[My first attempt at Micro-Fiction (less than 150 words) , will post the comments (if any) from the contest next week]
"One small step for man...".
Oh! man , did he really have to say that, now they expect me to come up with something better.
... in a few minutes with the Explorer in orbit, the Rover carrying astronauts Wing Commander Rakesh Chawla and Squadron Leader Hun Tse-tung will descend on to the red soil, the same soil which has captured the imagination of humans for generations. Today, we may or may not discover life on this planet, but we will see life on it , life ... from Earth , its a momentous occasion for mankind.....
Rakesh: Systems Check.
Hun: All operational.Initiating descend sequence.Here we go, Commander.
... the Rover is now using the thrust reverser to slow down its speed and land softly on the surface. The engines are shut off and the Rover has land.... Oh! my God!, its sinking in..
"Mars is alive and I am dead."
Monday, February 9, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
You want to run a marathon, but you know you cannot , so what?
When you take stock of reality and realise that you wont be able to do something, there are two options left.
1.) Accept the reality and rest easy with the fact that you can give it a try another time.
2.) Be stubborn , ignore all facts and just go around with one thought in your head, that of completing the task you have set out for yourself.
My experience has thought me that more often than not , the first option is always the best and is more prudent.
But there is a catch in the statement above, in cases where the first option isn't probably the best one , i.e in the less often cases , following
the second options reaps rewards more than expected.
I was stubborn that I had to run the marathon , no matter what. As they say "Ignorance is Bliss" , but when you have already realised the
futility of the exercise, you cannot seek solace from ignorance.
The only way you can carry out a herculean task is to just blindly believe in yourself and root out any misgivings or doubts one might have.And
since you have already determined that the task cannot be carried out logically , one has to then boost up one's confidence illogically.
Booster Shot 1:
In the rarefied atmosphere above 2500mts , I trekked up a Himalayan mountain pretty comfortably. It was a climb of 16 kms for about 5 hours
, with the temperature hovering below 10 degrees Celsius. A good exercise and especially good way to judge if your lungs are ready to puff along
for a few hours. So , this was one huge boost before the big race. The legs did not pain , neither my back.Thoroughly enjoyed the pristine beauty
of the Himalayas and no sign of the shooting pain in the knee.
What's Illogical in this you ask.
Well , walking up a Himalayan mountain might be a good exercise , but it does never strain your legs. When you walk the stress you put on your
feet isn't the same as the one you do while running. So , taking heart from this trek and believing I was ready for the run was illogical.
Booster Shot 2:
The Race day is just 5 days away. I have not run for more than 600 mts in the last 6 months. I had to start running some time before.
But as always laziness rules!!!. And as always when the looming punishment for not doing my job seems to be more threatening than the
rewards of laziness, I get up at 7:30 (before I slept the night before, had decided to start running by 6 , there's always a pound of flesh to be extracted)
and start running towards Marathahalli. I wanted to check if I could run constantly for an hour. But , as soon as i started to get to my maximum speed,
my good old friend called pain in the ..... knee visits me. I slow down to a speed little more than a fast walk and continue.
People coming out on to the street , all ready and primed to go about their days work and there goes along one bespectacled guy dodging traffic and stares.
Is this guy nuts ?? running at this time in the heat.
I say : Marathahalli is too far ;).
So, I kept going , crossed my office (if only i got my swipe card along) and then onwards , found a couple of people coming back from their morning jogs.
It means, there are people who run around here. On the way, saw an athletic guy, (you ask how I got that, he wore a university athlete's shirt) , but had no stamina,
would run along for 20-30 mts and then start walking , phew.... over took him with my slow run and then climbed up the bridge to reach the point of turning back.
One of the most pleasing event when you run long is at the point you turn back in the loop. Half-done already so completing it in full is no problem.
This thought always goes through my mind every time I run long.
I get back to my room , have been on my feet for 1 hr and 20 mins straight (even though covered only about 9-10 kms).That's good for a first run after 6 months, but the big one is
just 5 days away.
What's Illogical here ,you again ask.
Lets say , the effort you take to complete a 5 Kms run can be provided by 20 biscuits.
