Blame it on Munaf!

Ok so i blame it all on Munaf patel! Watching England chase 338 and tie the game was rather disappointing and there are several instances where i felt sincerity could have saved the day.

1. Zaheer running 1 short of the last over.

2. Munaf allowing 2 tailenders to get away with 13 of the last over.

3. Sachin allowing that boundary owing to sheer laziness but i really do not have the heart to blame him so i blame munaf for that too:-)

When Munaf bowled that 48th over, a reasonably good one that too, and kept grinning on his way back, something just snapped in my mind. I knew this guy is nowhere close to giving a 100 percent.

Each time he chased the ball to the boundary there is sheer lethargy written all over him. It is like a stubborn little kid who does his homework grudgingly due to fear of being grounded. With all these sophisticated fitness tests, i wonder if coach gary kirsten should have a commitment test and rule him unfit.

Contrast this with the English side, every player who came out gave 100 percent. It was very easy for the 2 tailenders to let their brain to let them believe that 29 of the last 2 was unlikely. If the situation was reversed that is probably how zaheer and piyush chawla would have approached the entire issue and ended up a few short.

Swann, Bresnan, Shehzad were mentally tougher and simply went for it. They knew they werent reading piyush chawla, they knew they had not scored a single six in their career before this match, they knew they would not be blamed for the loss and they knew they had to do one thing and only one thing to win the match. Hit high and hit hard! They did this thrice in the last 2 overs to seal the game for england!!

Their key contenders Munaf and Chawla were listless and nervous respectively. Chawla got one back by dismissing bresnan but that killer instinct was followed up by 6 insipid deliveries by Munaf.

Indians choked in this match not England. England lost wickets because of over attacking and India gave away runs because they were too defensive. I wish Dhoni has the guts to include include an attacking spinner instead of a defensive pacer and open the bowling with R Ashwin instead.

Munaf, Nehra and Sreesanth are simply do not have the attitude to win matches for India!

Mental toughness

I come across this term very often. More so in times of failure than success. People attribute failure to mental toughness but not so much credit the same in times of success. Often wondered if Indians being branded as mentally weak has any merit to it. Why are Israelis considered to be tough mentally? Is undergoing hardship the only way to develop mental toughness? I thought it would be useful to copy paste some matter on the subject.

btw there seem to be a lot of requests for knowing our race timings. So here goes http://codemonkey.cc/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/3-monkeys.jpg

Most psychologists agree that Mental toughness has following components to it. Self confidence, self motivation, negative energy control, positive energy control, attention control, visual imagery skills and attitude control. Some definitions to throw more light on the matter.

Self-Confidence: It is a way of feeling. One can develop self-confidence with practice. The key ingredient is belief in self. You develop self-confidence by elevation of self-image, learning to stay calm, goal setting, positive thinking, self discipline and reviewing performance.

Self-Motivation: It is a source of positive energy. It helps to endure pain, discomfort and self-sacrifice. To overcome low self-motivation, set meaningful long-term goals, commit the goals on a training book, keep a daily record, associate with self-motivated players, enjoy the activity.

Negative Energy Control: Controlling negative emotions like fear, anger, envy, frustration and temper. Performing with negative energy results in inconsistency. To overcome negative energy, increase awareness, psycho, regulation, physical exercise and stimulate competitive situations.

Positive Energy Control: It is the ability to become energized with joy, determination and team spirit. It helps players to maintain the required arousal level to achieve peak performance. To overcome low positive energy control, increase awareness, develop enthusiasm, start feeling good and ensure physical fitness.

Attention Control: It is the ability to tune what is important and what is not important (i. e., to disassociate from what is irrelevant). Improve calming and quieting skills, time awareness, get the positive energy flowing and concentration training.

Visual/Imagery Skills: It is process of creating pictures or images in mind (i. e., thinking in pictures) This is one of the most powerful techniques to develop mental toughness as it is the connecting link between the mind and body. To overcome low visual/imagery skills- practice visualization with all the senses, ensure internal calmness, use photographs and start rehearsing mentally in advance.

Attitude Control: It is a reflection of the player's habits of thoughts. The right attitude produces emotional control and right flow of energy. To overcome low attitude control, identify positive and negative attitudes. Positive affirmation reinforces positive attitude, keep records and have a vision or commitment.

Couch to half-marathon

After spending 24 glorious years stuck to a couch or a bed, I decided to start running because I was at a location where I had loads of time and nothing to do, and a roomie* who was 'into' running. For the life of me, I couldn't understand why someone would just run, and that too for hours together. What's the aim of long distance running? Not going to do half marathons in 59 minutes ever, are we? So pick a skill-based competitive sport instead where a score can be kept and you can win and lose. Well, I haven't got an answer to this argument but fortunately, boredom made me pick up my sneakers that fateful day and tag along for a run. I think I lasted 2 km, with one break to catch my breath and a second permanent break where I prayed that my lungs and heart could take the pounding without stopping altogether. My roomie was away in the distance, running into the sunset, and came after an hour, saying 'Good run, na, let's do more tomorrow'

Let's do more tomorrow.

