Quarantine – Month 2 (April 17 – May 16)

Well, well, well. Here we are again!

I will be honest, When I wrote the first edition, I didn’t know I will have to write the second one too. Given that these are some of the strangest times of our lifetime (yet), I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up writing more articles like this.

Anyway, without much blabber I will start off with the highlight of the second month being quarantined.

COVID19 POSITIVE CASES IN MICHIGAN
It is so important to reflect upon the positive COVID19 cases in Michigan. A month before, things didn’t look that good and I thought, we are stuck in a spiral with no escape from it. It felt like a wormhole, with no escape route in sight. But, with the “strict” social distancing rule in place, the Michiganders brought down the number 996 on April 17th to ~400 on May 16th. I am both happy and excited for this, at the same time, a little bit worried since we are talking to reopen most of the United States.
I am sure reopening is important to keep the economy alive, but at the same time, it is very important to take care of each other and make sure we do not spread this virus further. With reopening, I am sure there will be a second wave of the positive COVID19 cases and *hopefully* we will be ready for that.

RUNNING
Keeping in mind that I am preparing for Detroit FreePress International Marathon (if it happens and doesn’t get cancelled due to COVID19 🤞🏽), my focus was towards running and biking more than core exercises that I nailed in the first month.

The first month of quarantine saw me completing 50 miles of running. Though it is a lot of miles, the second month was more than that. I could complete 67 miles of running during this second month of quarantine, which is an increase of roughly 34% 📈. I am so happy with this result and excited for the future ahead.

BIKING
This was my second favorite activity during this month. I didn’t imagine I would bike this much in my lifetime and I surprised myself with 34 miles of biking at a stretch, and treating 19 miles of biking as nothing.

During the first month of the quarantine, I could complete 80 miles of biking. The second month saw an exponential rise of 150% 📈 and could complete 201 miles of biking. I didn’t realize it until I counted all the miles to write for this post and I cannot tell you how happy I am after this *sweet and sudden* realization.

HIKING
This has been an integral part of my lifestyle (especially during the summer season) for the past couple years (since the time I arrived at Michigan). The first month, we hiked more than anticipated and could finish 40 miles of hiking. This month, we could cover only 32 miles of hiking, a 20% drop 📉 in number of miles, but I am happy with the efforts considering the efforts that I put in other areas.

CORE EXERCISES
This is one area where I could not put more attention in the second month of quarantine. However, I was happy to put in a couple weeks for these exercise and finished

630 push-ups
310 sit-ups
460 Russian Twists
200 Burpees
150 Lunges
150 Squats
150 Mountain Climbers

Going into the third month, I do not have any plan about what actually I am going to do, but will try to keep my chin up and put in much needed work.

NEW STUFF
Being quarantined and working from home helps you reflect upon so many things and give you enough creative room to try on some new things. I was fortunate enough to try my hands at some of the new stuffs like

Learnt some basic bike repair techniques
As I am staying with my friends Monika and Anupam and their two kids – I am learning new things everyday and one of the few things which I learnt was how to fix a bicycle. I know it is not a big thing for some, but given that I am not that good with tools, this definitely stood out for me and I was glad that I put effort and interest in it and learnt it the right way.

Learnt to make *Starbucks* style Latte
This has been a revolutionary thing that I learnt during this lockdown/quarantine. Before this, I never knew making a latte was so easy and soothing process. All you need is a froth maker which is available at amazon.com for a mere $10 or less. Once you master the skill of froth making, it is all about mixing the frothed milk into an instant coffee and topping up this mixture with the actual froth from the milk and finishing it off with a nice and cute design.
Here’s one of the lattes that I made during this time.

Planted a sapling
And this has been such a pleasant experience. I am a sucker for the sunny Michigan weather and that wonderful weekend, when we planted the tree, it was an awesome feeling to lend my hand. I will surely remember this day for a long time and will definitely look out for that sampling to grow in a big tree.
Here’s the picture from that day.

The closing
my head is down
with positive hope
expectations are high
and my attitude dope
learning new things
doing what I do best
let us hope this all
will be put to rest.
One. Day.