Ran with the Knee cap On and felt better after a week.

Coffee, tea, milk?
- Used to have 3 times a day (1 @ home and 2 @ work)
- Retained the one at home with out sugar (avoid Sugar substitutes), made the 2 at office as juices.

Psychological approach for food?
- Sit on the floor and eat if possible
- Eat in a smaller plate if you are used to a bigger plate.

Psychological approach to workout?
- Every drop of sweat has some calories. Remove the shirt after reaching home and squeeze it in a mug. I used to feel proud of the stink that I got rid of the body after that workout.
- Feel the change after every workout and pull the belly in to feel that you are losing.
- Try using old pants and and change the holes in the belt loop as and when you feel that you have lost something.

The transformation pic..

From Drop Box

Activities now:
- Have run two Half marathons and one 30 Km run since I started running in July 2009.
- Doing the Tour of Nilgiris in Dec 2009.
- Planning to do a Full Marathon at Auroville in Feb 2010.
- Will be adding more to the Marathons on run and miles on the bike.

Now I have found means of sustaining it from where ever I am. I can do these 2 things even in the remotest place of no facilities on this earth. All I want now is cycle and shoes. This is the origin of "Sipper, Saddle and the Shoes".

THANKS:
Mom - for the total support in the attempt.
Friends and Relatives - for encouraging feed backs.
Emmeskay - my office and a visible feed back unit on a weekly basis.
Chennai Bikers - Motivation of activities beyond losing 30 Kg.
Chennai Runners - Further more on the road on the new life.

Give life Chennai Marathon

2009-10-06T18:35:00.004+05:30

The Preparation:
Ever since I found that I had the mental strength to do a half Marathon comfortably after the ECR Run, I was determined to be part of the Chennai half marathon. Thanks to Chennai Runners for helping me find my new limits of physical and mental endurance.

I wanted to have a periodic practice since August beginning and was able to do only one week of regular practice during August. Got lazy again in September. So registered online for the event to cultivate some seriousness. After reading mails posted from around the world in Chennai runners, following all the marathon events, getting inspired by the postings from Shankar, Venu, Ramesh, Ramani and all stalwarts of Chennai runners, I set the alarm to wake up at 4.30, snooze it in 3 secs, and sleep for another 3 hours. Zzz.. Zzz.. Zz.. Shit! It is eight, it is hot and it is not fit to run any more :-(

Finally managed to wake up on a Friday 2 weeks back to reach Dimensions Gym at 5:10 AM. I had Ram waiting alone and we started running together at sharp 5:15. We went through Kotturpuram - IIT - Madhya Kailash - Gandhi nagar.. I had to stop running at 7 km as I was suffering pain in my right leg and arm after playing Badminton the previous day. We started walking together the rest of the route and got lot of words of wisdom from Ram. So had a fruitful and painful training run. I was aggravating with pain in my right toe since then. The next day, water started oozing out from between the nails and learned that the nail was dead and billed much pain. I had to cut the nail slowly and restrain from wearing shoes for the next 10 days. So had online training by reading mails. :P

On 24th Sep - Thursday, I managed to hit Alwarpet in Time. Had a nice run/walk/run with Siva (ECR) upto velankanni church and back. 12 kms in 1 hr and 20 mins. Gr8! That was the only training run for the Chennai marathon.

Bib collection: (Sep 26, 2009)
I thought myself to be a fit person and can get through the medical test with just BP and Pulse. But the family history forced me to take ECG. Mini-Master health check up done! I remember that an ECG alone in Apollo hospital costs more than 1000 bucks. But happy that all was done in 20 mins and spent another 10 mins to get 2 T shirts for myself along with my friend who was taking a HM for the first time.

Run - Ruin - Pain:
The Saturday was very hectic by running around with lot of commitments to be carried out with the Joy of Giving Week celebrations and reached home by only 11:30 PM. I usually wish to have Rice + Dhal on the day before burning a lot. But I was much happy with the cookies that I was biting in between the work as the dinner. The only good part was, Saravanan called me up earlier in the evening and confirmed that I can join him in the Call taxi next morning!

Searching the socks, shorts, shirt, filling water, searching pin for pinning the bib, packing cash.... filled the time till 12:30 AM. No practice, Injury, late to bed, I was prepared to just 'complete' the run, may be in under 3 hours. I was still thinking on what all need to be taken the next morning and did not sleep till 1:30 AM. Finally woke up after a list less night of thoughts like, What if I miss my run by sleeping? Should message Saravanan to wake me up? Should I search my Trrrringgg.. alarm clock now and set the time? May be I should not strain much and come home after half-way? I have three 10 rupee notes, will I need some coins to buy water during the run? For every thought I see the mob and finally decided to wake up and sit at 3:20 AM.

I saw that it was raining then and safely packed my mobile phone and cash pouch into 2 different ziploc covers that my mom had for giving away Sundal! Stappled the bib no on the shirt as per Saravanan's suggestion and slowly got ready. I left my home on my cycle and pedaled slowly towards Saravanan's house. The Taxi was already waiting and we started at around 5:00 AM.

Rain - Run - Fun: (Sep 27, 2009)
The weather was pleasant and cloudy even when it was dark around 5:20 when we reached near the Napiers bridge and walked towards the Island grounds. There were many runners waiting near the starting point. We were the first of the Chennai Runners. People started coming in slowly. Pictures, intros, helping in fixing the bib number, stretching - all these activities occupied the time till 6:05 AM. Then there was the Oath in Tamil and English followed by Gun shot. There was not many runners as expected for the Half Marathon.

