Week 20 – Detroit FreePress International Marathon prep (May 17 – May 23)

After an incredible week 19, let us see what week 20 has in store for us.

Day 1 – Sunday, May 17, 2020 – Quarantine Day 62
The COVID19 positive cases are well under control for Michigan. Hopefully this will continue like this and we will soon *flatten the curve* if we haven’t already. Our Governor informed today that there was a slight rise in the usual Sunday cases in the positive COVID19 cases due to the fact that they have started rigorous testing in the correctional facilities across Michigan. This is cause of a concern as I didn’t know they were excluded from the number of tests already. Hoping for the best, but I am preparing for the worst from this point onwards since we are talking about reopening.

Michigan weather decided to pour heavy rains and forced me to take the rest day. I didn’t mind it since I was still recovering from 11 mile hike that I did yesterday. Happy to take some rest. Not an ideal start for the week, but I don’t mind it.

Day 2 – Monday May 18, 2020 – Quarantine Day 63
Count of positive COVID19 cases are still under 500 – a good sign I guess and the only 10 more days for the lockdown for the state of Michigan unless it is extended to a later date in June. Let’s see what our Governor tells us.

The weather has not been in my favor for the last couple days, so it was a rest day for me again! Though there was a brief window to go out around 4 PM, but, I was so engrossed in work, I hardly looked outside and missed my chance for a quick run. I was glad to get some work done though!

After shutting off my laptop, I decided to go for 150 burpees with my friend Monika and her kids. We crushed it and took us almost 20 minutes to complete 30 rounds of 5 burpees each. I wanted to go for more, so during the breaks, I chimed in with 20 more burpees.

Believe it or not, BURPEES is my favorite exercise! ❤️🤪

Day 3 – Tuesday May 19, 2020 – Quarantine Day 64
This week has been a slightly unpredictable as far as Michigan weather is concerned. Yesterday, it was a little cloudy with a bit of drizzle here and there, but at night, it poured heavily, causing major floods in some of the areas in Michigan. Fortunately, there wasn’t any lives lost because of this and the situation was kept under control before everything went haywire, unlike COVID19.

As the weather played tricks, I decided to skip the run for the day and give my knees a little break. At the end of the work day, we decided to go out for a quick bike session. By “quick”, I mean 19 miles long. I know, right? Anyway, by the time we reached around 7 mile mark, we were surprised to find the flooded Hines Drive Park that we usually cross and decided to return from the same point to avoid any unnecessary accident/incident. You can take a look at the flooding that I am talking about in the below picture.

I was a little relieved to cut short our bike ride as my knees still needed some rest to get over the 10 mile hike that we did last Saturday. This is taking more time to recover than I originally thought.

Anyway, we could complete the Half Marathon distance on the bike and I was happy with the effort. Biking has been a soothing exercise mode for me for the last couple months and I seem to enjoy it more than I thought.

Day 4 – Wednesday May 20, 2020– Quarantine Day 65
One more day of the week and this brings us to the middle of the week. I do sense that this week, I will not perform my weekly quota of 20 miles of running and I am okay with that. As long as my physical health is good, I can run more, so taking this a “minor setback” as a positive to take as much rest as I can and come back stronger than ever.

So, today, we skipped both run and bike and decided to go for a nice walk. The weather was finally improving and we couldn’t wait to go out at the end of the day. The work has been crazy busy with the long weekend (Memorial Day weekend) approaching, so it felt better to stretch our legs and have some fresh air after spending almost entire day inside the house.

The trail that we chose was nearby so we didn’t need to go that far away to enjoy the beautiful weather. I am

Day 5 – Thursday May 21, 2020– Quarantine Day 66
We are just a day away from Friday and a long weekend! The COVID19 positive cases in Michigan have been in constant decline, which is a good news!
It’s funny how I have stopped using the word “positive” if I want to convey a good message.

Anyway, instead of rambling on my thought process, let us cut to the chase real quick.
Today was also a NO-RUN day. Well, technically, I ran but didn’t record it and I don’t know how much I ran. So, let me start from the start here!

After a long day at work, we started off with our usual bike route. Everything was going well and faster than I thought when at mile 6, I heard a weird sound coming from the rear tyre of the bike that I was riding. Before I could figure out what was happening, Aryan, pointed out that the rear tyre of the bike might have punctured. 

Man, it was bummer for me as I saw myself becoming the victim of the bike trouble for the second time now. The first time, my old bike’s chain broke and had to drag it at least 4-5 miles. After that, my friend, Anupam, generously let me use his old bike, this bike, met with this fate.

After the tyre got punctured, we clicked a few pictures before I started my long walk home and my friends continued with their bike ride.

