Dhammonia

Books in 2025

2025-12-18T23:48:00.000-08:00

My reading of books in particular has reduced significantly over the past 5 years and I am unable to put a finger on what the root cause is. There are a few contenders - time spent with children, articles etc but none very persuasive as I do have the time to read ~25 pages at least every day. I have also started perhaps 20+ books and finished less than a quarter of them. But my mental state has varied quite a bit and I have been physically tired quite a bit during the year, thanks in part to running higher mileage than in prev years and also 2 intense months of swimming in the summer. Anyway, this is what I managed this year (in no particular order)

The Running Ground by Nicholas Thompson
Don't call it a comeback by Keira D'Amato*
Beginners by Tom Vanderbilt
Shoemaker by Joe Foster (co-founder of Reebok)
Running with Purpose by Jim Weber (ex-CEO of Brooks)
Even More Bad Parenting Advice by Guy DeLisle (graphic novel)
Ballistic by Henry Abbott
When Running Made History by Roger Robinson
Play to Potential by Deepak Jayaraman
The explorer's gene by Alex Hutchinson
Talent Lab by Owen Slot
Running Smart by Mariska van Sprundel#
The man who beat the markets by Gregory Zuckerman
So good they can't ignore you by Cal Newport
You look like a thing and I love you by Janelle Shane*

It is unlikely but possible that I have missed a few books since I read across my Kindle, phone (reading apps), hard copies, iPad etc. And I have become lousier at keeping track although I have taken a corrective measure by installing ReadWise this yr again (thanks to Ramanand for the inspiration). Let's see if I do a better job of tracking my reading in 2026

*women authors. Both amazing reads

#perhaps the only so-so book I read this year

Books in 2024

2024-12-26T02:15:00.000-08:00

2024 was off to an even worse start than 2023. Early in the year, I fell sick enough to not be able to read and then got busy. And after a long time, just got so listless that even reading didn't appeal as much, esp since I had so many podcasts or shorter pieces to read. I rebooted my ability to read at least 25 pages at a time, thanks in large part due to Terry Pratchett's Thief of Time, which I found as lovely as any of his other works. The irony was that I got my largest set of books due to multiple people going nuts gifting! One saving grace was that I read a bunch of children's books, thanks to my boys

Anyway here they are

Survival of the Fittest by Mike Stroud*
Crossword Century by Alan Connor
Playful Parenting by Lawrence J Cohen
The Three Year Swim Club by Julie Checkoway
To the Limit by Michael Crawley
Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
The Striker and the Clock by Georgia Cloepfil
Ergodicity by Luca Dell'Anna
You (Only faster) by Greg McMillan
I will judge you by your bookshelf by Grant Snider
How to know a person by David Brooks
The Microstress Effect by Rob Cross & Karen Dillon
Is it worth dying for? by Robert S Eliot

* which I found disappointingly dated although I chose it for the theme. I guess I would have loved it, had I read it 10+ years ago when I first heard of the author!

Goa Ironman 70.3

2024-10-29T23:14:00.004-07:00

I participated in the relay at the Goa Ironman 70.3 event on 27 Oct 24. It was one of the hardest races of my life.

But not for the reasons you may think.

After all, I only did a half marathon. My teammates did what I think are the harder legs of the relay - the 1.9km swim and the 90km ride. The things that made it hard for me are mostly mental.

For one, I had to wait in a tent, which was fully exposed to the sun for at least an hour, with only a rough sense of when my teammate would arrive. Phones are not allowed for participants on the event locations and could result in disqualification.

The swim started at 7am and we knew our stud swimmer would finish in about 30 min and he did so, within a min of that planned time. Then there's ~500m to run along the beach to the bike start where our cyclist would pick up the chip and get on his way. Since it is a 90km ride and our cyclist was expected to finish in ~3:15 hrs, it meant that I would start my run only around 11am. That meant a challenge to the timing of my breakfast. 11am is usually my snack time. I eat breakfast at around 9am or a little later every day. I eat lunch at around 1pm. So 11am is neither here nor there.

And then there's the effect of dehydration which you experience just standing around in the hot sun. So you need to keep hydrating while not drinking so much that you need to pee on the run. Mercifully there were porta potties in the transition area.

And then there's the burden of history. I have been part of another relay team in the past, where my team lost to the eventual 3rd placed team due to my not being able to beat their runner, by ~20 seconds. I just melted in the heat on that day in the past over just 10K. So I have some bad memories to exorcise. And I would hate to be the reason my team didn't do well again.

I had set myself a target of 1 hr 36 min based on a calculator which adjusted my normal half marathon time of 1 hr 30-31 minutes by ~5 minutes to account for the expected 30 deg C temperature.

On raceday, I was saved by the incredible idea of someone to just throw a mug of iced water at participants who needed it, every few km. Each time, I had water dumped on me, I picked up pace. When I finished, I found out out that the temperature when I finished was 32 deg C with 81% humidity which made it feel like 46 deg C (way worse than I expected!).

I did slow down a bit on the last lap of 7km, but I finished in ~1:36:12 hr, which led us to 2nd place among teams in our category. Overall, there were 2 other teams which were ahead of us, but they were from the NDRF (govt. teams) and in a different category.

We got to take pics with one of the greatest Indian sportspeople at the finish line :)

Here's my run data, if you are interested. The distance is a little less than 21.1km thanks to a combination of transition distance and some expected deviations due to the GPS.

For now, I am just happy to have put some demons to rest.

