Unforgettable trip

It so often happens, we tend to look far beyond only to miss out on the things near us. I realized recently that I have not taken time to visit some beautiful nearby places which I have read about in my history books and despite hearing wonderful things since my childhood, I haven't been there yet. So I decided to visit most of these places, if not all, which are quite near to my hometown, Hubballi in Karnataka.

During the Christmas vacation, I got this wonderful opportunity to visit these places of historical importance.

Badami:

Badami, which is ~100 kms from my hometown, was the first place and is very well known for its cave temples. The cave temples date back to around 4th century when Chaulukyas ruled and have many sculputres of Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu and Jain Thirthankaras. The caves are situated next to the Agastya lake. There is another beautiful temple, Bhootnath temple next to this lake and I was amazed by the art work and the great effort put in to have temples like these ready and that too during the 4th century timeframe.

Pattadakalla:

I drove to Pattadakalla which is just ~21 kms from Badami and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. All the temples and monuments are situated at a single site and display stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata. This too dates back to the Chalukya dynasty.

Aihole:

From there I drove to the next town Aihole which is ~14 kms from Pattadakalla. There are many temples dedicated to Lord Shiva, Vishnu, Durga along with Jain temples in the vicinity. The Jain temple on the Meguti hill was a beautiful site providing full view of the town. All the nearby temples and museum are quite visible from this place. The sites are surrounded by farms and villages due to which it might not seem posh clean. Having said that, all the temples and sites are kept in best conditions. In fact, I was surprised by seeing the cleaniness maintained in all the sites at Badami, Pattadakalla and Aihole.

Kudalasangama:

I decided to head towards Kudala Sangama which is an important center for Lingayats community. This place holds great importance as this is the Aikya mantapa of Basavanna, the founder of the Lingayats, and also due to the presense of swayambhu Linga. It was late night when I reached there and hence decided to search for a guest-house nearby. I had nice dinner at Kamat yatrinivas and stayed at Jain yatrinivas which are quite close by to the main temple.
Early morning I got ready and visited the Sangameshwara temple followed by the Linga dharshana. The confluence of Krishna and Malaprabha rivers was a nice sight to witness.

Hampi:

Immediately after breakfast, I headed to my next destination, Hampi, again a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Hampi is ~140 kms and I reached there in 2 1/2 hours. Couple of days back I had found that my friends Abhishek and Mahesh from my previous himalayan trek were also planning to visit Hampi. I got in touch with them and decided to roam around Hampi together. On reaching, we hired a local guide who took us around explaining the history and stories associated with the place, about Vijayanagara empire, the kings and etc.

The Vittala temple & market complex, Hazara Ram temple, Lotus Mahal, Elephant stables and Virupaksha temple were the few places we were able to visit in the given limited time. The Hampi experience was enriching, witnessing the grandour of the kingdown, the complexity of the temples and the minute artwork in each of them was amazing.

This was surely one of the satisfying trips I had in recent past and I'm sure I will visit these places again in near future to cover all the temples and monuments which I missed in this trip.

Hubballi Half Marathon 2017

Race category: Half Marathon (21.1 kms)

Timing: 2:24:38

I enrolled for the Hubballi Half Marathon mainly because it's in my hometown and to have a practice run for upcoming Mumbai Marathon in which I'm again running a HM.

The route was shared couple of days before the race and this route was something new to me even though it's my hometown. It was arranged in the outskirts of the city and to my surprise I found the route lovely for a long run. It started near the Hubballi Airport and continued towards the by-pass toll and then turn towards Unkal Lake via the outer small village and then back to the start point. Most part of the route was a tar road except a small stretch of mud road, which added excitement to the race. Few ups & downs at the starting/finishing section of the route made it little tougher as well. I liked this route more than the Bengaluru Half Marathon as this didn't have many turns and twists.

The organizers did a good job in having sufficient water points with enthusiastic volunteers who cheered the runners all though. 5K and 10K races were placed in such a way that the HM runners didn't have to go through excess crowd.

One more satisfying aspect was the fact that I paced my race better this time by not running above my average pace during the initial part due to which I was able to better my timing by more than 3 minutes. Yes, this is my PR, yehh :)
Though I was able to achieve better timing, I believe there is more room to improve.

Surely a race to consider adding to next year's calendar as well.