From Drop Box

My stop watch was ON when I stepped on the red carpet and slowly found some free space for myself to throw my steps. The weather was amazing and I started slowly overtaking some 20 ppl in the first 1 Km while another 10 overtook me in the same stretch. Was trying to find some partner at my pace and failed through the first 6 Kms. My toe started paining and decided to keep my self as a cool head after the 6 km mark. Started walking.. 5:1 from now - run for 5 mins and walk for 1 min. To boost my self, I started yelling on crossing every 1 km mark like, "7 Kms up!!". The African Cheetahs were running back after their half way mark when I reached the Adyar bridge (8 km). Was good to see many Indian/ State runners following them in another 5 mins. A good drizzle cooled all the runners.

The half way mark appeared to fall in my 1 min walk interval. Oh, it will be bad to walk with so many people watching there. So I decided to extend this run to 7 mins and crossed the half way mark running in 55 mins. A sub 2 hour Half Marathon is in hands still!

Saw Ram and Saravanan running towards the half way mark after 3 mins. There were many Chennai Runners encouraging other runners mutually. Thanks to Shankar for the pic!

From Drop Box

Water Bottles:
Water bottles were available in abundance. But being a Green thinker, I hated bottles being thrown away just having a sip from it. Many inexperienced runners dropped the bottles in the middle of the road, causing interruption for those who were behind. I was happy for the fact that I managed to save water by filling in the sipper that I carried in my hands every time and threw the bottles in the dustbin where ever possible. At the end of the race, I saw that there were many kids that were asking for those bottles and collecting them. One girl did not even mind asking for the Sipper that I brought from home. I wanted it though I got it for free. The ultimate was when the same girl asked for the bottles of the 40$ fuel belt from Saravanan!! :-)

Spectators:
Chennai as usual has many enthusiasts in pieces and not encouraging as a whole. There were many spectators who made me have a nice time with their lazy ass comments. I enjoyed many of them like,

"Vaithula Acid bottle katti iukkaru da" (Acid bottle tied in the stomach)
"Thaatha thoppai balance panna pinnadi bottle katti irukkaru da" (Grand pa is carrying water bottle behind to balance his belly)
"Odikittae thanni kudikarangale, Onnukku vandha enna pannuvanga?" (All are drinking water while running. What if they want to piss?)

There were many discouraging points for passionate elderly runners and few encouraging points as well. To mention, the medical team near the Adyar bridge was clapping and was so encouraging that I removed cap to acknowledge them. The Police team in the Santhom high road was the next and finally the group of pretty looking school girls clapping their hands along the Marina. No wonder that I increased my pace little bit and bowed at them saying thanks with sweat dropping from head. Ended up in a big "Ooh!" from them.

Rained at start, Drained at finish:
Toe pain, wet shoes and soaked socks reduced my pace towards the end that my 5:1 routine turned into 3:1 or 3:2. I forgot about the idea of sub 2 Half marathon this time. I was pissed off when a spectator boy asked if I am running 5 km race when I actually reached the point of 18 km. Gave bad look at him started walking further. Slowly I found Saravanan running closer to me and when we crossed the 20 Km mark, Ram pulled both of us to his pace and we 3 finished together at 2 hours and 04 mins.

From Drop Box

Had 1 - 2 litres of water at the finish, stretching, greeted more runners at the finish line for a while and crawled to catch a train to go home from the Chindatharipet railway station.

Need to change my shoes before I start training for the Auroville Marathon and the ECR run 11 before that.

Postmortem of an year

2009-09-07T13:55:00.002+05:30

Completed another year on this earth today. But definitely reduced some burden on the earth since the last year.

Summary of the year: (Sep 2008 - Aug 2009)
Sep - Oct 2008: Late night movies + Lot of eating = Enjoyed life fullest after Sister's marriage.
Nov - Dec 2008: Walking in late night & early morning + Cut in Sugar and oil = Symptoms of reduction in waist/weight.
Jan - Feb 2009: Slow running + Continuation on food control = Remarkable changes in appearance.
Mar - Apr 2009: Serious cycling + Recession at work = Physically healthy + Mentally drowsy.
May - Jun 2009: New Bike + Ooty ride + Holiday to diet = No reduction in weight + More enjoyment with out compromise.
Jul - Aug 2009: Better work scenario + More cycling + Half Marathon + Pondy ride = Testing my work spirit + Pushing my adrenalin limits.

What went right?
Down by 30 Kg (111 to 81) and 8 inches (40 to 32) around the waist.

What did not go right?
Could have done much better professionally (Part from the recession and part from my negligence).

Thanks to all who were part of a wonderful year in the past.

Chennai - Pondy ride: Part III

2009-08-24T17:16:00.000+05:30

Completing the story of way back home.

Part III - Pack Pondy, Back home.

Get set: (4:30 AM - 5:20 AM)
I tried waking up sharp on the alarm but extended till the next time it rang to get out of the bed. I had a very quick shower and came back to wake up Rakesh and Vaz. Slowly one by one got ready and we were all almost ready by 5:05 AM. It took few more minutes to lock our rooms, put the shoes on and get the bikes out. I know that I will not be able to use the camera anymore and took a snap when we were just about to start. By 5:25, we started pedaling towards Chennai.