Let me tell you, it was not an easy walk; But, I had to do it and all the running that I have been doing, one thing it has taught me is TO NEVER GIVE UP!

With my undying spirit, I started my walk. It was going to be a 6-mile walk, so I thought of listening to some podcast or some interesting video on my way. I knew I would not be able to do that for the entire distance as I was running a little low on charge. But, anyway, I managed to kill time till 3 mile mark, after which I couldn’t continue YouTube-ing. That’s when it hit me – instead of walking with the bike in my hand, I could run with a bike in my hand – and that moment just gave me chills and that’s when I started running ferociously.

One thing that I have realized about my running is that if I give at least 3 days of rest to my knees and legs, I can crack a 5K within 29-30 minutes, which is a really good pace for someone with a physique like me. Having skipped running for the last 3-4 days gave me enough strength to put more run that I anticipated and I ended up completing the 1 mile of the remaining 3 miles in just 8-9 minutes. Unfortunately, I had my Apple Watch on the Walk mode instead of the Run mode, so couldn’t record the this run, but, anyway, it was good to know that I could run (well, it was a good realization).

Out of the remaining 2 miles, I remember finishing half a mile in just under 5 minutes again to shorten my ETA. It felt good for a change to run with a bike in my hand. Good day!

Day 6 – Friday May 22, 2020– Quarantine Day 67
This brings us to the last working day before the Memorial Day Long Weekend! I was so ready for this day as I wanted to take my mind off work and have some relax weekend and I was happy to finally get that!

With the plan for the weekend in mind, I decided to skip the run today too and for the first time in my Marathon preparation, I would take the entire week off and not run a single mile. I AM OKAY WITH THIS AND VOW TO COME BACK STRONGER. Let us see what’s in store for the next week!

Day 7 – Saturday May 23, 2020– Quarantine Day 68
Saturday is the official last day of the week and I couldn’t be more excited to take the 3-hour drive to the HARTWICK PINES STATE PARK, which is 40 miles shy off Mackinac Bridge from my place. For Michiganders like myself, 75 is a bliss and I love driving on this freeway. Upper Peninsula being my most favorite place in the whole wide world, I love these little day trips to or near UP and don’t like to miss these, so, when my friend, Monika, came with the idea of visiting this state park, I was all in. It would be fun to explore one more state park during these “not so rush hours”, I thought!

Interestingly, this was the first long drive I took in 2020, so it made this trip a little special. Having explored almost half a dozen state parks during this lockdown, I wasn’t much impressed with the trails that this park had to offer. Me and my friends are used to some challenging trails with some good views, but, to our disappointments, this park had trails which were a little wide and correctly paved, which we didn’t expect, so couldn’t enjoy the hike that much. Additionally, we found way more ticks and bugs attacking us from all directions, which was a mood killer.
I am sure if we would have visited this place before the other state parks, we would have loved it, but since, we have had good experiences, couldn’t appreciate this place much.

At the end of the hike, we explored the nearby campgrounds, and were highly impressed with the well-managed campgrounds, which, obviously, were shut down for the season.

I clicked the below picture during the final stretch of the hike. Loved the black and white version of the original picture.

Here’s the small video from the campgrounds in Hartwick Pines State Park. I loved the chirping of the birds and the clear sky. Enjoy!

And that wraps up Week#20.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t run a single mile, but, I promise, I will be back with a bang and I can feel it!
Enjoy my running journal and random thoughts in it! See you next week! ❤️

May 04, 2016 – Bannerghatta Biological Park, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Everyone, this bring us to the last outing of Jagre Family in Bangalore during their brief stay here in 2016.

The location that I chose to visit this time was a zoo, though, not named like one. It was named Bannerghatta Biological Park. For people in Bangalore, I think, it is known more as Bannerghatta zoo and that’s why I went with that!

You can see us all dressed up with smiles around to head to the chosen destination. I was so stoked, happy, whatever you wanna call it, that I could spend these last few days with my family, which, I knew, I wouldn’t get to spend for some foreseeable future.

The one inconvenience about going to this “zoo” was the transportation facilities. I had researched about all the possible modes that we could take to our destination and given that Ola and Uber had skyrocketed prices, had to settle for buses. Unfortunately, that day, the AC buses were on strike or something, so we had to take the normal buses to our destination and let me tell you it was not a good decision at all.

We struggled a lot and I mean it. It was not a fun ride for anyone. Have a look yourselves how difficult it was to get from my place (Nagavara) to the Bannerghatta (zoo).

