Appraisal time !!!!!!
Some improvements over the year.... :)...from the 2 videos it seems right now I am less of a loose cannonball and more of a restrained, longer enduring boxer :P. Further there are some extra weapons in my arsenal.But frankly speaking I haven't practiced this much over the year.... but nevertheless this is one of the most fun workouts around :).
Y do i kick-box ????
1. Primarily to induce variety in my fitness regime, and not because I am some sadistic, violence loving crackhead :)
2. In case I find myself in some dangerous situation (God forbid I dont encounter such situation), to protect and defend , if not kick their asses :).
3. Its a good stressbuster.
Hopefully my next video will be named as Kickboxing 2.0 and not Kickboxing 1.2 !!!!!
Dont watch this video if any of the following holds good:
1. If u r not comfortable with "extreme" violence, or have some weird soft corner for a punching bag (refers to u PPR :P) :D :D
2. If u r not comfortable with upper body male nudity :D :D :D
Older Video Link
http://nithinu.blogspot.in/2012/08/kickboxing-10.html
Even after being involved in both these entities since quite some time , their paths had not really criss-crossed until now, when I was to take part in my first ever Duathlon. The event was the Ajmera Sponsored Duathlon organized by Life-is-Calling to be held in the wee hours of 7th July 2013 within the confines of Electronic City. With the run-cycle-run format, this was a completely new thing for me, and for a person who aims to become a triathlete this was the first step towards nirvana. The total distances were 2.5km run followed by 18km cycling(12km for ladies) and finishing it off with a 2.5 km run. Sounds easy for a marathoner doesn't it :).
Got my bro's Jazz to transport my dismantled Rockrider 5.1 to the venue. This was my first ever competitive ride on my trusted 4 year old bike (which nowadays cannot be trusted much :P.... ) and the organizers had touted this to be India's---first---duathlon---to---be---held---on---NH's---longest---flyover. Lot of technicalities you see, but end of the day it had some "India's first" tag :P. The things the organizers do to market their event ......
Landed up at the venue(NTTF grounds) with it totally engulfed in festive spirit, along with Shashi who had already given his bike to the organizers for transportation. There was music , drums being played in a trance by some spirited African drummers, a DJ as MC and booty shaking crowd doing a fun warm-up before the endurance race. There were close to 200 participants for the duathlon which included both the team event and individual events. Went and parked my bike at a designated spot inside the transition area, with the gloves, helmet etc placed at strategic places so as wear them in the shortest possible time after I complete my first lap of running. The event started at 6.45 am and off we were let into the streets of Electronic city to complete the first 2.5 km.
{ Video Compilation by Veloscope. I make an appearance from 0.16 to 0.20 }
This first part of the run was not at all challenging. By the time its starts to get tiring, I was back to the transition area to start the cycling leg. Putting on all the cycling gear in the shortest possible time and somehow this reminded me the kindergarten days where one used to have competitions like run-wear socks, run-wear shoes, run-wear sweater and so on. It was actually fun traversing through the transition area all geared up, running with your bike till the no biking zone and then all of a sudden mounting on the bike and cycling. The entrance to the ground was kinda narrow and the same was being used by bother bikers and runners for entry and exit during the run. This was kinda scary and a mess, with lot of blind corners and both the bikers and cyclists coming in with full speed. A potential disaster waiting to happen I thought, with me having a couple of close calls. But luckily nothing untoward happened.
For the cycling leg we were let into the Electronic City flyover and within no time we were bogged down with strong headwinds. Roadbikes with a better aerodynamics were able to negotiate this quite easily, but MTBer's like me had to endure the brunt. Cycling was where technology had a higher priority over endurance. This hard fact was illustrated to me when the guys whom I had overtaken during the 2.5km run, overtook me during the cycling leg in their carbon-fiberish road bikes and ultimately went on to finish 2nd and 3rd :P. I am not saying that I would have beaten them if I had a same bike, probably they are better cyclists than me (ofcourse they are, they represent a professional cycling team :D ), but I felt that with the distance for cycling and running set by the organizers, hardcore cyclists had a bigger edge over runners.
Once the excitement of riding on top of an endless flyover dies down, the ride becomes pretty much boring with the views being monotonous for the entire duration of the race. Unless u r overtaking someone or someone is trying to overtake you, all the adrenaline rush starts to kick in. All the road-bikes were pretty much untouchable and I focused my competition to just MTB's and Hybrids. I won some one-on-one battles and at the same time I lost some too. But it was fun. Drafting behind another cyclist to avoid a headwind and then suddenly overtaking that person and then a role reversal, with them chasing you , but at the same time enjoying the draft behind you :). I was even thanked by a biker for letting him draft behind me , when in fact I didnt even know he was doing tat :). We bikers are such gracious adrenaline junkies you know :P.
