I was contemplating on how to start my year! if it were twenty years before, I would wake up and go run to the cricket ground. If it was ten years, I would wake up and go to the temple. If it was 5 years before, I would wake up and read a math theorem. I wasn't quite sure what to do to mark the beginning of a new decade. A career which we worry all our lives, which isn't all worth worrying, I thought let this year be kickstarted with a breathtaking fitness programme.
Am reminded of this popular quote in fitness: One must take care of one's body for a reason that we live in it!
Am reminded of this popular quote in fitness: One must take care of one's body for a reason that we live in it!
I tuned my bicycle, pumped up the tyres to its fullest, plugged in all my gears and went ahead to garland Bangalore. Yep! me and my friends planned to bike all around the ring road with our bicycles. 12 of them made a earth shattering promise that they would be there at 5:30 am in the morning at iisc gate and just two turned up :-))
The two were:
Sudarshan Iyengar (well that isn't me, I have a friend called sudarshan Iyengar :-)) who works as a software engineer in Bangalore)
Akram (works for a leading MNC in Bangalore)
We started at 5:55 am in the morning and took the following route (Due to my dysfunctional gps, the map is chopped off at places, we actually did 75kms while the map shows around 50+) :
http://sportypal.com/Workouts/Details/831751?key=49b97c5f7be3fa9795694994a8af6378d38832e4
Sudarshan Iyengar (my friend) rode on his hercules act 110 (hybrid).
I rode on my schwinn searcher (hybrid).
Akram used his Schwinn frontier MTB.
It was the most enjoyable ride amongst the few long ones I have done till date. Outer Ring roads of bangalore are well maintained and one can easily bicycle at 30+ km/hr. We hardly stopped (once for tender coconut and then for breakfast at indraprastha vijayanagar. ) except for a few hydration breaks here and there.
The three of us L2R : Me, Akram and Sudarshan Iyengar (not me uff!)
Saw them near the Jayanagar ring road. Would have been a perfect photo if I had covered all three :-) . Tried but couldn't :-( they were walking really fast and I coudn't run behind them with one hand holding my bicycle. I spoke to one of them later and he said that they push the cycle for 70 to 100 kms a day. And I stopped feeling great about our new year bicycle expedition! :-(