Bengaluru Marathon 2017

Race Category: Half Marathon (21.1 km)
Timing: 02:27:47

Bengaluru Marathon 2017 was my first Half marathon and it was a great experience. I would be lying if I said it wasn't tough. What unsettled me was the fact that it turned out to be little tougher than what I had anticipated. Believe me, I had practice runs of around 17 kms before the race and I was fairly well prepared for the event. Apparently that wasn't sufficient I suppose.

Just a day before the race day, Bengaluru witnessed good amount of rainfall and the weather was good on the race day with little humidity I can say. The race started entertaining the huge crowd with right amount of pomp. I started little slower as per the plan and besides the rush at the start line wouldn't allow even if I had any other plans.

For about 13-14 kms, I was in good rhythm and content that I might finish the race in my target time of 2 hrs 15 mins. But it started getting tougher, my legs slowed down but I continued to run, a little slower though. At 17 km mark, I got tired and I started walking despite all my motivational talk in head. I started asking, "Why the hell am I running a half marathon?!".

I resumed my run after a minute or two. As I approached the finish line, I gathered all my energy and will power to run faster. I finished stronger.

After the race, the tired thoughts disappeared suddenly and all I was thinking was how to improve my performance in my next race.

Though the timing of 2:27:47 didn't really excite me but I am thoroughly satisfied with the race and my performance.

Parenting

Recently, I came across a rather obnoxious video in which a kid is being taught in a very wrong way. In fact, she is slapped hard by her own mother while being taught. What was more disturbing in it is the fact that the kid is just around 3-4 years old and all her rage and emotions against being taught aggressively is ruthlessly ignored. The kid turns quite violent too and pleads desperately asking her mother to tell politely but to no avail. Instead of realizing the gravity of the seriousness and the torture the kid is going through, the mother is recording the whole ordeal.
And just guess what the kid was being taught?! She was learning the numbers "1, 2, 3, 4, 5". This is like the first set of lessons one starts with. And how is it being handled? Atrocious!

I'm sure many of you would have already come across this video which I am talking about in Whatsapp groups or Facebook feeds or for that matter in the news articles. [11/09/2017 Updated: I had provided a youtube link to the video which apparently is removed now.]

And today I came across one more article which reported that she is singer Toshi's niece. But his statement about this whole incident astonishes me further. He says (sic):"Ek maa ki mamta hai, judgment nahi kar sakte hain. Jisne usko 9 months kokh mein rakha hai. Ab agar bachche zidd karenge toh unko padana likhana chod dein kya? Bachon ko paalna asaan nahi hota. (One can't judge a mother's love for the child by seeing a short video. If children throw tantrums, then should we stop teaching them? It's not easy to raise children)".
I wonder what's more pathetic, the attempt to convince or the reason provided.

Now, I know many would feel that this behavior of the concerned mother isn't a big deal. They would also say that this is not something unusual in this part of the world. They will even try to further explain that there is a need to be strict with the kids otherwise they would become stubborn, and beating the kids doesn't mean the parents don't love them and etc. But I have to disagree with those opinions. And I mean it.

I had my own share of experience while growing up, both at receiving end and at the other end as well. I remember my mom being strict on occasions but all she wanted was me to improve, to learn and be good at. And I also know her strictness doesn't mean that she loved me any less. On the contrary, she loved so she was hard on me and my siblings sometimes. In fact, I remember myself also being hard and aggressive with my brothers when I tutored them. And I regret being that way. Wish I knew how to be polite and also effective at the same time. In a way, we all tend to pick things from our parents or from the surroundings we grow and that carries through when we become parents. May be or may be not.
But what I know for sure is that this should stop. People should accept the fact that this is not the right way of teaching or parenting. They should try to acknowledge there are better ways do deal and accept that they were wrong. Nothing wrong in it. It only makes them a better person or a parent.

Frankly speaking, my journey as a father so far has been enriching. I surely have learnt a lot from my 5 year old kid than what he might have learnt from me. At times, I have seen myself being tough on my kid but seeing his reactions I have only learnt that my ways were wrong. It made me realize that I can manage things in a better way and be a better father. Someone rightly has said, 'When we become parents we don't teach, we learn'. I certainly know how the kids, being kids, test our patience and give every reason to lose our cool. But these are exactly the occasions which will show us whether we are good parents or not.

Going forward, I certainly wish to see one change in our society. We all should learn how to raise kids in the best possible manner, understand their feelings, understand how their mind works, the ill-effects of our actions and try to refrain from being hard on the kids unnecessarily. This change in society can only happen if we as an individuals try to learn things by watching others, by reading about kids and more importantly by being the best what we can be.