From Pondy Ride

Guest house to support truck:
We knew that the route was very straight to get back. But the darkness that prevailed early in the morning turned down our speed as there were few bumps and holes in the city as we got out of the city limits. Vaz zipped off and was wating near the truck. Our support truck was waiting at around 15 kms outside the city. Unloaded the big back pack and had the small one with basic necessities.

Support truck to Marakkanam:
I was not looking at the time much there after. As the darkness moved away slowly, we found that it was again going to be little cloudy (Hope!!). I tried to drag Rakesh behind me by taking away the wind. Vaz slowly started getting smaller in size and disappeared after we crossed the toll gate for the ECR.

I was trying to keep a pace of 26 - 27 kmph and made sure that Rakesh is always behind me at a reachable distance. I knew that it would be little tough for Rakesh to keep at that speed as he is not much into regular cycling and as he was on an MTB with hard trail tires.

It would be a mistake if I do not tell about a village that impressed me. "Koonimedu" was a beautiful village that attracted my sight when I was going to Pondy. What was so unique was that this small village had 2 thrash bins together at 3 or 4 places. One painted in red written as "மக்காத குப்பை" (Non degradable waste) and other painted in green as "மக்கும் குப்பை" (Degradable waste). I was so impressed by the sight of the exposure and care for environment in a small village.

As we started approaching Marakkanam, I felt that I did a mistake by not doing any stretching in the morning. We took small break at a bus stop near Marakkanam. I did some stretching there and we had a Nutribar there as we started feeling hungry little bit.

Marakkanam to Kalpakkam:
After around 10 kms from Marakkanam, Rakesh was not feeling well with his knees and he said that he will get into the support vehicle that was coming behind. I left Rakesh there and wanted to pick up some momentum. I increased the cadence and started riding at 29 - 30 kmph. For the next one hour or so, I was mostly riding at around 29 - 30 kmph.

In between I had the support car pass me and I had a refill for water. Rakesh said that he will get down and start riding by taking a lead for about 10 kms by going in the support vehicle. I did not see Rakesh for a while after that. I already asked the truck to go to Kalpakkam/Mahabs. It was a pain on the ass after I started approaching Kalpakkam. The clouds that were guarding me from the Sun's attack had quit and it is all sweat and heat left over now.

Kalpakkam to Mahabs:
As the time went, I was happy to see that the distance to Chennai was getting down to double digit numbers. But in the other side, my dress was soaked and sticky. I started feeling the pain under my ass and for the first time realised the need of padded shorts. My speed had gone down to 25 kmph. I took a break for 10 mins after Kalpakkam to refill water and stretch a little bit and to allow some blood flow below the hip.

I was rejuvenated after this break and started getting back to the pace of 27 - 28 kmph. As i started seeing the distance to Mahabs in single digits, it was a double boost and started fighting the heat pushing hard. I was not sitting in the saddle for a while and was riding at 30-32 kmph for the next 20 mins. I saw a small cyclist climbing a small up hill before mahabs and started chasing that guy. Wow!! I caught Rakesh at last! He was riding Bala's road bike from the support truck and was feeling better to ride this than the MTB.

Mahabs to Tollgate:
The familiarity and the width of this section of road gave much confidence and started counting down the distance to home. Rakesh was drafting behind me on the road bike. He disappeared after a while in need of water. Later he chased me by catching hold of the truck. I got on to a higher gear on my bike and started pushing hard. For the distance that I rode beyond Kovalam, I was merely counting numbers.. 1 to 100, reset, 1 to 100 and so on.

As I crossed MGM, heard a message tone in my mobile. It was Vaz, "Having Pongal near Mayajaal". I did not want to stop at toll gate for a long time. But this message triggered the forgotten hunger in me. :-(

Breakfast and Sweet home:
I stopped by reaching "Arusuvai Arasu" restaurant by around 10:15 AM. Vaz said that he was there only some 15 mins before me. Though on a road bike, the Sun god wanted him to ride slow. Rakesh was already into the truck from Kovalam and wanted to save energy to get back to Anna nagar from Thiruvanmiyur.

Had a warm pongal and cold vadai for "Breakfast"! Then I realised that I was not really hungry, I was thirsty. Emptied 400 ml of pulpy orange juice and started from there after filling my sippers with water.

I took my back pack from the truck and thanked the driver "Kamaraj" for his patient support. Pedaling after a break of 20 - 25 mins was little tough. But as i crossed the toll gate, I got into some rhythm. I did not want to push too hard and was riding at a consistent 25 - 26 kmph. Finally i was a, Oooh, Aaaah, Oouch! when i bent my back while stopping at the Thiruvanmiyur signal. I definitely needed a good quench for thirst. As i reached near my apartments, I went near the provisional stores near by, got a 1.2 lit Maa juice bottle and walked the bike home. Completed another 139 kms!!

Ride Summary:
Distance: 15(Guest house - Pondy border) + 108(Pondy border - Mayajaal) + 16(Mayajaal - Home) kms
Food: 2 Nutribar + 2.5 litres of water until Mayajaal + Pongal + 400 ml orange juice + 1 litre of water to reach home after that.
Saddle time: 5 hours 05 mins
Rest time: 30 mins (breaks in between) + 25 mins (breakfast)

@ Home:
I finished the entire 1.2 L in 3 mins after reaching home. Had a full wash in the bath room above the waist. Laid on the floor for some 10 mins with the fan running in full speed. Wow!! you see paradise..

As I had some plans to got out to see somebody, I did a quick check of my emails for the past 2 days and went for bath. I realized that I started tanning a lot these days :-(. Spent an hour in the after noon to clean my bike, tires and lubricate the chains. It is time for rest to my darling till Saturday.

