Week 17 wasn’t something that I could boast about. I think, it will be hard to get back to my running schedule and let’s see when that becomes a reality.
Day 118 – 04/28/2021 – 1776/248 The first run of the week came on a Wednesday morning. I got up earlier than usual and there was nothing else to do in the house, so I decided to grab my running shoes and get out of the house before the family wakes up.
I have fallen in love with the DOGE loop and it is my go-to spot for running these days. I haven’t gotten bored of it yet, so let’s see how many days I can run like this. The DOGE loop is better than the CCP loop, because it is 1.3 miles long and it takes roughly 15 minutes to finish one loop, which is a good time for me to come home if I wanted to stop in between rounds. Being 1.3 miles long in distance, it takes me roughly 3 round to finish 4 miles distance. It takes me roughly 40-45 minutes to finish these 3 loops, giving me enough time to freshen up before I have food, depending upon the time of the day.
Day 119 – 04/29/2021 – 1772/247 The second run of the week came today. My schedule gave me enough time to go outside and complete 3 rounds of my favorite DOGE loop.
Today’s run was slightly faster than yesterday’s run and I knew even though it wasn’t enough for my weekly quota, I was happy with the fact that I finished 8 miles of running this week. With the Summer season beginning in a month, I am excited to run more around the DOGE loop and my other favorite spot – Hines Drive.
Before you go, please check out the week number 18 highlights. I finished 8 miles this week, bringing the distance to cover in 2021 to 1772.2 miles, that’s 7.17 miles every single day for the remainder of the year!
After a disappointing week 16, I knew I was in trouble and needed to do something about it during this week.
Day 111 – 04/21/2021 – 1780/255 Today was the first day of the run for this week. I was showing the recent loop that I had discovered to my family members. Before today’s run, I didn’t know the total length of this loop. It was a sweet realization that it was exactly 1.3 miles long. The first thought that popped up in my head was if I finish 10 rounds of this loop, it will equal the Half Marathon distance. Unfortunately, I couldn’t lap 10 rounds, and had to stop after only a couple rounds.
I wish I could have gone for more, but I couldn’t or didn’t. Anyway, I had to stop at 2.6 miles.
It turned out that April 21st was the only day I went out for a run during the entire week, setting myself so far back from my goal. I am not sure how I will be able to get there.
Before you go, please check out the week number 17 highlights. I finished 2.6 miles this week, bringing the distance to cover in 2021 to 1780.2 miles, that’s 7.06 miles every single day for the remainder of the year!
I could run only 17 miles last week, let’s see how many miles I can run this week.
That was a quick question to answer as I didn’t go out for a single time throughout the week. This is the second week this year that I couldn’t run at least a single mile. I know this brings my running average so far down that the goal of running 2,021 miles this year seems quite distant. Still, I am hopeful that I will try to reach the target closer than last year.
I am happy with the fact that I am getting to spend time with the family, which is such a blessing during the stressful time back home in India.
Before you go, please check out the week number 16 highlights. I finished 0 miles this week, bringing the distance to cover in 2021 to 1782.8 miles, that’s 6.88 miles every single day for the remainder of the year!
Welcome to one more outing in the month of June. We went to the Detroit River Tour with the entire Ford team. The team made this plan to show Detroit to our colleagues from Chennai, India & spend some time with each other.
I have been living in Michigan for more than a year now, and in spite of that, I hadn’t gone to the Detroit River Tour, so even I was excited to be a part of the group and enjoy scenes around the river, which divides the land between United States of America and Canada. Apart from our colleagues from Chennai, we were accompanied by the three interns who were with us for this summer and it was nice to have a diverse group of people.
All of us drove from the office at around 12PM to the Detroit Downtown. My boss’ boss, Max, was kind enough to reserve a parking spot for us, so that we didn’t have to look for one. When we reached the parking spot, all of us gathered at the location and waited for the rest of the team to join us. While waiting, some of us thought it would be a good idea to take a stroll by the river bank as the hotness of the Sun was nullified by the cold air blowing from the river. The walk lasted for a good 10-15 minutes, before it was time to board the tour boat, which would take us through different parts of the river and our guide would give us lovely insights about all the cool things about the river and different buildings located on the both sides.