Books in 2023

2023-12-29T01:48:00.000-08:00

2023 has been an tougher year than 2022 from a personal time perspective and hence for reading. The first 3+ months were a washout since we had no nanny. But I managed what I could from Apr onwards. Here are the books I finished

Deep by James Nestor (this is a little all over the place vs his subsequent book, Breathe, but it is fascinating and never boring)
Dare to Tri by Louise Minchin (I was trying to coach someone to his first triathlon and wanted to see what the journey of someone who did so, was like)
Outlive by Peter Attia (sort of overhang from my reading from 2022. I was just curious to see what he had to say, given his presence in the modern health space)
Choosing to Run by Des Linden
The Innovation Stack by Jim McKelvey
Radical Candor by Kim Scott
The Long Game by Dorie Clark
The Power Law by Sebastian Mallaby
A Boy in the water by Tom Gregory*
Good for a Girl by Lauren Fleshman
The Best by Mark Williams and Tim Wigmore**
Adapt by Tim Harford***
The Museum of Curiosity: Series 1-4 (audiobook)
The Museum of Curiosity: Series 5-8 (audiobook)
The Museum of Curiosity: Series 9-12 (audiobook)
The Museum of Curiosity: Series 13-16 (audiobook)
Master of Change by Brad Stulberg
In it for the long run by Damian Hall
We share the sun by Sarah Gearhart

*wonderful moving book. A hark back to the days when the world was perhaps simpler. Very hard to not cry at several points in the book.

**fabulous reading esp for a coach

***re-read this for some work

I really loved Lauren Fleshman's book since it is a fantastic insider's viewpoint into the life of a gifted athlete and a rare one at that, given she's a woman (sadly, there still aren't enough books about female athletes). I highly recommend you try it.

13-16 brought some much needed joy into my life. It is a quirky radio show, filled with very smart people and lots of fun and trivia. Hits the spot for me. And each episode in the series is ~20min. I loved it so much that I rationed my consumption so that I wouldn't run out of it quickly. Strongly recommend it as a daily dose to anyone who wants to lighten their day up.

I just picked A Boy in the Water as my book for the year because it had more resonance for me as a coach and I am a sucker for emotional stories and at this point in my life, like swimming a lot. While 18 is about Sang (Kipchoge's coach) and is mostly around running and is predictably a good read, it didn't make me cry at any point

Books in 2022

2022-12-26T22:04:00.001-08:00

2022 was the first year in a long time when I read a lot in the health and fitness area. Not since 2011, when I was on a sabbatical and read ~30 books on running, has my reading been that specific. Still, I managed to get some reading not directly relevant to work also. The no of books dropped drastically since the year was up and down personally. I just lacked the energy to read consistently*.

Of course, I have read a bunch of children's books over the past 3+ years, thanks to my boys. Most of them are wonderful and I remember this particular quirky story, Tikki Tikki Tembo among others.

Here are the books

Why we get sick by Benjamin Bikman
Metabolical by Robert Lustig
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
The Cold Start problem by Andrew Chen
What doesn't kill you by Scott Carney
Breath by James Nestor
Why we swim by Bonnie Tsu
Klopp: Bring the Noise by Raphael Honigstein
To be a machine by Mark O'Connell
Titan by Vinay Kamath
The Midlife Cyclist by Phil Cavell
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
7 Rules of Power by Jeffrey Pfeffer

*Imagine having a copy of Astrophysics for people in a hurry and still not having read it. That's how bad it was.

11 years

2022-09-12T00:10:00.004-07:00

It is amazing how much your life can change in a year. And then again, how much it can stay the same over a decade, depending on where you look from!

Among others, I don't have time to make a detailed post like I did last year.

But a big change from last year is that I started a new job in Dec 2021. So I am no longer on my own.

The last 9 months have been remarkably up and down in all sorts of ways - both on the personal and professional sides.

I am grateful for the fact that running is a big part of my life. If you are on my annual mailer, you will hear more.

In the meanwhile, say hello and let me know what's up with you.

Books in 2021

2021-12-22T21:58:00.001-08:00

Update: If you got here because of my linking mistake, here's the link to my 2022 list

Here you go

How the World Thinks by Julian Baggini (still being read)
The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt (still being read)
Verbal Judo by George J Thompson (still being read)
Right Hand Left Hand by Chris McManus (still being read)
The Smartest Kid in the World by Chris Ware (graphic novel) (still being read)
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
The Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova
Dreamers by Snigdha Poonam
The Most Human Human by Brian Christian
One Track Mind by Michael Stocks
Books, Movies, Rhythms, Blues by Nick Hornby
Out of Thin Air by Michael Crawley
The Barefoot Coach by Paddy Upton
No Rules Rules by Erin Meyer and Reed Hastings
Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke
Kicksology by Brian Metzler
Think Again by Adam Grant
A Bigger Prize by Margaret Heffernan
Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance
The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
Disrupt and Conquer by TTK Jagannathan & Sandhya Mendonca
How will you measure your life by Clayton Christensen
The Culture Book by the Culturati
Good to Great by Jim Collins
High Output Management by Andy Grove

10 years

2021-09-11T03:24:00.000-07:00

It has been 10 years now.

The mental flux I discussed last year, hasn't let up much.

Ill-health did hit family too with a couple of scares.

We now have two sons :) And life has bigger spikes in both directions most days now.

I continue to run without a plan and ran a forgettable marathon earlier this year thanks to a GI malfunction.

For the first time, my consulting income exceeded my coaching income in a calendar year. I am still consulting on running. I finally got my own website, thanks to my pal, Athreya.

I also continue to work with my amazing friends at ChooseToThinq.

My newsletter at dschool.substack.com completed one year and I continue to post each week. I wrote about the Tokyo Olympics for SportsKeeda. That was a lot of fun and learning.

Reading has been good this year but still less than I would like, but hey I am getting paid to read and write! Wait for my annual post on the books I read. This year, I have gone back to paper copies and my audiobook consumption has dipped, partly because I can't listen for too long and I try and avoid my phone as much as I can, with two young kids.

I stay in touch with Spanish by using Duolingo everyday and crossed a year of using it, about 3 months ago.

I continue to be grateful for so many good things in my life. I only wish the same and more for myself and for you, my dear reader. And an extra serving of good health to everyone.

If you are anyone (incl. an NIT Trichy or IIM Lucknow alumnus and) wondering whether to work for yourself and whether you'd be happy and comfortable, I can tell you I am working for myself and I am ok so far, after ten years. That's not too bad, eh?

