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

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…

“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)

15th and 16th August was a long weekend for Team LifeMojo after a long time. Varun Khurana and I love training (running for varun and cycling for me) on mountains. We enjoyed the Nandi climb a few weeks back and wanted to train on a different mountain this time ( this way we all have an outing as well ). Varun Gupta was nice enough to become our support (with the vehicle) for this training session

We somehow managed to fit in my bike in my Santro (Nangia Airlines) and pushed off. There was no space for the guy sitting in the back seat to keep his legs down, so it became a sleeper birth ( the only Business Class Seat in Nangia Airlines )

On the way to Yercaud, we stopped at Salem for lunch and then decided to train (run / ride) on the uphill the next day morning. On the way up we noticed a lot of monkeys near the base, but there were few of them near the top. After a fun filled evening on 15th (guess what we did) we woke up a bit late than we decided (thanks to me ). We got ready and reached the hairpin bend no 5 at around 8AM and got the bike together.

The Training

It is a nice 8Km climb (with 2% – 12% gradient) to the top (from hairpin bend no. 5 to 20).  After 500 meters or so, I realized I am not able to shift properly, the screw that maintains tension in the gears had been replaced a few days back and I knew that was to be fixed. We had to wait for 10 minutes till I got that back into shape and we started again. Varun Khurana ran almost at the same pace as I rode my bike (which means he is a nice runner). Varun Gupta was with us the whole time, helping us with Gatorade, Water and moral support.

The Finish

When we started, Varun was ahead, halfway up the climb (after I took a leak), I was ahead and then Varun climbed on hairpin bend 18 or 19, skipping 100 meters and took a lead of about 50 meters. As soon as he saw the destination, he started pacing up. Seeing him do that I shouted lets race and moved my gears to 2 – 6 (the same gear ratio that I usually use on flat roads). I gave it all I had and I think I reached 15 seconds before him.

Overall It was great fun !

Dry tea has more caffeine by weight than coffee; nevertheless, more dried coffee is used than dry tea in preparing the beverage, which mean that a cup of brewed tea contains significantly less caffeine than a cup of coffee of the same size.

– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea

I am not your usually Adventure Junkie who would just pull up his socks and hop on the saddle when he reads that. In fact my first reaction was “Nandi Hills, yeh I have been there once or twice. I don’t remember it to be that steep a climb. Why do people love it so much?”. The reason was, I had been to Nandi Hills before but at 3 AM on usually Saturday nights after enjoying “somras” with a couple of close friends. So I was reconstructing the feeling of being at Nandi Hills with the glimpses of what I remember

This Sunday, I decided to give it a shot. It was a group riding session that a few people from the BBC (Bangalore Biking Club) were organizing. I couldn’t locate the way to Hebbal Flyover and at some place, I guess at Makeri Circle, I took a left and went 30 Kms towards Tumkur. Anyways cutting the long story short… I reached the assembly point 1.5 hrs late. There was no point turning back now so I thought I would climb the Nandi alone and If I meet someone on the way it would be great.

I reached the Idli Point and then got together with 3 more bikers to ride nandi. I parked my car there and we starting riding up hill. It was kinda boring flat road till the Bull Statue around 4 Km from the Idli Point, but it got way more interesting after that.

From the Statue to the top is a 8 Km uphill climb. I usually ride 22Kms daily in around 1.5 hours in the city, so I thought 8 K uphill should not be that tough. But I found myself breathless at the 4 Km mark and I knew it would only go steeper.

I saw a few riders coming downhill at what I guess was above 60 Km/hr. The smile on their face made me do the full 8 Km climb. One of them even stopped and asked me if everything was ok and if I needed any help. That was amazing, a complete stranger, stopping and asking if I needed any help! – I haven’t seen people doing that too often. I guess like Runners, Riders are a close community as well.

From the 4 Km mark, I would have stopped at every Km mark and stretched my legs, had water, enjoyed the view and then thought “This is nice! I can do this!” I finally reached the top and we posed for a few photographs and then started downhill.

The ride downhill is indeed really awesome – I can’t describe it in words, you have to do it to feel it.

http://www.lifemojo.com/people/namit/post/1986036

Here is my split timing for the 10K
2 Km    15:13
3 Km    7:42
4 Km    7:31
5 Km    8:28
6 Km    9:27
7 Km    8:09
8 Km    9:26
9 Km    7:39
10 Km    7:44

My official 10K timing : 1:21:29
Avg. Speed: 7.36 Km/hr

Target for next year: Finish 10K in 40 Minutes.

Need to find a comfortable running stride and style for myself…

Here is a video that made me think about Front and Mid foot landing while running.

http://www.lifemojo.com/people/namit

So you guys can have a look at what I am upto ( health wise ) and the good thing is that it keeps tweeting on my behalf as well

Oh, and if you want an easier access, just subscribe to my Fitness Feed here : http://www.lifemojo.com/people/namit/feed

I am glad, I just skipped one today