Chennai - Pondy ride: Part II

2009-08-17T21:42:00.001+05:30

Continuing from the ride into the city in search of the guest house we were going to stay that night..

PART II - Rest and Zest @ Pondy

Ride into the City:
There was not much of traffic going into the city for the first few kms. Later, there were roads of no entry to heavy vehicles and busy markets. Some of them were definitely as busy as Usman road of Chennai or Commercial street of Bengaluru. The only difference was that there was not even a small litter on the road.

We reached the Railway station and called Christelle, the Guest house owner. He directed us to the Guest house from there and it was hardly 300m from the Railway station.

Le Reve Bleu:
The name of the guest house itself had the french flavor and the place also had a bit of it. It was just another house in that quiet street in the heart of the city. All the thanks to Bappu, a friend on a phone for Vaz and living in Pondy.

We took one double room and a single room for 3 of us. Vaz in the single and me with Rakesh in the double. It appeared like a old conventional house of Indian style with French flavor.

It featured,
Madras terrace,
high roof with windows in the middle of the hall,
2 cycles for the use of the guests staying there to go around,
a dining table,
a swing,
few art works on the walls (some for sale),
a big bath room (for only 3 of us),
a garden behind,
a kitchen with cooking range, utensils and refrigerator,
a drawing room with table for playing cards, other games, etc.
a table for drinks and all necessary glass ware.

From Pondy Ride

We felt very homely being there. With all these facilities, the rent was very cheap comparing to what ever you would be giving in the dumbest hotel.

Refresh and Rejuvenate:
After giving us the necessary instructions, Bala, the manager of the place left giving us the keys. One by one we took bath and felt better out of the sticky dress. In the mean time, Bappu had reached there to say 'hi' to us. Bappu and Vaz had been friends for a while through the interest of cycling. But had never met. It was great to have some chat with him for a couple of hours, relaxing on the swing. We were mostly speaking about cycling, Pondy and he helped few french visitors who came to that place for inquiry. Definitely, "French sounded tastier than the french fries".
Bappu left around 4.00 PM after inviting us for a tea at his place.

A walk along the city:
Bappu gave some instructions on how to reach his place. We started walking slowly, a little after 05:00 PM. Vaz was trying to use his Garmin GPS to locate the place where I believed on my mouth. "வாய் இருக்க வழி இருக்கு!".

We were walking along a canal that appeared dry and many bridges connecting the either sides. The people appeared the same as what ever I would have seen in any small town in Tamil nadu. All streets were named in Tamil and French. For the first time, I was seeing so many foreigners sitting in tea shop, riding a moped, going in cycles, buying parotta in road side hotel and living their life like so many tamils do there. This showed the extent to which they have mingled in the culture of the locals.

After a walk for 30 mins we reached Nehru street, the land mark given by Bappu. We called him to get directions for his place and reached there in another 5 mins.

A model house:
We reached Bappu's house that had some greeneries hanging out from the balcony. He was living in the first floor of the house built by his father so many years ago. We met his wife and son and he took us around the house while the tea was getting ready.
There was a small terrace like open space adjacent to the living place in the first floor. There was a solar stove there which he did as a school project and was using it for 32 years!! It was saving 40% of the gas usage on all sunny days when it is used. There were lot of plants budding in the flower pots around that place. They had a compost waste management system near those flower pots. They put all the bio degradable waste from the kitchen in the upper deck of the 3 floor pots and use the manure that gets collected in the lower deck. They were growing papaya, other vegetables as well there which would be moved to their lands later for further growth. Then we went to the open terrace above where there was a very good view of the city. He had also set up a solar water heater near the over head tank and supplies hot water to all the batch rooms in his house. It saves 30% of his electricity bill. Wow! I was seeing so many green solutions being implemented in a house for the first time and wrote into my mind that this will definitely be a reference for my dream house.

We had a very good tea, bread toast with rajma and some cakes - all home made. After some chat for a while on Pondy, cycling, future rides and lot more, we started to move out for a walk and dinner. Bappu tempted us to take some ride @ Auroville during our next visit.

Walk along the beach and dinner:
Bappu took us for a walk along the crowded and beach that was lit in colours and lights for the occasion of Independence day. He showed us the monumental french buildings that are operating now as the government offices.

From Pondy Ride

We had a very nice Pizza and I filled in with some Pulav to add some carbs to my dinner for the next day ride. We came back home walking and reached by around 10:30 PM.

I arranged my belongings in the bag and got everything ready for the next day's ride. Alarm set for 4:25 AM and started snoring at 11:00 PM.

A short story on the ride back home will be followed.

Chennai - Pondy ride: Part I

2009-08-16T19:39:00.000+05:30

The independence day weekend was an amazing weekend for some of the serious and leisure bikers from Chennai. There were so many stories to tell that I decided to break the entire story into 3 parts.

PART I - Conquest of the French empire

The Plan:
The idea of doing a ride to Pondy had been in talk since March/April. For some, the dream is almost an year old. Few others have done it already. But still, this was a new pack of brave hearts that just counted the distance as numbers and not miles to conquer the French empire on the Independence day.

The idea was proposed in line with the Pondy relay run by hashers on August 15. Senthil took the initiative consolidating the bikers, arranging the support vehicle, etc. There were about 15 riders in the list on 14th August.