In spite of all these troubles and inconveniences, our ladies gang didn’t let their spirits die and their smiles cheered me up too.
If you know me, you know that I don’t like crowded places and simply hate to take inconvenient route if more comfortable option is available, so looking at their smiling faces soothed me and helped me get rid of my frustration. Love you all.

After much struggle, we made it to the park and we were not disappointed with the different and many species of all wild animals that we got to see. One thing that I forgot to tell you at the beginning of this post – the reason I chose to visit “a zoo” as the last spot in Bangalore – my Dad. My Dad loves museums and zoo and is very fond of wild animals, so I knew visiting a zoo would be in the back of his mind, but, like most Dads, he didn’t wish to speak his mind, so I had to take this decision by myself to go to the zoo. That’s a small tidbit from my side.

How can you miss a chance to capture your sisters gazing at a wild animal. But, when I was trying for a candid picture, they suddenly turned back and gave me an awesome smile. Gosh, I love these two!

And then there was *someone* who grabbed the camera from (must be either one of the above two), and tried clicking my candid picture; and, safe to say, they failed! I don’t remember what I was doing while clicking this picture – maybe looking at lines on my palm and figuring out my future? You never know!

After exploring almost all wild animals in the zoo, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that there was a manually driven boats available to rent. This was enough for our adventurous family to try their “legs” at the boats. You see us enjoying during these boat rides. One thing that I wonder now looking at this picture – lack of protective gears. I didn’t know how to swim back then. So, God forbid, if the boat would have toppled, I wouldn’t have been able to save anyone, let alone myself, so, the LIFE JACKETS would have been a good choice while going on these boat rides. Again, back then, I wasn’t that much worried, but, exploring the world helps you gain that perspective. I will stop here as I am getting more philosophical again!

That bring us almost to the closing time for the Park. I was both happy and sad that this trip was almost over. Happy that I got to spend time with family and got to enjoy these beautiful days when I had no job so that I could hang out with them. Sad that in a few days, I would start missing them again and wished that this trip would have lasted a few more days! But, time is one thing that you cannot buy in this world, so I had to make my peace with it.

You can see my Mom inadvertently posing before the gate of the Park. This what seemed to the last memory that I have for my parents Bangalore trip.

Post this, we struggled again to get home, but were relieved that we got some delicious dinner cooked by our wonderful domestic help.

In a couple days, my parents and uncle and aunt left for my hometown – Patansaongi, Maharashtra, India; And, I became a lone survivor in Bangalore.
But this would be true only for a few more days as my life is going to take some major turns and gladly I was prepared for those changes!

I will stop blabbering here now and hope that we will meet again!

May 02, 2016 – Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, India

The third and the last day of the family South India tour and the place that we/travel agency chose for the last day was both beautiful and filled with many photo ops places.

The day started off again with us having the regular breakfast and packing our backs for good as we were supposed to head to Bangalore that night itself after exploring some of the places in Coonoor.

My parents were astounded and pleasantly surprised to find out the color of the soil in South part of India. The place that we come from, we mostly see black soil, be it in the fields or the normal ground, so, I could see their curious faces after looking at this scene.

I think I took that shot from the moving bus – nice photography skills, right?

After that, we were showed the Military base that they had around Coonoor area. I found it amazing that they had their Military base in a tourist area like Coonoor. This time, I was pleasantly surprised. One more click from the moving bus.

And the place where we spent most of our time – Coonoor Tea Gardens.
This was like living a Bollywood movie for my Mom, aunt, and sisters. I remember when we stopped at these tea gardens, all the ladies of the group were so jubilant at the idea of clicking many pictures here, they were the first one to get off the bus and couldn’t resist the idea of hiring a professional photographer to capture these moments in memories forever.

The photographers were really kind and innovative with the type of poses they were instructing my Mom, aunt, and sister.
You can see here my Mom posing like plucking leaves from the tea trees and putting those into the bin that is strapped to her head at an angle. This is the traditional attire that the tea garden workers wear while plucking tea leaves and tossing those in the bins that you see on my Mom’s back.

Also, I couldn’t resist to grab the moment with my parents and I think, my sister, Minu Tai captured this picture. Standing there with my parents and talking about random stuff helps you to keep things in perspective and grounded. Plus, this brought back many memories when I was hanging out here with my Bangalore friends a couple years ago. Good times.

After clicking I don’t know how many pictures, it was time to head to the next stop and on our way to Dolphins Nose, we were treated with such a scenic view of the tea gardens in Coonoor. I didn’t know back then that greenery soothed me that much. Again me being philosophical, this is me not appreciating things when I have them, until the moment is passed.