If you noticed, I could reuse a lot of last year's content because the more things change, the more they remain the same.

And as with the last few years, now that you are here, say hello, write in and let me know how you have been and anything else you have been perhaps meaning to say :)

Out of Thin Air by Michael Crawley

2021-01-08T03:48:00.000-08:00

Out of Thin Air by Michael Crawley got added to my reading list late last year, thanks to Alex Hutchinson putting it on his fall list. I had actually gotten in touch with the publisher via the author's agent but some mess happened in the background, partly due to which the paperback wasn't available in India until last week or so. So I never got the advance copy I was hoping to get. Eventually, I could hold out no more and bought an ebook (Thanks to Google Books!) and got reading. So I set aside a few books I was reading and decided to read this. And what a treat it was!

Michael is a social anthropologist, who also happens to an almost elite runner (~2:20 for the marathon). Due to a combination of circumstances incl a studentship and a fellowship, he ends up in Ethiopia for his doctoral thesis, which ends up leading to the book. He discusses how he chose Ethiopia over some other countries which have a running culture but are much less studied/written about. The book is fantastic from even before the time he sets foot in Ethiopia, while he describes his student life in France, etc.

But from the moment he lands in Ethiopia, the story is mostly about running. And Michael has a very keen eye. He talks about using what is called the observant participation technique as opposed to the participant observation as he goes about immersing himself in the Ethiopian running scene, mostly at the higher end. Among others, the running group he tags along with includes men* who have run around 2:05 for the marathon! He describes how Ethiopia has a better record at the Olympics than its rival Kenya and how Mo Farah has been beaten by athletes of Ethiopian origin at thr 5K and the 10K, even since he became a force to reckon with. He also mentions how due to cultural reasons (among others), he chose men as it would be much harder for a western guy to go and interview women in Ethiopia. Much like in Finn's Running with the Kenyans, he describes how hard it is to be a top athlete in Ethiopia when he marvels at the fact that the bus conductor of the bus he's in has run 30:05 for the 10K. And at various points, he tells the reader how Ethiopian domestic competitions are much harder to win than international races, since international races rarely feature more than half a dozen Ethiopias and maybe a similar number of Kenyans, whereas local races can have up to a hundred contenders. So most Ethiopians may consider the rest of the participants as fun runners :)

He discusses how Ethiopian runners rarely run alone, viewing running alone almost as an anti-social behaviour. Further they seem to believe those who run alone are running for health, rather than training for competition. Competition and money seem to be the twin motivations for elite athletes. So his fellow runners are somewhat befuddled by his running just like that. The appearance of his girlfriend at some point in his story, convinces them that he does have a life outside of running.

He also provides a map of Ethiopian running hotspots, travelling as he does with some of his group to various events and episodes of training. Some of these have local legends attached to their names - Haile, Bekele, Dibaba etc. He is frequently joyous and tired as they run at higher altitudes free of pollution and as Michael jokes, oxygen!

His immersive experience, especially with athletes of that level is sobering to the reader. While the Ethiopian men train hard, they don't necessarily seem to rest well, so far as sleep goes. There's lot of demystifying to me. While elite athletes are also human (obviously!), some of their behaviour (much like ours) is very endearing (finishing long runs early to watch their fellow runners race for ex). It is also quite moving to see their fierce commitment to pacing in groups, although the group mindset may be in the decline thanks to the brutal prizemoney-driven dynamics, esp in races like Dubai (a la Cadillac-steak knives).

There's a lot of everyday struggle depicted as-is, as the athletes try and justify their effort by the prospect of reward, summed by the paraphrasing a beautiful quote from Montaigne (The Game is worth the candle). And Michael is extremely self-conscious as he recognizes his status, despite his modest-by-comparison running talents (for context, Michael could be a contender for most city marathons in India!)

Amongst many reasons I love the book, it rekindled a certain pure love for running, that had been elusive for over a year in my life. It brought back memories of a time when I ran hard and had fun. And of course, be immensely grateful that I don't have to run for a living, unlike the amazing characters, not all of whom will see fortune favouring them in life.

Books in 2020

2020-12-26T01:39:00.003-08:00

Here are the books I read in this year

Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Cawardine
Be Social by Karthik Srinivasan
Das Reboot by Raphael Honigstein
The Body by Bill Bryson
Influence by Robert Cialdini
Supermarketwala by Damodar Mall
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke
Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
Caffeine by Michael Pollan
The Coming Storm by Michael Lewis
Measure what Matters by John Doerr
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Sevens Heaven by Ben Ryan
Story Plot by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
Chaos Monkeys by Antonio Garcia Martinez
Fast, Cheap and Viral by Aashish Chopra
The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman
Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger
Win at all costs by Matt Hart
The Athlete's Gut by Patrick Wilson
The Science of Running by Chris Napier
Comrades Marathon
The Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger
Out of Thin Air by Michael Crawley
Non-Bull Shit Innovation by David Rowan

The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman is subitled "Happiness for people who can't stand positive thinking". If you know me, you may guess why I liked the book so much. I enjoyed it immensely and learnt a few things from the book, even on topics I thought I knew the ground on - Stoicism was one such. It is easily my pick of the year. If you are a runner though, Crawley's book is fantastic and you will love it. How was your year in reading?

Manju - 15 years

2020-11-18T19:53:00.003-08:00

It is 15 years, since Manjunath Shanmugam, fondly called Manju was shot dead while doing his job right. Am happy to recollect that several good people worked hard to put his murderers behind bars amd emsure his memory is not lost by doing good deeds in his name. Here's a moment to remember Manju.

9 Years

2020-09-11T02:23:00.000-07:00

It has been 9 years now.

And there's a modest chance I may go back to a job in this 10th year.

