Showing posts with label Running. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Running. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

lifeMojo

Came to know about http://www.lifemojo.com from the BBC mailing list. One of the founders of this site is a member here and had mentioned about it in one of his emails.

Decided to check it out, and overall I think it’s pretty decent. It stores all the walks, runs, bike rides along with the daily diet (haven’t used this as yet) and provides graphical results.

I have been maintaining my records for over a month now and my profile is at

http://www.lifemojo.com/people/yogeshranade

Overall cycling updates:-

Total Distance Covered on Merida: 2100 Kms  approximately
Total Distance Covered on Cycle: 2666 Kms approximately

Cheers,
Yogesh Ranade

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Friday, July 17, 2009

Go Yogi Go…

Have been able to maintain my cycling routine through the first couple of weeks of July…4days in the week (6th to 10th) and 5 days in this week. Also managed a 15 km loop last Sunday (11th) - about 200kms of riding to bring my total to

Total Distance Covered on Merida: 1629 Kms  approximately
Total Distance Covered on Cycle: 2199 Kms approximately

Need to get a helmet and a cyclo-computer.

In these first 2 weeks of July also have (re)started my jogging routine. These are over and above my regular cycling commute to office. Here’s how i have fared so far:-

7th July: 5kms
8th: 5kms
9th/10th: Rest
11th: 4.5kms
12th: 8kms
13th: Rest
14th/15th: 5kms each
16/17th: Rest

Have got the inspiration from the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon training chart @ http://www.scmm.indiatimes.com/training.html and trying to follow this as much as I can. Am currently in week 2. Yeah I know I have been taking rest on Thursday’s so far…but hey..I’m also cycling alongwith…so cut  some slack…Lot’s of thoughts cross my mind regarding registering for the Mumbai Marathon 09. I would love to run a marathon (atleast once in my life) I’m already 35 and time is running out…literally…the older you get the difficult it becomes…but can I manage it…will i hold up…will i make the distance in in 4 hrs atleast…the max i have run so far is for about 1hr 5mins for a distance of about 11kms.. 42.2 kms seem so far away…maybe I will give myself another 2 weeks into the training routine and if I last through it, I will go ahead and register…;)

Current state: In 2 minds: do a 4/10km run over the weekend or go for a 120km + cycle ride to Nandi Hills on Sunday. Never done Nandi hills…have gone upto the BIAL..and hear Nandi is a must-do if one is into cycling long distances..

Cheers,
Yogesh Ranade

Sunday, June 14, 2009

2 weeks into June

My blogging has taken a big time hit. Just don’t seem motivated to sit and write down…don’t know why, have I hit the writer’s block….or is it just the fact that I don’t find the daily happenings interesting anymore to pen them. Oh well, no point brooding over it, have decided to just jot down what & when I feel like it. In any case, it’s not like I have a ton of readers subscribed to the blog and feel left out if I don’t write.

So what’s up…May and June have been a bit crazy for me. There are lot of happenings in the office, Some good and some bad…remember we are a small company in the telecom sector and business has taken a significant hit due to the downturn. Things are pretty fluid. I have been pretty tied up at work though, but have also seen quite some folks with whom I have worked and now become close friends decide to leave for better pastures. In a way it maybe good for them.

Am also trying to get my groove back into a thing called fitness…Can’t believe I could run 10kms sometime last year. Man, this thing has been hurting me for ages, I reach a certain level of fitness and then it all comes down…it’s like hitting a plateau as you are trying to climb a mountain and then you take a break, the break gets too long and then rather than further climbing the mountain you start the descent cos’ it’s too late. Yes, have been in this rut for a long time and don’t see a way out.  Am desperately hoping this doesn’t happen with my cycling. Have cycled 4 times in the first week of June and about 3 times in the second week to an overall cycling update of :-

Total Distance Covered on Merida: 1269 Kms  approximately
Total Distance Covered on Cycle: 1839 Kms approximately

See the plateau problem, I covered ~1000 kms on my Merida TFS 100 V from late Feb to late April that’s about 2 months and in the next one-and-half months I have covered only about 270kms. What can I attribute this slump to…rut, the daily grind. Any work/other pressures that come along the way and my fitness regimen takes a hit. Somehow need to inculcate discipline, it’s not that I don’t know that if I do go out for a run/ride things get clearer…but hey, it’s still not happening. Hey maybe it’s the rains…the weather is much colder, the rains make the earth much greener and I just feel so good tucked in bed.

