The weekend before last, BarCamp Bangalore 7 was held. The session that I was most looking forward to was the ‘cycling to work’ session initiated by Pradeep B V (of MapUnity fame). What made the session interesting was that people were asked to cycle to IIMB and showcase their bicycles in an outdoor session, and encourage others to take up cycling.

The idea by Pradeep to have it in the open area outside the cafeteria just after lunch was a brilliant marketing ploy, because people would just walk out of the cafeteria and then they would see all the cycles and then out of curiosity, they would come closer and end up chatting with the cyclists. It was nice to see people hopping on and going for rides just to check out the cycles.

The stars of the show were undoubtedly Vikram and Varun because of their cycling clothes and their advanced bikes which have features such as special shoes that lock into the pedals as well as ability to unhook the wheels for easy transportation.

We had a lot of fun talking to people and answering many questions from curious Barcampers and turned out to be a successful session. Among the curious people, there was also a reporter from the Bangalore Mirror. It turns out that we ended up in an article in their Sunday edition yesterday:

BANGALORE MIRROR, SEPTEMBER 21, 2008, Page 9 : Rising fuel costs, never-ending traffic jams, have made travelling quite a problem in Bangalore. So it came as no surprise that young techies, who cycle to work, created a stir at Barcamp 7 in IIM last Saturday - Renuka Phadnis

The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore was full of activity last weekend. The auditorium was the venue for an interactive session of Headstart, a group that supports entrepreneurship in the technology sector. In the corridors and break-out spaces of the management school, there were parallel discussion sessions going on of Barcamp 7. But the one group that attracted the most attention here was the one that pedals their way to work. Varun, Vikram and Swaroop, the three directors of Ion Lab, cycle to their workplace.

And when they are stuck in any of Bangalore’s infamous traffic jams, the trio simply lift the bikes and walk out of the jam. Vikram used to cycle to his office in Bosch earlier and is still cycling to his new workplace. He cycles up to 50 km a day and has even pedaled to Mysore. The cycle he uses is a ‘Giant’ that has as an accessory shoes that swivel into the pedals of the cycle.

Varun has been cycling in Bangalore for six months after he got hooked on to it in the US.”A lot of people complain about the traffic but I like it,” he says. Once in a jam, he lifted the cycle and a guy in a car told him, “Dude, I am here stuck in this traffic and you are getting away?” He likes the fact that cycling keeps him fit too.

When you ask Swaroop if he does not find cycling a challenge in Bangalore, he says, -”Cycling isn’t, but driving a car is!” He says it is a lot safer and easier in the city. He has been cycling from Jayanagar to Domlur for the past two years.

… (see the picture for the full article)

Factual errors aside, it is a good article and really encourages non-cyclist skeptics to consider cycling. The other upshot is that the red bicycle you see on the top of the page is mine, so if I ever want to sell it, I just have to say “As featured in the Bangalore Mirror”, heh. And also, this is the first time ‘Ion Lab’ has been mentioned in the press.

Let’s reiterate over the benefits of cycling to work:

1. You do not need a separate time to exercise, because you’re cycling to work. You save one hour everyday.
2. Save on fuel costs, and in turn make the world less reliant on oil fuels.
3. Reach your workplace faster. It’s a myth that cycling is hard and slow and you’ll be late. On an average, I used to motorbike to my (ex-) Yahoo! office in Domlur in 45 minutes, but used to take 30 minutes on cycle.
4. Don’t get stuck in traffic jams. Just lift your cycle and push it along on the sidewalk. (Please do not cycle on the sidewalk, you’ll be annoying pedestrians)
5. A good exercise before you reach your workplace will really pump up the endorphins and put you in a positive mood to get lot of work done throughout the day.
6. And you’ll be a lot healthier!

Convinced yet?

(more…)

This Sunday morning, Varun and myself started cycling down Kanakapura Road.

The direction from Bangalore towards Thalagattapura was generally downhill and we started to enjoy the cycling when we saw good green fields on either side and surprisingly, lessening traffic. It’s always fun for me to cycle to the pounding music of The Chemical Brothers.