Other than the time between June 2012 and Oct 2013, when I had the most heartbreak while chasing my Boston qualification, I have not come close to the amount of mental flux I have had in the 12 months (esp the last 6, which must be common with everyone in the world right now!).

Ill-health and misfortune has been a scourge in the lives of several people dear to me. That has hurt my head quite a bit.

Partly as a result of that churn in my head and a lot of disrupted sleep, I gained ~2 kg after the first month of the lockdown (when I had actually dropped 0.5 kg, although I ran only on the terrace of my house). I am still trying to shake off 1 of those 2 kgs.

My son continues to drive a lot of my life's decisions. What I underestimated is the amount of time raising a kid, especially in the early years, takes. And that became very pronounced for a 15 day period when we didn't have a nanny, a little while ago. As a stopgap measure, I began using a spin bike 2 months ago, to stay fit while not leaving the house. I like it enough to continue doing it, although there are no restrictions on stepping outside now, where I live.

I continue to run without a plan although I had a memorable race at Mumbai in Jan where I ran my 2nd fastest marathon in India. I am grateful to just stay in shape and manage to run.

Coaching remains my primary source of income although the start of the calendar year had a couple of surprises. I did a motivation talk at a company's offsite (my first and only day-trip to Goa, till date!) and then consulted for another company on running, for a bit. I also got an opportunity to work with two people I love, over the past 3 months or so. That has been quite a nice experience. I also started a blog for sharing interesting content that comes by way, for the people I coach. That was born out of weekly calls we started doing, in the absence of our weekly face-to-face meetings, where we began discussing interesting content we had consumed in the week gone by dschool.substack.com That among others has also resulted in my beginning to write a bit every week.

Reading has been better than the previous year but very start-stop. Wait for my annual post on the books I read. Again, audiobooks and podcasts have been helpful.

I learnt a little bit of Spanish and among other fun items it ushered into my life was this delightful South American cartoon called Mafalda. Look it up if you haven't heard of it already.

I continue to be grateful for so many good things in my life. I only wish the same and more for myself and for you, my dear reader. And an extra serving of good health to everyone.

And as with the last few years, now that you are here, say hello, write in and let me know how you have been and anything else you have been perhaps meaning to say :)

Mutual Anagrams

2020-04-15T23:26:00.000-07:00

Mutual Anagrams

I started solving crosswords in the year 1996 in the first year of engineering college.
Then I was on a break for almost a decade and resumed in 2014 trying to spend 15 minutes a day at least.
It is perhaps the only part of my life that is connected to the Daily Mail of the UK,
since the Economic Times syndicates their crossword.
I have collected a few solutions which are anagrams of each other.
There’s a certain simple pleasure observing them. I have posted some of these on Twitter in the past.
These are from the last two years or so.

WANT SARDINES	SAINT ANDREWS
CABINET DOOR	NOTICE BOARD
CANADIAN MINERS	AMERICAN INDIANS
ERRATIC RUSSIAN	CURTAIN RAISERS
URGES NICHOLAS	SOUL SEARCHING
DECLARE ISOTOPE	RADIO TELESCOPE
MILTON'S PREFACE	SELF IMPORTANCE
LONG TITLE	ILL GOTTEN
TITANIC SWINDLE	IDENTICAL TWINS
PILOTS DEFENCE	SELF DECEPTION
NILE CRUSTACEAN	NATURAL SCIENCE
ADORNING SPA	GRAND PIANOS
INSURED FLYER	USER FRIENDLY
USER FRIENDLY	FINDER SURELY
BRACES RUMP	BUMPER CARS
RED STEPMOTHER	SHORT TEMPERED
PACIFY EXCELLENT	LIFE EXPECTANCY
YOUNGSTER'S IDOL	SOUL DESTROYING
FERRIS WHEEL	WHERE FLIERS
COMMENTS VARIED	INVERTED COMMAS
ROUGH LIFESTYLE	SELF RIGHTEOUSLY
PEERS INTERFERE	FREE ENTERPRISE

Of course they would be more fun with the clues but I enjoyed the general overlap between the
subject matter of the words by themselves.

Let me know how you like them. There’s another set of mutual anagrams but they are less common.
Ex; HOT WATER BOTTLE - WHAT BETTER TOOL

I’ll save that for another day. Salute to the amazing setters.

Pedigree and Persistence

2020-04-13T20:59:00.002-07:00

This post has been cooking for a long time.

The germ of the post (no pun intended) was planted in my head while listening to Bill Bryson’s The Body (filled with trivia like most of his books, read by him, which is great but the book is nowhere near the best of his work, cynical as it is - More on the book some other time). He writes about how the discovery of the bacterium that causes salmonella by Theobald Smith (who came up from hard circumstances), was cruelly attributed to Daniel Salmon, who happened to be the person Smith was working under. Daniel Salmon benefited from this and Smith didn’t. Thankfully Smith had a better end to his career and life.

There’s an even more appalling story - that of Albert Schatz (also from a very poor background), who was cheated of his discovery of streptomycin and a Nobel Prize was cruelly awarded to Waksman, at whose lab Schatz had worked briefly. Schatz was conned into waiving his royalties while Waksman didn’t sign his waiver. As a result, Schatz didn’t benefit and Waksman did, at least as Bryson tells it. Perhaps even more cruelly, much later Schatz was awarded something named after Waksman!

The point of this story is not to talk about misappropriation of credit (there are tonnes of stories like the above and not just in the Nobel Prizes) but what we end up thinking when we hear of a certain person’s pedigree or awards. I will be the first one to admit that I have been and will be guilty of this in the future. But one must be wary of putting people on a pedestal simply because their name is followed by a few alphabets. It may be a better bet to seek the opinions of that person’s co-workers/classmates. In a recent conversation with Tyler Cowen, Reed Hastings pointed out how he relies on this mechanism rather than look at people’s CVs.