For 10 Kms , it will be 40 , for 20 kms , 80 and so on as its proportionate to the distance
being run. Applying math , one can extend the 1 hr 20mins and say that in about 5 hrs I would be completing the Marathon.
And that I say is Illogical.It's only logical if you are a machine or a trained professional athlete.
The reason being, there is are limits for everyone.One physical and one mental.
I had never reached my physical limit of running continuously , neither the mental one, when running half-marathons.
I believe that I was almost at the limit when I finished those runs and so extrapolating my performance over another 21kms is not logical.
Yes, these were the big two Booster shots used to shoot up my confidence, they weren't miracle causing medicine, just placebos.
But they do their work well in the right hands;) .
1.) Accept the reality and rest easy with the fact that you can give it a try another time.
2.) Be stubborn , ignore all facts and just go around with one thought in your head, that of completing the task you have set out for yourself.
My experience has thought me that more often than not , the first option is always the best and is more prudent.
But there is a catch in the statement above, in cases where the first option isn't probably the best one , i.e in the less often cases , following
the second options reaps rewards more than expected.
I was stubborn that I had to run the marathon , no matter what. As they say "Ignorance is Bliss" , but when you have already realised the
futility of the exercise, you cannot seek solace from ignorance.
The only way you can carry out a herculean task is to just blindly believe in yourself and root out any misgivings or doubts one might have.And
since you have already determined that the task cannot be carried out logically , one has to then boost up one's confidence illogically.
Booster Shot 1:
In the rarefied atmosphere above 2500mts , I trekked up a Himalayan mountain pretty comfortably. It was a climb of 16 kms for about 5 hours
, with the temperature hovering below 10 degrees Celsius. A good exercise and especially good way to judge if your lungs are ready to puff along
for a few hours. So , this was one huge boost before the big race. The legs did not pain , neither my back.Thoroughly enjoyed the pristine beauty
of the Himalayas and no sign of the shooting pain in the knee.
What's Illogical in this you ask.
Well , walking up a Himalayan mountain might be a good exercise , but it does never strain your legs. When you walk the stress you put on your
feet isn't the same as the one you do while running. So , taking heart from this trek and believing I was ready for the run was illogical.
Booster Shot 2:
The Race day is just 5 days away. I have not run for more than 600 mts in the last 6 months. I had to start running some time before.
But as always laziness rules!!!. And as always when the looming punishment for not doing my job seems to be more threatening than the
rewards of laziness, I get up at 7:30 (before I slept the night before, had decided to start running by 6 , there's always a pound of flesh to be extracted)
and start running towards Marathahalli. I wanted to check if I could run constantly for an hour. But , as soon as i started to get to my maximum speed,
my good old friend called pain in the ..... knee visits me. I slow down to a speed little more than a fast walk and continue.
People coming out on to the street , all ready and primed to go about their days work and there goes along one bespectacled guy dodging traffic and stares.
Is this guy nuts ?? running at this time in the heat.
I say : Marathahalli is too far ;).
So, I kept going , crossed my office (if only i got my swipe card along) and then onwards , found a couple of people coming back from their morning jogs.
It means, there are people who run around here. On the way, saw an athletic guy, (you ask how I got that, he wore a university athlete's shirt) , but had no stamina,
would run along for 20-30 mts and then start walking , phew.... over took him with my slow run and then climbed up the bridge to reach the point of turning back.
One of the most pleasing event when you run long is at the point you turn back in the loop. Half-done already so completing it in full is no problem.
This thought always goes through my mind every time I run long.
I get back to my room , have been on my feet for 1 hr and 20 mins straight (even though covered only about 9-10 kms).That's good for a first run after 6 months, but the big one is
just 5 days away.
What's Illogical here ,you again ask.
Lets say , the effort you take to complete a 5 Kms run can be provided by 20 biscuits.
For 10 Kms , it will be 40 , for 20 kms , 80 and so on as its proportionate to the distance
being run. Applying math , one can extend the 1 hr 20mins and say that in about 5 hrs I would be completing the Marathon.
And that I say is Illogical.It's only logical if you are a machine or a trained professional athlete.
The reason being, there is are limits for everyone.One physical and one mental.