I spent most of my time on the boat with my teammates. I had fun sitting with them talking about various things, going to the front of the boat to experience some fresh air, going to the back of the boat to see the trail that the boat leaves behind on the river waters. It was a nice way to get to know my teammates outside the work hours and talk to them about different things in Detroit and Michigan. Some of my teammates were born and brought up in Michigan, so they had so many cool stories to tell us.
After the boat tour, it was time to head to the rooftop in Downtown Detroit, where one of our teammates, Michell, used to live. Before this day, I had never experienced the rooftop party in the Downtown of a major city. When we were planning for this event, I didn’t know about this part of the outing until the boat tour was over. It was a sweet surprise to me and that’s why I wasn’t prepared for it. That’s why when we were on our way to Michell’s rooftop, I stopped at a local store to grab a 6-pack of my favorite beer, Corona. The good thing about the rooftop was that they had patio furniture, which we used to sit and relax. I had a really nice time chugging the beer and having my favorite food – pizza.
The weather was perfect for the rooftop party. It wasn’t too hot to stay outside and not too cold that we wanted to go in. It was the perfect Michigan weather on a breezy June afternoon. We had such a fun talking to each other and enjoying the lovely weather, that I lost track of time. The time flew by pretty quickly and I could feel the Sun moving in the sky. As all affairs, this had to come to an end at around 5PM, when I had to leave to take care of something. I big my goodbyes to all my teammates and headed to my car at the parking lot.
It was an awesome way to spend a day with the lovely team – A team that I hadn’t left in the last couple years and don’t intend to do so in future.
Ah! After the Grand Haven trip, the group decided to run a 10K at the Canton Liberty Run. The decision to run a 10K without any preparation was a daunting one and I wasn’t sure whether my body was ready to take in this much effort. But, as most of the group was participating in the 10K event, I decided to join them and see what lies ahead of me.
I picked up the Bibs and T-shirts for everyone prior to the day of the event, so that they don’t have to. I was all excited to run a 10K, which was probably the longest distance I was going to run in a long time. To prepare for the run, the only thing I did was to watch a few YouTube videos and walk a little bit. Apart from that, I didn’t spend much time actually running and preparing for the event.
On the day of the event, we all arrived at the venue and were all ready to run. I remember they had put the sections for all the runners based on their pace. Knowing that I hadn’t run in a long time and how slow I would be during the actual race, I decided to start at the 12′ pace mark. I thought that was a good place to start my run as I didn’t want to bump into other runners and cause any injuries to anyone.
The run started normally. I knew how fast or slow I should run, since the distance was 6.2 miles long. I started very slowly, moving in close quarters with the fellow runners. After we crossed a couple blocks, then I started to see the crowd spreading a little bit. This spread of the crowd gave me some room to pace my run accordingly. I remember it was around 1-mile mark when I started realizing how long the 10K distance is. Fortunately, the race coordinators had setup the hydration stations after every miles, which helped me stay motivated and energetic throughout the race. Looking at the other runners, I felt I should run faster too, but, couldn’t as I didn’t want to tire myself out.
I kept looking at the next milestone throughout the race. I knew if I just thought about the milestones, the race will not be over quickly, so I started humming songs and looking at other runners and people who were cheering us on from the sidelines. It made the time and distance went by quickly than I expected.
I didn’t realize that I was near the finish line until I saw the milestone marking the 6 mile distance. This meant that the finish line was just 0.2 miles away. When I learnt this, I was just waiting for the finish line to appear. Unfortunately, this 0.2 miles distance seemed so far away to me. I was trying so hard to reach the finish line, but it seemed so away from me, and I had a hard time to cover that distance. Finally, after almost a long time, I could cross the finish line & the feeling was amazingly awesome.
The official photographer from the Canton Liberty Run captured a few clicks of me crossing the finish line. My friends were across the finish the line and I was the fourth one to finish the race. Though, I would have loved finishing the race faster and quicker, but was happy with the effort that I put in and saw myself crossing the finish line. It was an amazing feeling just to cross the finish line and capture the distance such as 10K. It was a big deal and something that I cherished a lot.
After celebrating my birthday in April, I took a break from vacation for the month of May and wait until this trip. To kick off my Summer outings, we decided to head to Grand Haven to enjoy some Sun, sand, beach, water, and a lighthouse.
