Eye of the Tiger!!!

Eye of the Tiger
It’s the thrill of the fight
Rising upto the
challenge of our Rival!!

So goes the song from Rocky 3. The rival in my case was the road 210 km long, the sun that was shining down on my head relentlessly throughout the day, the body pain and occasional cramp. Glad that I could overcome these rivals J

I rode on the 200 km Brevet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brevet_(cycling) ) that had the following route. It was organized by a Bangalore based club called COCO and an approved ride from Audax Club Parisien (ACP)

The 200KM Brevet Route

The Preparation:

In preparation of this event, I did a 130 km ride the previous week and realized that I need better clothing. So, went out and bought cycling shorts and jersey blowing Rs 2400! Then I got front and back light fixed and got a servicing done. I had kept myself fit in the past couple of months by doing regular long walks and daily stretching and some exercises. I studied the route carefully and mugged up all the places where I could possibly lose my way. There wasn’t anything more I did.

The Start:

 I woke up at 3.45AM, did some stretching exercises and left my house around 4.30PM. I had planned to carry all stuff I need in my jersey and not have any bag – this was the learning from my 130km preparatory ride. I decided to stick to the 1 water bottle strategy since the route passes through various towns and I was confident of getting water on the way.

I started out 6AM and noticed that my odometer was not working! This was crucial as the turns / control points are all marked on distance-wise and I had to get this working. Finally with someone’s help, I got this working and was on to a start at 6.15AM

Morning Ride:

I reached the first control point in Hosur very comfortably riding at a comfortable speed. I ensured that I do not speed up and lose steam in the start of the day. I maintained a consistent riding average of 21 kmph. By the time I reached the 60km, it was 10 AM. I was a bit worried now that my average was just 15kmph. I sped up and rode a little faster. Every 10 – 12km, I would stop, drink water and stretch myself. This strategy of stretching myself before the cramps set in worked well for me.

I had to reach the 2^nd control point at 100km mark in Bangarpet before 12.40 PM. I managed to reach at 12.13PM. That was around 6 hours for 100 km. I was not overly tired and had maintained the target optimum speed. In the previous week’s 130 km, I had raced for the first 100km with a riding speed of 24kmph and a total of 5.5 hours and was tired by that time. But thankfully I had applied the learning and at the halfway mark, I was not all spent up.

The hot afternoon:

I bought a bottle of water, mixed Gatorade and started from Bangarpat towards Kolar. The 16 odd km to Kolar was under the hot sun but there was the occasional tree cover. So, this went past and I reached the Kolar-Bangalore highway around 1.20PM. The highway had no trees, there was a mild uphill and headwinds and it was hot!! I was hungry. I stopped for lunch at a dhaba, had some rotis and lots of cucumber pieces. It was around 2PM now and I had to cover around 30km to the next control point.

The sun was blazing on top of my head, there were no trees and no shade. There was an occasional uphill. I stuck to the 2x2 gear and rode slowly. After an agonizing 2 hours under the hot sun, I managed to reach the third control point at around 3.50PM. I found a lot of cyclists here – all sapped out and stretching. I got my brevet card stamped, stretched for a  few minutes and left again around 4.10PM from here.

The evening ride:

After Hoskote, I took the left to Chikka Thirupathi and it was easy riding here. I felt strong and my legs were not complaining. I was full of enthusiasm and the sun had become milder. I was consistently doing 23 – 24 kmph here. I did not stop myself from pedaling fast since I knew this is the last leg. I took a couple of stretching breaks and managed to reach the 4^th control point at 5.47PM with 25 minutes to spare. From here, it was 26 km to the end point and I had 2 hours 40 minutes nearly!

Now I knew that I would surely make it unless I have a puncture or some other unexpected event.

It was getting slightly dark, I switched on my lights and I was racing down the road. I felt no tiredness and was in my peak form. The adrenaline had kicked in and I was pedaling furiously. I reached Sarjapur, bought another water bottle and went ahead. There was some jam in Sarjapur, but I was unstoppable by now! I crossed this and continued to pedal furiously. The terrain was not difficult, but there was traffic after Sarjarpur and it was annoying. Finally I made it at 7.22PM with 8 minutes to spare! The sufferfest was over and I was a finisher! Hurray!!!!

