Reflections

 The Apollo Tyres New Delhi Marathon was held on Feb 23, 2025. It was my 34th marathon and special in more than one way. This was the race where I had prepared meticulously with a structured training program for close to 20 weeks. Additionally, I was aspiring to finish the race within the BQ (Boston Qualification) cut off time of 3:20 for my age category. So, there was a lot to look up to on this 'run-derful' weekend! I had the good fortune of having my good friend Chandra help me with the BQ preparation. He not only worked with me on the training plan but also enlisted other runners from our group to join me in this journey. The team rallied behind us and joined for all the different training sessions that I hardly did any workout alone. Chandra was so involved himself in this BQ effort that our running group heard nothing but BQ plans, options and possibilities in the days and weeks leading to the weekend. There were 10 of us who were travelling and staying together, 5 (me,...

 Imagine this setting. You have just won back to back Olympic Gold medals. Only three people in history have achieved that feat in your event. You are being anointed as the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) in your field. The whole world is tweeting about your feat, congratulatory messages are flowing from all directions. You also have about two hours in the airport lounge waiting for your next flight. What would you do? Will you relish the accolades, respond to those wishes and calls, read those great articles being written about you? After all, you have spent months and years toiling for this very moment. Or will you just sit still and be with your thoughts? Most of us, by default, will fall in the first category. Unless you are Eliud Kipchoge. After he won the Men's marathon event in the 2021 Olympics at Sapporo (venue was changed from Tokyo because of extreme heat concerns), Kipchoge had to fly back to Tokyo for the medal ceremony. As he was waiting for his flight, a journalist who a...

One long term goal of mine is to qualify for the Boston marathon. BQ is the holy grail for most amateur runners. The  qualifying times  are fairly challenging and will need some dedicated training effort for someone to have any realistic chance of making it.  The most important component of this training schedule is the weekly running mileage. One needs to clock close to 80 - 90Km/week to be marathon ready.  Since running is one dimensional, it is also advisable to incorporate some kind of cross training, like swimming and cycling as well. The third component is super important -  strength training. As one gets older, the musculoskeletal system is no longer in a great shape to take the pounding and needs to be reinforced.  Is that all? Unfortunately no. We also need to do throw in stretching and mobility exercises (like Yoga) into the mix. One might argue that we do not necessarily need to spend the same amount of time across all of these, but we do ne...

Once in a while, I go back and read my previous blog posts. More often that not, I feel good reading them. It gives me a peek into what was some of my "top of mind" thoughts at that time. Ideally, if I have been writing often, at least say once a month, this exercise would have been even more useful. Nevertheless, today was one of those days when I revisited my blog. The one that caught my eye today was one of my recent ones - Creation Vs Consumption . As I read that post, I took a step back to see if I have made any progress at all in this dimension over the last year. Coincidentally, that post was written exactly a year back (So much for this being a recent one). And I have to report that the answer is zero; absolutely no progress. I am still consuming way more than what I am producing. This is even after I include my physical activities and the time that I spend doing seemingly productive things at work (which itself is highly questionable) in the productivity list. Which ...

 Ours is a fairly close knit family, with similar values, morals and ethics. So, our outlook on most things in life are quite similar and we tend to agree on nearly everything. The operative word is 'nearly'. The one thing that we do not is - "When do we celebrate Krishna Jayanthi?" In my living memory, I do not remember a single instance where all of us, including my uncles and aunts, on even one of paternal or maternal side, have celebrated this festival on the same day. And if you include friends and neighbors, Krishna is born several times over a few days (or even weeks sometimes) in the same year.  One might wonder why all this confusion. As the name clearly indicates, Janmashtami or Gokulashtami, should be celebrated on the Ashtami thithi, no? To be precise, the Krishna Paksha Ashtami in the month of Shravana. But alas, as with most things in life, nothing is as simple as it sounds. This thithi business is confusing. They do not align nicely with midnight or sun...

In a given day or even a week, how much time does one spend consuming vs creating? This is a question that has intrigued me for some time now. Before we answer that question, of course, we need to define what creation and consumption are. There are no universally accepted definitions, so I will state mine.  Creation involves making something new or doing something that creates value, ideally for others, but at least for oneself. Writing new code or a new blog post, cooking a dish, milking a cow, sketching that wonderful cartoon, taking that wonderful picture of a bird all make it to this list. I would also like to add things like singing a song, going for a run or working out, meditation to the creation list. Consumption is reading a book or a FB/Instagram/WhatsApp post, watching movies and serials and the ilk. One can of course claim that scrolling social media messages is adding value to themselves as they become more informed. That is why this is a gray area and everyone should ...