On the 5/6/7th of June, had been to Ooty along with my office buddies. We have a staff welfare club at office, all of us contribute a paltry 100Rs every month and then over a period of time spend it organizing trips, group events, passing out T-Shirts/Jackets…yes the fun stuff…it keeps the fun in the workplace concept going. It was hectic, we left for Ooty from BLR on Friday night, reached Ooty on 6th morning. Lazed around, went to Coonoor, came back to Ooty and headed back on the 7th. It was great fun, and kudos to the young organizers who did an impressive job. Oh forgot to mention, I went alone, my ever accommodating wife and son, had absolute no qualms in allowing me to go on a “bachelor” outing.

Cheers,
Yogesh Ranade

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Merida TFS … 4 days on and it’s impact..

It’s been 4 days since I have been riding on my Merida TFS…for photos visit http://picasaweb.google.com/yranade/MeridaBike# and I am absolutely loving it. It’s an amazing cycle, excellent balance, excellent ride positioning, excellent saddle and awesome speed. It just lurches out of the blocks..there are so many fascinating items on the bike, I am discovering them every time I ride. I am not really going to list down the Pros and Cons…yes there are some cons, but what in the world is perfect …u tell me ? The fact is that I love this bike and I love bicycling more now…I actually don’t enjoy driving my Swift anymore…It’s only in the weekends that I will use my Swift when we need to travel together as a family. Btw: I am planning to reduce my driving as well…my lovely wife Sawani has started taking driving lessons from last Tuesday in a local driving school nearby our house…the plan being to handover the Swift to her. ;) I would obviously use it on long drives and stuff, but it’s primarily going to be her vehicle going forward. I definitely plan to take good care of this bike and once Arjun turns 5 (on March 27th), I plan to start taking rides with him (on his little bicycle) in the apartment. I feel the seeds of cycling need to be sown early. One day they will bloom…it’s been 10-12 years since I last bicycled in late December and am I loving it or what ?

So what happened to my Ultima 6 speed ? It has been a good bike that served me well. I had it with me for almost 3+ years (2.8 years was just lying in my house)..I decided to pass this bike on to Shiva, our office boy..he’s been with us at IntelliNet for more than 6 years now, and he is an extremely helpful, hardworking and cheerful chap. He said he needs to buy a cycle for his son, so was way too excited to see a geared bike up for sale…considering the increase in the costs of bikes recently…a normal gearless bike would cost 3K minimum. I decided to pass this on for about 2K..which he readily agreed. Why did I sell it and not just pass it on…well there are reasons for it…but rather not talk about them here. ;)

Here’s some number crunching:- All the following are now on my Merida


22nd Feb: 30 kms (Kanakapura to Brookefields)
23nd Feb:15 kms (loop near my home)
24rd Feb: 20 kms (office and back) – Started going to the gym as well. Did 2.5 kms run (treadmill @ 8.5) + 2.5 km walk (treadless @ 6.4) + stretches + abs
25th Feb: 20 kms (office and back) – 10 mins on treadmill at 10 speed. Stretching and Chest + Triceps
26th Feb: 20 kms – 20 mins on treadmill (3kms), 20 mins on treadless (2.5kms) + Stretches + abs

Total Distance Covered on Merida: 105 Kms
Total Distance Covered on Cycle: 675 Kms

Cheers,
YVR

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Cycle Runs…

Here are the latest cycling updates:-

19th Feb: 20 kms to and fro from office
20th Feb: 20 kms.

My friend and colleague from office had got a camcorder (the 60GB HD capable Sony) and recorded some of our technical discussions at office. While on the way back, since we were leaving together and he stays close to my place in Brookefields, and since my bag was pretty heavy (week load of clothes and laptop) I asked him if I could keep my bag in his car and would collect it outside my gate at Knightsbridge. He readily agreed…and off we went, he sped in his Wagon-R and me on my Ultima 6 speed. I really wanted to reach before him, but he caught me at the Marathahalli flyover on the way down. He was waiting for me, and surprise of surprises, he had took a video shoot of me coming down from the Marathahalli flyover and then cycling on the ITPL main road. The video sizes are pretty huge, so didn’t want to upload..but it felt cool..Thanks Sarvesh for that.

21st Feb: Am extremely excited, since I will be visiting BOTS today..and then maybe Wheelsports …couldn’t sleep thinking about it..finally got up at 4:30 am and started doing some reading…By about 7:30 decided to go out for a run, so onto the road and ran from my house in KB to the junction near Gopalan National School and back to KB…about a 5 km distance…in about 35 mins. Not bad considering it’s been about 1.5 months since I ran…felt pretty good that I could complete…but my body is pretty sore …

21st  Feb: 5km run

Total Distance Covered on Cycle: 570 kms

On to checking out the bicycles…

Cheers,
YVR