And we reached the Dolphin’s Nose. Even after trying many times and helping by my guide, I couldn’t see the Dolphin’s Nose. Man, it was so embarrassing to be the only one who couldn’t see it. 😭

And that brings us to the last spot of Coonoor and the whole tour – Sim’s Park. I don’t think we visited this place during my last visit to Coonoor. I was glad that we chose to visit this place in this tour as it gave my parents some time to relax and quietly lie down on the grass, which they hardly get to do. You might have seen in the Ooty’s Botanical Gardens how they enjoyed just sitting on the grass and chilling and living in the moment.

And this picture below captivated me. I remember sending this to my then girlfriend and expressing how much I miss her since we were in long-distance relationship. Good old times.

And this was the last photo for the tour. This was our hotel lobby, where we were waiting for our bus back to Bangalore. We had our dinner at a nearby restaurant and were all packed and excited to finally head back home.

While clicking this picture, we were basically goofing around and making fun of each other to kill the waiting time. It was a nice trip and I will cherish it forever as the last trip I took in India with the family before heading to the US. Fast forward half a decade, enjoying these trips in India seems like a distant dream now.

With a few more days to go, we have one last spot in mind before my parents head home.

Book 02 – ADRIFT – a novel by C. G. Cooper

Man! Man! Man!

Where do I start with this book? The inspiration to go through this novel came from my first book of 2020. If you read about the President is Missing, you would have realized how thrilling and suspenseful I found this book and couldn’t get enough of it. I was so fascinated with the thriller novels that I had to google the top 10 thriller novels on Amazon and that’s when ADRIFT popped up on the top of the list, so I knew I had to give it a shot; and, trust me, I wasn’t disappointed.

I was hooked to this book so much that I finished it within a week and I couldn’t believe the way things transpired and came to a conclusion at the end of the novel.

The writing of this novel was so good, detailed, and realistic that I could imagine the whole scene in my head. The bar where “the incident” happened. The house where the protagonist hid himself with the help of his “old” friend and the house of the antagonist where “some tragedy happened”.

Oh my God, I cannot tell you how many times I got goosebumps reading this story. Though it is a novel and not real, I so wished that this was real and happening in real life – just for the sake of watching a movie – which I rarely do. I had a humbling experience to bow down to the author and applaud his communication skills which was par excellence.

I distinctly remember praying while reading this novel that “some events” do not happen, which they do, and I was so heartbroken to find some negative things in totally unexpected ways. The authors ability to clearly put forth the plots, the scenes, and keeping the story line and the timeline in mind are some of the few things which make this a great novel. I would highly recommend it if you have some bandwidth and want to experience some thrill for a week or two.

Here’s the cover of this book.

May 01, 2016 – Ooty, Tamil Nadu, India

The second day of the South India tour and we couldn’t be more excited to explore Ooty with Jagre Family.

The day started off well; we feasted ourselves with the traditional breakfast of Idli and Sambhar before heading out for the day. The travel agency has told us to assemble at a pick up spot from where we were supposed to embark our Ooty tour.

It was a dingy bus as compared to the last one we had. My parents complained but soon got over it as we started chit-chatting and having fun!

The bus took us through some “wild” area where we saw a few deers. I had seen those deers before when I visited Ooty with my friends, so it was not a big deal for me, but I remember, my parents loving it and craving for more.
Here’s the picture of those deers that I captured with my then Android phone.

After gluing our eyes to this wonderful wildlife, it was time to explore the hilly areas of Ooty and that is where I witnessed such a beautiful view that you see below. It brought back so many wonderful when I visited this place a couple years ago.

The first spot that we stopped at was some garden where many Bollywood films were shot. I don’t remember the name of this place exactly, must be some famous place. You see my family in the picture below. I was glad to see the excitement on their faces, especially Shreya, who is clinging tightly to her Teddy Bear.

Also, you would see that it was a hot sunny day, which is not nice for your skin.

We clicked so many pictures at this spot, I had a hard time selecting which ones to upload here! Here you see my sister Minu Tai with my parents. I don’t remember why the background was significant enough that we clicked so many pictures here. Maybe, back then I didn’t see so much greenery. Maybe!

And here one more where you see all the serious faces (except the middle one).

After spending a couple of hours at the spot above, I think, I went to see if our bus arrived or not and that’s why I stepped out of the park to explore how the city actually looked like. To my surprise, the city was not at all crowded and had ample space to “hangout”. I also found that the city was kind-of in the middle and surrounded by tall mountains.

During this walk, I got to reflect upon the last few days that I had spent with the family and a few days that I am going to spend with them before heading to US (given that my visa gets approved). It was a nice lonely time to be grateful for the family that I have.

