Intro

This blog as might be apparent from the title has to do with running, biking and basically other outdoor individualistic sports, sometimes extreme, such as rock climbing . But don't be surprised if you find articles on work, personal life, music and even philosophy, this blog is an exception in this aspect in the blogosphere of running blogs and I am trying to revamp the blog to make it more runner friendly. You might want to look at the sidebar titled 'categorised', which as is obvious, categorizes my posts into different areas of interest.
The other thing that might interest many people is a section on 'running videos' and 'general videos' on the side bar, which I keep updating now and then.
I plan to bring in more posts on running and biking, with some added colour, so as to make them 'complete'. That's about it for now.
As a post-note, I have run a half-marathon, but I am yet to attempt a marathon, which through some concerted effort and time should happen in the future, but that ofcourse is not the culmination of this blog, it would on the contrary be something to jumpstart this blog onto new vistas.




Monday, May 28, 2007

Biking to the Wayne golf course, Kenmore

I left at 5 am to this supposedly nice Sammamish river park and golf course located at the foot of a tiny hillock, about 100 m high. This was on the 20th of this month. The idea was to bike upto this place and climb the hill. All was fine till I reached Kenmore(about 16kms from university district) where I was supposed to take a right onto the hill climbing trail. But I kept going on towards Bothell(another 2kms), where I came across a fruit and vegetable shop.

After buying a pound of plouts (plums + apricots hybrid), the shop keeper mentioned that I had already passed Kenmore. So back I went 1 mile toward Kenmore (no sign board damn). I took one of the bridges that goes across a creek towards my destination.


But having crossed the bridge, I was unable to find the trail that would take me to the top of the hill.

The picture above shows what went wrong


Finally, I had to settle down to viewing the golf course, which was very vast and green.



The trail to nowhere

Coming back, I came through the usual route - Burke Gilman trail, which took me about an hour for 19 kms.


My next biking trip is obviously to get to the top of that elusive hill.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Running to work

I had a strange and esoteric idea last year. I wondered what it would be like to run instead of 'walk' our daily lives. You got to go to the grocery store a mile away. What's normally done is to walk the distance or bike it up. How about running it up? After all running is an extension of walking. I mean, I could crawl on my fours and go to the grocery store, but I chose instead to walk. In the same vein, I could also think of running to the grocery store. Ofcourse, there are some practical issues but they are of lesser importance right now.
The other day, I got a flat tire and since I rely heavily on my bike (the only walking I do is walk from the nearest parking location to my destination), I found it tough to walk!

Normally I leave my home 10 mins before my first class in the morning. The other day, I forgot that I coudn't use the bike. So what did I do to get to the class on time? Yep, run. Call it karma or samskara, I did the same the next day and the day after when I got the tube replaced. Those were two good days. Now, I am back to the old routine.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

AR Rahman Interview

I have been looking out for interviews with AR Rahman - I found one of them with Sun TV in Tamil which was good, another one with Headlines today, which was Mediocre. But the interview that stood out was the one with CNN-IBN interviewed by Anuradha Sen Gupta. The interview wasn't a monotonous scheduled one but had quite a few improvisations of questions during the interview. My only rant is the indifference and ignorance shown by her to a few regional songs that have been well acclaimed and have won awards like Yenna solla pogirai in Kandukondain Kandukondain. Titled 'Being Rahman', it tried to bring out the character of Rahman and did a good job at that. I had recommend this video even to a casual observer, as it has some insightful replies by Rahman. You can watch it here.

Kennenisa Bekele with the WR

Robbie Mcewen and steve o'grady - The 'Nudge'