To put things in perspective, there were 70 riders in the fray and 48 of them finished the route. The first guys to came in at around 4.10PM!!!! i.e. a full 3 hours ahead of me!! 

Anyway, now I am officially a Randonneur!!!! Time to celebrate! This will go down as one of the most memorable achievements in my life!

Things that worked for me:

1. Single Water Bottle Strategy

2. Pacing myself throughout the ride

3. Frequently stretching myself before the cramps kicked in.

4. Practice Rides before the actual one.

5. Riding alone - not sure if this is good though.

Some Pics below:

Bring it on! At the start point...

My trusted companion!

A mugshot!

My Brevet card with 6 stamps!

Total Ride distance as per my odometer

Time on the bike - 10.5 hours!!

 

Average Riding Speed

Me in Rocky Pose! After the completion!

Taking inspiration from Obama, I have to thank my wife for all the hardship she put up with (taking care of 2 children) while I was away pursuing my hobby! Anyway, all that is past now and I have promised her not to get on the bike for sometime now!!!

I leave you to listen to this song and be inspired!

My First Nandi Ride!

I decided to join a bunch of bikers (Harikrisha, Ravindra, Sreesha, Krishna, Sunil and Ashok) to ride upto Nandi Hills. I had never done a ride on any hill on my bike and I was keen to test myself.

It was a nice day - the 15th of September, great weather for biking. Our starting point was IISc and I decided to take my car till there as I felt it was difficult to ride the last 16 km from IISc to my house - well thats Bangalore traffic for you :-)

It was the first time I was actually dismantling the wheel and putting it into my car. Somehow managed to do it after seeing some videos on youtube. I reached IISc at around 6AM and we left around 6.30 AM.

It was a great ride in the morning. We were going through village roads with very little traffic and lot of greenery around. It was absolute pleasure. On normal days, we would never get to see such places and even if go through them, we are in our cars and in a hurry to get to somewhere - well, there was no such hurry ... we knew the Nandi Hills is not going anywhere .....

We reached nandi around 10 AM. Stopped for some breakfast at Nandi Base and left around 11AM. I was told that it is an 8 km ride with 40 curves. The first 5 km are easy and the last 3 km are killing. It was the first time I was riding up a hill and I made the mistake of starting with 2nd gear in the front derailleur. I was quickly tired before covering even 1 km. I let the 14 year old Sreesha get ahead of me and I rested.

I could not believe that I was already tired. After resting for a few minutes, I started again - this time too, I did not change the gear. I got tired again and I had hardly covered 2.5 km. I decided I will give up. I thought I ll wait for Ravi (He is an expert long distance rider at a slow pace) and then tell him and leave. I must have waited for about 15 minutes. I recouped in that time. Ravi and Krishna rolled in and they also sat down.

My mind was telling me, it is better to give up now rather than go up a few more kilometres and then give up! I also reasoned that I tire myself too much, then I ll not be able to cycle back the 50 km to IISc. These were the tricks my mind was playing on me!!! Krishna and Ravi and encouraged me to go ahead and I also noticed that they were in a lower gear.


So, now I thought I ll lower the gear and go at my own pace without ever speeding. I started again and the higher cadence worked magic. I was able to go up and up. After that I rested a few times, but never wanted to give up. The last 3 km was indeed the toughest, but I had the lowest gear combo (1x1) and somehow managed to do it. I took about an hour and 15 minutes with 5 breaks. It was indeed a pleasure reaching the peak. More than reaching the peak, I was happy that I had not given up. This is me and my bike on top of the Nandi.

All of us made it to the top and then we had a whirlwind down ride. It was a pleasure! We were zooming .... and using our brakes a lot .... it is indeed quite a task to navigate ur bike in hairpin bends while going downhill. We made the downhill journey in flat 15 minutes!! This is all of us after the nandi ride.

The route we took is here.

The ride upto Doddaballapur road was very scenic with no traffic. But we rode for nearly 30 km on Doddaballapur Road and that road had quite some traffic. But once we were off Doddaballapur Road, it was great again! Very scenic with no traffic and paved roads. Check a couple of pics below in this stretch.

I would strongly recommend this route. It has very little traffic (if u exclude the Doddaballapur Road) and it is very scenic! It was also fun to be accosted by kids at every village asking money for Ganesha!!! Reminded me of my childhood!