Rain threat: (1:30 AM - 4:45 AM)
I had a good carbohydrate dinner and was asleep by around 11 PM. Felt cold at around 1 AM and when I woke up after receiving a message from Vaz, it was raining hard. From then, it was no continuous sleep for me. I was sleeping on and off. Around 3.40 AM, Saravanan messaged me that it may be tough to start at 4.15 AM from Thiruvanmiyur unless the rain stops completely. In the mean time, the rain stopped at around 4.00 AM. But many of the riders already opted to stop riding on that day. The crew shrunk by size :-(.

On the road in the rain: (5:00 AM - 6:15 AM)
Finally we decided to start around 5.00 AM from Thiruvanmiyur signal and four of us, Bala, Rakesh, Saravanan and me started amidst a gentle drizzle and wet road. Bala was on his new Urbano road bike, bought specially for this Pondy ride. It was a cautious pedaling in the darkness and wetness. After a ride of leisure chat, we reached the ECR Tollgate at around 5.45 AM. The road bikers were already on their toes to start the ride. Vaz was getting delayed in trying to park his car. So he was dropped behind to ride with the MTBs while the road bikers started at 6.00 AM sharp. An SUV followed them as a support vehicle. Kandappa reached there in a while with the support truck.

From Pondy Ride

The riders:
Matt Barrett - Road bike - Batch 1
Vellayan - Road bike - Batch 1
Vishnu - Road bike - Batch 1
Sachin - Road bike - Batch 1 (returned after Kalpakkam)
Vaz - Road bike - Batch 2
Bharani - MTB - Batch 2
Kandappa - MTB - Batch 2
Rakesh - MTB - Batch 2
Saravanan - MTB - Batch 2
Bala - Road bike - Batch 2

The warm up ride: (6:20 AM - 7:20 AM)
The weather was a "Threat turned into a Treat" with a clouds all around the day. Thanks God for giving the best weather for such a kind of ride. It was more a kind of warm up ride when we started from the toll gate, till we reached the Mahabs with an average of 13 - 14 kmph speed.

Oops.. I was not pedaling so badly to do 14 KMPH!! Then I realised that I was playing with my speedometer the previous day and had changed the display from KMPH to MPH. I did not want to change anything from there on and started counting in MPH and converting by heart to kmph. So, it was a 22 - 23 kmph average upto Mahabs.

We waited for every one to sync at Mahabs. Kandappa had already met with a flat and thanks to spare cycle that came with the truck. After a couple of pictures at Mahabs, my camera was dropped deep under my back pack.

From Pondy Ride

On the roll - On the road: (7:30 AM to 09:30 AM)
After knowing that this story is all about a ride from Chennai - Pondy, many expect there to be pictures taken at different milestones. But this was more a serious time on the saddle than relaxing by sitting on the milestones.

After Mahabs, we found that Saravanan, Vaz and me were in sync of speed and we decided to go together for the next 30 kms by drafting one behind the other and taking rotations after every 1 km. There were no shoulders beyond the yellow lines in the sides of the roads and good, flat for most part of it. I was counting myself that I had to go 10 such rotations. Saravanan did not have a speedometer and was testing our adrenaline by hitting upto 30 kmph at times. We raised our average to ride at 28 - 29 kmph most of the times. After a monotonous yet splendid ride for an hour, we reached a a point where it said "Marakkanam - 30 kms". We stopped there for a short break and a bite of Nutribar. Vaz did not want us to be cooled off. Trigger was up again and wanted to reach Marakkanam in the same way. We continued our rotation keeping the pace at 28 - 29 kmph most of the time.

Every time I got the turn to take the wind, I was yelling, "7 more..", "6 more.." and was keeping on counting down from 10.

Marakkanam to Pondy: (09:40 AM to 10:35 AM)
When we were about to enter Marakkanam, Vaz proposed that we can go to Pondy with out a break there. Ooh.. was I ready for it? I was thinking for a moment and said "Yes, but after refilling my sippers with water". We stopped at a small tea shop after Marakkanam and refilled the sippers with water and boosted by enerzal. Happy to have got noted and wished by few travelers there. After a break for about 7 - 8 mins, we were again on the saddle. After a while, Vaz said that we have done 94 kms from Tollgate in 3 hrs and 46 mins, inclusive of the breaks. Shall we try doing 100 kms in 4 hours?? Saravanan and me were not sure. Vaz took over as the lead and sailed for the next 6 kms by increasing the speed. We crossed the tollgate in between and after a while, we completed 100 kms in 3 hours and 59 mins!!

With the content of this achievement and need for some relaxation, Vaz and Saravanan started pedalling slowly. I was trying to be in my own pace and reached the "Pondicherry Welcomes" board at around 10.35 AM. I was waiting there for some 10 mins, quenching my thirst with some juice and waiting for the other 2. As they reached in another 10 mins, we were roaming around for while to find a place for Breakfast/Lunch/Brunch..

Brunch:
We went another Km further the find the SUV that came in support of the Road bikes. Found that there was a small hotel which had only Parotta and Kothu Parotta at that time. We met Matt, Vellayan and Vish there. Heard that they did on an average of 29 kmph and we were happy on our ability to do nearly 28 kmph on our MTBs. Vaz pulled us on his thirst of speed. Matt stayed back while Vellayan and Vish returned back home in the SUV.

We had our food there and chatting with Matt for a while and waiting for the rest of the crew to come. Sarvanan's family joined there in their car. Bala and Rakesh reached there by around 12.00 PM and Kandappa followed them in another 10 mins.