The group included Manju, Bhaskar, Rohan, Monika, Anupam, Aryan, Arnav, and myself. For the occasion, I was wearing my black T-shirt with the words “Sexy Boy” inked in Hindi. The plan was to leave home early and have some breakfast on the way to the destination. We left early to make sure we reach by the mid afternoon as we wanted to hike a little bit before soaking ourselves in the water and enjoy some lazy late afternoon walks by the lighthouse.
As soon as we reached the location, we checked for a permit. We spent a good 10 minutes, looking for a spot to get a permit, but it turned out, we didn’t need one. After this initial hiccup, most of us were hungry, so we gobbled on some Golgappas before starting our hike. The state park had a beach, but it wasn’t close to the parking & we had to hike a little bit to get to it.
The hike was not a long one and while chit chatting and making fun of each other. The more fun part of the day after the hike was over and we finally got to the water and near the lighthouse. The spot was pretty crowded as is the case every year for Michigan beaches. I was stunned to find out the cleanliness at the beach and so many things people were doing on the beaches. I was mentally keeping notes of all the things that I can do in future, as I know I will be staying in Michigan for times to come.
We spent the afternoon clicking pictures, playing in the sand and water and taking countless strolls through the lighthouse area.
I think we left at around 6PM & had dinner on our way back home. It was a good day. It was an awesome way to kick off the Michigan Summer.
For the last couple days, I was exploring the places in Albuquerque, NM, from my favorite show of all time: Breaking Bad. It was time to head back home and carry on with my regular life. But, before heading home, I had a layover at Denver, CO.
For my stay at Denver, CO, I hadn’t booked any Airbnb or hotel, as I wanted to keep my options open and see what I feel when I get there. The last couple days had been so hectic, I couldn’t take proper rest or relax a little bit. When I flew from ABQ to Denver, I could feel that I was both mentally and physically exhausted, so before getting my car from the rental place, I just booked a nice hotel which was closer to the airport so that I didn’t have to drive much.
I could feel my feet, hand, and the entire body tired and in desperate need of a comfy bed to have a good night’s sleep. I was so happy to find a good deal quickly, with just a few minutes of driving.
When I reached the hotel lobby, I had to wait for a couple minutes to get the keys to my room. Unfortunately, when I reached the room, my key card couldn’t work, so I cursed my luck and went to the reception one more time to activate it. After the second attempt and 10 minutes later, I was in my hotel room. I was so tired, I didn’t want to do anything, but, just lay down on my bed. While being this tired, I still got a quick shower before going to bed. As soon as I laid my back on the bed, I dozed off.
It felt weird that I celebrated my birthday while sleeping, but, I did do everything that I had planned for my birthday.
The next morning, I woke up to many messages and calls from friends and family to wish me Happy Birthday! I spent some good time to talk to them and respond to messages. I had a flight in the afternoon, so I took my sweet time to get ready and checkout. I had planned to check out a couple places in Denver, but discarded that as I wanted to just chill and relax. It turned out to be a good decision as my body really needed some rest.
Before I know it, it was time to check out of the hotel, drive to the airport, and catch flight for Detroit.
It was an awesome way to celebrate my birthday and frankly, the best birthday gift I have given myself. I loved every single minute of it. I don’t know how I will be able to top it. I guess, we will find out.
After a disappointing 14th week, it is time to rethink the running strategy and continue running for the remainder of the year. I have more expectations from this week. Let’s see how they turn out to be.
Day 95 – 04/05/2021 – 1794/271 The first run of the week. I wanted to enjoy some longer run, so chose to take the usual 10K route which takes me through both Northville and Novi. Today’s run was faster than I expected, all thanks to the lovely Michigan weather. As my mileage is going up, I am paying more attention to running slowly so that I don’t get injured. I have observed that if I run slowly, the distance doesn’t matter. I think this strategy is going to be a key for me to achieve my target. Let’s see.
Day 96 – 04/06/2021 – 1790/270 The second run of the week. I decided to take a shorter route for today’s run. This 4-mile route takes me through Downtown Northville and gives me a chance to see more people on the streets. As I have mentioned before, my pace is usually better when I run through the Downtown area. The run was pretty normal and I didn’t mind spending some time out in the Sun.