We crossed Thalagattapura and Kaggalipura and stopped at the lake immediately after Kaggalipura.

This was one of the best spots to stop at. A nice small lake. Some people on the other side were washing their cows, we were relaxing and our bikes resting beside us. After a few minutes, we sat under the shady trees and watched the beautiful water. I was amused at the contrasting situation with so many people just zipping by. Everybody’s in a hurry.

After 15 min of rest, we started cycling back to Bangalore. Since we enjoyed the downhill journey already, now it was time to face the uphill journey. It was a killer.

We stopped at Thalagattapura to have good vadas, bad dosas and refreshing maazas.

Eventually, we huffed and puffed and reached back at the Kanakapura junction at noon, making it a total of 4 hours and 30 km of cycling (which inevitably meant good sleep after I reached home).

All in all, a good Sunday. I hope I eventually become fit enough to join the Bangalore Bicycling Club on their adventures.

While I was cycling today, I had an interesting thought.

I always have my ol’ iPod Nano with me while I’m cycling. As usual, if I want to listen to a song again, I click the left button to repeat, if I don’t like a song, I click the right button to skip to the next song. But while cycling, I have to do this without looking at it. It is possible because I can feel the click-wheel and it has a good feedback so that I know when the press has worked.

Compare this with the touch-screen rage - can a person use the iPod Touch/iPhone without looking? From my limited usage of a friend’s iphone, I do not think it is possible.

It makes me wonder which is really the “Touch” - the one I can use without looking (using only sense of touch), or the one that has a touch-screen UI (requires both sense of touch and sense of sight)?

I did the Sunfeast 10K Open Run today. I finished in 1 hr 10 min 26 sec. Finally, a timing I am happy about.

Best of all, it was a good run. I didn’t have any of my usual performance anxiety symptoms, mostly because I made sure that I didn’t plan or think about the run. I’d just get up late, hurry and reach the place, just wait to run and hope everything goes well.

I’m thankful that it worked out exactly to a T and it was a good run. A really feel-good steady-pace run.

I needed an extra boost in the end to bear the searing sun and that was provided by “Get Up! Go Insane!”. Thanks Fatboy Slim!

There were people running for their charities, people running for fun, people running in costumes, and even people running out of curiosity. I was running to fight against my off-late tendency to give up easily.

On a different note, I must appreciate how well-organized the entire event was. After the run, they gave everyone bun and biscuits. It may not mean much in a normal situation, but after a run, it’s really important and I was thankful they had thought to this level of detail.

After I came out of the Kanteerava stadium (the start and end point of the run), I bumped into an old school mate after a really long time. He looked at me and asked:

Him: Oh so you came for the run?
Me: Yeah
Him: So you completed?
Me: Yeah…
Him: (has the ‘not bad’ look) So how long did you take?
Me: 70 min.
Him: Oh. (face expression changes) I took 90 min. Okay. cya later.

So next time, don’t underestimate that fat people can’t run.

Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it.

– Oprah Winfrey

One fine day, I was running by myself. It was a few weeks before Barcamp Bangalore 5. I got an idea that I should talk about a non-techie topic at Barcamp since I’ve been giving tech talks for the past few years and I wanted a change of pace. I brainstormed many ideas on the reason for the talk, what to say and how to explain, etc. all during that one run.

Unfortunately I couldn’t attend BCB5. But I stored the notes in a safe place. And when BCB6 was announced, I wanted to be sure to talk this time around.

A few weeks back, Ramjee called me and asked whether we can talk about running. I smiled and thought to myself “Great minds think alike”. Or at least “Runners think alike”.

So I made a ppt and we landed at Barcamp on Saturday morning. We had never discussed the presentation. And we were going to give a session on it. Truly unconference style.

Note: The slides below have been modified to make it useful for a web audience. It has a lot more text now.

| Download

Barcamp crowds are very inquisitive and so we didn’t actually go past half the slides, which is actually a good thing. Instead, we discussed a wide range of things about running right from finding good places to run to trouble with dogs.