After that, we were on our way to the pick up spot for the next and last destination for the day. On our way, I found this statue of three boys peeing which (I think) is a replica of the peeing boy that you find at Brussels, Belgium. It was fun to look at water dropping from the statue and we had a good laugh about it.

And here comes the last destination for the day – Ooty Botanical Gardens.

There was a long wait at the entrance for the tickets. The last time I was here, I had to spend some time to score those tickets, but not this time, as the travel agency took care of those tickets for us, so it was such a big relief not to stand in line in such a hot and sunny weather. The first thing that we did was to pose before the giant map of India made out of different types of soil *possible* brought from those different parts of India.

After exploring almost entire garden or part of it, we were all tired and decided to take much needed rest and have some quality family time – talking to each other and rejuvenating the old memories. It was fun to see your parents and aunt and uncle opening up about their lives and struggles of raising 3-4 children. I think this was the first time my parents were treating me like an adult and sharing their life stories with us. It was cool to hear those and be a part of it.

You can see my parents chilling here.

And here are the two couples. My parents and my uncle and aunt.

One funny thing about our time here at the botanical gardens, as adults got busy talking and chatting, the kids were getting bored. That is when I thought of game that I watched online. It is shown below and named as Dizzy Izzy. Take a look yourself.

Let me tell you how much fun we had. Man, I didn’t know the idea of playing this game will be an instant hit and was glad to have thought of it.
The kids had fun, the adults had fun, and I was happy for everyone.

This way, the second day of the tour was almost over and I was looking forward to the dinner and the third and last day of the South India tour.

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.

Week 19 – Detroit FreePress International Marathon prep (May 10 – May 16)

With lesser miles covered last week, let us see what’s in store for this week!

Day 1 – Sunday, May 10, 2020 – Quarantine Day 55
The first day of the week did not go as planned.

I realized the physical toll 34 miles of biking took on my body today; so, decided to skip both run and bike for the day and took the official rest day.

This is not the ideal start for the week, but, I am optimistic about the week. With enough rest, I think, I should be able to hit my weekly 20 miles target. Let us how the rest of the week goes.

Day 2 – Monday May 11, 2020 – Quarantine Day 56
Second day of the week didn’t bring that big a good news for COVID19 positive cases. The number of cases for Michigan was in 400s, so the good part is that the numbers are not going up, and the sad part is that they are not going down either, so let us see where we go from here.

The Michigan Weather was not acting nicely today. Plus, my left knee was not feeling that good, so decided to skip the run. Also, the work has been so much that I needed something to take my mind off, so we decided to go for a lazy post-dinnner walk. It was soothing to walk for a change and could feel the cold air brushing against my bare knees. Overall, I enjoyed the walk.

And got to witness some exciting scenery too. See yourself.

Day 3 – Tuesday May 12, 2020 – Quarantine Day 57
The third day and the positive COVID19 count is a little bit up. It is just the norm now, so let us hope for the best. I think that is the only thing we can do right now.

Today was a good day for both exercise and Michigan weather. Today, we had temps in 50s which is good enough when you put a couple layers. Plus, work has been so so so busy that I desperately need something to escape at the end of the day. I decided to do almost everything that I possibly could to take a good advantage of this beautiful day and weather.

I started with a good run. My goal was to finish a 5K before heading out with my friends for the biking. I ended up finishing 3.8 miles in time and was happy with the efforts.
If you remember, last week, I finished the 34 miles bike ride, and left knee took a toll because of that. Therefore, I had to give a good 2-3 days’ rest to recover fully from this pain.

It was a good feeling to run after a couple days of rest. It felt refreshing and since I was wearing my compression socks, I felt quite fine and wished I could have gone for some more distance. Here’s the map of my run.

Immediately after the run, my friends were ready for a long bike ride. So, I had to quickly gulp down a protein bar before heading out with them on the bike. I didn’t even take out my compression socks (which I forgot to) and it turned out to be a good thing for me.

When it comes to biking now, our bodies are so in-tune with the effort that we hardly take breaks, but with kids, we need to make sure they are properly hydrated and are not overdoing things.

We took our usual 275N biking route before circling it for our start point. Here’s the map of our biking route. It was a good effort by everyone.

One more thing – while biking, we took, I think, 4 breaks and we could finish our exercises during those breaks, as we haven’t spent much time on the exercises for the last week or so.

We could finish 100 each of push-ups, sit-ups, and Russian twists. It was a good feeling, people looking at us, greeting us, when we are finishing up our reps.

Here’s how the day looked like.