After the 18km bike ride, I was back to the transition area and I
dumped all the cycling gear and got ready to run. Eventhough I was not
tired beyond a level, my legs were kinda refusing to run !!!!!! I dont
know what phenomenon is this... something new I was experiencing and
maybe a common thing in cross-sports. Anyway after some time the legs
were woken up and I got the regular run momentum. Finished my race
strong with my usual sprint with a total time of around 1hr 8 mins . Shashi
finished his race close to 18 minutes behind me. He was let down
big time by his "chinese" bike. After the race it was back to the
celebration-festive spirit with breakfast provided for the participants.
Overall it was a fun experience.
(Both of us with the finishers medal :) )
Official Timing:
Place
BIB
Name
Time
Category
Run 1
T1
Bike
T2
Run 2
21
174
Nithin Uliyar
01:08:38
Individual
00:10:52
00:01:16
00:44:40
00:00:25
00:11:26
Pics and Videos Courtesy : ICycle.in, Chromoframes and veloscope.in
"Nagalapuram??!!!!! where is that??? "
Being a trekker for
5 years I was pretty much clueless about this hidden trekking trail
near Tirupathi. Frequented by CTC, Shashi was able to dig it out from
their archives. The first few google results throws up the incidents of
an IIT student drowning and such morbid news. But still we planned a
trek on the weekend of June 8-9 , on the verge of full blown monsoons
setting in. Booked a TT since the headcount was hovering around 11 and
10 finally making it (Shashi, Harsha, Vineeth, Raj, Rajkumar, Vinod,
Umesh, Harish, Sharavan and Myself ). But one disadvantage of trekking
in the eastern ghats is that the trails are comparatively shorter when
compared with their western ghats counterparts. Generally a single day trek at most !!!!
Kone Reservoir Backwaters
On the night of June 7, 10 of us set off to our destination. Had more or
less a disturbed sleep which is usually the case when travelling
overnight. Reached the small town of Pichatur and it was time to turn on
our GPS maps and search for the trail even when we had a local passing
us every 1 min. Heights of depending on technology I must say :P...
Anyway in the end common sense prevailed, we asked a local and he
directed us to the correct path. Landed at the starting point of the
trail which is very near to the Kone reservoir and we started the trek
when the clock was close to striking 7.
Within a 10 min walk we come face-to-face with the first awesome view
of the day. The back-waters of Kone reservoir against the backdrop of
the Eastern Ghat mountains which we were all set to conquer (almost
!!!!) for the day. From here we enter the shrub filled maze with
multiple trails going in all possible directions. But one reassuring
point is that all these trails somehow lead to our destination, as goes
the very common saying "All roads lead to Rome!!! "
After
trekking through this open shrub filled wilderness we finally enter the
dense forest just in time when the sun was about to shine bright. But
thankfully the entire duration of our trek was under overcast sky thanks
to the monsoons clouds lashing out on the south-west coast of India. The
forest was dense and soon enough we come across a beautiful stream
filled with crystal clean water. Water as clean as you can get in the
wilderness.... The idea is to follow the same stream up till the top
while we encounter 3 gorgeous pools en-route. But that said it is not
easy to find the trail in this bolder filled pathway. For starters we
got lost even before we could reach pool 1 !!!!
The main trail which anyone would assume would be the right path
actually climbs to the second tallest peak in this reserve forest
standing at 700m and the path to this is pretty steep. This was the
toughest part of the trek and we went offtrail for close to 3 kms, until
we came across a tribal settlement (not the "huha huha" types :P)
and they informed us that this particular path doesn't go to the
destination we had hoped for. They also informed that we had to take a
diversion from main trail somewhere just after we come across the
stream. So having no other option we returned back along the same way
till we came across the stream.
Pool No 1
Pool No 2
But all attempts to find a trail along the stream were met with dead
ends. Finally when we were contemplating as to what to do next, we came
across a family from Chennai who were trekking till pool 1 , so hitched
the walk along with them. These guys frequented this place regularly and
they knew exactly where the trail was. From the main trail as soon as
the it gains elevation and starts leaving the stream, there is sudden
sharp trail to the left which unfortunately is unmarked and would appear
insignificant to the naked eye. But this trail takes us back to the
stream and from here it is pretty much a well paved pathway through boulders.
The
gorgeous and absolutely stunning pools come one after the other in
quick successions almost 0.5 hr walking distance from each other.
Crystal clear waters surrounded by absolute greenery makes these pools
all the more inviting. NATURE'S JACUZZI is what I would like to term
these pools. And the surprising part is that these pools never get dried
up even in peak summer and being in relatively unexplored and a bit
confusing trail its relatively untouched by the invasion of plastics and
other man-made viruses. We trekked all the way to the third and the top
most pool to have our dip. The water was so good that we spent close to
2 hrs in the water, oblivious of time running by. The center of this
pool has a 40 feet deep abyss, which makes semi-swimmers like me quite nervous,
but with a swim tube by our side we were able to conquer that fear to
some extent.
Even after getting lost for the major part of the trek, the time was
still 2 pm and it didnt make sense to spend time here till nightfall.
Also considering there was very little camping space at pool 3 for all 10 of us, we
decided to trek down till Kone reservoir and pitch our tents there.
Hence we packed up our belongings and started the return journey.
