As I had started my last blog.. this was a perfectly unplanned-planned trip/tour/training and whatever that was needed for this dream tour....
Mid June, I hire a rented road bike for a day and realise my training needs to shift to a bike of this kind!! Its just 4 weeks to go for my Pyrenees Ride...
An unplanned spend for the new scott addict carbon bike extended the already stretched budget of this once in a lifetime trip... 'Passions don't come cheap' is what a friend told... which made perfect sense...
My training took a huge 4 minute jump in my first attempt with this new road bike.... and boosted the confidence many fold...
The roller coaster rides take huge ups and downs towards the very end.... So it was with me....
Had a super fall off my hybrid bike and got a Hanuman face :) for a couple of days...
A tooth extract leading to viral fever to a fall in bathroom (unconscious) getting hurt just above the right eye.... all these just 2 weeks before the journey... Which meant my training got hit....!!
I could manage just two NandiBetta rides with my new road bike and just one 100+ towards Magadi, which I did to seek blessings from Sri Nirmalji whom I admire since childhood... He was all admiration for me to be doing it at an age, where most prefer to look up to Vaanaprastha and stop self from venturing into such activities which are physically demanding...
While training to be physically ready for the tour, THE reason for the tour, to raise money for the charity of our choice was on. Our CSR team did help immensely to zero in on the charity, Cochlea-Pune. Cochlea identifies children needing support with hearing and speaking at an early age. Plan for a permanent cochlear implant while helping them to be ready for normal school curriculum by providing education. The target was to raise £750. Since it was the very first time for me to be raising funds, I was almost clueless on how to plan the communication. However, did manage to raise close to double the target amount with again no planned approach!. In this exercise found some super donors. All those messages along with those donations and the amount acted as the fuel for my tour.
Travel was another topic, that was happening in parallel. My plan to sandwich tour between two short trips across Europe with family. While seeing to it that they could get a glimpse of my tour was rightly shot down by a good friend. Sandhya did even send out a separate thank you note to him :). New plan was to start our trip of Europe after my tour. We needed two separate VISAs for the places we had planned to visit. Paris to visit DisneyLand and Eiffel and to show my girls beautiful (in every aspect) Norway needed Schengen VISA. To spend some time with a very good friend and his family in London needed UK VISA. Sounds simple right?, hell broke lose just two weeks before the travel... :) How could this go wrong is what you may think....
Preface 2 flowing in to Preface 3 (hopefully the last Preface) would have an answer....
Ciao!!
September 24, 2019
September 14, 2019
A Dream whose pieces kept falling in place.... Preface....
I would be dishonest if I say it was all planned well.... It just went happening and it was like a jigsaw puzzle which shows a picture only after the last piece falls in its rightful place.... The only thing was that this last piece fell in place on the very last day of this once in a lifetime journey of several dreams of three of us..... Sihi, Sandhya and Me-Pammi....
A series of blogs which I had envisioned are seeing the light of the day today... almost a couple of months or more after the dream journey ended.... Sometimes, a kick in the butt is much needed even for the must do things that gets reprioritised and postponed.... 'How is your blog coming along?' did that trick yesterday....
Cycling did become a passion this year, participating in the Guinness World Record attempt in the beginning of the year....
Umpteen requests through emails to the organisers of Tour De Credit-Suisse (TdCS) helped me to get enrolled into the US version of the same in 2018. With unfortunate demise of my favourite Mhaavu (Eldest Paternal Aunt), this had to be shelved. With the announcement of TdCS-2019-Europe, my enthusiasm soared to new heights. The track was across Pyrenees, a mountain range I hadn't heard of and explored post the announcement. Starting from Atlantic and ending in Mediterranean spanning three countries, Spain, France and the country I came to know of on the tour Andorra..
Sitting happy and gay post enrolment, one of my good friends, who is my Guru and provider of the bicycles I ride had to give a real hard kick for me to start thinking on training. Being a guy who had pedalled about 20000 kms, I immediately looked down upon the training. As we did plan on that call, I started to my maiden ride uphill Nandi Betta (Hills), the nearest to Bengaluru a couple of days later.
