Wonderla, Chennai Again, Plantar Fasciitis, Voomero 9

So, finally some time to write 2014 summary blog. This year has been a comeback of sorts into running, a little injury.

Chennai Again

Chennai seems to be our new found holiday place. We were at Chennai for the third in this year. Unbelievable ! And seems like 2015 will also have Chennai - first in our itinerary.

 At the Grand Chola ! We had a great stay here over the weekend, traveling Shatabdi !

We finally ended 2014 with a weekend stay at Wonderla. Aadu enjoyed his rides at wonderla.
Its a pretty decent place for kids.

Even I tried one of the most easiest rides, and look below for my shouts !!

We stayed at the wonderla resort, which has kids activity room, heated pool, decent gym.

Good old cycling days. Rs 100 per hour.

The buffet breakfast was also good and so were the cycle rides.


Plantar Fasciitis

The small nag after the TCS run turned out to be plantar fasciitis. Probably weight or some jumping jacks had led to this. So most of my running took a hit the second half of the year. After trying a dumb orthopedic to Ayuervdeic massages, finally a neat youtube video helped me fix this problem.
The idea is to strengthen the muscle by following those stretches.


Currentyly from last few weeks I've started with my weekend runs at Lalbagh. I've tried few tappings and use a heal cup in my shoes. This helps relieve the pain.

I tried the below taping that helps. I use to before the run. Check the video for more details. You can buy leukoplast adhesive tapes (white color), size 5x5.

But this below stretch was the most useful to me. I did this for almost 2 weeks and I could see the results The below video exactly summarises my pain area as well.

 I tried the below foot massage with a hard tennis ball. This was also very useful.

Nike Voomero 9

Finally the Nike Voomero 9 turned out to be a great shoe for me. Coming to Nike feels good, especially if you are looking at some good cushioning. I've clocked close to 100 miles in this one things are pretty good so far. In fact I use this for my office wear as it helps me immensely during the day ( i generally do not use running shoes for office).

Sketechers Performace Go Walk 2 - Ladies

Ani also caught the running bug and she upgarded herself to Sketecher GoWalk 2 series. Seems like a great shoes for brisk walking and general walking. I'll ask her to review

Cross Training - EFX

We bought a cross trainer (EFX) so that I can do some cross training when I'm not running. This was from Propel Fitness and - CX 86 and with a good bargain. Have been using for 3 weeks now and seems good. Will review it later.


All in all 2015 should be the year of one half marathon, and hopefully a Mumbai full in 2016. Hope to meet the weight loss targets in next couple of months and improve upon endurance. On the travel front, couple of beach visits (Chennai and Kerala), drive to Hyderabad, Mysore Zoo and others are planned.


Wishing you all a healthy and prosperous new year 2015 !

-- Keep Running --- ABa

Le Pondy

Before Aadu's school started, we gave a in a quick drive to Pondicherry.

Its almsot ~380KM from Bangalore. Haven't taken the Tirivanamali route as we were not sure about the road conditions there. So after lot of research, we took below route.


Bangalore - Pondicherry (380KM)

Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Vellore - (after ~15KM from Vellore) Take right towards Cheyyar - Vandavasi - Tinidivanam - Pondi
(Choose the above route in Google directions)

After crossing vellore, you will see a board pointing to Arcot (towards right). Do not take right here. Go further down, and then you will see again another board for Arcot. This is a tricky right, that goes a little zig zag. Just try to reach Cheyyar in the direction board.

We started at around 6.30 and reached by 1PM. Le Pondy another 10KM from Pondi town.
We used Google maps most of the times.

Le Pondy

This is a nice resort, outskirts of pondi. This has a private beach (you can say that). Thats the best part. They have a nice pool as well. A small play area for kids. Aadu loved beach and the pool.

The food was average. We spent most of our time at the resort.

We also gave a quick dash to Auroville and Mankkul Vinayakar temple.

Was planning a beach run but didn't.

Until next time.. keep reading....

ABa

TCS 10K - 2014 and Nike Vomero 9

Finally, did a decent 10K to start this year at the TCS10k this May, Bangalore, 2014



Finished in 1hour and 2 minutes. Have been clocking some decent miles from the start of this year and averaging 25K per week.

Some of my colleagues participated for first time.

Time for a half marathon at Kaveri this September.

A slight nag in my right heel and it was time to upgrade my Asics. Can't believe that I haven't changed my shoes for more than 2000KM - since 2011 ( as I was running intermittently). But for the last one year or so my pace has picked up and so are my running days.

Finally chose Nike Zoom Vomero 9 that had extra cushion around the heels.



Nike Pegasus 31 was fine and  Nike Flynit was like barefoot. Tell you, Adidas Energy Boost was equally
good.

Clocked 5KM today, seems decent. Will review it further.

4 years ....

5-5-2014... we enter our 5th year of marriage...
took a cheeky time off :)

Aadu was @ Patti's place. Sorry young man ! But we got the cake for you.

The above pic was at 22 ... More as things unwind... Training for TCS 10K is currently on, more on that later.

Adios !

Chennai, Shatabdi and Marina...

After a very very long time we went in for a weekend holiday.

We went to Chennai to catch some beach and my sister,bro-in-law and their daughter.

Aadu liked his stay at the hotel and on Sunday morning he liked the marina beach.

This was the first time Aadu was exposed to the swimming pool. He enjoyed being at the pool immensely and was all throughout like "Row, row, row your boat"

Aadu enjoyed Shatabdi immensely, playing pranks with passengers.


Finally some small mini holiday for all of us !