Gears
Running: Asics Gel-Kayano 16
Recording: Garmin 405CX
Tracking: dailymile.com/dipika, fitday.com

Training Progress
(in “km”/”min” | “pace”)
*link on the week numbers in the table lead to detailed notes of the week’s training.

Body Stats

Weight at the start of the training: 67 kg (Goal: 55 kg)

(Table indicates the diff from readings at the start of the training. Positive readings mean loss.)

(Source: Nigella's twitter profile)

We’re hooked to the famous British  Nigella Lawson‘s cookery show, Nigella Bites on Food Network (aired on Travel & Living in India). Different people are hooked for different reasons. Yes, she cooks well and presents the entire process quite innovatively and effortlessly. You can see how much she ejoys preparing a meal, experimenting with different ingredients, and just loves each and every stuff going into a dish. For me, its a treat to just listen to her or just watch her, unmindful of what she’s really cooking.

Most of the times I am only staring at all the tools she has at her disposal for cooking, chopping, measuring, and grinding. The simple, one-hand cheese grater. The ancient-looking coriander/leaves chopping blade. The readymade cup-shaped butter paper for baking muffins. The pepper and salt grinder. The pair of hand sized comb-like spatulas for tossing and turning food in a wok. Some of these things are still not available in India I guess.

The other thing I like about her show are the big and so-alive fruits and veggies in their vibrant colors. Please tell me you can get the stuff here in Bangalore/India!! Its just so tough to get your hands on fresh leaves and vegetables. You need to be at the right place at the right time to get your hands on anything fresh. You can plan your meals in advance only based on whats available, never the other way round. Just to get fresh and healthy lettuce or the type of cheese you want can be so tough at times.

Food and ingredients apart, now coming to Nigella herself. The post would be incomplete if I dont write about her. Though she’s assumed a curvaceous shape in her 50s, she remains an attractive and articulate woman. She uses subtle makeup – I really like her eye and lip makeup; they highlight her gorgeous, sharp features. Her nails are always well kept and shapely. Mine start chipping when I have to peel garlic cloves or do any other fine chopping. It hurts the most after a new manicure. I like her hair curls. She has a way of speaking. If she really likes a particular substance or the final end product, she makes the most sensual sounds of “ummmm” and “aahhh” while licking the just-prepared dish off her finger. You wouldnt be able to resist the urge to get a bite of it yourself! From Wikipedia:

Renowned for her flirtatious manner of presenting, Lawson has been called the “queen of food porn“

She sometimes takes you to her pantry where she stocks up all the exotic ingredients. And if she’s in the mood, she also tell you a tale or two about her own fantasies, especially the ones to do with chocolate. A lot of episodes have showed her serving all that she’s prepared (and taught us viewers) to a group of friends or probably a small meal that she’s put together just for a girl friend coming over for lunch. One of the episodes showed her two cute  kids, a boy and a girl. I’ve always wondered who her husband is and whether they’ll ever show him in the series, like they show her friends. (we’re always so curious about celebrity lives, arent we?) I did some searching around on the net and figured the episodes must be from different phases of her life and we might be watching 11 year old episodes.

With no updates about the training program on Facebook this year (last year, we had got to know about RH and their training program from FB), we missed the info session on Feb 27th. In fact, got to know quite accidentally that the program has begun on checking the parent site. As a result, we missed the subtle difference in the program this year.

When we reached the Agara Lake venue on Tuesday, March 1, 6:00 AM, we kept looking for the coaches and other people from the training group. Since this was our first time at Agara Lake for RH, I also thought about the possibility that we have the venue all wrong and maybe everybody meets not at the lake but at the adjoining park. In any case, Sandip decided for us that we might as well run one round around the lake. Good that we did because we found out later that we are supposed to do the tempo run on Tuesdays on our own. We figured on the following Wednesday that most of the workout is done on the Agara Lake service road.

Sandip successfully persuaded one of his colleagues to join the program. Since he stays close to our place, he too comes to the Agara Lake. Thats some noble deed done. The more friends and relatives you can get to join the program, the more fun the training is.

The weather this year has been quite unlike Bangalore. Most of January was warm as hell and then the winters came in around February, as if the weather cycle was getting back on track after skipping a month. Even until the first week of March, mornings were quite cold and sunlight started pouring in only after 6:30 AM. So on Tuesday and Wednesday, we actually had to use a torch to find our way to the venue and locate the members of the group. It was that dark at 6:00 AM!