I had never reached my physical limit of running continuously , neither the mental one, when running half-marathons.
I believe that I was almost at the limit when I finished those runs and so extrapolating my performance over another 21kms is not logical.
Yes, these were the big two Booster shots used to shoot up my confidence, they weren't miracle causing medicine, just placebos.
But they do their work well in the right hands;) .
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Planning on running a Marathon? , never put yourself in this position
Well, any site on the web or any professional long-distance runner has one advice for the amateur runner who wants to experience the out of the world journey
of completing a marathon. Start preparing three to four months before the race. Have a schedule set up for each week with designated days for rest each week.
Do cross training, i.e do something else than running on atleast one day of the week.Keep increasing the distances you run every week.
Follow a low-high-low pattern of running distances.
For Example:
Week 1:
Monday : 5 kms
Tuesday : 6 kms
Wednesday : 7kms
Thursday:Rest
Friday :8 kms
Saturday :12 kms
Sunday: Rest
Week 2:
Monday : 7kms
Tuesday : 8 kms
......and so on.
Well these are the do's of preparing for a marathon.
Can someone give the dont's??
If there is some way to go about doing normal things in a crazy way, you bet there will be a person crazy enough in this world to do it.
And to do the honours this time, we have ( with utmost surprise and shock ) me !!!
Here goes the What Nots :
1.) Never get up on a day and suddenly realise that you had made a credit-card transaction some months ago to pay for the registration fees
of a marathon which is just a few weeks away.
2.) The worst possible scenario at this point would be to realise that you have not run a kilometer straight in the last 6 months.
3.) If that was not enough , there was nothing done in teh past few months that could be mistaken as cross-training , no activity that could atleast strength your muscles or lungs or heart or brain(do you think just legs are enough???)
4.) The worst can become worse when you realise that the reason you did not run for the past 6 months was that you carry an injury in the area around your left knee from your last long distance run.
5.) If the situation isn't already bad enough , the first time you take your legs out to try them on, you discover pain shooting along the path from the back of your left knee to your thigh.
6.) The speed you can run is atleast 3kms/hr below your average speed.
7.) You have no running partner , to go along with you over such a long distance (atleast there should be someone nearby , handy enough to resuscitate you ).
8.) You know of nobody who has done the marathon in the position that you are in.
9.) You realise going by your logic and the reality of pain that this cannot be done.
of completing a marathon. Start preparing three to four months before the race. Have a schedule set up for each week with designated days for rest each week.
Do cross training, i.e do something else than running on atleast one day of the week.Keep increasing the distances you run every week.
Follow a low-high-low pattern of running distances.
For Example:
Week 1:
Monday : 5 kms
Tuesday : 6 kms
Wednesday : 7kms
Thursday:Rest
Friday :8 kms
Saturday :12 kms
Sunday: Rest
Week 2:
Monday : 7kms
Tuesday : 8 kms
......and so on.
Well these are the do's of preparing for a marathon.
Can someone give the dont's??
If there is some way to go about doing normal things in a crazy way, you bet there will be a person crazy enough in this world to do it.
And to do the honours this time, we have ( with utmost surprise and shock ) me !!!
Here goes the What Nots :
1.) Never get up on a day and suddenly realise that you had made a credit-card transaction some months ago to pay for the registration fees
of a marathon which is just a few weeks away.
2.) The worst possible scenario at this point would be to realise that you have not run a kilometer straight in the last 6 months.
3.) If that was not enough , there was nothing done in teh past few months that could be mistaken as cross-training , no activity that could atleast strength your muscles or lungs or heart or brain(do you think just legs are enough???)
4.) The worst can become worse when you realise that the reason you did not run for the past 6 months was that you carry an injury in the area around your left knee from your last long distance run.
5.) If the situation isn't already bad enough , the first time you take your legs out to try them on, you discover pain shooting along the path from the back of your left knee to your thigh.
6.) The speed you can run is atleast 3kms/hr below your average speed.
7.) You have no running partner , to go along with you over such a long distance (atleast there should be someone nearby , handy enough to resuscitate you ).
8.) You know of nobody who has done the marathon in the position that you are in.
9.) You realise going by your logic and the reality of pain that this cannot be done.
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