Wow.. All of them made it at last.. Gr8!! Kudos to all the bikers, thanks to the bikes and big thanks to the God for gifting that kind of a weather.

From Pondy Ride

Once every one completed their lunch,
- Saravanan left home with his family.
- Matt left to the resort for Hash Run to join his wife.
- Kandappa and Bala, went to the Bus stand to catch a bus to get back home.
- Kamaraj, the truck driver waited at the border with the truck and other's bikes to be a back for those riding the next day.
- Vaz, Rakesh and me started pedaling into the City to find the guest house that we were about to for the night.

Ride Summary:
Distance: 15(Home - Tollgate) + 112(Tollgate - Pondy border) + 12(Pondy border - Guest house) kms
Food: 2 Nutribar + 2 litres of water until Pondy border. Parotta there on till evening tea.
Saddle time: 5 hours 15 mins
Rest time: 30 mins (Toll gate) + 25 mins (during the core ride) + 2 hrs 15 mins (at Pondy border)

More stories on the stay and the the return in the next 2 parts.

Best city ride and run

2009-08-07T18:01:00.000+05:30

Thursday, 06 August 2009 had been a day of my best peak hour city ride and best run in the evening.

My Commute Ride:
I had been commuting to work on my Hercules hurricane for the past 6 months (Exactly!!).

My route ==> Thiruvanmiyur - Indra Nagar - Kasturiba nagar - Gandhi nagar - Kotturpuram - Nandanan Extension - Nandanam Signal - Venkatnarayana road - My office @ Kannadasan Salai.

Route to Bharani's office
Find more Bike Rides in Chennai, India

It had always been fun in creeping through the motor vehicles in the signal, over taking on the platform, chasing school kids, chasing good looking girls (in a closed helmet?) on their Scooty and taking rest through the shady streets in between in Gandhi Nagar, Adyar and Nandanam extension.

My all time record for the Best time to reach my office (7.5 kms in shortest route) had been 25 mins against the average time of 30 mins. Kotturpuram Bridge and the Nandanam signal are the real big obstacles that affect my time of ride. I always have a spare T shirt in my back pack to have a small wash and change after reaching the office. Thanks to my employer who allows me to wear informal Cargos and T shirts to work that encourages me in cycling to work.

My Best Ride:

On Thursday, my mom wanted to give away some items to my sister who goes to a training near Anna Arivalayam after Teynampet signal. Her training starts at 9:00 in the morning and it was already 08:25 when I was about to put on my shoes.

It was exactly 8:30 when I started on my saddle at our apartment's parking area. I was easy cross yesterday to cross the LB road and get into Indra Nagar. I just saw a TVS 50 with 2 kids riding before me. Gr8!! Here is the carrot to ride the donkey for the day. I kept in pace with them to reach Sardar Patel road. Thanks to the kid kept me encouraging in the chase. It was good to have green lights for pedestrian crossing and I walked the bike to get into my favourite Gandhi nagar. It was a very quick whisk to reach Gandhi mandapam road.

The hell was waiting in the Kotturpuram bridge that is usually crowded. With no much hesitation, I got on to the plat form and started overtaking all the motor vehicles standing in the traffic que. The flexibility to bend and peek through the smallest gaps helped in cross the road after the bridge and I took few lanes there after to reach Anna Salai via Cenoptaph road. I found myself a clear 2 feet gap along the left of vehicles crowded at the Teynampet signal. Reached the destination opposite to Anna Arivalayam in @ 08:51 in 21 mins!!

Best ride map..

Best peak hour ride
Find more Bike Rides in Chennai, India

My Best Run:
I started running again regularly after the run with Chennai Runners and ECR run. I run either in the morning or in the evening depending on convenience. I usually start from home, go upto the farthest end of Besant nagar beach and run/walk back home after some stretching and fresh lime soda.

On Monday evening, I ran for around and 35 mins continuously and came back home to map the route on MapMyRun to see how long have I run. I ran 6.22 Kms in 35 mins. I knew that it was the best of my evening runs by speed. Since I do not have any electronic device, i measure all runs / rides in time and come back home to map my route in the net.

There was no running activity on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was a must run determination on Thursday. I decided to give a little extra effort on speed and started my run at exactly 08:30:00, the same time at which I started my ride to wrk in the morning. The only difference I made in my running was that I was trying to increase the length of the foot steps I take and shoot the legs little bit.

I knew that I was running much better than Monday and was having an eye on my by watch every corner of the road. I went around the Besant nagar service road and the beach twice. I stopped when it was exactly 09:00:00 on my watch. When I came back home to map my run, it was 6.11 Kms in 30 mins!! At last I got into the magic figure of 1 Km in less than 5 mins!!

My run map..
08/06/2009 Route
Find more Runs in Chennai, India

Next Step:
Ride to work in 20 mins..
Run at 12 Kmph for 10 kms..

Life is made more interesting with achievable new goals than uncertain old dreams.

ECR Run 10 - My Duathlon

2009-07-27T12:28:00.000+05:30

I do not believe in "Fortune of the day". But it said "Exercise for the body" on Sunday. The coincidence was true.

Aim of the Exercise:
As a follow up of my first half Marathon, I decided to try a 25 Km run or do a 20 Km run in under 2 hours.