Reached the camp spot at around 5 pm and by then most of us were exhausted
for having walked for nearly 21kms. If one has a proper guide this trek is
actually a single day trek, but if some one yearns for some adventure
and are well prepared to get lost in jungle then it can be a 2 day trek. For
us it barely made a 2 day trek.
We pitched our tents by the banks of this picture-some reservoir, cooked
some maggi (our staple diet on treks) for dinner. Every now and then it
would start raining with us scurrying for cover within the tents, but
these showers would just last for only a couple of minutes. Because of this the
weather was quite humid and it literally was like an oven inside the
tent. Shashi couldnt take it and took his sleeping bag outside to sleep
under the stars. I too followed him after a hour or so to sleep under
the stars, but I was woken every other minute by some movement or the
other. This being a moonless night (amavas ki raath !!!!) I had no idea
what was stalking behind the darkness, but fortunately once in while was
able to catch them within my torch lights and they were nothing but the
village dogs which had accompanied us for the entire duration of trek. Once woken up due to this I just sat in the darkness for close to an hour, absorbing the absolute silence (of-course broken once in a while by the snores of fellow trekkers :P) and pitch darkness... A very soothing and calming experience it was !!!!. Anyway not comfortable with the idea of those dogs coming and licking my face when sleeping I decided to go back inside the tent, but removed the rain
cover and opened both the doors so that there was some air
flow.
Pool No 3
After that the situation inside was much more comfortable and I was able
to sleep till the first signs of sunrise on the horizon.
Packed our stuff and went to the point where our TT would pick us up for the
return journey back home. Had our breakfast at Chitoor and reached home
at around 2 pm leaving us half a day to catch upon some lost sleep over
the last 2 days. One point of advice for trekkers is that this forest is
teaming with honeybees with 3 in our group (Raj, Umesh and Shravan)
being victims of 1-2 bites each. Its better to cover up from head to toe
in order to protect onself. Also there didnt seem to be any leeches
around considering that the ground was quite damp and moist due to heavy
rains for the past few days.
I remember Raj on his first trek-camp experience summing it up "U know the importance of a cozy bed and warm meal", reflecting exactly my sentiments as a trekker for the past 5 years. On top of that I think trekking makes you a much more humble person. For starters you don't demand luxuries even if you can afford them. The importance on materialistic pleasure is much more subdued and you have this sense of restrain/calmness bcoz in a trek nothing goes exactly as planned, and we are at peace with reality.
Trek Details:
Trek Distance-> 16kms (Reservoir-> Pool 1 ->Pool 2 -> Pool 3-> Reservoir) + 6km (Of getting lost in the jungle :P)
Total Cost Per Person -> 1.9 K
My third appearance at the much popular marathon (technically this is not a marathon :P ) in the Southern part of India and I had some unrealistic aims set for this event. For starters I had an aim of finishing my 10k run within the 50 min mark. Why the 50 min mark ??!!! , you can blame that on the organizers. They have segregated the runners as Category A for those having a best time of within 50 mins, Category B for those having it between 50 mins and 1hr 20 mins and Category C for anything above it. Missing the Category A by just 2 mins and being officially classified as a second class runner got me raging mad :P. So decided that no matter what I would finish within 50 mins and calm myself down.
But with the total show of strength being close to 23,000 pair of legs and growing exponentially over the last few years, I somehow knew that this is going to be one tough job. For starters the initial pain of overtaking innumerable slow runners/walkers makes matters worse. There were a lot of slow runners/walkers since the corporate participants were let into the track before us. But on the other hand weather was superb thanks to heavy rains the previous day and the overcast sky. Were let into the track at around 7.20 am @ Kanteerva Stadium. The run again goes through the traditional route followed the previous years comprising of Kasturba Road, MG Road, Cubbon Road, Vidhana Soudha and finally Cubbon Park before ending back at Kanteerva Stadium. Maintained a constant pace of around 11.5 kmph and finished my race strong with a final sprint with a timing of 52:46 mins, 6s slower than my best :). Over the previous 3 editions my timing has improved from 59:57 mins(2010) to 55:40 mins(2011) to 52:46 mins(2013). Atleast was satisfied bettering my event record :P.
But one thing I learned was never to have a timing goals at this event. Just run for the love of running, enjoying the company of the fellow runners and absorbing the whole festive spirit. My overall ranking was 593 and surprisingly my gender ranking was 585. That means only 8 females in the whole of Bangalore have a better timing than myself ?????!!!!!!!....(out of that I saw 2 western ladies overtaking me :P ) This ratio is definitely skewed and I guess more females should be encouraged to take up running as a sport.
The organizers have announced that this year too the top 850 male runners would get the Nike Finishers T-shirt (THE t-shirt which cant be bought but earned ;) ), down from 1500 given the last few years. The number of participants are increasing, but these guys are reducing the number, looks like they need some basic lessons in ratios. Anyway, hopefully they are increasing the quality of the t-shirts. Still working hard for the coveted Category A :).
OFFICIAL STATS:
Name: Nithin Uliyar
Bib No : 1808
Net Time : 52:46 mins
Overall Rank : 593
Gender Rank : 585