Overall, it was a great trip with some great ride partners. More than reaching the top, I am glad I did not give up! This is like a Rite of Passage - If you are a biker in Bangalore, then you gotta do Nandi :-).

Now, the 200 km brevet seems within grasp .... That comes up in November!!!

EDIT (19/9/12): Added the names of all guys who biked that day to Nandi

Book Review: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Book Review: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe


Disclaimer: This is apparently the first English Novel published as per the foreword in the book. It was published in 1719 (nearly 400 years ago) and I am sure major luminaries have reviewed this book - I am humbled by their company. This is my attempt to start recording my reviews of books that I feel are a great read.

The book is narrated in a first person account - this makes it a very easy read. At least, I think so. It starts off with Robin's life as a boy, his desire to explore the world and father's advice to stick to his station in life - i.e. the upper rung of the lower class. Robin, of course, disregards his father's advice and goes on various voyages in the seas. He goes on to make some money and settles down in Brazil (referred to as Brazils in the book). He ventures to the sea on the fateful voyage that drives him to an uninhabited island.

The actual interesting part starts from here, where his feelings begin with despair for not having anything on him. He begins by making a swim to the wrecked ship, finds a boat (or a makeshift one) and then gets basic essentials to the island. He then makes multiple trips to the wreck and gets most of the useful stuff before the ship sinks.

He starts living in a cave and gradually makes it more and more comfortable for him to live. The book is interesting and gives insight into the priorities of a person stuck in an island like this. I was specifically impressed by the 4 important things he lays out for himself (These are not the exact words, but its the message)
1. Food
2. Shelter from the scorching sun and rains
3. Protection from wild animals
4. A vantage point to see if he can spot any ships that are passing and raise attention.

For a novel written 400 years ago, I feel the list here are applicable even to date. The 3rd point can be interpreted as Protection from unknown events and the 4th point can be interpreted as the position to watch out for new opportunities for improvement.

The book goes on to describes his industriousness in improving his life on the island. From nothing, he goes to a stage where he makes fire, grows corn, makes a hearth and bakes his own bread - This is shown as a major event in his life. Imagine, you could walk into the neighborhood bakery and buy bread for 20 bucks!

He ruminates on his life, starts out by calling the island as "Island of Despair" and makes it more and more livable for himself. Another great insight he says - We would always pray for deliverance from sin rather than deliverance from affliction (or troubles). I think this is a great insight - rather than worry about his troubles, he talks about the great things gifted to him and regrets the past sins (or mistakes, if you are not religiously inclined!).

The last few chapters of the book recounts his meeting with other human beings (after 25+ years) and how he is scared of people having lost touch with them for so many years. In the end, he builds a boat and with the help of a ship escapes from the island.

It is a great book and is very interesting to read his exploits on the island. Apparently the author was inspired by some real life cast away stories and went on to pen this novel. The language used in this book might be a tad difficult - with long sentences and old words that are not in use now.

Off late, I have started developing liking for human adventures against nature's elements with minimal machine support - like cycling for 100 km e.g. :-) - and this book was exactly that. How a man can survive in an uninhabited island for many many years and with just his spirit, he can learn multiple life skills and live a good life (good of course is relative here).

For any book lover, this is a must read.

A Great Weekend - 10 KM walk on Saturday and 95 KM bike ride on Sunday!

10 KM Walk on Saturday
I discovered a great place in Bangalore for your Walks and Runs - something other than the usual Lalbagh. This place is called National Centre for Biological Sciences GKVK and is present adjacent to Sahakara Nagar in North Bangalore. My idea was to cover 10 KM at an average speed of 6kmph or more. I set out around 6.30AM in morning and entered this place. This is an agricultural college (popularly referred to as GKVK) and is a very large campus with lots of greenery (obviously, it was an agricultural college).

The college itself reminded of my engineering college (REC Bhopal or now MANIT, Bhopal) and also of Ammasandra (Tumkur district) where I grew up. It was a huge expanse of land interspersed with Department buildings and hostels. Anyway, I enjoyed walking in this place and also found it to be very popular among the people living around this place. If you live near Hebbal and are looking for a nice place to walk / run, you should visit this place on weekends. You will not be disappointed!

A few pictures below.

The walk stats are below:
Total Distance Covered: 10.55 KM (as per the Nokia Sports Tracker Workout)
Total Time Taken: 1hr 41min approx
Average Speed: 6.23 kmph

The location of this place is shown in the map below.