In spite of the delays causing us to start at 12:45 (which means almost lunch time) the discussion went on till 1:45 and 90% of the 30-40 odd crowd were present till the end. When we went to grab what was left of lunch, lot of people asked us questions including how to avoid knee pain (tip: it’s the shoes). Since questions are always a good sign, I think it was a successful discussion.

We both still consider ourselves amateurs at running but at the end of the day its an activity we like and Barcamp is a perfect platform to talk about our passions.

Oh, and if you’re still not a believer, I’ll end with a quote:

Games require skill. Running requires endurance, character, pride, physical strength, and mental toughness. Running is a test, not a game. A test of faith, belief, will, and trust in ones self. So hardcore that it needs a category all to itself to define the pain. When game players criticize, it’s because they aren’t willing to understand, not because they’re stronger. Running is more than a sport; it’s a lifestyle. If you have to ask us why we run, you’ll never understand, so just accept.

– Jessica Propst

Update: SlideShare decided to make it a Barcamp spotlight presentation:

The online slides has had 1274 views and 116 downloads as of this writing (2008-05-04 Sun 10:04 PM).

I have this notion that you don’t get to really know a city until you’ve run in it.

So, I ran a couple of times in my Singapore trip, and I liked the route so much that on Day 13 (Thu, Jan 03, 2008), I started taking photos.

I start right from getting out of Abishek and Ashish’s apartment and getting down the stairs.

This is a proper urban area, not outside the city. Don’t be fooled by the greenery.

Was listening to “Heartbeat - Instrumental” from ‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’.

Was listening to “Far Away” by Nickelback.

I love the wide open spaces they have kept for public usage right in the middle of a square area with huge apartments on all sides.

Was listening to “Ninnindale” from Milana (Kannada movie).

It was good to see so many runners around. The best part is that people accept it as normal behavior. And cyclists are given their due respect.

The most startling thing was when I was waiting to cross the road, the vehicles will stop (irrespective of traffic) and ask you to go ahead first. It was actually irritating at first to experience this, but soon got used to it.

Was listening to “Endings” by Dusty Hughes.

Was listening to “One Thing” by Finger Eleven.

What more can a running enthusiast like me ask for?

P.S. If you’re curious on why people run, watch the trailer of the Marathon Movie.

My favorite memories of my Singapore trip is Day 9 (Dec 30 Sun). We went to Pulau Ubin island. What is the only activity on this island? Cycling.

It was fun to see people of all ages, from families to large groups of teenagers to avid cyclists all here for the same reason. It reminded me of Cubbon Park on a Sunday evening.

The first thing you see on entering the island is shops on either side to rent out cycles. We went in, took cycles and started pedaling, all in a matter of a few minutes.

Those giant “Thailand coconuts” were simply fulfilling.

Next, we randomly cycled and ended up at Chek Jawa. We read about the sea life conservation efforts that go on here. The highlight was the bungalow, along with the view of the sea.

The above few dark sunset photos are courtesy of Abishek Nair (just to make it clear that the good photos here are not taken by me).

We had become obsessed with the view here and just enjoying the sunset. Finally, we had to push ourselves to explore some more and return back the bikes. We even did some bird-watching (seriously).

I was sad to take a bumboat to get back to the mainland, but I did get to see the planes dive to land in the airport which is right next to the beach.

It was Day 2 of my trip (Dec 23 Sun). My plan was to go in the DHL balloon so that I can get a good view of Singapore. When I reached the MRT station, I suddenly got interested in randomly walking around. I really wanted to see the place.

After more than an hour of walking around in the hot sun, I came across a really huge building. I got curious and tried to figure out the name - it was the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library. It’s a library?! I just had to get in there, for the AC as well as to explore the books collection. I thought it was a good idea since it would be relaxing. After all, the point of a vacation is to do things you wouldn’t do in daily life, as well as to have a relaxing or invigorating fun time. At least, that’s my definition of a vacation.

I went in, saw many rows of shelves. I clearly avoided the row which had some books with some strange titles like “Java & XML”, I wonder what that’s all about. I picked up a few books from the other rows and went and sat down at the benches. Lots of people were studying, with music on, writing down notes in their laptops and utilizing the free wifi.