Bengaluru 10K challenge 2017

Race category: 10K
Timing: 01:03:44

The race carried a tag line: 'The tougher 10k' and it lived up to the expectations. The run was indeed tough with all the ups and downs.

I went into the run with a target of less than 65 minutes considering my previous run's result. But my plans changed when I was saw two pacers at the start of the race with 60 mins and 65 mins tags on their backs. Though I had plans for 65 mins, I decided to follow the 60 mins pacer. Yes, I thought of touching moon as plan-A and falling on a tree as plan-B if the attempt fails.
The route had a U-turn at 5 kms mark with more of slope than uphill in most part of the first half. I was able to keep up the 60 mins pace till the end of 6 kms but unfortunately, and quite obviously, the return route was more of uphill and daunting. I did a mistake of stopping for about 30 seconds to get comfortable breathing. But that made it more difficult to get back to my rhythm and required pace. I somehow continued and finished the race. I generally finish the races with a strong sprint at the end which I couldn't in this race.

I finished with a timing of 63 mins:44 secs. Though I couldn't finish sub-1, I am happy at least I improved my timing compared to my previous 10K this year :)

And btw, I wasn't happy with idli-wada-upma-sira breakfast which was served post race. I was like: what-the-... It would've been better if a comfortable breakfast like energy bar is provided along with energy drink and bananas. Next time, I will remember to carry my own.

Himalayas 2017: Bhrigu Lake trek

“The mountains are calling and I must go” - John Muir

It’s always a great and peaceful experience soaking in the grandeur of the Himalayas.

Day 1: Reporting at base camp, Ramsu
As mentioned in my previous post, I planned for yet another Himalayan trek. And this time being Chandrakhani trek in Himachal Pradesh which was finalized after considering the fact that it was a shorter duration trek and at a location we hadn’t been before, despite it being an easy one.
Well, that was the plan until I along with my trek friends reached the base camp at Ramsu village, after our two days of visiting nearby places. The organizer informed us that he had a meeting with all other participants, before we had reached the camp, and unanimously agreed to change the trek to Bhrigu Lake trek (~14000 ft) due to less snow found at Chandrakhani at that point of time. Apparently, this is considered a tougher trek and has lots of snow on its way and I was more than happy.
The schedule was to start early the next morning at around 6:30am and reach the starting point of the trek in taxis which was beyond the check-point towards Rohtang pass. We slept immediately after making sure to keep our trek requirements for drying. Unfortunately, all our bags and contents got wet while reaching base camp. All thanks to the irresponsible and knucklehead driver who didn’t inform us that the sheet which he covered our bags on the taxi roof wasn’t waterproof. Not a great thing to start the trek with in that cold weather. 

Day 2: Trek towards Raoli Kholi
Anyways, the next morning the clothes were dry enough to be packed and we were ready with our bags on and full with excitement. However, the trek guide wasn’t happy with the group’s timing as there was a slight delay.
Adding to his frustration, we hit a heavy traffic towards the check-post and that added 2 more hours to the delay. Yes! That long we were on the road waiting to cross the check-post. We however got down and roamed around taking snaps.

We finally started our trek after a two and a half hours’ delay from Gulaba post. We were welcomed immediately by a steep climb which quite tested one’s fitness and stamina. We crossed some green pastures and small creeks on our way up before we reached a height where we encountered snow patches. The sight of snow thrilled us all and brought in a sense of comfort. However, the comfort feeling was short lived as once we started crossing these snow patches and slopes, we started slipping and fumbling. That surely is a scary thing considering we are crossing some steep areas from which we can’t even see the bottom we might reach if we happen to slip and fall. We continued further for few more hours through snow and creeks. Crossing the water streams was exciting too with intermittent drizzle. We had a lunch break at a nice scenic spot with the snow-capped mountains in front of us covering the whole wide angle. 

After a grueling few hours, we finally reached the next higher camp, Raoli Kholi. This is a beautiful place surrounded by snow covered mountains in all directions.

We changed into our warm and comfortable cloths, got few instructions from the organizers/guides, had tea and we were ready to explore the area. The stay was in 4 occupancy tents and post dinner our group of 6 got into one and played cards for quite some time. Late night we even explored out in that cold chatting on various subjects. These small things are such a delight when you think back and are something to cherish about.