Another aspect of the above stories is that of persistence. Both Smith and Schatz persisted through remarkable hardships in life to achieve significant professional successes and I am happy to report that both lived long and had long reasonably successful careers, after the significant setbacks. Finally, two sobering stories from listening to Tyler Cowen’s conversation with the remarkable Ed Boyden - one of Douglas Prasher (Doug) and the other of Brian Kobilka (BK). Doug had to abandon his scientific career due to a combination of circumstances but his work was built upon by two scientists who eventually won the Nobel Prize. To their credit, they were generous enough to invite him to their award banquet and also effusive in their thanks to him. After a long break from a scientific career, Doug made his way back to science. BK had to work as an emergency room physician on weekends when he was faced with financial hurdles early in his career but eventually his work won him a Nobel Prize. I am the first one to admit that BK’s story shows survivorship bias but that’s not why I am quoting it. Also the point of this post isn’t just to prompt some thinking but also inspire you in these difficult times (not to forget, this post serves to do that to me!). Stay focused and do not despair.

What do you think?

Mumbai Marathon 2020

2020-02-24T03:32:00.002-08:00

For those of you who started reading this blog at least a decade ago, it is very likely you would have come across one of my posts on running. And the common thread between most of those posts, especially the ones on my full marathons in Mumbai (of which there have been over a dozen since 2005), was that I had one thing or the other going wrong till this year.

2020 was a welcome relief from all those painful memories and even more painful recounting that followed in the days, weeks and months (and in all honesty, years!) that followed each such race.

2020 was also the first time I ended up at the starting line with a rather flexible goal, mostly due to what I had put into my training - no intervals or tempos (since I have been unable to get commensurate sleep due to father duties in the last year or more). In fact, almost all the hard runs I had put in, came in the company of my running buddy, Vipul in whose company I did all my long runs at a challenging pace at Agara lake. I also had such a hard run at Goa in Nov 2019, that I knew anything better than that (~3:49) would be welcome at Mumbai. So I would be happy with a 3;30, not very unhappy with a 3:45 (which is faster than 3:49) and delighted if a 3:20 happened, esp since I found out that the race start was 5:15 am (literally a day before the race, when someone who collected my bib). I started rather conservatively, since I knew I had blown up in the past b/w 26-34km as the temp rose. In particular, I had been overtaken by a really good runner (woman) at about the 29km mark (U turn just off Worli Sea-Face), on more than one occasion in the past 3 years.

As a result, I wasn't too fussed with some pre-race events - one being my getting stuck in cluster f* jam near Kurla thanks to road closures and another being a late dinner, not to forget that my poor roommate for the night before had a violent cold he was recovering from.

I also made one change to my prep, thanks to a donation of a box of Maurten gels from one of my trainees in the US, also a friend. I even tried it in practice but I had tanked on my training long runs due to other causes. While I liked the gels, I wasn't sure whether the rest of my training was in line.

When the HM mark went by uneventfully, I was mostly waiting for the tanking to happen. However at around the 25km mark, I realized that I had hit a faster split than any of the prev 5 kms. Suddenly I realized that something special was possible. From there till the 34km mark, I was hoping for 6 min/km splits and doing well under 5 min/km. From there till the 38km mark, I was calculating what my finish time would be if I ran 7-8 min/km as in prev years and getting happy that I would get under 3:45 even if it did. At around the 38km mark, I caught a lucky break.

The leading woman runner (she did finish 1st amongst amateur women) came up behind me with a motorcycle escort. I realized that I stood to benefit if I could somehow just keep up with her and also just ahead (so that she didn't get impeded) while the motorcycle cleared the way. Thus, unlike much faster finishers ahead of me, who suffered due to the large nos of runners from other events, walking along Marine Drive, I had a free passage all the way to the finish. It wasn't a painless one though as fatigue had begun setting into my legs. But my spirit didn't flag for once.

I finished in 3:16:13, my second fastest marathon in India till date. Thanks to the weather, the organizers' decision to start early and Preity Rai (the top woman runner amongst amateurs), I had a memorable day.

The run was also memorable due to my decision to run in some excellent training shoes from Puma (Speed Sutamina which weigh 310g for UK size 9, in case you were keen to know), which weigh more than typical racing shoes which weigh about 200g. But the decision was predicated on work reasons, more than running, which is surprisingly not item no 1 in my life at this point.

(A couple of things prevented this post from going out at least 2 weeks ago - one is the aforementioned work reasons and another is a tragedy in the life of some running buddies, which I didn't want to divert attention from, by going on about my running).

I don't think I have ever got more from my running with such limited input. I am quite delighted with it.

Books in 2019

2019-12-30T21:57:00.003-08:00

Here are the books I read in 2019

If this isn't nice, what is? by Kurt Vonnegut
Trillion Dollar Coach by Eric Schmidt et al
The Rise of the Ultra Runners by Adharanand Finn
To the Finish Line by Chrissie Wellington
Mastering Sleep by Swami Subramaniam
Rework by Jason Fried
Good to Go by Christie Aschwanden
Range by David Epstein
The Long Dark tea-time of the soul by Douglas Adams
Loonshots by Safi Bahcall
The Crossword Century by Alan Connor
Alchemy by Rory Sutherland
The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
The Invisible Gorilla...by Christopher Chabris et al
Katha by Shobana Narayan
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
The Nature Fix by Florence Williams
The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki
The Joy of Quiz by Alan Connor
Fifty things that shaped the modern economy by Tim Harford
Reasons to stay alive by Matt Haig
How I almost blew it by Sidharth Rao
If not now, then when by Greg Searle
In his own words by Terry Pratchett
Go! India's Sporting Transformation

Book 26 has essays by Dravid, Gopichand and Bindra (amongst people you may know) and Joy Bhattacharjya (amongst people you should know). What more do you want? I'd also recommend the Harford book for the anecdotes on Fritz Haber, Diesel and Fleming (among others).

I really loved the Psychopath Test by Ronson.

Since 2019 was such a good year, it is hard for me to recommend a single book as almost all of the above were wonderful reads. You may notice that the Pratchett and the Adams books were the only works of fiction that I finished.