I started reading a book titled something like “The Practice of Philosophy - A Handbook for Beginners”. Unfortunately, within ten minutes, I was sleepy. Either it was the exhaustion and lack of sleep the previous night, or it was the subject. I went and sat on the couches and started to doze off. I was encouraged by the fact that there was some other Indian dude also sleeping.

After a while, I realized I was snoring, and there were other new people around trying to read, so I went and washed my face. Then, I went down to Level 1 to give a phone call to Abishek Nair (my gracious host for the trip). He was laughing that I came all the way to Singapore to sit in a library and read some books! He told me to come over to his company VHQ Post (an advertising post-production i.e. visual effects company) in an hour so that he can show me around.

After that, I stood near the wide glass and I look left and see the DHL balloon right there! It was funny since I wasn’t actively looking for it.

I went back inside the library, the books were still there. This time I started reading a book more closer to my tastes - “The Runner’s Handbook” by Bob Glover, and I went prepared with my iPod. Music always gets me going. I started playing “Sutrum Vizhi” and started reading. I started with the nutrition/fuel section because that’s where most of my problems are. Then started taking down some notes:

• Hitting “the wall” refers to that point when you run short of glycogen. This is an experience that every runner should try
  • once. After you’re survived it, you will respect the need to prepare better for your next marathon.
• Learn the values of long training runs, tapering, eating plenty of carbos, and not starting too fast. Ignoring these factors all contribute to hitting “the wall.”
• Most often associated with marathons. After an hour and a half or so of running, you begin to run low on glycogen. For most runners that will be 10-13 miles into a run. The average well-trained runner may store enough glycogen to last 15-20 miles, depending upon such as factors as pace, body weight, fitness level, and how well they loaded up on carbs going into the race.
• When you run low on glycogen, your body attempts to conserve what remains by burning more fat for energy. But since fat is 15% less efficient than carbs as an energy source, you are unable to hold your pace and have to slow dramatically (even though fat releases 9 cal/gm compared to 4 cal/gm for carbs and protein)
• Long training runs develop mechanisms for your body to utilize fat more efficiently throughout your race, thus “sparing” some glycogen for use later. Workouts at marathon pace and faster will also train your muscles to utilize carbs more efficiently at these paces. In addition, starting your race at a conservative pace will help conserve glycogen for later in the run. Tapering for a marathon combined with carb-loading is the key to surviving “the wall.”
• Back-of-the-pack runners benefit most from carb-loading.
  • Dr. Costill notes: The difference between elite and average marathoners is that even if both started out with the same amount of glycogen, the elite marathoner would spare it by burning a higher ratio of fat. Although more oxygen is required to burn fat, the highly developed oxygen transport system of the elite runner allows this. Furthermore, he moves more economically, which means that he uses less oxygen to accomplish the same task. The average runner, on the other hand, depletes his glycogen supply sooner and doesn’t have as efficient an oxygen transport system to burn fat. That’s why hitting the wall is so devastating and why carbohydrate loading is more important for the average runner than for the elite runner.
• For shorter runs (< 90 min), glycogen stores don’t get depleted much and hence carb intake isn’t as critical.

The best part is that I realized that this problem is not unique to me! It’s a documented scientific problem experienced by enough runners to have a section dedicated to it in a runners’ book. Now I know what the problem is! Next, I need to actually figure out how to train to tackle this which the book didn’t explain satisfactorily.

I had lost track of time because of the awesome reader-friendly environment and suddenly realized I was late. I then headed out to meet Abishek. I got to see all the whizbang gizmos they use to create all the special effects that you may or may not notice in the advertisements you see. These guys have amazing talent and patience to do the things they do. But that’s a story for another day.

Today, I caught the 4.45 am transportation to get to ONV for the first ever Bangalore Ultra Marathon where people can get to run or walk 26 or 52 or 78 or 104 km. A true endurance event.

I participated in the 26K run. I can’t even imagine how so many of those guys and gals ran 52+ km.