Day 4 – Wednesday May 13, 2020– Quarantine Day 58
One more day and couldn’t be more excited for the Michigan weather. We had weather in 60s today, giving us the feeling that SUMMER is almost here. If you are a Michigander, you would understand what I meant when I say it is almost summer here in Michigan. One day you enjoy the sunny weather in high of 70s and next day you are welcomed with the snow. This is how the life is here and to be honest, I love every single minute of it. I cannot imagine myself leaving Michigan for foreseeable future, with all the amazing people in my life and the strong bond that I have developed over the last 2-3 years.

Anyway, getting back to the daily regime.

Wednesday was the repetition of Tuesday in terms of almost all exercises that we did.
Work, as usual, was so busy, I barely got time for breakfast and had to have it after my friends had theirs. This was the first time I missed breakfast and I wasn’t happy about that, but, I think, it happens rarely, so I am okay with that.

After the workday was over, I got ready for my run and repeated the route and distance and loved doing it. Today, Aryan and Arnav also accompanied me for the run, so it felt better that I had someone to talk to. I had to slow down and take more breaks as this was the first time they were running.
Here’s the map of the run.

After the run, I refueled myself with a bread and better and a protein bar, before heading out for biking.

We used the same route like yesterday and could cut off almost 30 minutes from today’s route. As compared to 4 breaks, we took only 2 breaks today and were happy with the efforts. At the end of the bike, we didn’t feel tired at all as we were prepping for dinner.
Here’s the map of the biking.

One more thing – I could finish 100 push-ups for the day during one of the breaks that I took before having lunch. So, it was a good day.

Day 5 – Thursday May 14, 2020– Quarantine Day 59
Damn, not a good day for COVID19 positive cases in Michigan. Somehow the number of cases skyrocketed to 1,100. Yesterday, it was 370 and today 1,100 – dumbfounded me. Not sure what might be causing this. 😭

As far as the Marathon prep goes, I had to thank Michigan weather for that. It rained throughout the day, which I didn’t realize at all due to the workload and many meetings that I had to be a part of. As soon as I was done for the day, I had a banana and a cup of coffee to rejuvenate myself before heading out for the run.

I wanted to go on a long run, so I couldn’t join my friends, Monika & Anupam, for the bike ride. It was a little slippery and wet everywhere so thought it would be better to run than bike. I had a great time running such a long distance almost after a month. The pace was good and I was happy with the overall effort.

Day 6 – Friday May 15, 2020– Quarantine Day 60
Good to know that the positive COVID19 cases are steady in 500~ range and praying that even though we reopen Michigan, the cases won’t sore. In my heart, I think, our Governor Gretchen Whitmer might reopen the state starting June 1st and a couple weeks after that, we will see “a little surge” (kind of a second wave) of the COVID19 positive cases, making us to rethink our strategy to reopen Michigan.
This is just a thought, I don’t know what is going to happen in future.

Anyway, getting back to the Marathon preparation, the Michigan weather started playing tricks on us, so I was a little skeptical with the run, but when I discovered there wasn’t any rain predicted for the rest of the day, I decided to go for a long run.

All was going really well and I had high hopes to finish at least 10 miles for the run. Unfortunately, after finishing 4 miles, I felt severe pain due to nipple chafing. I just couldn’t take it and had to cut short my run at 4.3 miles. Even though I was disappointed to cut the run short, I was glad I did stop not to risk of further injury. It was a good decision and at the end of the day I was happy with my decision.

I could finish the 4.3 miles in roughly 55 minutes at 12’39” pace.

After this run, I took a soothing cold shower to alleviate the pain from the run. It was super helpful to shower with cold water. After the shower, it was time for our Friday outdoor walk.
For some reason, my Strava app didn’t give me the map of this walk, so putting the Apple Activity screenshot below.

One more day to go for the week and I couldn’t be more excited.

Day 7 – Saturday May 16, 2020– Quarantine Day 61
Here we are! The last day of the week and I cannot realize it has been 19 weeks already for my Marathon preparation. The thing that started just as an idea has evolved into a big part of my life and I am not ready to give it up easily.

Saturday brought in a new milestone for me; not for Marathon preparation but out of my love for hiking. If there are a few things I would like to do in my free time apart from Running & Reading, it will definitely be Hiking. I was not a regular hiker in the past but ever since I moved to Michigan, this love has multifold and I don’t seem to get enough of it. Last year in November, we (myself, Monika, Anupam, and kids) finished the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore hike which was ~11 miles long, which took around 6 hours to finish and I realized so many things about life and its meaning (this is me being philosophical here 😌). After that we never had a chance to hike such a long distance until today.