I think I agreed to go on a run again the next day, out of shame more than anything else, at not being able to run 2 km without dying at the end. So the exact same sequence of events repeated the next day. Not a meter more than 2 km. Death at the end of it. 20 minutes to normal heartbeat and ability to speak in full sentences. I think my innate competitive spirit was alive by now and it recognised that my roomie was too far ahead in fitness and so this was just competition with the self.

One more day, one more 2k run. At about 1800 meters, my lungs would cry for mercy and paradoxically, that would scare me into thinking I had only 10 seconds to go and run faster and break down quicker. Or if my lungs were in form, the moment I started thinking 'Only so much more to go' they would die on me as if on purpose. Thinking about the run and the goal while running, in general, was not helping. And one fine day, I was perhaps distracted with thoughts of work or something else. The first time I snapped back into reality from drifting, I had run 2.5 and my lungs were silent. No appeal from them to slow down or stop. I ran 3.5 before my lungs went like 'dude, let's not push it now, ok?'

So the secret was that there was no secret. You just keep running 2km every few days and dying at the end of your runs and cussing for taking up this insane hobby. And one day you will run 3.5 km and not even notice. And then another day will come when you can run 7. And then 10 and 15 and 17 and 21.

So whether you have had a good run or a bad run or a humiliating-will-never-eva-try-this-again run, just go home and do more the next time around.

* roomie = aseem kohli who is still fitter than most of us and can run at will

Before the Run...

Auroville

So another tick mark last weekend. The carbloaders were at Auroville, often considered as the south india's goa when it comes to the beaches and south india's Osho resort when it comes to matri mandir.

The first time i had to get into Osho's ashram, i had to take refusals from 2 loud mouthed indians who unabashedly claimed that the resort was not meant for indians. I got in only because i was causing them more embarassment at the entrance. But i swear to god, the mandatory HIV test, the stupid maroon robes and the silly meditations were completely worth the unisex changing rooms.

Anyways coming back to topic at hand, Auroville has none of that. Sure it has a beautiful dome shaped structure called matri mandir (which the cynic in me is pretty sure shielding a scam of some kind), acres of beautiful forest, lovely evening breezes and great continental cuisine(if you are willing to ignore the flies). But none of that makes up for when the administration tells you that they will have to give the last seats of the meditation session to a blonde because it would be difficult for her to make it back.

Ok so now coming back to the real topic at hand which is the 21K run. The trail was absolutely stunning, the DJ was funny, the women were hot and the cakes given at the 17km mark were delicious! All in all atleast twice as good as the Mumbai marathon. Its relatively easier to run this because there are no big flyovers and the weather is much cooler. We lived up to our name and loaded on the carbs before after and in my case even during the half marathon. There were 9 meals in 2 days with short breaks of 2 hours between to sleep and laze around at the beach.

Laks got injured with a knee sprain. This happens when your thigh muscles do not take up the strain and your knee takes up the beating instead. Do a lot of squats to keep your thighs in good shape and fit enough to take up the load of the run.

ps: if only the blondes in the ashram were at the beach and the riff raff crowd on the beach was in the ashram for meditation, the experience would have been so much better!

pps: 3 cheers to shonali gupta who completed her very first 5 km run and also posted the first comment on this blog.

My preparation for a run

This week in Pondicherry i will be attempting my 4th half marathon. Frankly there is just one thing that motivates me to travel a 1000 kms and spend 10k to run 15 km and walk about 6, i.e the company of likeminded fools.

Everyone has their own reasons to run. For most people its the thrill of going beyond what they thought was possible for them to accomplish. Everyone has atleast one story in their lives where someone pushed them beyond their mind instructed limits.

I had a cricket coach called Kiran Ashar. An ex-ranji player, he was one of the best coaches i have ever seen. He was a thorough task master from the old school.

His pet exercise was spot jumping. Its a simple technique, simply start jumping wherever you are not too high, about the same height you would if you were skipping. Do not try any variations such as spot jogging on skipping on one knee. They simply distribute the strain on different muscles. Just make sure that you land on both your feet at the same time and your knees are slightly bent.

Try doing this for 5 minutes on day 1 and 15 minutes on day 2 , 30 minutes by week 2 and 1 hour by week 3. Practise this on alternate days. Trust me on this its much tougher than it appears. When you start doing this in the beginning, your mind starts playing games with you. A sudden itch in the head, the desire to go to the loo. A pain in the knee that seems to disappear every time you ignore it. Very similar to what you go through while running on marathon day.

It is said Pete Sampras during his playing days would do this before he begins his exercise. Its an amazing technique to strengthen your calves and eliminate the chance of injury. On a long run the first muscle that begins to give way is the calves and this exercise would ensure that your run would atleast not be halted due to lack of calf power.

