Cycling and traffic phobia

I love cycling so normally Saturday is the day. Maximum distance i have covered so far is 18/20 km.
On 15th October , Milind and I was supposed to do the same , but a day earlier Punitji shared a message of doing 43/45km from Borivali to Bandra with all the bridges along the way and Mr. Milind Meher gave thumbs up !!!

I was like .. hya ... is he even thinking about it . Covering the distance may not be an issue for me as somewhere i still remember Vinod N's statement that you can cycle triple the distance that you can run. But bridges... too much and that to till Bandra and back ... guys there will be verticals on the road... are you kidding me!!!

But as usual, ever cool Mr. Milind said that we can try as much as we can and take U turn ... no issues. Well , that was comforting... but how do i deal with traffic :-(

And there we were at Saidham waiting for Punitji , Vinod and Deepa , till Goregaon we were almost together all going good, took small break near Hub and then came to know that Vinod would return from Goregaon. Post that Punitji and Deepa were no where to be seen :-).

We continued shortly , bridge after bridge ... it was a balance between changing gear , keeping the speed and most important for me, not think too much about the vehicles passing by me at speed of may be 100km/hr. I was almost riding side by side to Milind , whenever there is slightest need to cross the side.. this was also demanding me to be fast , as on bridge incline, he was quite ahead of me and i had to push my self to reach to him before the bridge starts .  
We crossed our college "Gov. Polytechnic" and all the memories put smile on my face.

And then it was last bridge ,near Bandra reclamation and somehow distance between Milind and i grew a little , i lost him and he was at the start of the bridge , and i was having panic attack in middle of the road and instead of going right I rushed to left. Milind was waited for couple of minutes , but could not reach him . Fear of crossing the road full of vehicles is not strength , may that's the reason i still cannot drive.

Mr. cool lost his cool and i got what i deserved to be a full :-) no details here , but he did say that if you act like that the vehicle would easily take you with it.
Controlling my fear , guilt of disappointing Milind ...I continued towards Bandra reclamation and we met Punitji and Deepa .
It was beautiful morning with sea in front and the sun turning everything gold.

     Punitji. asked if we want to get our photos here , and i told him this is known spot to us in our good old days:-)

While coming back , i thought , i will not be able to take any bridge , but was able to make it with whatever energy that was left in me. Still decided to skip Malad bridge. Water was almost finished and we were looking for coconut water badly. Took a break in Thakur village for same and back to Siddharth Nagar.

This was great experience , i am glad that i am pushing myself , testing my limits , giving it a shot without thinking to much about the end result . I am loving it :-)

  

Mind Vs. Body

I was back from Germany on Saturday Early morning and was all set (in mind) to run 15km on Sunday. Somehow I wanted to make up for the lost days of practice.

So there we (Milind and I) were, on the road . Shashi was supposed to join us after his warm up. In long distance, we normally start from Siddharth Nagar and all the way in BNP to complete the distance.

It must be 1.75 km , running at easy pace of 8, but still I got severe pain in both the ankles and calves. I somehow completed 2 km and then it was even hard for me to walk...I was wondering what was it ? 2 weeks of cold weather in Germany or not enough hydration or irregular work out ? or all of above

Meanwhile Shashi joined us and I asked the guys to go ahead , as I did not want to ruin their run.

I was determined to complete 15km when I started , but pain was too much at that point to handle. But I walked for almost 0.5 km to see if I can bare it ... and I was :-) . Then ran another 0.5 km and again break. Meanwhile saw Girish Aroskar pass by like a superfast train , when I was approaching BNP.

I imagined, what if this happens on The Day ... would I quit ... and I did not wait wait for an answer , change the track to my favorite Marathi collection , and pushed myself .

Few months back I had read FB post of Amit Sheth, that when you meet people during run and greet each other , it gives you energy to run little further and exactly thats what happened. All the smiling faces, exchange of greetings , courteous remarks ...there is just different energy in the air when you run in BNP.

With moderate breaks in between I reached the Kannheri Route and in ascend , met BNP gang ...they were on their way back to starting point .... hmmm after all , i did not do so bad :-)
It was great feeling.

On my way back. last 2 km were really tough ..I almost walked half the distance with feeling of throwing up ... must be dehydration .

But at the end to see 15.3km on the tracker was something else. Hurrey ... I did it :-)                    

Running experience in Germany

It had been almost a week in Germany and was trying to find my opportunity to run. I was totally disappointed initially due to rains and for a change was following weather forecast and sunrise timings. I was completely aware that I will not be able to do long run because of weather conditions and office timings, but still wanted to give it a shot ..first run out of India, or should i say out of Mumbai. I also had made a note in mind which route to pick for run while coming back and forth from office to hotel. The only thing missing was water bottle which I completely forgot to carry , but was saved by my German colleague. So here i was all set , but still in waiting mode.

And there it was , clear sky on 5th October 2016 , sunrise at 7:30 and temperature 7 degrees. I was all set , did my warm up in the room and i was out. Although i had done my warm up , the first thing you feel is cold . With the wind , 7 degrees felt like 4 degrees. I started with slow pace and immediately had watery eyes and after few minutes palms were totally numb. But in all this excitement of running was much more.

It was so wonderful to run on the road with no traffic at all . I could see few moms dropping their kids to kindergarten, but apart from that it was all clear , as if it was meant for me to run. After the run a hot steaming cup was tea ... although instant .. just felt like heaven.

After my first run i was eager  to do little more . My colleague showed me forest and I instantly fell in love with the road in the woods. I am running now more than a year , but strange enough in recent times , where ever i go , brain instantly start scanning the roads for run.

And then again I got opportunity to run on 9th October 2016 , into the woods . Temperature 8 deg . Lesson learned from last time ... i put on my hand gloves 😊.

It reminded of my runs in BNP when people greet you. There its more " Apali manas " from group , but here its irrespective of that. It puts big smile on a sweaty face and encouragement to run further ahead.

It was busy work week , but all was worth it , the cold , the wind , the up hill ... everything.
The road straight ahead of me , was giving me opportunity to run , explore , put behind my fears , doubts ... and just be free ... feel free.