How was your year in reading?

Manju - 14 years on

2019-11-26T01:48:00.001-08:00

I am a little embarrassed that I remembered this a week before the 19th, when I was travelling and forgot to post. Today (26th when I am actually making this post) is a week and 14 years since Manju was shot dead on the job.

So much has changed in the country that I am unsure whether most people care about honesty and corruption. Still, one does hope that one gets better and so does our country.

Here is a brief moment in memory of that brave man. I still remember you Manju. Bless your soul as ever.

Boston D Party

2019-09-19T06:51:00.001-07:00

It has been 8 years since I started on a wonderful journey from Bangalore to Boston.

Here's my book https://amzn.to/2kkrYdY

I spent some time looking for publishers but made no progress. The story is there. The production value could be better but I didn't want to wait longer than I have.

The feedback from early buyers (who had committed to buy in 2011, before I even finished writing it!), is encouraging.

US buyers, click here

8 Years

2019-09-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

It has been 8 years now.

The further I get away from 2011, the more I am impressed by the fact that I took the plunge than by the fact that I have survived for so long without going back to a job.

The last year has been a surprise but in ways I didn't expect. I had mentioned becoming a parent in last year's post. Now our son is over a year old and walks around and pretty much occupies the top of any list I make.

The reversion to the mean has come pretty close to happening although the themes for this year have been parenting and other items.

Parenting is harder than anything I have done before. I heard Scott Jurek say on a podcast that compared to parenting, running ultras like he did, was easy (or something to that effect). But it is incredibly fulfilling. You could say that on most days my oxytocin levels should be greater than my endorphin levels. I don't think I would have survived this without my superhuman wife. All mothers are superhuman, by default!

Running continues to be a constant although I mostly run without a plan. I am grateful to just stay in shape and manage to run as much as I can.

I stopped working with The Fuller Life in mid-May to focus on finding some opportunity for myself that offers more bucks. I was already getting enough excitement. Thanks to that, coaching has stayed my primary source of income. And that is just one surprise. I am now coaching almost the same number of people as I was at peak with trainees continuing for almost 4 years or more now.

Reading has suffered a bit but I have read some wonderful books this year. Range by David Epstein, Loonshots by Safi Bahcall and Good to Go by Christie Aschwanden are 3 picks if you can't wait for my annual post on other good books I read. Audiobooks and Podcasts have bailed out quite a bit of my reading.

I continue to be grateful for so many good things in my life. I only wish the same and more for myself and for you, my dear reader. As with every year since I began coaching, I have met a few wonderful and generous people who have tried to make my life better in the last year too.

And as with the last few years, now that you are here, say hello, write in and let me know how you have been and anything else you have been perhaps meaning to say :)

Rise of the Ultra Runners by Adharanand Finn

2019-05-16T07:43:00.002-07:00

Rise of the Ultra Runners by Adharanand Finn is the 3rd book by the author and easily his best work.

Spoiler Alert!

If you don't want to know some key details of the book, skip the rest of this post, read the book and come back to finish reading this post.

If you are still here, I must thank you for indulging me.

As I tweeted giddily after the initial few chapters, it has everything from fantastic anecdotes, sibling rivalry, the wonderful Thomas Payn and expectedly some of the legends of ultrarunning.

For one, the book is quite unlike anything Finn has written before. It has none of the meticulous, slow nature of his two earlier books on Kenyan and Japanese running. It also betrays a certain impatience (perhaps driven by the publishing contract) for someone entering the world of ultrarunning. But it is a bloody colourful book and never has a dull moment. Amongst many reasons to read it, is the author's visceral honesty and willingness to share his vulnerability with his readers although one would love to know how one even has the cognitive coherence to remember such detail for someone subject to hallucinations during an ultramarathon!

As the reader follows Finn on his journey, one wonders what happened to the Finn from Kenya and Japan? Wasn't he much nicer? You wouldn't expect him to mock his generous hosts, would you? And he does get quite hard on himself, more than once about his racing. The one time one sees a clear sign that this is the same author who wrote with such fondness about Kenyans and quite some amusement about the Japanese, is when he observes the rather "white" universe of ultrarunning. And to his credit he does make an attempt to remedy that (which would be familiar to some of his followers on Twitter). But this book is mostly about Finn and his experience while meeting practically every legend in the ultrarunning scene globally. The one gap if any, is that there's almost no mention of some of the accomplished Japanese runners, esp in the 24 hr races.

If you weren't already a fan of Finn, when you see his adulation for Damian Hall, the journalist runner who does spectacular stuff at the UTMB, followed by a desire to emulate him, you know you are that guy!

The book also has more of his family and friends than in his previous books, since this book has a lot of self-reflection on Finn's part and it hasn't escaped this writer than Finn spent more time in the Alps doing his first UTMB than I spent in acquiring this book, reading and then writing this review!
But it was worth every moment and I hope you get to savour it too.

It has enough drama for even a non-runner to appreciate a good read on an adventure. You could read the book if you a runner, maybe even an ultrarunner, an adventure seeker, a navel gazer, a nature lover or someone who just loves a good story or two.
Don't blame the author if you get inspired to sign up for an ultra!

Good to Go by Christie Aschwanden

2019-04-11T05:09:00.001-07:00

Christie Aschwanden’s Good to Go, is subtitled “How to eat, rest, sleep and rest like a champion” but it could easily have been subtitled as the sports science version of https://callingbullshit.org/

There’s more than a lifetime’s reading of books on training to achieve better performance as an athlete across sports but there’s not a comparable body of work on recovery. And that’s with good reason - It is really hard to figure out what works and not too many have bothered trying to find out. Should you take that pre-workout drink that all your friends are taking? Should you buy that special set of socks that your rivals are swearing by? What about those post-race ice baths and massages?

Christie boldly steps in where not many have dared to and examines claims from manufacturer of recovery devices and supplements and protocols and practitioners to see what works and whether it makes sense, even stepping aside to explore what works when it seemingly doesn’t make sense!