Day 3: Trek towards Bhrigu Lake
The next morning, I was woken up at 3:30am by the strong winds hitting the tent. I further tried to sleep but to no avail. Finally went out of tent at 5:30am to witness the sun coloring the snowcapped mountains bright and beautiful. These are the very views which make you go to mountains again and again.
We were ready for our next ascend but only 14 out of 27 decided to move further considering the difficulty level and their health conditions. We started crossing snow slopes which obviously got trickier and tougher. We had to be more cautious with our footings on the snow. The group was made to walk at much faster pace and in quick few hours we reached the top i.e. the Bhrigu Lake.

This is a serene place with the partially frozen water body at the center. We reached at the right time of the day as we could get clear and complete view of the peak and the surrounding mountains. We walked bare feet to the middle of the lake to collect water, rather snow, in bottle. I bet, nobody could stand more than a minute bare feet on snow.

Within few minutes, we were surrounded by mist and clouds. We had lunch at the nearby spot and were ready to descend. This was much tougher as we were asked to slide down the snowy slopes, similar to the water rides we have in water parks. Trick to control the speed of slide using elbows and not using legs. Using legs at that speed would surely lead to bad falls. I felt this trek better than my previous Sarpass trek in this aspect. This gave around 5-6 slides compared to a long one in Sarpass. I enjoyed completely every aspect of it.

In no time we came back to the Raoli Kholi camp and started sharing our experience with those who couldn’t make it. Later, we played Mafia game which was super fun expectedly. Post dinner we got into tents and continued with our card games as usual.

Day 4: Return to Manali
Next morning, we all got ready and started back descending to the Gulaba post. The descend was quicker as everyone wanted to be head back to Manali to catch respective buses which were scheduled for departure at 5pm. At Gulaba, the group assembled, the guides went ahead with the formality of officially calling it a day and allowed us to board the taxis towards Manali. We reached couple of hours early and got enough time to visit a restaurant for food and also to get fresh before boarding the bus to Delhi.

The expedition was simply outstanding and thanks to my friends: Abhi, Minal, Esha, Mahesh, Siddhu, Abhishek and many others in the group of 27 who made it more enjoyable. The friendship grew stronger, I made new friends during the course and that’s what these treks and trips are all about; seeing new places, meeting nice people and experiencing great things.

Himalayas 2017: Kasol & nearby places

It was that time of the year when the Himalayan Expeditions are at full swing and I along with my friends, who had met during my trek to Khaliya Top last year, decided to trek one more Himalayan mountain. And we finalized on the Chandrakhani trek in Himachal Pradesh this time. My friends suggested to roam around nearby places before starting the trek so we planned our itinerary accordingly: Reach Kasol two days in advance and explore Kasol & nearby places and then head towards the base camp i.e. Ramsu village for the trek.

I will organize my trek experience details into two posts i.e. this one describing the Kasol and neighborhood and followed by other one describing the actual trek.

Delhi:

The trip started at Delhi where we all met. 5 friends from Mumbai, couple of them from Vadodara and myself from Bengaluru. We had few hours to spend and I took the group to Paranthe gali, Chandni Chowk for lunch and then followed by a stroll at Red Fort. Metro in Delhi is quite convenient and remember to take the Smart card for easy commutation.

We took a HP tourism bus from Delhi to Manali and got down at Bhuntar to reach Kasol. The bus dropped us at Bhuntar in the early hours and then we took another local bus to Kasol. Kasol is base camp for other treks like Sarpass, so there were many other trekkers in the bus along with school kids and locals. I made my group get down one stop earlier to the actual stop near to our hotel where we had booked our rooms. And I made them walk for extra 2.5 KMs with their bags and I am sure hitting me would have crossed their minds :-p. We stayed at Royal Palace and had a very comfortable and pleasant stay. The hotel is situated right in between Kasol and Manikaran, the two famous tourist places around.

Manikaran:

We headed towards Manikaran immediately after getting ready. There are some nice temples at this place where we spent enough time taking photos. We went near the gurudwara, hot springs spot as well and then passed through the local market. The bridge was also a nice spot to click some snaps.

Kasol:

We walked back and then proceeded toward the Kasol market, a full 5 KMs stretch. The market had similar products as what was seen in Manikaran but costlier. And we were surprised to see so many items being sold related to smoking, the hukkas and mixers. Hope you got what I mean ;-)

Food at local places was great. And then we headed back to the hotel calling it a day.