Day 97 – 04/07/2021 – 1783/269 The third and last run of the week. I went out for the run in the morning time as my afternoon schedule was pretty tight. The only downside of running during that time was that I had my phone with me and I had to answer a couple emails while out on the run. Constantly stopping and resuming my run made me take much longer than I expected. I was very disappointed at the end of the run and wished it would have gone smoother. Anyway, it was the end of the run, so there was nothing I could have done about it.
Before you go, please check out the week number 15 highlights. I finished 17.5 miles this week, bringing the distance to cover in 2021 to 1782.8 miles, that’s 6.7 miles every single day for the remainder of the year!
Welcome to the second and last day of ABQ exploration. If you didn’t check out the first day, I would strongly recommend checking it out here.
Today was all about visiting places that I couldn’t visit yesterday. I had the following list of places to visit for mu second and last day at ABQ, post which I had to board a flight to Denver, CO, which was my connection before heading home to Detroit, MI. 1. Tuco’s headquarters 2. Jesse’s house 3. Dog House 4. The Candy Lady 5. Gustavo Fring’s house 6. Jesse and Jane’s apartment 7. Deserted spot where Walt keeps his money 8. Saul Goodman’s office 9. Los Pollos Hermanos
Let us begin the exploration.
Tuco’s headquarters I woke up after a tired yesterday, which I spent walking the streets of Denver and ABQ. I felt great for the day to come and was looking forward to having my breakfast at Java Joe’s which was Tuco’s headquarters on the show. I still remember the scene when Walt blows up this HQ to get back at Tuco. I drove from my Airbnb to this place and found a spot to park my car right before this cafe. Just by looking at the building from the parking spot, I could recognize the place. The more surprising thing for me was the interior of this building. I didn’t expect this place to be so beautiful from inside. They had so many colors on the walls and beautiful artifacts inside, it was hard to take eyes off them. I glanced through their menu and it was really impressive. I settled for a regular English breakfast, but underestimated the size of the dish. I realized how big the size of the plate was when I looked at it. It was a challenge to finish it, but I managed to do it. After a tummy full of lovely and delicious breakfast, it was time to head to the next spot on my list.
Jesse’s house I was excited to check out the house that Jesse lived in during the first couple seasons. The more interesting part for me was the neighborhood, which was nice, clean, and well kept. I had a hard time finding a parking spot, so I parked it at a distance and took a stroll through the neighborhood. The house looked really pretty from the outside. I spent good time to check out the house and get a feel of what the owner must be feeling staying at this beautiful house. The most amazing thing I found out was that the owner had a dachshund. I found it so amusing because of the fact that Jesse used to go to this Taco stand “Dog House” which had a dachshund on its store board.
Dog House That brings us to the third spot of the day. As I told earlier, Jesse used to go to this place for some “meetups”. When I was planning for the trip, I thought I would visit this place for dinner, but I was so tired yesterday that I pushed it to today. When I went to the place, they were closed. I wasn’t in the mood to eat, as I was still full after having breakfast. I wanted to see how the place looked like, but couldn’t. Fortunately, the owner of the place was around and she told me that it is still half an hour for them to open. I didn’t want to stick around for that long as I had other places to cover, so I just clicked a couple pictures and continued my journey to the next spot.
The Candy Lady Ever since I have been the fan of the show, I was always intrigued to find out what contents the “meth” was made from that they had in the show. Upon my research, I found out that they got the candy from the store called “The Candy Lady“. I really wanted to check the store out and get myself a souvenir in the form of small packs of the blue candy that they had on the show. The more amazing experience for me was that they had setup the life size cardboard cutouts of Jesse and Walt. The Candy Lady had gone one step further and had the hat and sunglasses that Walt wore during the show. I had fun clicking so many pictures in the store and pretending to be one of them. It was an amazing experience, which I will remember for the rest of my life.
Gustavo Fring’s house I wasn’t much excited to check this spot, but didn’t mind it as it is quite close to the other places that I really wanted to see. They have shown Gustavo Fring’s house only on a couple instances, so it didn’t appeal to me more as compared to other places. That’s all about it.