Biking to MGM:
The precautionary measure of alarm in 2 mobiles rang consecutively to wake me up at 3:40 AM. I jumped out of sleep and got dressed up in 10 minutes. Loaded my sippers with electrolytes and was ready to move at 4:00 AM. I reached Thiruvanmiyur signal at 4:05 AM and waited for 5 minutes to stretch and wait for somebody who may be(?) joining. I just had Senthil and other volunteers group of Chennai Runners wait and pass by. I pedalled very slowly to reach the venue by 5:05 AM. I saw the runners of 30 Km and 25 Km runners coming out of the resort. Oops!!! The 25 Km event already started and I missed it.. huh.

Bike counter: 18 Kms
Run counter : 0 Kms

Get set:
I parked my cycle in the 2 wheelers parking lot and got the "bib" number. This is the first ever of that sort that I am wearing and it sounded very energetic for me. I sretched for a while and dropped my belongings in Amar's car who reached there with his bike loaded in his car. He was there for a 10 Km run and biking after that. There were about 25 runners there for the 20 Km run. Primary instructions were given by Ram and Balaji. Taken points -> Keep right, run slow, volunteers at every 2.5 Km mark. We had to go little beyond the 10 Km point to touch the Crocodile bank for a half marathon. My watch was displaying 05:36 and whistle was blown for the start.

Bike counter: 18 Kms
Run counter : 0 Kms

Brisk 11 km:
I started my run with my comfortable speed that I used to run generally. Ram was the only person who was accompanying me in my pace ever since we hit the ECR. We were the first among the group people running for the 20 Km. We were running together for around 5 Kms. I was quite comfortable with the pace and concentrated on deep breathing. I had my sipper hydrating me with electrolyte. I had just had 2 people to overtake on my way to reach the 10 Km mark. I dropped my sipper for a refill at the 10 Km point and went ahead to touch the Half Marathon point (Crocodile Bank). I went little beyond the Crocodile bank and ran for another 3 mins to make sure that I covered 11 Kms in all. It was 58 mins for my first 11 Kms. Alas! I did 1 km more than last week for the same time.

Bike counter: 18 Kms
Run counter : 11 Kms

Sluggish 11 km:
I saw Ram running and about to touch his Half marathon point. I collected my sipper, loaded with electrolyte from the water point and continued running back. There were 2 guys who turned at the 10 Km point and were running ahead of me. I managed crossing them before I touched the 5 Km mark. I was little tired this time and did not have that strength in which I did the first half. More than the electrolyte, the biggest boost was the appreciation and encouragement given and taken from the fellow runners running in the opposite side. Added to that was the boost from Vibha and Sachin who were doing their bike ride along the same road.

I started giving some break to the run and did some fast walking for 30 secs. Repeated the same for every 2 kms. Thanks "Sarav" for this valuable suggestion. Of the entire run back to MGM, I over took some 15 people and there was only one guy who over took me. "Bhaskar" - the incredible guy who did his 30 Km run in 2.5 hours. By the end of the run, he was my bench mark to reach in the next 6 months.

Though I felt that the effort was very sluggish on the way back, I was doing quite well and my pace was almost in sync with the pace I did for the onward run. As I started seeing the MGM board visible, I started shooting my legs up for a good stride and reached back to the starting point with a welcome whistle from Balaji and claps from few others. In all, I did 22 Kms in 1 hr and 58 mins. So the aim of the exercise was successful!! I was looking around for Saravanan and Sarav who were the primary reasons for today's performance. But both were missing out from my sight.

Bike counter: 18 Kms
Run counter : 22 Kms

Two Vital lessons learned:
1. I need a better shoe with ventilation. My shoe and socks were soaked in sweat and the lace loosened very often
2. Never wear a new shirt for a run. It hurts badly!!

Biking after run:
Amar and Vaz were waiting for me with their bikes ready for a ride. Brahma, our HR and my cheer leader for me who came all the way from T.Nagar early in the morning for me was also waiting for me. Big thanks to him. I stretched for a while and relaxed. Then I took my necessary belongings for biking from Amar's car and we 3 started together for a muscle loosening bike ride amidst the TV coverage from NDTV-Hindu.

I felt that biking was much comfortable than running after that 2 hours long run. It was good fun cheering the runners on the way and went little beyond Kovalam to turn back. On the return, we tried having some pace and got back after some 40 mins of ride.

Bike counter: 33 Kms
Run counter : 22 Kms

Break fast and chat:
The purpose of the event is far beyond the run. It was a nice time to interact with so many new introductions and exchange of few numbers. The break fast was not so hot, but was very soothing for the hunger after so much burn out. Idly, Pongal. Dosa and cold crispy vada. I liked the grape juice more than anything. Only had 5 glasses of it. I was about to start back home by riding with Sachin. But had some visitor to be entertained.

In another few minutes, I just heard that 2 people were about to complete a "Marathon". I just saw out through the entry gate and saw my 2 gurus running in. Saravanan and Sarav just completed a "full Marathon". A full Marathon is a huge challenge in the hot and humid Chennai weather along the coast. Kudos to the runners and the support team. By the end of the day, the event was a huge success with excellent organization. Read the highlights here.

Bike counter: 34 Kms
Run counter : 22 Kms

Biking back home:
It was almost 10:25 when I started from the resort and it was Sun all out there. I had a clear vision for myself at the end of the day - A Marathon by the end of 2009. I started pedaling back home with both my sippers full with electrolyte and "bib" number not removed from the shirt.

I reached home by around 11:00 AM and had a solid sleep for around 2 hours before I woke for the bath and lunch.

Bike counter: 52 Kms
Run counter : 22 Kms

End of Duathlon!