Along the way, she manages to entertain the readers with humility and humour while raising the reader’s understanding of what sports science has to say on various topics. While she willingly submits herself to various ideas in the interest of sports science, she doesn’t spare herself for trying whatever idea she is examining, in the first place. And she has the inputs of over two hundred people in the area of sports science including Olympic medallists, world class sportspersons across sports as diverse as American football and mountain biking, coaches, sports scientists, even the businessmen behind some of the products and services and fellow authors.

The book is endorsed by two of the very best writers of our times - Alex Hutchinson who wrote the incredibly useful “Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights” and David Epstein who wrote “The Sports Gene, ” and with good reason. Christie is very respected as a writer on science and it will become quickly obvious to her readers why that is so.

The book is an enjoyable read and not just because Christie writes in a simple, lucid and witty manner with chapters titled “The Cold War” while discussing ice baths (and related protocols) for recovery or “Selling Snake Oil” on supplements, but it causes the reader to pause and think for herself why she is doing what she is doing and whether it really works. The book is worth reading for just a section alone - one on questions for scientists in an early chapter titled “Just-So Science” and how a study on whether beer aids recovery taught her lessons she uses throughout the book.

*This review should have appeared about 3 weeks ago but I had an avoidable mishap with the publisher. This review was made possible due to an advanced copy from the author

Mumbai Marathon 2019

2019-01-21T04:20:00.001-08:00

A little bit of blood, lots of sweat and some tears...

Y’day was the 15th edition of the Mumbai Marathon (now called the Tata Mumbai Marathon).

The last year has been a significant year (and not just on the running front) in my life. With the birth of my son in Apr last year, I decided to put my running way down on my list of priorities at least in the short term. From Apr to Aug, I ran for just 3 days a week and at an easy pace. From Sep, I began running 6 days a week while continuing to run easy. By the time KTM came around in Nov, I was in good shape, despite no speed work.

I had a very good run at KTM thanks to some German business travellers, running under 90 min for the first time ever. So I was looking forward to Mumbai this year wondering this would be the year I would have a good run in the full marathon. Since 2011, I have had great runs at Mumbai in the half but a good run in the full has been elusive.

I had been to Mumbai last week (Well, Vashi isn’t exactly Mumbai - it is much cooler than South Mumbai, for sure) and I knew that come race day, the weather would suck - like it has in most years. While I wasn’t looking for a PB, despite being in PB shape, I wanted to beat my best time in India 3:14 from a race in Bangalore. I knew that was possible as my fitness felt better than that. I felt confident enough to tell anyone who asked me what my target was that I’d love to run between 3:10-3:15, unlike in previous years where I felt telling someone my target for Mumbai would jinx it. As an aside, I don’t feel like this at other races - when Hari (a running buddy) had asked me at KTM what my target was, I had said that I’d love to get as close to 1:30 as I could. And I did. But then…

Since the race started at 5:30 am this year, I woke up at 2:30 am as I was staying with a friend at Worli and wanted to be at the venue by 4:45. Since I had nothing to do after 3:30, I tried taking a nap till 4 am but that didn’t work. I finally ended up at the venue by 4:15 itself as the ride was a breeze. My cab went thru Marine Drive which was a surprise since I expected road closures much before the race start.

The race start was great as my first km took me almost 4:40 thanks to the crowds. I was kicked as I have never started this slow. I spent kms 3-10 talking to Murthy, a fellow runner from Bangalore, about his daughter, already a promising runner. Once we hit Pedder Road, I held my pace but Murthy dropped back a bit.

By the time I got to half way point, I was so looking forward to the 32km mark where I would begin a planned surge. That was not to be. Thanks to my bowels not being empty, I ended up with gas which got progressively worse from around the 26-27 km mark and I slowed to a walk. I went to some shops on the sea-face and asked for ginger which helps with gas. Since I couldn’t get one, I had to walk as my abdomen hurt a lot. I got one only by end of the sea face with a vegetable cart! That helped a bit.

I then stopped at a porta-potty at Kemp’s Corner but that didn’t help at all.

I began running again but in another 4-5km my legs which had got compromised thanks to a weakened core, just didn’t recover. I gave up and did a mix of walking and jogging till the end. I even entertained thoughts of pulling out of the race at the 29km mark when I passed close to where I was staying in Worli, but the memory of my only DNF in a 75km race at the 50km mark, thanks to a bad attitude haunted me for a year. I just sucked up and went on. As I established a few years ago, if you don't hit your target, any number is not palatable. So even if I finished in over 4 hours, it didn't matter.

Only when an old running friend, Priyankar popped up by my side with about 200m to go, did I attempt any sort of running.

That helped me finish looking better than I did after 30km but my stomach was bugging me.

Due to the gas, none of the electral and water (or even a banana) I had consumed along the way had been absorbed. Due to this happening at the ultra, I knew I had to puke it out or risk a messy flight trip back to Bangalore. So I did that. An old trainee and friend, helped me get thru this. We were both spooked when I puked some blood at the end. At first I thought it might be ORSL in the apple flavour, but I went home and checked that the drink is just light brown in question. I am guessing that my dry throat must have gotten scratched and puking must have made it worse.

Anyways, I was fine after this and went home, showered, had a nice lunch thanks to my host and left for the airport. Just a few years ago, I would have agonised over this. Thanks to the baby, there were very low expectations. I am disappointed but not exactly shattered. Another year, another race.

See you all next year.