Jane & Jesse’s apartment This was an interesting spot I really wanted to see. When they showed this place on the show, I could relate to it as I was living in a similar apartment during that time. This place was located on a downhill road and located on the corner of a busy street, so I took some time to find the parking. Upon realizing that I was standing in front of this place, I could imagine all the scenes that were shot there and pictured the scene where (***spoiler alert ahead***) Jane dies. In the show, this apartment looks quite big, but isn’t that big IRL. I could roam around the apartment and could steal a quick look inside the backyard of the apartment.
Deserted spot where Walt keeps his money This was the most anticipated spot I wanted to check out on this day. When I was researching for this spot, I realized that the coordinates that Walt remembers on the show take you to some office, which is not the spot where he hid his money. I had to some extended research just to find out the correct coordinates of the spot. This was the same spot where they cooked meth for the first time. The most amazing thing happened to me when I was on my way to this spot. You should note that this spot is not on the regular road or highway, so I had to download the offline Google Maps just to be on the right track leading up to this spot. As soon as my phone showed that there was no internet or phone network, I saw a Native American Indian standing in the middle of the road, asking for a ride. I had only a few seconds to decide whether to stop or not for him. I chose to be a good samarratian and stopped for him. I let him in. This was the first time I was looking at the Native American so close, so I was a little frightened, but didn’t show it on my face. He couldn’t speak English and I his language, so I just kept driving straight until he requested me to stop. As soon as he opened the door of the car and let himself out, I heaved a sigh of relief. I felt good about helping him, but chuckled at the fact that I was so afraid too. It took me a few more minutes to reach the spot. I parked on the side of the road and looked around. The place felt familiar to the one shown on the TV series, and I felt extremely happy and satisfied looking at the scenery around me. A little child in me was awake to see this beautiful place and I couldn’t help but enjoy the moment of witnessing the place where my favorite TV show of all time was filmed. I spent a lot of time here, just looking around and soaking it in.
Saul Goodman’s office This was the second last spot during my trip. I had only couple more hours left before I had to be at the airport to catch my flight to Denver, CO, from where I had to board a flight which would take me back home. Saul Goodman’s office that they had on the show is better known as the “Dirty Bourbon” which is a pub and bar. As it was the day time, the place was closed, which I found to be fortunate as I was almost done with the day and desperately needed some rest after walking almost 20,000+ steps. This place was surrounded by other stores too and when a couple spotted me taking pictures of the closed store, they could figure out that I was the fan of the show and just getting a kick out of it.
Los Pollos Hermanos & that brings us to the last spot of the trip. I kept the Los Pollos Hermanos as the last spot as I was still quite full from the morning’s breakfast and thought would be hungry enough to eat something at this restaurant. Unfortunately, I still wasn’t hungry, so I settled for a glass full of mango juice. I must tell you that this restaurant is named “Twisters” IRL. The only difference between this real and reel restaurant is the name. The parking lot and the interior is kept similar to the one show in the TV series. I clicked pictures of the signs showing that Breaking Bad was filmed at that location, and the original Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant logo. I took off after spending 10 minutes at the restaurant as I was getting late for my flight to Denver.
When I reached the airport, I forgot my 2nd phone in the rental car, which caused me to go through the airport security gates twice, and just in time to board my flight. I really experienced the rush hour and was relieved when I boarded the flight in time.
When I was planning this birthday getaway, I made a list of all the places that I wanted to visit during this trip. I made a list of good 10-12 places that were must visit for me, and I was fighting against the time to cover all the places, as I had pre-planned flights and Airbnb bookings done based on the places that I wanted to visit.
On this day, I had only 4 hours before it would get dark, so I made sure that I cover places that are near to each other. To do this and see almost all places that I had planned, I chose to visit the places in the following order: 1. Hank and Mary’s house 2. The Car Wash 3. Walter’s house 4. The Motel 5. Downtown Albuquerque 6. ABQ Plaza – where Walt and Jesse meet in the final season
It was a packed itinerary and I had to pay special attention to the time as I didn’t want to explore the city in the dark.
