Entries Tagged 'me' ↓

Recently my wife pointed out a piece of furniture that she loved at Mark Cuban’s house that she saw in an interview. I asked her, who is Mark Cuban ? She said, oh he is an internet billionaire, you don’t know about him ? I did a little research and I found he is an impressive guy. Read a bit more about him and it seemed amazing how he had build Billion $ internet businesses without any professional computer training and how had learned himself to create a business and then huge wealth for himself.

Then I saw a book that he has written and is available only as an eBook ! This was the first time I had seen that ! I used to think publishers publish eBooks for books that are successful and there was a huge demand for them on the internet etc…

Every review of the book I came across said it is a must read ! So I bought the book on Amazon! I don’t own a kindle device, but Amazon has made it super simple for people to download and install apps / softwares across mobile apps and computers.

I commute to office in an Auto (It gives me 3 hours of reading / playing time on my phone everyday) and I started reading this book on phone. I just love the way kindle syncs up the current reading status across all the devices I can continue reading the book on my computer once I reach home and the kindle software just works !

The other amazing part about having a eBook is that I don’t have to find where the book is in my home, I have it always available to me on all my devices ! I have decided to buy only eBooks from now on ! And recently bought another eBook (although the physical book was cheaper than the eBook) !

Bike cleaned, chain lubricated, bought a new front & tail light and reflective vest. Had enough nutribars, electrols, spare tubes, puncture kit… & enough in me to finish the ride.

Woke up @4, got ready and off to cubbon park, started a bit late with a fantastic rider Harish (met him on TFN), good steady ride once the highway started. First break and breakfast after 50 km. Targeted to reach the 104KM mark by 11 AM

BUT…

around 86 KM down (in close to 3.5 hours) – 2 spokes of the rear wheel broke. The wheal bent and jammed against the break in the middle of no where… No bike shops around, closest place to sit & eat was 3 KM behind.

So the ride was over for me, I walked 3 KM back to CCD at the nearest town Maddur. Informed the Ride Director and called Varun (a very close friend) to come and take me home…

Bad luck or bad bike ? Not too sure… The same thing happened to me on TFN and now I am planning to change all the spokes on my bike.

I wish I had bought a better bike! But when I bought the bike, I never knew I would be doing this distance and this pace

Tour of Nilgiris is a cycling tour organized by Ride a Cycle foundation in December every year. This yeas it was around 1000 KM tour spread across 8 days (7 riding + 1 rest) with 2 major climbs to Ooty (Day 3) and then to Sultan Bathery (Day 7).

I was super excited about TFN last year (2009) and was preparing well for it. I didn’t get an invite from the famous Jack Lee I got busy with work and couldn’t get on the saddle for a few months. I registered within the first 25 seconds the registration opened this year and I was in

I had around 4 – 5 months to prepare and I thought I would train as hard as I can, get in shape and do the tour as if I was doing Tour de France All I did was plan to train and couldn’t get to training… There were a lot of opportunities to train, a couple of really long rides, back to back Bangalore – Mysore (150 km mostly downhill) & Mysore – Bangalore (150 km, steady uphill I guess and strong head winds I have heard) but I couldn’t take the time out. So my first long ride this year was Day 1 of TFN.

I replaced my office chair with a gym ball a month before TFN (in order to strengthen my back) and it helped a lot! (Actually, I have switched to gym ball permanently now)

I bought a couple of riding jerseys & shorts, spare tubes, brake pads, puncture kits, sipper bottles, I had a cut on my rear tyre so I replaced both front and rear tyres, got the handle bar tape on my BTwin Sport 1 changed from white to black, bought enough electral and gluconD, bought a water proof video camera and changed my pedals to platform pedals for TFN.

Bike Clinic

TFN organizes a bike clinic (in association with BSA, BSA is one of the major sponsors of the Tour) where they service your bike and get it in shape for TFN. I wanted to get the handle bar tape changed, FD & RD adjusted and chain degreased and lubricated. They did a good job on the FD & RD adjustment, but I guess they used a bad lubricant (My chain was squeaking on Day 2) Also I thought, they would check the wheels for trueness, which they didn’t and I had to pay the price on Day 4! The tape came off on Day 4 too

Next year, no leaving the mechanic’s work on anyone else, I would do it myself…

I have started preparing for Tour of Nilgiris 2010 (TFN 10) which starts Dec 15. For those of you who do not know what it is and why do I need to prepare for it…

“On TFN, I would ride 1,000+ Km in 8 days It is not a flat route, it has 2 killer climbs Ooty and Sultan Bathery”

Why am I doing it ?

I guess for the same reason every endurance athlete does what he does – To explore my boundaries… To challenge myself for something out of my league and then, do it.
I want to finish an Ironman one day. I guess after TFN I would be ready at least for the 180 KM cycling bit

How am I planning to prepare?

In short:

1. Quit smoking – done (It has been around a month since I last smoked. I would write another blog about it in sometime…)
2. Get the weight down to around 80Kg
3. Ride as much as I can !

(Still need to figure out If I am missing something. Maybe I will ask someone who has done TFN’09 and update here)

I have always thought with so much work being done by the editors and graphics designers, isn’t there a smart editing tool out there… When I saw the demo of photoshop CS5 I was amazed !

I downloaded a trial version of Photoshop from Adobe’s site and it is really amazing! I love the Content-Aware stuff! and I could actually feel the performance difference on my 3 year old laptop as well… Great job done by Adobe here. I am sure these innovations would really empower amateurs (like me) to finish their work faster.

I personally feel Adobe should have a separate license for startups… As of today we have to ask our designer friends to work for us (without us paying them of-course )

Give it a try!