I got up early the next morning for a run in that pleasant weather. And one of my friend ventured out for early morning clicks in the wild. I ran towards Kasol and reached the other end where Youth Hostel Association of India has set up its Sarpass trek base camp. On the way back, I got down the river side and experienced the joy of standing bare feet in that ice cold water. It was a torture as well, as it's difficult to stand for even a minute in that cold water.

Malana:

Malana village and Tosh were couple of places to be explored and based on our hotel manager's suggestion, we headed towards Malana village in two taxis. Reached the spot in about two hours’ time and there was still a walk/trek of 90 minutes further to reach the village. It's a small village at a good height. Locals claim it to be one of the oldest democracies and if the legends are to be believed, these are the descendants of army men (Aryan?) who made this place their home. This place is also famous for high purity hash, Malana cream ;-), if you are interested to know.

There is a glacier nearby which we couldn't visit due to time constraints and tiredness. We returned to hotel and ended the day with some great fun playing cards.

Parashar Lake:

The next morning the plan was to visit a place called Parashar Lake, Mandi. This place is famous for its location and landscape. And boy! it was beautiful and peaceful, away from all the crowd and chaos. The temple next to the Parashar Lake is situated at the top of a mountain surrounded by bigger mountains and believe me, it was worth the time and effort.

We reached this place after a strenuous 4 hours’ journey from Kasol through Bhuntar and the road was bumpy if not terrible. Came back to Bhuntar from where we headed straight to the Ramsu village, our base camp hiring one more taxi through Manali.

P.S: Read my trek experience here.

Cult.fit 10K run

Race category: 10K
Timing: 01:06:02

In search of a better 10K timing, I registered for the 10K arranged by Cult. The race was conducted systematically and the runners found comfortable wih the race course and also the arrangements. I found myself in a nice space just before the race and felt I could better my previous timing quite easily. But to my disappointment, I couldn't.
I set a target of 62 minutes considering my previous run in Midnight Marathon in ~65 minutes. I didn't even come close to the mark. In fact, finished it in 66 minutes as per the official timing. However, my phone app recorded the race and shows it ~64 minutes. Either way, I wasn't happy.

Anyways, this gives me an opportunity to relook at my regular weekly workouts and type of runs. I will be doing few changes in the regime and hope to get things better. I seek to run more, run fast and run comfortably and eventually get my target of < 60 minutes target for 10k and similarly better timing for coming half marathons (21K).

BTW, yes, I got a chance to meet Milind Soman at the start of the race. He flagged off the race and it was a delight seeing him there. Later, I was mentioned, he too joined running.

Bahubali a phenomenon

*** Spoiler alert: No, I’ve not answered why Kattappa killed Bahubali. I strongly advise to watch the movies first and then come back to read this post. Those who are ok to read these details before or after watching the movie can proceed at their own risk ***

Let me start by telling you that the movies: Bahubali: The Beginning and Bahubali 2: The Conclusion, are by large the most entertaining movies I’ve watched in recent past. And that’s considering the Hollywood, Bollywood and South-Indian movies overall. I might not be a guy who watch 100s of movies every year but seeing the overall success across languages these movies are released in, one can hardly doubt my claim.

What I liked the most is the awe inspiring narration and execution of a simple yet beautiful story.

In spite of all the buzz and box-office records after the release of Bahubali: The Beginning, I hadn’t watched the movie. I mean, imagine the self-control I might possess despite all those “Why did Kattappa kill Bahubali” memes circulating. Perhaps it might be my nonchalant way of handling these movie buzz. I watched the prequel couple of days back only when my wife booked the tickets for The Conclusion.

The first part of the prequel, The Beginning, was ordinary with only VFX attraction and more about the buildup for the interesting part to follow. The story immediately switches to faster pace when the protagonist, Mahendra Bahubali, reaches the palace to rescue the unfortunate lady, Maharani Devasena, supposedly his mother, who was held captive by the ruthless king, her brother-in-law, since many years. Next the story is unveiled as how he was separated from his mother and who exactly he was. I will not go into details here but the movie then takes us through the fascinating part of kingdom politics and war. The war sequence is captured intensely and extravagantly. The first movie ends with the scene where the loyal and trusted guardian, Kattappa, killing this protagonist’s father, Amarendra Bahubali.

Now, after the first movie’s success the director and team had much bigger responsibility of keeping up to the expectations and bringing equally engrossing conclusion to what was now considered as a fantastic beginning.

