Upcoming: Oregon trip, part deux

I'm slated to leave for Oregon on Friday, Oct 3rd. Interestingly it's almost the same time that I went last year.

Things I'm looking forward to:

1. My first half-marathon.
2. Cycling and hiking nearby Beaverton.
3. Doing bungee jumping and sky diving.
4. Seeing places than last time.
   

Things I'm not looking forward to:

1. The 20+ hour flight journey.
2. Jet lag.
3. Rain and cold.
4. Missing the Bangalore ultra marathon.
   

The ten miler

I had thought that I would be running 16 KM in GKVK, but instead it ended up being a run in Cubbon Park. Being my first run outdoors and 16 KM being a respectable distance, I was slightly apprehensive. I had only ever run on the treadmill. I always used to run in the afternoons and this was an early morning (6 AM) run. This was the longest distance I had ever aimed for. What if I didn't make it?

The Cubbon Park loop which I ran was 4.25 KM (one fellow runner told me it was 4.3, another said 4.2, so I took the average). At the onset I decided to do 4 loops. Within the first loop itself I discovered that running outside is much different from running on the treadmill. And although at the end of the first loop I found out that I had maintained the same pace I was used to on the treadmill, it was a bit harder.

I took it one loop at a time. A single loop split two halves. Each half further: one step in front of another ... onward.

At the end of an hour and forty seven minutes, I was finished: 4 loops, 17 KM.

All excited

Oooh! So many new things:

1. I bought Justin's Master the major scale DVD and it came by mail today. It should keep me good company during my Oregon trip.

2. How to draw comics the Marvel way, was another purchase by me. Drawing is going to be my next project.

3. Plan to do a 16 KM run in GKVK. It'll be my first outdoors run.

Excitement of the unknown.

A hundred pushups

My next fitness project. Of course this is much simpler and less time consuming than training for the half-marathon, but a nice challenge nonetheless.

Oh, and for those who are wondering about the half-marathon thing: I'm running the Mumbai Half-Marathon and, along the way, also the Gresham Jazz Half-Marathon in Oregon (those are the ones I have scheduled for now).

Gotta love Rajni

Running log

I have recently transformed myself from a coffee-gulping, overweight cubicle-dweller to a mile-crunching-machine (exaggerated comment). Of course, this didn't happen overnight -- three months to be precise. And today, I share with you my running log; which I have kept meticulously for the past one month. Also something on the side-bar for people to see. I wondered if people can follow me on twitter, then of course they will be interested on how much I am running (grin, grin).