Experimented this week using distance and then time for interval training. Finally settled for time as the unit of measurement, fine-tuning the run and rest intervals. My Saturday and Sunday runs did not go too well, one because of the 5:1 min interval used, which was a bit aggressive target, and second because of the inflammation of Achilles tendon. I got to know about the condition from Preeti, the group’s physiotherapist and a runner herself, only in the second week of training. The constant pounding of the left tendon resulted in a numb foot right after 2 km of running. Have been advised to let the tendon recover on its own and to constantly ice it to bring down the inflammation.

Pain is a necessary evil; if you dont have sore muscles the day following your training, you most probably did not do your stretches effectively.

Gadgets Acquired
1. Trek 7100
2. NexusOne
3. Garmin 405CX
4. ASICS GT2150
5. Kindle
6. Wii

Activities Started
1. Running (Ran a total 242.46 km. The farthest I have run is 10.40 km.)
2. Cycling (Cycled a total 304.42 km. The farthest I have cycled is 31.12 km.)

Participation in Events
Sunfeast 10k, May 2010

Groups Joined
1. Runners High
2. RFL
3. BMC/Decathalon
4. GGI

Trips Made
Delhi (May), Bheemeshwari (July), Nandi Hills (September), Dodamakali (November)

Movies Watched
Holly: How to Train Your Dragon, Iron Man 2, Clash of the Titans, The Expendables, He’s Just Not That Into You, Inception, Shutter Island, Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes, Kick- Ass, The Karate Kid, Despicable Me, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Twilight Series, Salt, The Town, The American
Bolly: I Hate Love Stories, Aisha, Rocket Singh

TV Seasons Completed
Two and a half men, 24, Flash Forward, Dexter

New Furniture
Recliners, Bed, Dressing table

Not to say that we dont “want” to be noticed by the other gender. But you know it as clearly as me, that the effort/thought we put in to put together even a casual ensemble can be noticed only by another one of our kinds. Who other than another girl can spot those rare silver earrings, the color coordination or the contrast between the footwear and the dress, and the style of the bag against the outfit of the day?

I confess I like to size up women from top to bottom and take notes – “hun, that shirt is nice” or “I like the way she’s done her hair” or “I wonder where she got those shoes from” (and each time I go “Damn, I never spot those things when I go shopping”) or “Her nails are so shapely” or “I like her lipstick shade”. Now, now, you wouldnt expect a guy to share these observations with you, would you? For guys, in general (there are always exceptions who do notice the minutest of details), its the whole package that counts and they do not get into the minor aspects of appearance and dressing.

Well, one cannot be surrounded by beauty always, so I do have moments of “Gosh, thats an outrageous dress!” or “OMG! she cant be wearing that short a kurti with the churidars” or “The top so doesnt go with that skirt” or “The magenta lip shade is so not suiting her” and so on and so forth.

Since I am on a confession spree, I’d also like to mention that I hate to be caught staring, that too by a woman, while I am gazing at another female. To put it mildly, its embarrassing. The funny side is that I am watched by another woman…. I rest my case!

There are now healthier options available in the Maggi family – the wheat Maggi, so less guilt on conscience for gorging on maida.  Thats for some who prefer the ‘healthy and nutritious’ maggi. But I still go for the ‘maida’ option Its tastier. I’ll let you into a little secret, which wont remain so once you know about it. Even when I do have food at home, and have the options of making either rice or maggi, I go for the latter. Wasnt that big a secret…hmm. Though with both rice and maggi, all it takes is to put them into boiling water, no more effort, yet maggi’s what attracts me more, more so when I am home alone. I’m also a lazy brat, at least am turning into one or rather letting myself be one. Thats just another secret I’ve just let you into! Rice has an additional step of washing it before it can be cooked . Pasta too, though simple to prepare, has too many steps and takes longer than the other ’2-mintues’ meal.

So unless I’ve resolved to eat healthy and purposely not stocked up any of ‘it’ at home, like the time when I was alone for a couple of weeks because of hubby’s out-of-India trip and cooked up every single meal for myself, I do yield in to the temptation every once in a (long/short) while.