The second movie reveals how Amarendra met Devasena; it was indeed love at first sight, how he gets closer to her and about all the circumstances that will indirectly help his cause. It further slowly reveals the conspiracy hatched by his cousin, Bhallala Deva and uncle, and eventual killing.

During this course of wonderful story telling, I loved the below moments:

• Devasena’s entry – Frankly, I’m so impressed by the scene and also by her beauty. Director has done a wonderful job in getting this scene done perfectly. Entry scene is followed by other interesting scenes like Amarendra teaching her how to fire multiple arrows during a fight sequence.
• Devasena boarding the boat scene – There is something fine, like an art, in South-Indian movies and directors, especially in Telugu and Tamil movies. You get to see some magical scenes between the hero and heroine that will give you goosebumps. I mean, those scenes will be really simple and trivial like exchanging a look, hoping on a bike etc but they turn them into something special and magical. In this case, Devasena’s simple act of boarding the boat was made interesting when she uses his shoulders to walk on like walking on a plank.
• Swearing-in ceremony – Amarendra was supposed to become the king which eventually doesn’t happen and his cousin, Bhallala Deva is sworn in as the king. He in turn becomes the army general. In this scene, the king doesn’t get much adulation but the whole crowd including the soldiers give such a great applause and support to Amarendra that the whole floor and platform is shown vibrating. Hell of a scene!
• Beheading scene – There was a scene when Devasena is taken to the king’s court for a trial, guilty of cutting a high rank soldier’s fingers. When Devasena, in her defense, gives the statement that she cut his fingers as he was touching other ladies inappropriately and she was gonna be his next victim. Here, Amarendra supporting her says, ‘Why did you just cut his fingers? In fact, this kind of act deserves beheading.’. While completing that statement, he beheads the culprit in one swing of his sword. Impressive!
• Game of Thrones similarities – It was hard to ignore the similarities in many scenes which seemed like borrowed from the famous TV series, The Game of Thrones. The mammoth statues while entering the sea gate to the kingdom, the huge courtroom, war scenes seemed more than mere coincidence.
• Social messages (IMHO) –
• Innovation, in current worldly political and economic situation, is given a lot of importance and I personally felt the director tried to emphasize this fact through the characters’ actions of using innovative techniques at different junctions, be it war techniques, building tools to break bigger stones into smaller ones, fetching water from river etc.
• A scene capturing a bull sport similar to that of Jallikattu.
• Women safety: Beheading scene mentioned above passed on a strong message in the matter of women safety and how it should be dealt with, i.e. strong actions.

Couple of matters at the end didn't fit the plot for conclusion like the Bhallala Deva's father not being killed and fall of the big golden statue through the waterfalls. So I wouldn't be surprised if the team decides to follow up with a third movie ;-)

Almost forgot to mention, all the cast have done an excellent job portraying their characters and everyone deserves an applause. They would be really proud of being part of the history in making in the Indian movie industry.

These days, when the current lot of movie makers and directors are busy making only tried and tested, regular, mass, romantic movies, it’s greatly appreciable that the director, S. S. Rajamouli dared to come out with this kind of a historical themed movie, and boy, how well did he come up with this!

Mahabaleshwar run

Run duration: 61 mins

As mentioned in my previous post, I visited Mahabaleshwar for couple of days and it was fun. And I made it more fun by sticking to my plan of running a long run over a weekend, which I've been doing past couple of months.

The route, as expected, provided full of steep climbs and slopes as it's a ghat section area. Running through elevated route was challenging and gave me just what my training required. The pleasant morning weather and lush green forest area made the run a wonderful experience. I ran for more than an hour and clicked few photos on the way as well. 
Surely a nice run to cherish for many more days to come.

Trip to Mahabaleshwar

Long weekend was here due to Labor's day and we decided to visit Mahabaleshwar. It's a hill station in Maharashtra in the Sahyadri range and a well known weekend getaway. My wife and my in-laws have visited this place on many occasions before and it was kinda long overdue for me.

Mahabaleshwar is a small town with few tourist attractions and a very pleasant weather that makes it an awesome place to visit, especially during summers. I personally didn't visit these high altitude viewing points, which are considered the main attractions. However, I spent most of the time strolling around the market area and nearby places in the center of the town.

The market street has many shops selling shoes, sandals, dresses, different flavors of sweets and chocolates, juices, fruits, leather items and many more. There is something inexplicable about these markets; people tend to switch to shopping mood quite easily, even if they hadn't really planned for before coming to the place.