Happy with my performance.

Learnings from the Workout:
1. Carry Water, Hydrate yourself! I was feeling light headed towards the end!
2. Find great places to Walk - You cannot walk around a park for longer than 10 times - You ll get bored!

95 KM Bike Ride on Sunday
I wanted to challenge myself to do a 10 km walk on Saturday and a 100 KM bike ride on Sunday! So I set out on Sunday. Before leaving, checked the tyre pressure and then filled upto 70psi. Started off the following route: Kumaraswamy Layout -> Silkboard -> Sarjapur Road -> Sarjapur -> Attibele -> Anekal -> Bannerghatta -> Gottigere -> Anjanapura -> Konanakunte and back home. This was a nice elliptical route and I was under the impression that this will cross 100KM. So I started off around 6.20AM (after some initial workouts). My target was to have an average riding speed of 22 kmph or more.

To apply the learnings from my last ride, I carried some Electral packets. I started with good speed and reached Wipro Corporate office in about an hour. I stopped for some water break and forged ahead. I had breakfast in a cafe called Priyadarshini after Dommasandra on Sarjapur Road. I would recommend this place for your breakfast stopover. The food is tasty and the place is relatively clean.

I rode on from there. The roads were smooth with very little ups and downs. Traffic was manageable, though  it was a single lane road with on coming traffic. I was maintaining a decent speed and the electral was ensuring that I was not loosing any salts. Some pics of the ride are below.

My Ratha!!!

No Rains!!!

I started to lose speed somewhere around the 70 km mark I think. My average speed (as per my cyclocomp) was showing around 21 till about that time. Then it started fall. I guess I faced some headwinds and cross winds, but generally I should have pedaled faster I guess! I rested for a few minutes and stretched my legs on the road - providing amusement to bored highway travelers and roadside workers!

When I took this big circle and came near Konakakunte cross, I had done around 85 km and my Nokia battery was dying. I switched off the Sports Tracker App and continued on Kanakapura road to cover the 100 km mark. But my speed had fallen below 20 kmph and I knew it would very difficult to carry on and achieve my target of 22 kmph. I gave up around 95 km and retired for the day.

Ride Stats
Total Distance: 95 km
Total time: 4hr 55min (including breaks)
Average riding speed: 19.71 kmph (as per cyclocomp)
Terrain: Good Roads, with less traffic. Not much ups and downs.
Scenic Value: 3 out of 5.

At the end of the day, I had done around 15.5 kmph including breaks, and 19.7 kmph while riding.

Learnings from the ride:
1. You have to hydrate yourself and plain water is not enough! This time I was prepared and did not face any problem
2. Ride faster, keep an eye on the average speed. If you lose it, its difficult to get the average back up!

Electral: The electral sachets that I carried were immensely helpful, but I wanted to find out whats the difference between the easily available (and cheap!) Electral and Gatorade. I did some googling and found this

So, I think it is safer to carry gatorade and if you cannot find it, then have electral as a backup! I am not sure what happens if you consume more salt than required, but I guess its better I dont find out :-)

In the end, it was a bit disappointing that I did not reach the target - Guess I need to try harder ... miles to go before I sleep!

But I was happy that I could 10km walk on saturday and a 95km bike ride on Sunday! Now, I need to try harder to increase my riding average speed!

EDIT 16/7/12: Changed National Center for Biological Sciences to GKVK

My First Century Ride!

Having bought a Trek 7100 in Mar 2012, I had started biking with short trips. I started with a 40 km ride upto pyramid valley. Did the Turahalli mountain bike range in my hybrid, had a bad fall and injured my knee! Of course, the injured knee gave me bragging rights J.

I had traveled to the US in April for a 2 week period and there I biked on the Golden Gate. Post that, I did  a 50 km ride, a 60 km and 70 km ride. I felt I was ready for my first milestone – A century ride!

I decided to do it on 9^th June, 2012 which happened to be a Saturday. I had my biked primed (with air pressure and oil) on Thursday in preparation for the ride. Come Saturday, I woke up around 5.30 and did some basic stretching exercise and the rubber hit the road around 6.15 AM from my house in ISRO Layout. I started the Sports Tracker App on my Nokia 500 (Symbian Belle) to keep track of the journey.