I have come to believe that saying that aloud to myself (My Life Rocks) and declaring it publicly will eventually make me feel that way – good about myself and my life.

Every day you happen to ask as well as answer the question innumerable times  “How are you doing?”. I found more people answering with a “Good”, “Great”, quite unlike to mine rather sad “Fine” and “Ok’. I mean, thats truly how I felt on most days – not too great; life was fine, just chugging along, but not really awesome for me to feel like the others. I had more complaints, cribs, grudges, dissatisfaction than reasons for being happy, content. (Back to this in a while)

Even if I ever did feel good some day for some reason, I tried to hide it. I started understating my joyful moments to others. I just didnt want anyone to misequate my happiness to me leading a fun-filled/luxurious/worry-free/responsibility-free life, especially when it was not like that in reality. And with time, it had become an inherent part of me to portray a miserable, not-so-happening, not-so-exciting life.

With me carrying on with my life on this track, while also being very much conscious of it, I did start feeling the absurdity of how I was tackling this whole thing. I realized that I was paining myself to show others a pained side of me. I was hurting myself by keeping joys under wrap. I was pulling myself down and keeping myself away from leading an open life. It also occurred to me that everybody who was saying they’re doing great (coming to the earlier stated point) didnt exactly have a problem-free life.

Prodding on this for long, one fine day I concluded it was okay to feel positive about myself and my life and I should not stop it from reflecting off me in its true nature, irrespective of what impression it might have on others. I decided I have to stop caring if my reasons of happiness would make somebody else feel jealous, miserable, less blessed, unfortunate, or less lucky. Its much cliched but I needed to just let go and learn to just be myself. Needed to tell myself that my life indeed rocks, for multiple reasons. No pretense, no lies, no understatements. And it suddenly uncomplicated a lot of things and situations. I have actually started feeling freer, happier, and surprisingly more content. Its okay to be luckier than others, at least in some respects . Guess thats the core feeling that had been bothering me. Earlier, I would feel guilty for sharing my excitement thinking it might sadden others at their state of affairs.

I do believe that life takes a full circle, with everybody getting their share of highs and lows, good times and bad times. I too go through hard times when the whole world seems to be having fun. So I neednt feel guilty when I am having fun while some others cannot. After all, eventually it all balances out.

I am not sure how articulate I have been and how clear this whole issue will come across. There’s still so much that I have not been able to pen down. Its complicated . Guess thats what complexes are!

The plight is that I cannot share my happiness with anybody . I’d like to keep it a secret from even myself, so I remain grounded and lest my little, delicate bubble of dream bursts.

Why blog about it then if I cannot share it? So that I can remember this day when I look back at it. Its a bookmark for me in my memory logs for the day I felt contented and sensed soul-touching happiness.

"jo gumshuda-sa khwaab tha
voh mil gaya
voh khil gaya
woh loha tha - pighal gaya"

Me? I am neither a poet, nor a writer. Neither a painter, nor a rock climber. Neither a social activist, nor a good citizen. Neither a dancer, nor a good cook. There isn’t a single thing I can say I am good at or I would love to do. I am just living as it comes, not striving to be anywhere, not striving to be somebody, not striving to sharpen any skills that I may be faintly good at it. I am not passionate about something/anything. Or so it seems. Because there are things I would like to pursue but I am not pushy enough to bring them to implementation. That makes me seem uncaring, unpassionate about my apparent “passions”.

Who then am I? Where do I stand in the society? What am I contributing to the world? What am I achieving in my lifetime? Do I really need to be somebody? Can’t I just be, be nobody, be whatever I am, just continue to live life the way its going, and gradually wither off?

The good news is that that my going away from this world will not be such a big loss for the humankind. Nobody is going to particularly miss me for some skills I possessed because I never acquired them. I don’t necessarily yearn for people to remember me after I am gone, or for that matter, even when I exist.

I would say, do not “Walk When You Talk”, especially when you are anywhere near a metro construction or crossing a busy road or a railway line or walking in the rain or in a crowd. You may be distracted when you are talking and less alert to your surroundings and as a result, anything untoward may happen. The ad should probably come with a statuary warning, “Watch out where you are walking”.

To confess, I walk when I talk, but in the confines of a room or some enclosed space. Walking helps me focus. It also tires me. Walking for a while is definitely better than sitting and talking. But it is certainly no substitue for a health walk “without” talking.