The place was Pontiac Lake State Recreational Area. It was such a bliss to spend such a long time in the wild, not thinking about the current events and just enjoying the chirping of the birds, the scent of the woods, and waving to the fellow bikers and hikers crossing us on our way. The hike was filled with many photo ops places and the trail was properly marked so we did not have a hard time navigating.

One different thing we tried this time was to “run” while hiking the first 6 miles. It was a good strategy to do that which helped us cover more than half the distance in a short time, which will help us to finish the hike with plenty of time on our hands. I had so much fun again while running in the trails. My legs felt fine and without any wear and tear even though I ran for almost 3 miles during the first half of the hike. I am looking forward to more trail running and hiking in the great summer of the US.

My Apple watch decided to act funny and I couldn’t capture the entirety of the hike in a single picture. Anyway, here are some of the pics and stats from the hike.

This was the part 1 of the hike, I guess.

Followed by the 1 mile run that my Apple Watch could capture.

And finally, the part 2 of the hike.

And that brings us to the end of week 19 – what seemed like such a long week. Less than 10 miles for 300 miles of running for the year 2020. Should I change my running shoes? Some of my friends think I should!

Here’s the entry from my running journal.

April 30, 2016 – Mysuru, Karnataka, India

Well Well Well!

Welcome again and allow me to tell the tale of Jagre Family’s South India tour.

This was the first day of this tour and we started it with the lovely city of Mysuru, formerly known as Mysore. Before starting with the actual story of the tour, when I was flipping through the photos, I found out all the bills and receipts from this tour and found out how cheap this trip was for me financially. I had booked the entire tour with a tourist agency, which made sure we had access to buses and hotel for the entire duration, which was really nice and highly convenient. This made me realize how easy it was to travel around India, without spending too much of your money, which is both nice and affordable.

Now, getting back to the travel part. Below picture shows our bus which was from Manish Travels, one of the famous travels that the agency had provided us. Like our family, there were many other people traveling with us from Bangalore to Mysore and we didn’t mind the company.

I took the photo of this bus at the stop area where we stopped during the journey for some drinks, food, and much needed pee break. Now, the reason I remember this stop is because there was a pack of dogs surrounding our bus. While most of us decided to head to eat something, my Dad decided to stay back to feed these hungry souls. There was a small store nearby. I remember him going to the store and buying some Parle-G biscuits and breaking those biscuits in small pieces to feed those stray and hungry dogs. That was so generous of him and he loves doing that. Feeding the hungry and helping the poor is a second nature of him.

Anyway!

This was the first place we stopped at on our Mysuru tour. I don’t remember the name of the place and found it just beautiful enough to click a few pictures here.
As you can see, we were toasting ourselves in the hot and sunny weather. Back then I had only been in India for my entire life, so I used to detest the Indian Summer, but having spent almost four years in the US makes you appreciate Summer more.

The second place we stopped at was this famous statue of this demon Mahishasura. I am not sure why a daemon like him has a statue. I am sure there is an interesting back story to it, but, my atheist nature made me lazier to google about it and find more interesting facts. May be in the future when I would feel like knowing more about him/it, I would surely find out and (if possible) let you know. Till then, sorry (but no Sorry 🤪)

Near this statue was this famous Chamundeshwari Temple. A little back story about the pictures above and below. If you see, all the kids and “fun” people were near the statue above and clicking pictures with it. However, all the adults were busy worshipping the Gods at the temple and they spent almost an hour doing that.

You can see the wrath of the hot Sun in the below photo too. The architecture of the temple was outstanding, but, I couldn’t appreciate it as it was a temple and I was/is an atheist.

Soon after worshipping the Gods, it was time to worship ourselves and our hungry bellies and souls. I think the travel agency had a partnership/alliance with the restaurant that you see below, because they seemed to stop here deliberately. I don’t know how much of it is true, but the food was really tasty, so didn’t complain much.

You can see my Mom and aunt posing before the entrance.

After our lunch, it was time to explore a few more places. Trinesvaraswamy Temple was on our list next. Sometimes I wonder why so many travel agencies focus on temples to explore/visit during the city tours. I understand it has really awesome architecture and must be a great story behind its creation, but, millennials would prefer visiting some cool places apart from some temples. Anyway, I decided to keep my feelings to myself as parents found this place amusing. I know they spent almost an hour here, maybe relaxing and stretching a little bit after the lunch! 😁

One more “temple”, well, it was a “CHURCH”. I think, we didn’t have the luxury to go inside, but were impressed at how tall this building/church was. I remember our guide telling us this to be one of the tallest churches at least in Asia, known as, St. Philomena’s Church. I was glad that this was a little different experience for the family. The kids were especially excited to “visit” this church. I think this was the first time they were visiting a church. I might be wrong.