The best thing I could buy is a box of strawberries. These were super fresh and sweet. I don't think I had so many strawberries at a stretch in my life before. Please don't forget to buy if you happen to visit this place. Later, I found that Mahabaleshwar accounts for about 80% of strawberries productions in the country. That certainly is huge.
And BTW, I almost forgot to mention, despite a big crowd swamping in throughout the year, this town is super clean and tidy. There's a multi-level parking lot near the market place as well to ease the parking problem.

Horse riding is another attraction and this is what my kiddo enjoyed the most apart from the swimming at the hotel pool. He's little afraid of water, rather was, due to his swimming teacher's ironic act of pushing him into water to take away his fear of water. After first days swimming where I taught him how to paddle his hands and legs using a tube around him, he got quite used to the technique and started enjoying. Second day morning the first thing he said after waking up was - 'Lets go for a swim'. :)
He has been here before couple of times and he enjoys it totally.

We visited a nearby Mapro graden where we get many fruit products such as juices, squashes, chocolates etc. To make the selection process easy, they have many counters providing juice samples. Make sure to buy what you really need as it's quite easy to get carried away by the choices :)

Weekend run in Belagavi

Run duration: 75 mins

Just like any other weekends, I decided to go for a long run on a Sunday morning. Only difference being, I was in Belagavi this time.
I got onto Khanapur main road and ran couple of loops for more than an hour. Weather was pleasant and supported me to have my longest continuous run with no pit stops.

Considering my recent running, I'm planning to register for any 10K races in the month of May. As mentioned in my previous posts, I won't be able to run Bangalore 10K scheduled on 21May. So I will have to checkout any other runs during same time.

Will keep posted, anyways.

Long evening run

Sunday long run: 69 mins

Summer's here and the sun rises are early. Not quite a comfortable situation if you plan to have a long run in the morning. Sun's already up at 6:30am and you need to be faster than the sun at least by an hour to avoid running in hot sun.

The lazy part of me won today as I wasn't able to wake up at 5:45am. I immediately procrastinated for evening run around the lake as usual. 

The plan was to run for an hour without any stops at conversational pace. From past couple of weeks I accomplished running more than 5Ks quite easily. Hence I decided to stretch myself with an hour run this time.

I generally start at easy pace but as I cover 1 KM, I tend to increase my pace automatically. I realized the faster pace a little past 2KMs mark, so I reduced it immediately. I covered around 3KMs with easy breathing with only my nose doing the job. Later, it became harder due to which I had to start breathing through my mouth to ease the load. After a solid 7KMs mark, the breathing was in rhythm and I decided to give my lungs further load by breathing only through my nose. I reached my goal of 1 hour run and I still wanted to run more. I continued for 5 more minutes and before stopping I checked the distance covered and it read 9.3 KMs and that's when I decided to close it with a round figure of 10KMs. I finished my workout of 10KMs in ~69 mins and it was indeed satisfying. It always feels good to run more than the planned distance giving a little extra at the end, pushing the limits.

I had started my run a few minutes before dusk and by the time I finished, it was already dark and the security personnel was waiting for all the people to finish up so that he can lock the gate and call it a day.

Plan is to up the ante with combination of tempo, interval and long runs in the following weeks.

Nrupatunga betta, Hubballi

I had been to my hometown, Hubballi (ex Hubli) this weekend and got an opportunity to have my usual Sunday run on an elevated route. There is a hill near to my place, Nrupatunga betta, which gives a solid trail for a tough run as it has moderate to steep sections and surely tests ones stamina.
After many miles at Bengaluru since past few weeks, I was looking out for a new trail and I surely didn't wanted to miss my run on Sunday in Hubballi.

I ran ~7kms covering the hill twice. Yes, I scaled it twice to get double the kick :) Even after that, I still had energy to cover more. It had rained the previously day and the weather was pleasant during the run, a little humid actually. I will surely run again on the same trail the next time.

Coming back to my running routine, I'm running trice a week now which includes one long run on Sundays. Feeling better these days w.r.t my capacity to run at faster pace for longer intervals. I was looking forward for the Bengaluru 10K marathon but unfortunately cannot make it this year on May 21st due to a wedding at home :(

Anyways, that will give me a chance to find a new city to run my next 10K before I register for Mumbai Marathon scheduled for Jan'18.