The first 19 km of my run was good. My knees felt good during the pounding of the feet although my shoe soles suffered and literally came apart. After that, it was a nightmare.

I got severe backache. Probably because my rotund belly has added layers over the past couple of months because of lack of exercise. I really struggled for the remaining 7 km. The killer was the last 3 km.

I somehow managed to complete in 3 hr 52 min. A timing that I’m not proud of, but under the circumstances, I don’t think I could’ve done better.

In the end, I must say kudos to the Ultra Team for one of the best organized events I’ve ever participated in! They have looked into every little detail always putting the runner first in all their decisions and especially for choosing such a picturesque location for the run. The grassland field that we entered in the start of the run was a true sight to behold just as the sun was coming out.

My aim next time is to do a half marathon without me throwing up in the end, which has become a custom these days.

As I twittered a while ago: “Sometimes I wonder why I even run. Then again, I wonder why I’m even alive.”

Update: Sabine has lots of photos in these two albums.

Update 2: Congratulations to Niara for winning 2nd position in the Women’s 26K Open category with a timing of 2:38 hours!

“I always loved running…it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.” - Jesse Owens

There has been a lot of press mentions lately about the BSNL Bangalore International Marathon which is going to happen tomorrow. I will not be running it because it is not intended for people who love running.

Why do I say that?

1. The Bangalore Ultra Marathon was announced eleven months ago that it will be held on December 16, 2007. The BSNL Bangalore International Marathon was announced by the Karnataka Athletic Association just about one month two weeks ago that it will also be held on Dec 16, 2007. They knew very well that the Ultra is happening on the same day! I don’t know what is the inside story, but I think it’s pure one-upmanship, they got ticked off that the preparations and publicity for the Ultra seemed to be going well.

2. The organizers of the BSNL Bangalore International Marathon do not take running seriously. If they did, they would not organize a training camp for just ten days. Do they really think they can convert a new person interested in running to eventually run 42 km in just ten days?! If you consult advice by professional runners, you will find out that it takes 18 weeks to train for a marathon according to the charts whether you’re a beginner or an advanced runner. Talk to any runner on how long they took to prepare for their first marathon and you’ll know the difference. In fact, if you want to know what kind of preparation hardcore runners do, see this marathon day checklist.

3. They are not allowing women to run the full marathon! When asked for the reason, they say that they don’t expect many women to run it so they decided not to allow it. I have many things to say about that but let me stick to facts - there are many women runners out there, it’s just that the Karnataka Athletic Association does not seem to be encouraging about it. Do they know there are women runners in India such as Priya who ran 100 miles (160 km) in the Himalayas?

As a running enthusiast, these are enough reasons for me to not take the BSNL Bangalore International Marathon seriously. Instead, I’m running the Bangalore Ultra Marathon tomorrow.

In fact, there were discussions in the open-for-all RunnersForLife mailing list regarding postponing the Ultra because of this clash, but the race director Madhu strictly said no. As an aside, if I’m not wrong, Madhu is a volunteer organizing this and is not even part of the Ultra organizers company! Compare this with how the other marathons are being organized.

Even CrossOver who organized the previous marathons held in Bangalore have postponed it at least four times this year! It’s appalling that these organizers don’t take these events seriously.

Contrast that with the participants in the Ultra marathon who met on Friday night for carb-loading and had a ball of a time meeting other fellow runners.

I attended that pasta party and met a lot of enthusiastic people. One of them was a guy called Andrew. What’s special about him? He’s a 68-year old guy, and the Ultra tomorrow is going to be his 592nd marathon! That’s right, that’s three digits. He’s been running since 1976. In fact, he’s flown down from New York just to run the Ultra. He’s also participated in the Himalayan run that I mentioned earlier. Now, that’s true passion for a sport!

As for myself, I have not at all trained properly in the last two months but I’m hoping that the old routine of running 16 km every weekend morning will kick back in tomorrow and I’ll hopefully run well.

Disclosure: I’m NOT part of the RFL club, just an avid runner. I may join the RFL runs in future, but I’m certainly not biased towards them. However, I am biased towards running and runners.