This brings us to the end of the day festivities. The last spot before heading to the hotel was Brindavan Gardens. Now, let me tell you, this might be one of the prettiest places in all of Mysuru, but by the time we reached here, everyone of us were super tired and just wanted to lie down. So, when the driver told us that this will be the last stop before we head to the hotel, we were not that much excited and just wanted to get over it. Maybe, that’s why we couldn’t appreciate the beautiful water fountain laser show at the end of the evening. Plus, it was a rush hour with barely lit pathway to the laser show, so we had to take care of the kids.

I am sure we would have enjoyed it more had we been more energetic.

Nevertheless, it was a wonderful day that I spent with the family in the beautiful city of Mysuru. At the end of the day, once we were at the hotel, I don’t even remember where we had our dinner before calling it a night.

One day down, two more to go!

Book 01 – The President is missing – a novel by Bill Clinton and James Patterson

My love for books knows no boundaries. If there is one thing in this whole wide world that I can’t get enough then it is a book (or many books for that matter).

The year 2020 started off with reading the one novel that I wanted to read for such a long time. My friend, Monika, recommended this to me and thought to give it a read. I was glad to finish it within a month.

The most interesting part about the book, I found, was the way the authors have carved and explained each scenario in detail. When you start reading a chapter or a scene in a chapter, you get such a clear picture of what is going on that you could picture everything happening in front of your eyes. The writing is so crisp and to the point that even after months, I can picture key moments from this book and am humbled by the way James Patterson has co-authored it.

The protagonist in this book is the POTUS. I think he perfectly represents how a President of the free world should be and I think, this is where the inputs from the former POTUS Bill Clinton comes into picture. The way White House is described, I can picture the Oval Office, the situation room, the view from the bulletproof windows and what not.

This book sets the stage quite nicely and the timeline being very crucial for the storyline, doesn’t disappoint a bit. The antagonist doesn’t seem that powerful in the beginning, but soon you realize this is not a simple terrorist attack, but a well thought out and strategically carved. The author had made sure we held onto our breaths, introducing key characters at certain points in the storyline. Whenever you think you are loosing the interest in the book, the story adds one more important character and then you are glued to the story again.

There are many twists and turns, which I will not spoil for you if you are planning to give it a shot.

The most amazing and mind blowing part of the book is the climax and the end. Even after reading this book almost daily for almost a month, I couldn’t guess the end properly and who the real enemy was. Man, I was so overwhelmed when the author finally reveals who the real person is behind everything. I am humbled the way every piece of information is given and revealed to the reader at a certain point in the story line and would definitely recommend if you like some suspense and thriller novel.

I am glad I started 2020 with this amazing novel. Keep reading!

April 29, 2016 – Nandi Hills, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Nandi Hills is one of the must visit places in Bangalore. If you have not visited this place yet, I would strongly recommend doing that.

This was the fourth day of exploration with my lovely family and a pretty special day for that matter. We were celebrating the wedding anniversary of my youngest uncle and aunt. I am not sure how many years they were celebrating, though 😛.

The start of the trip wasn’t ideal though. Our driver was at least 30 minutes late. I, on the other hand, being a punctual guy told him to come at the right now, expecting he will show up at the said time. But, I forgot how things work in India and immensely regretted for doing that.

So, when we reached Nandi Hills. I had to stand in line for some time to buy tickets for the entire family. That took about 10-20 minutes. And, following this, there was a 10-minute walk to the actual spot from where you get a beautiful view of the sunrise. As we were running late, we didn’t actually get to see the sunrise and were welcomed with the warm sunlight. I felt bad that my family couldn’t witness the actual sunrise that I had hoped for, but, this place itself was worth the visit, so quickly got over it.

This is the view that we got to see when we first reached the spot.

After roaming around for a few minutes, it was time to click some pictures with the wonderful family.

Here’s the picture of the lovely couple who were celebrating their wedding anniversary. It was an awesome feeling to be celebrating their anniversary with us, together. Hopefully, we’ll get to celebrate a few more in future.

After my uncle and aunt, it was time for my parents to pose like lovebirds and click some pictures, which my Mom absolutely loved and Dad found it absolutely boring, as you can see from the below picture.

And here’s the lady gang and Archit. My cousins were so small back then and have grown up so fast and so big.

Before heading to the next spot, I joined Minu Tai and my parents for a family picture. Back then, I thought it was awkward to click pictures with the family. But, having spent considerable amount of time away from them, I realized how stupid I was. Having not spent much time with the family in the last few years, you realize how important they are in your life and how much you should value them!

With that, it is time to wrap up Day 4. Looking forward to one more day with the lovely family.

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