Books in 2018

2018-12-31T00:20:00.000-08:00

xxx

Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
Endure by Alex Hutchinson
Revolution for Dummies by Bassem Youssef
ISRO: A Personal Story by G. Aravamudhan
Let me tell you a story by John Feinstein (with Red Auerbach)
Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith
How to make a spaceship by Julian Guthrie
Failing to Succeed by K. Vaitheeshwaran
Principles by Ray Dalio
The Everything Store by Brad Stone
Scale by Geoffrey West
Dissenting Diagnosis by Arun Gadre
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben*
What Have you changed your mind about by John Brockman*
Factfulness by Hans Rosling (and Anna + Ola Rosling)
Start up Nation by Dan Senor
Peak Performance by Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness
Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks
Leila by Prayaag Akbar
The Real Town Murders by Adam Roberts
Payoff by Dan Ariely
The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
Raising the Bar by Gary Erickson
State of Slim by Christie Aschwanden, Holly Wyatt, and James Hill
A Man called Ove by Fredrik Backman
First Ladies of Running by Amby Burfoot
Out of my Mind by Alan Arkin

*Unfinished

The Seven Year Itch

2018-09-11T07:53:00.001-07:00

It has been 7 years since I quit my job.

It has been an interesting year to say the least. 2018 has been so good that I sometimes worry about reversion to the mean:)

The themes for this series has been running, reading, freelancing, writing, gratitude in general, etc.

When I wrote last year's post, I had alluded to my attempt at the Malnad Ultra 80K. That was a great experience at running my longest distance in one event. The running part was off to a rollicking start in Jan of this year when I won a half marathon, for the first time in my life, contributing to my most popular tweet till date. A little after that, I had a rather forgettable outing at the Mumbai Marathon. I turned 40 this year and that was made super-sweet by my setting a 5K PB, sharing the podium with people around half my age and some celebrity overdose as well, just the day before my 40th birthday.

My coaching is on its way to not being the major contributor to my income for this financial year (if current trends continue). I've increased the time I spend at The Fuller Life as a consultant and we have made some modest progress in the time I have been there. The pool of people I coach, have showered such affection on me that I sometimes consider doing it for free, but that bank balance alert every Sun morning takes care of such thoughts ;)

It has been really far more fulfilling than I had expected to be a coach and I am infinitely grateful for that.

I have tried at least 2 big bets and they have bombed quite embarrassingly and am surprisingly pleased about that. At least one of them was thanks to my work.

I have read more fiction in this year but more on that in my year end post. But hey, if you need a recco - try Factfulness by Hans Rosling. To say it will change your life (if you are like most people and not some yogi) will be an understatement.

And I finally managed to write again this year after quite a hiatus, with a review of a book by one of my favourite writers on running, no less! Don't you love Canadians?!

Perhaps the one sad note to the year was the passing away of a dear uncle :( All the equanimity in the world can't help alleviate the grief at least at that moment. It was a big blow to my mother (and hence to me) and a lot of my family.

And one more thing - the new theme for this year (and as one of my friends and trainees wagged - perhaps for the next 15 years!) is parenting! We became parents to a lovely boy a few months ago. That has overridden everything else in my life (quizzing among those). It was one decision that was taken after quite some deliberation and one, perhaps one can only assess reasonably only in the long term. Amongst others, if you didn't already respect the role of women in your life in general and mothers in particular, parenting is an eye-opener to that path.

While writing this post, I discovered that the title of this post comes from a persistent skin disease and not the Marilyn Monroe movie (based on a play)! Who knew?

And no, I am not going to back to the rat-race any time soon although some addition to my bank balance is more than welcome.

I continue to be grateful for so many good things in my life. I only wish the same and more for myself and for you, my dear reader.

And as with the last few years, now that you are here, say hello, write in and let me know how you have been and anything else you have been perhaps meaning to say :)

Books in 2017

2017-12-27T00:02:00.000-08:00

2017 got off to a better start than 2016 and I tried to maintain a better pace through the year. The reading in 2017 was aided in no small part by the no of books I started reading in 2016 but didn't quite finish. 2017's reading also got off to a good start thanks to starting off with graphic novels which make the reading a bit more fun.

The Property by Rutu Modan
Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbag
Logicomix (graphic novel)
Running by Ronnie O Sullivan
Why We Run by Robin Harvie
On Writing by Stephen King
On the Move by Oliver Sacks
TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking
H is or Hawk by Helen MacDonald
From Ouch to Oops by Ram G Vallath
The Space Merchants by Frederick Pohl and Cyril M Kornbluth
Twenty Four Years to Boston by Jim Brennan
Redshirts by John Scalzi
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
Enter The Dangal by Rudraneil Sengupta
The Element: How finding your passion changes everything by Ken Robinson
I contain multitudes by Ed Yong
The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf
To Sell is human by Dan Pink
Starter for Ten by David Nicholls
Four men in a boat by Tim Foster et al
A lifetime in a race by Mathew Pinsent
Sapiens by Hariri
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis
The boy who runs by John Brant
Raif Badawi: Dreaming of Freedom (graphic novel)
Will it make the boat go faster by Ben Hunt Davis and Harriet Beveridge
The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman
I'm not a terrorist but I've played one on TV by Maz Jobrani

One of the key changes this year was that I read some fiction, driven partly by Gautam Shenoy's lovely sci-fi themed column for FactorDaily.

I was torn for choice to pick one book I'd recommend. I enjoyed almost every book but not one book held me for the entire time I held it. King's book was a great read but you may not like unless you are a writer (even if you are aspiring to be one).

The Jonasson book was a surprise and I enjoyed it, perhaps because I had no expectations from it.

However the John Brant book is perhaps the one story that'll stick for a long time in terms of life lessons. To manage what Julius Achon has managed with his kind of background is incredibly inspiring.

The one reading moment that stuck with me for an entire day was to read Gaiman on Syrian refugees. It just tore me up. While anyone who lives in our time should be able to see the horrors of Syrian refugees, Gaiman's writing affected me quite a bit.

2017 was a better year than 2016 thanks to audio books, Kindle versions and Google Play Books on my phone. Thanks to these, I am in various stages of reading another half dozen titles at the least.
I continued to indulge in books on rowing. I suspect 2018 may be titled towards cycling, which I haven't read about in a while.
I am hoping 2018 is at least as good, if not better.

What was your year in reading like?