Weekend Running - 25K

A weekend in Bangalore after a long time and that too only devoted for running. The idea was to a day 20K in one day or probably 26K as well but decided to settle at 25K split across the weekend.

On Saturday I had planned to run with the GKVK runners at GKVK which is like 22K from my house. A crazy thought to bike (cycle) till GKVK was lingering but because I was planning a long run I decided to motorbike instead and these days I use my motorbikes only during weekends after I started cycling to office daily. So my day started at 4.15AM and I was ready after some quick stretching by 5.20AM and I reached GKVK at 6AM. The meeting point was the Ganesh temple Sabine was all set there with some other regulars there. People slowly started to come by by 6.15AM we started. Mr Patel (patil?) was there with his lovely Alsatian Robin. It was a very cool dog and was enjoying the run as well. Initially I took the lead almost running alone for first 2KM and then I had to wait for regulars to know the route. Then I was joined by Shantanu who recently moved to Bangalore from Mumbai, Atreya, Core, and Manoj as Sabine directed as for some trail routes intermittently. Then we soon finished a loop of around 6.5K and it was overall around 8.6KM as we stopped for water. The timing was OK I guess and the weather was perfect. Then some of us decided to do a second loop and this time I was running with Satish and Shantanu most of the time and in one hour and forty minnutes I finishe close to 15KM and I decided to hang my boots for the day. Had my energy bar and Manoj offered his dates bar as well.

Then Sabine started to talk about preparation for Kaveri and the Ultra. I was planning a 42 at Kaveri and 52 at the Ultra and probably shaping myself for the run. Then met up with Satish to discuss about some motor biking trips we may want to do in the near future and met some other bikers from RMTC motor biking club who were planning to do the Himalayan bike trip. July and August are typically the bikers season as it snows very badly in there. Pretty much in contrast to the Road of Bones (refer my previous posting on this) where the lakes freeze when it snows, and that is when you can actually bike (the only time in the year). I guess I'll do a Himalayan ride next year for sure if I'm around in India. They will transporting their bullet to Delhi and then drive up until Leh.

Finally was back home by 11AM and it was the last day for my cook and I had one Sattoo paratha and pulav with some paneer curry and raitha. It was a no tobacco day and asked some my friends to stop smoking for the day. According to the latest definition of "public place" for smoking in India they have excluded roads and included pubs. Insane !

Day 2:
Planned to run Sunday for the RFL fortnight runs at the EGL. Biswa told me the previous night that KC Das at Church Street had a Bengali breakfast. So there was a motivation to run and I was planning around 10K since it was my first back to back runs greater than 10K. So my day began at 5AM and by 6AM I was there and got my bib and the loop was 5.1K. Caught up with Aswin and Joseph and "Hi's" with others. Aswin bought this new Garmin GPS watch for around $200 and I guess I must try to buy one year end. We started off pretty well and Aswin was my running mate all throughout but I preferred to stop and he was probably going for another 4K. After some quick chat with few I was back home by 7.45AM and Biswa and I were all set for KC Das only to realize that the breakfast starts at 9.30AM and it was 8.40AM and we decided to walk the MG road. Days at Riya and evening walks flashed us and we had coffee at the India Coffee house at the MG. Then we walked till Nilgiris on the Brigade to buy some fruits and stuff (Moong Wadi) and then reached KC Das.

KC Das (Church Street), near Koshy's.

Some Bengali delicacies like "Luchi", where poori is made out of Maida, aloo dum and channa dal (little sweet) is served. Priced at 20 Indian bucks and then we tried this "hing kachori" that comes with same accompaniments. Some dahi misthi to win it up. There are other items like "green peas kachori" that weren't ready that time. But Luchi I guess its a pretty neat place and wallet factor is also decent considering Rosagullas are the main sweet dishes around. Lot of new steak houses have bobbed in there but I may not be the right person to review them.

All in all a pretty good weekend and with IPL Finals in couple of hours its going to be exciting. Until then boys, keep running and have healthy food.