Did I do all that cycling!! was the first thing that came across my mind before even the first kilo meter uphill. The betta starts like a steady easy climb for four kilo meters. I had to stop about twice to get my breath. The next four kilo meters are hairpin climbs that quickly climb up about 300 meters. That section was a killer, I had to take about 3 long breaks. At one point in time, I had almost given up. However, as they say it ain't done until its done. I just kept on, with slow and steady 'I'll not give up' so easy' attitude with Lans Armstrong's 'Just till the next bend', was playing in the background all through. Reaching the top, did sow a lot of big seeds of self doubt in my mind on my ability to climb hills. It also opened my eyes wide open on the importance of training. These thoughts were weaving a plan in my mind on the downhill, this plan was very much driven by that friend. It was simple, do this uphill at least 35 times!!. A couple of back to back on consecutive days!!! That's all..
It was March 23rd Shaheed Diwas (Martyrs' day) Training Ride 1/35... Dedicating to the three brave hearts Sukhdev, Bhagat Singh and Rajguru
Second attempt on, I had started counting the breaks... Checking on my timing started I reckon after my 5th attempt....The confidence had started growing with these rides...
Both my girls used to kick me out of bed, when they used to hear the alarm at 3:30 AM.. strangely, I used to take about an hour or a little more to get ready for my drive to Nandi Betta Base with my bike resting on the back seats of my car... At about 6 AM I used to start my ride... and did manage towards the end to reach back home in time to drop my daughter to school... That is 5 AM to 6 AM drive... 6 to 7 ride up followed by down hill.... 7 to 8 drive back home...
Looks like time for PTO.. PrefaceTwoOvertonextblog... :)
Ciao!!
A series of blogs which I had envisioned are seeing the light of the day today... almost a couple of months or more after the dream journey ended.... Sometimes, a kick in the butt is much needed even for the must do things that gets reprioritised and postponed.... 'How is your blog coming along?' did that trick yesterday....
Cycling did become a passion this year, participating in the Guinness World Record attempt in the beginning of the year....
Umpteen requests through emails to the organisers of Tour De Credit-Suisse (TdCS) helped me to get enrolled into the US version of the same in 2018. With unfortunate demise of my favourite Mhaavu (Eldest Paternal Aunt), this had to be shelved. With the announcement of TdCS-2019-Europe, my enthusiasm soared to new heights. The track was across Pyrenees, a mountain range I hadn't heard of and explored post the announcement. Starting from Atlantic and ending in Mediterranean spanning three countries, Spain, France and the country I came to know of on the tour Andorra..
Sitting happy and gay post enrolment, one of my good friends, who is my Guru and provider of the bicycles I ride had to give a real hard kick for me to start thinking on training. Being a guy who had pedalled about 20000 kms, I immediately looked down upon the training. As we did plan on that call, I started to my maiden ride uphill Nandi Betta (Hills), the nearest to Bengaluru a couple of days later.
Did I do all that cycling!! was the first thing that came across my mind before even the first kilo meter uphill. The betta starts like a steady easy climb for four kilo meters. I had to stop about twice to get my breath. The next four kilo meters are hairpin climbs that quickly climb up about 300 meters. That section was a killer, I had to take about 3 long breaks. At one point in time, I had almost given up. However, as they say it ain't done until its done. I just kept on, with slow and steady 'I'll not give up' so easy' attitude with Lans Armstrong's 'Just till the next bend', was playing in the background all through. Reaching the top, did sow a lot of big seeds of self doubt in my mind on my ability to climb hills. It also opened my eyes wide open on the importance of training. These thoughts were weaving a plan in my mind on the downhill, this plan was very much driven by that friend. It was simple, do this uphill at least 35 times!!. A couple of back to back on consecutive days!!! That's all..
It was March 23rd Shaheed Diwas (Martyrs' day) Training Ride 1/35... Dedicating to the three brave hearts Sukhdev, Bhagat Singh and Rajguru
Second attempt on, I had started counting the breaks... Checking on my timing started I reckon after my 5th attempt....The confidence had started growing with these rides...
Both my girls used to kick me out of bed, when they used to hear the alarm at 3:30 AM.. strangely, I used to take about an hour or a little more to get ready for my drive to Nandi Betta Base with my bike resting on the back seats of my car... At about 6 AM I used to start my ride... and did manage towards the end to reach back home in time to drop my daughter to school... That is 5 AM to 6 AM drive... 6 to 7 ride up followed by down hill.... 7 to 8 drive back home...
Looks like time for PTO.. PrefaceTwoOvertonextblog... :)
Ciao!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