My first half Marathon

2009-07-23T14:01:00.000+05:30

This post will describe what I was and what I am. The true reason of starting this blog is this story...

I am still not able to believe that I ran 21+ Kms at a single stretch... Thanks to Balaji and Saravanan (Chennai Runners) for inspiring to make this happen today.

My old story:
I was today thinking of days about 8 months back. I was hardly able to run for 50 steps together. I used to count as I take my right leg forward every time. The first week when I ever attempted to run some time in November 2008, the best performance was 65 steps at a stretch on a normal jogging pace. It was very hard to push my breathe with the 111 Kg body. There was some pain in the knee and the hamstrings that made me rest after 2 days of running. I did not attempt running for the next 2 weeks. Instead, I was trying to increase the speed in my walking. I did not mind to be joker doing duck walk at 9.00 PM in the night along the Besant nagar beach.

After 2 weeks, I started seeing signs of reduction in my hip size as I had to shift from one hole to the next in my belt for the pants to be fit. This was very encouraging and I started attempting to run 2 - 3 times ever day when i walk. I got much better by stamina to run and also the reduced weight gave no pain to the legs. By the end of November, once when I was able to run for 100 counts at a stretch, I was very happy about my progress. Slowly I extended the distances I ran and started introducing more running. By January 2009, I was running from home to the Besant nagar beach and was introducing walking in between at few stretches. I started running 4 - 5 kms everyday either in the morning or evening. Some times both.

Cycling:
I chose cycling as a "Go Green" initiative. I started commuting to work in my rusted Hercules bike. It was more fun riding with the school kids. In fact I learnt how to manage the city traffic on a cycle from them. Slowly cycling started creating an addiction that I chose riding it alone on the OMR. I took 3 weeks for me identify "Chennai-Bikers" that had transformed a lot in my life style for the past 5 months. Indeed i am very happy and proud of my new found passion that had built in lot of confidence by covering miles and hills. Thanks to the entire community.

Run again:
I reduced to somewhere around 83 - 84 kgs by April and there had not been much of running early in the morning after that. I got little lazy in the morning and started waking up late. All the physical activity that were left were Bike to work, Badminton after work and Cycling in the weekends. i also relaxed a lot on my food and was having all I wanted liberally. So was not reducing much in my weight after that but did not increase as well.

Vaz (Chennai-Bikers) sent a message 2 weeks back about the "ECR run" on July 26. I gave a nod to enroll for 10 Km run. I was not sure if I would be able to complete the entire run. But was ready to attempt as it was a run for fun and not a race. I was on a trip to my native over that weekend for a couple of marriages and I broke all my food restrictions there.

I felt that I should prepare a little for the running event on July 26, ECR run. I started running in the evening from Tuesday. I reached the farthest end of Besant nagar beach from m home with one break for a walk in between. Wednesday was little better as I touched the farthest end and came back to Murugan idli shop with out a break. It counted to be nearly 4 Kms for me. I was just giving a thought if I should have enrolled for the 5 km run instead of the 10 Km one :(

Marathon day:
I had few visitors at home on Sunday and thought that I cannot go for the bike ride. On Saturday, Balaji and Saravanan were telling about the Sunday running by Chennai runners from Anna University. So i decided that I will run for a short distance and attempt to do a 10 km run as a trial for the next week's event. I was looking at the map for the run at it showed that the main group will run for 15 Kms and any one can chose to change route to reduce the distance and reach back. I thought of reaching Anna university by 4.55 AM. But sadly, I was out of my bed at 4.55 AM. Oops..

I brushed, changed and put on the shoes in 5 mins. I was able to reach Anna university @ 5.12 AM for the run at 5.15 AM. Thanks for all signals that opened green when I was about to reach them. There were a bunch of 15 - 20 people with 2 females. I was there with my sipper and 500 ml of water of which I had 100 ml before the start of the run.

When we were about to start, one of them asked if i was for 'half'. I said "Yes" thinking that half will be around 8 Kms (half of 15). I started running with them was part of the group that was running in the front. Just after 3 kms as I was speaking with one guy, "Sarav" I realized that I was running with the group that was doing a "Half Marathon". But by that time, rhythm had got set and the pack of 6 ppl was doing a very consistent pace. I thought that I will take Sardar patel road after Adyar bridge and get back to Anna Univ. But I was not feeling tired and kept going. When we were running along the Besant nagar beach some one yelled, "10 Kms up in 58 mins". Wow.. I just realized that I had been running for 1 hour. That was a new record for me.

The consistent speed and counting by heart beat helped me get through with the entire pack and reach IIT. It was 14+ Kms when we reached there. Our gang had a special permission at IIT and we added another 6 kms by running through some loops in the IIT. I wished that I had another 200 ml of water. But for that, I was very comfortable. I was very glad that i was running with few guys who had taken many international Marathons. On suggestion, I started to take a walk for 30 seconds after completing 20 kms. I started running again to complete by 21.1 km mark in 2 hours and 7 mins. I was wondering my legs that did not rest, stand or walk for 2 hours.

At the end it was not a Dream come true for me!!!
It was some thing that I had never dreamed of!

I was back home at 8.00 after some stretching.

Welcome to sweet sweat

2009-07-23T13:37:00.000+05:30

I will be trying put up my old stories of fitness, new ride stories, events, weekly updates and a lot more. Keep reading this column for lot of interesting stories of a common man trying his time with some sportive action. But everything will include either my saddle or the shoe in the story..