I decided to go upto Harohalli and Jigani which also happened to be the next BBCh race route. I had no intentions of participating in the race itself, but my sole objective was to do 100 km. I started with full steam and it was all downhill on Kanakapura road. I reached Kaggali pura around 7.10 and had an Idli stop over. With the hunger pangs sufficiently quelled, I set out again.

I reached Harohalli quite fast covering about 31 km in 1 hour 50 minutes or so including the idli stopover. The terrain is mostly downhill, some up gradient biking, but overall very comfortable and scenic. You pass by a couple of big lakes which gives great photo opp – One mistake I made in this trip was not to click any photos!

On reaching Harohalli, I took the left towards Jigani. The moment you take a left, you enter a small lane and I could not believe this is the same road that goes to Jigani. I asked around and confirmed this. I set out on this road. I remembered Murali Katta (Another Biker with whom I ride) had told me – this road is hell – I was about to find out! The initial up gradients were manageable in my hybrid, but it was getting hotter and I was tiring. After biking for around 9km from Harohalli, I stopped at a small hamlet called Kamalapura. Here I had tea at a small hut-like hotel. I was the object of curiosity for all the villagers and we made some small talk. I was told that the tea is jaggery tea (saar, bellada tea saar eekade ella). I had 2 of them and felt rejuvenated. I moved on Jigani and went upto Thattekare. I saw the monstrous up there and decided to turn back. There was no way, I could have managed to climb that!

On turning back, it was a little easy upto Harohalli, as the altitude was dropping. I reached Harohalli, took a right started cycling towards Bangalore. I intended to 100 k today and decided I ll take detours on Kanakapura and ensure I cross my milestone. Near a small, unnamed place, I found a guy selling coconut water. I got down and had some coconut water and took the detour here. I went through fine tarred roads with no traffic, crossed a Gunda Aanjaneya temple and the Elim Resort. This road was leading to Kanakapura road again. I turned back as my intention was to put on more miles.

I returned to the same spot on Kanakapura road, took one more detour for a couple of kms and was back to biking on Kanakapura road. This time, it was sunny (around 11.15AM) and I was climbing up. It was quite difficult and I was tiring. I continuously had water, but started to feel hungry. I had something at a bakery, bought some water and started again. I was about 20 km from my house. After riding for a couple of kms, I started feeling hungry again. At this time, it struck me that I am probably getting stomach cramps! Probably because I was losing body salts. Now I realized the importance of having Electral or Gatorade while biking. I suddenly remembered someone in BBC (Bangalore Bikers Club) saying coconut water is good to replenish the body salts. My condition at this time was pretty bad I was stopping every 2 kms for some water. My speed dropped to quite low and I was finding it increasingly difficult to ride. I was constantly on Gears 2 – 3 (front – rear)

Thankfully, I found another guy selling coconut water. I stopped over and had 2 of them very slowly. I felt re-invigorated and covered the balance 15 kms with no stopover and at a decent speed. When I entered my basement, my cyclocomp showed 101.3 Km while the sports tracker app shows 99.67km. I was happy that I achieved my first milestone of 100km!

Stats:

Total Distance Covered as per my cyclocomp: 101.3 km
Total Riding Time: A little over 5 hours
Total time (including breaks): 6.5 hours
Average Riding speed: 19.78 kmph.

Overall, I am quite happy with myself and feel ready to achieve my next target – Ride to Mysore via Malavalli and come back by Volvo. This is a 145 km ride.

Note on Sports Tracker App

The app itself is quite good and accurate. But it sucks battery life and will last for rides upto 7 hours only. I have a brand new Nokia 500 (Symbian Belle), so if you have an older phone, then the batter might last lesser time. The website gives very good statistical information on distance, time, speed etc. Overall, it’s a good app, but I think having a specific device like a garmin watch is more practical on longer rides.

Learnings from the Ride:

1.       Carry enough Electral or Gatorade packets

2.       Have coconut water every hour or hour and half

3.       Take Pics!

4.       Differentiate between hunger and cramps!

The distance altitude graph and the ride maps are pasted below. (Source - http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/satbalak/aep16mlkijvhvqpr)

Next Target: Do the Bangalore – Malavalli – Mysore route at an average riding speed of 20+ kmph.

UPDATE (12/6/12): Corrected date of journey from 8th June, 2012 to 9th June, 2012