Hank & Mary’s house This was the first place I visited in my itinerary. The reason I chose to visit this place was because this was the farthest from my Airbnb and I just wanted to get done with it. Plus, the other spots in my list were nearer to this place and it worked perfectly for me. When I was driving to this location, I noticed that I was entering a cleaner and quieter neighborhood in ABQ. I was impressed with the creator of the show more when I discovered this small things and realized how detail-oriented the TV or movie creators are. The place looked the same as seen on the show – which was not surprising to me. The more surprising part for me was the desert and empty land surrounding the house and the area in general. The place looks so deserted to me that I parked my car nearby and looked at the house for a few minutes, before taking a stroll at the nearby walking trail as I saw so many people running and hiking in the Sun. I spent a good 25 minutes hiking there in my T-shirt and Jeans, which I thought would feel weird, but it wasn’t. I controlled my excitement of hiking some more distance as I had to get to other places too.
The Car Wash This is where I had the most fun. I had rented a red Ford Fusion for my stay at ABQ, so when I drove that car to the car wash, one of the employees thought that I was there to clean it as it was covered with some dust. I told him that I was fan of the show and would like to see the car wash from inside, to which he readily complied and asked me to go inside by parking my car across the street. I found that to be very easy and thought they must be getting so many people like me.
Anyway, when I went in, I found the store to be exactly the same they have shown in the show. I found it to be intentional for the visitors to feel like they are part of the show and I must tell you that you do feel like that. When I walked from the reception to the area where they clean the cars, I could remember all the episodes when Walt walks on the same spot. While walking through the car wash, I saw so many pictures from the show that they had hanged on the right hand wall of the car wash. Before leaving this place, I bought a replica of the “missing” poster from the show and clicked a picture with the poster, with the car wash in the background.
Walter’s house I was most excited to visit this place and for obvious reasons. Also, this place turned out to be quite a bummer to me and didn’t live up to the raised expectations. Throughout the show, I had seen Walt’s house from the inside and out, but when I drove up to the street to take a good look, I couldn’t do that as there were barricades and steel gate and fence surrounding the entire property. Before visiting this place, I had read about the owner putting the fence around the house so that no one invades her privacy and enter the house or her driveway, but I didn’t realize it fully until I saw it in person. I couldn’t do anything about it as it was out of my control or hand. When I was clicking the photo and shooting the video of the house, the owner of the house was sunbathing and I could here her screaming “You jerk” when I was capturing the video. I couldn’t help but chuckle and decide to leave the place as there was a cop car standing a 100 feet away. This place didn’t leave up to the expectations.
The motel The motel was the shadiest place on my list for the day. I had doubts whether I should visit this place or not as I didn’t know what I would do when I visit it. When I was driving here, I could see a very small parking lot. In the show, the parking lot was much bigger than what I was seeing, so I was kind of disappointed. Fortunately, there was only one spot open in the parking lot, so I took a chance and parked my car there. After taking a look at the motel and sitting in my car for a few minutes, I decided to walk to the reception and just chat for a quick minute or two with the receptionist. I didn’t know what I was walking into. When I reached the reception and rang the bell, someone came from inside and I was scared to see that she resembled a lot like Wendy from the show. I wasn’t sure it was intentional or not, but it was scary for sure. I wasn’t sure whether I saw the needle marks on her arm for real or was just imagining things. After chatting for a couple minutes, I thought it would be best to leave the spot and get to the next one. Before I know it, I was on my way to the Downtown ABQ.
Downtown ABQ I hadn’t seem this place on the show, so I had an open mind when I wanted to visit the downtown ABQ. I was not sure what to expect, so when I parked my car and walked through the streets of the Downtown ABQ, I was really impressed. The Downtown area was really nice and kept quite clean, with so many happening places around. I saw so many people out in the streets enjoying the Sun and lovely weather outside, with drinks in their hands. I loved the vibe of the place and enjoyed it. Unfortunately, apart from the tall buildings and the stores and bars, I couldn’t relate the Downtown to the show much, but loved the fact that I got to visit it.
ABQ Plaza This was the last spot in my list for the day. I wanted to visit this to see how it looked like and how crowded it was since the show talks about the place being quite crowded. Good for me that, this place was closer to Downtown ABQ than I thought, so I just had to walk to this place. When I saw it for the first time from some distance, I got all excited. But, that excitement was short lived as there was literally no one around. My guess was that the place might be buzzing with people, and I was so wrong. With not many people in sight, I decided to inspect the entire area and call it a day. The day was full of exploring new places and I really needed some rest.
I remember grabbing something for dinner and dozing off to sleep on my bed in Airbnb.
stochasticity 