I still do this as a substitute for real marathon training. A week before the run just ensure that your legs are fit enough to take the punishment on the run. Here's to you Kiran Sir. Thanks for tolerating me for those 2 years!

Roger Bannister

"Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must move faster than the fastest lion or it will not survive. Every morning a lion wakes up and it knows it must move faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn't matter if you are the lion or the gazelle, when the sun comes up, you better be running." - Roger Bannister "

Running with the celebs...

(<-Gul Panag working hard)





(Challa trying to catch up->)

Mediocre running techniques 1 : Interval training

Disclaimer : I actually have no idea what Interval training means. Someone mentioned it as a running strategy and what follows is my own interpretation...

So you can't run 5 km at one go? Guess what? - nobody can! The first step to confidence as a runner is to ignore all these Kenyans and other athletes. This is hard to do in Mumbai when you run right alongside (for a few seconds) and the Kenyans are on their way to finishing a full marathon before you complete a half-er. But that's like imagining Michael Chang chasing down Kim Clijsters' powerful groundstrokes - it's just not a fair comparison.
Making the small psychological leap from couch potato to mediocre runner is not easy. Interval training should get you there faster and easier.
The technique involves running fast and stopping when you are out of breath. If you are doing this right, you would have run about 40 metres in the first burst. Now comes the 'interval' which gives this technique its name. If you are measuring your run with that Nike-plus stopwatch/wristband, then this is the point where you press 'hold'. You don't want these intervals to affect your average pace, do you? If you've picked a good location for your run, this would be chai/juice time and some runners go as far as snacks/lunch/dinner. Once you are completely certain you've digested all this stuff and are also back to a normal heartbeat, however long that takes, sprint again. The extra load might mean you'd do something like 10-15 metres this time around before your lungs stop you. Interval 2 beckons. You could repeat these interval-run cycles for as many times as you like till the sprint length becomes something like 1-2 metres. That would be a good time to call it a day and head to more carb-replenishment.
The advantages of using this technique vis-a-vis jogging steadily, are many - it's less boring, for one. Also if you have some niggles you don't even know about, the short sprints would ensure these come out in the open as full-fledged injuries so you can treat them. The third advantage is that onlookers, after a few strange looks at the start, give way for you to run while joggers don't get this sort of awe-filled respect ever.

carbloading at Pondicherry

this is my first post on this blog that laks, challa and i thought of starting exactly 1 year ago. the responsibilities for the blog are allocated between us according to our key competencies. laks brings in the humor, challa brings in the motivation and i bring in the carbs.

The reason for choosing the name carbloading is actually very deep. The act of loading carbs before a marathon (and in our case after the marathon) is actually more enjoyable than running itself.

Maybe the reason is not so deep. Anyways the carbloaders are going be there at Pondicherry for the marathon on 13th.

so keep watching this space for more nonsense..

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

"I'm often asked what I think about as I run. Usually the people who ask this have never run long distances themselves. I always ponder the question. What exactly do I think about when I'm running? I don't have a clue." — Haruki Murakami (What I Talk About When I Talk About Running)

"The most important thing we ever learn at school is the fact that the most important things can't be learned at school." — Haruki Murakami (What I Talk About When I Talk About Running)

"Of course it was painful, and there were times when, emotionally, I just wanted to chuck it all. But pain seems to be a precondition for this kind of sport. If pain weren't involved, who in the world would ever go to the trouble of taking part in sports like the triathlon or the marathon, which demand such an investment of time and energy? It's precisely because of the pain, precisely because we want to overcome that pain, that we can get the feeling, through this process, of really being alive--or at least a partial sense of it. Your quality of experience is based not on standards such as time or ranking, but on finally awakening to an awareness of the fluidity within action itself." — Murakami

"When I'm running I don't have to talk to anybody and don't have to listen to anybody. This is a part of my day I can't do without." — Haruki Murakami (What I Talk About When I Talk About Running)

"The thoughts that occur to me while I’m running are like clouds in the sky. Clouds of all different sizes. They come and they go, while the sky remains the same sky always. The clouds are mere guests in the sky that pass away and vanish, leaving behind the sky." — Haruki Murakami

Why we run

So no one really asked Sachin Tendulkar when he was 4 years old why he chose to play cricket. In fact I think no one asked him about anything, especially about school, which turned out to be a good thing for all of us. But people ask him now. Why did you choose cricket?
I landed up on a blog of a world-traveller-lady and after completing two years of world travel, covering several continents, she finally decided to open up, with an insightful post titled 'Why I travel'
None of these examples is relevant in our case though. I should maybe look for posts in blogosphere titled 'Oh God! Why me?' or 'How did I land up in this dead-end job'.
Why blog at all about something as mundane as running, you may wonder. Where was this sense of wonderment when you facebook-posted about your weekends spent doing nothing? We are at least spending calories, dude! There is also an 'income' side where we pack calories in, more than what we burn. But that's carbloading - a concept you may find counterintuitive. I leave this tricky explanation to my colleagues now.
Onward...