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!!