Christmas cheer

I finally managed to get away a little earlier from work on christmas eve and get things done around the house. Midnight mass and the homily served to be thought provoking. The priest evoked a sense of deep contemplation in the congregation by emphasizing that tis the season for giving and not just merry making. He spoke about empathy and about just being there for people that need us - not in terms of financial or material help - but in terms of laying a shoulder to cry on.

I had put in a decent long run that morning fully realizing that I would not be able to do it anytime later in the week; christmas celebrations are rather unkind to our physiology:-) I was surprised that with just 4 days of abstinence (that I diligently forced myself to do) I had an RPE of 5 after the run. It means the liver smiles when it is not burdened with the task of processing spirits:-)

Christmas day was spent in replying numerous sms wishes, visiting my folks and mother, handing out gifts and a delicious lunch and dinner with a generous helping of appertiffs - making up for the abstinence Dan? I must remember to add to my "giving" list, a donation to Mother Teresa' home - a breakfast or lunch for all the inmates, both, at the one in Vile Parle as well as the one in Borivali. I must not forget the biscuits that I promised the strays in Aarey Colony, which will work out to be a few 10s of kilos. Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me this new year 2010.

Jackdaws

I have been glued to this novel by Jack Higgins which tells a story of six "brave heart" women that are parachuted down to France to blow up a telephone exchange that is a nerve centre for communication for the Nazis, between France and Germany. They are led by this extremely intelligent and gutsy woman named Felicity. She hand picks 5 women from common walks of life in London. The prerequisite being that they speak french and must each have a required function ie one is a telephone engineer, one a crack shot, one has handled explosives etc. They are all given a crash course in subversion, in two days!

As I went for a leisurely recovery run cum warm up cum strength training work out, I thought of Felicity and how she displayed "courage under fire" and resourcefulness. She has so many personal trials and professional commitments to deal with, and so little time; yet, she plans meticulously, evaluates situations, keeps her emotions under check, displays fortitude and faces the most dangerous and trying assignment with guts and gumption. I liken my current situation of being swamped with so much seeming adversity, to what Felicity was faced with - though hers was life threatening.

As I arrived at work, I was clouded in gloom but a thought provoking story, mailed by a close friend, followed up with some stock taking and a reasonably satisfactory review helped me to cheer up. I felt sprightly and jaunty as I took on some tasks that were long pending and needed my attention. It is amazing as to how a mind that is caught up in a depressive mood, can forget to attend to one' own basic priorities. It is only after my spirits lifted that it suddenly occured to me that I need to do this or that and OMG, how could I forget that:-) Lessons learnt and now I must banish all negative thoughts cause after all.......

This is Christmas season so there isn't any reason
we can't dance the christmas polka
Hear the sleighbells ringin', everybody singin'
and dancin' the christmas polka
Christmas trees and holly make everyone so jolly
and love just fills the air.........

That hammered feeling

The past week has been a tornado. I left for Delhi on Monday and thence to Hisar in Haryana, road. We then travelled a total of 1100kms in 4 days, covering Patiala, Ludhiana and back to Delhi. The weather was nice and the food was absolutely delicious, but the work pressure offset it all. I was not able to do any of my workouts as I am loathe to run in temperatures that are sub 15 deg C:-) The copious food and rum added to the obnoxious conditions necessary to plummet endurance.

I returned on Friday and decided to attempt my very first "2-a-days" equivalent. I went for a gentle run (a run-walk actually) of 14K on Friday at about 4:30pm. I came back feeling refreshed and ridding myself of guilt pangs for living the good life these past few days. The evening was spent at a lavish wedding with the glitterati (including Azim Premji, J J Irani, Keki Dadiseth, Anand Mahindra, Soni Razdan, Dolly Thakore et al) The delectable spread of food and wine was enough to send one dizzying without even tasting it.

I now have to figure out the absolutely daring that I mustered to set my wake up call on Saturday to do a long run. The debilitating precursors; a hard work out within 16 hours of another, Scotch whisky enough to rattle the liver, food and desserts that are confined to the category of extravagant, blubber that shows no sign of receding and sleep deficit thats making me a zombie. So, I go out on this run and attempt 31K and whaddya know; I stagger the last 10K like a doddering, foggy, consumed by age-related dementia, old man, listlessly reaching home to flop on the floor as if I'd just crossed the sahara without water:-)

I felt the effects of that run for a few hours and I had the misfortune to contract a virus that gave me the runs, when I, in a fit of low blood sugar, ate a meal of fried rice at the "Desi Deli" at Hyper City. I moaned and groaned, writhing in agony at the demon that seemed to be devouring my GI tract. The net effect was that the total calorie deficit due to 2 long runs in 16 hrs and the lack of appetite owing to the diarhoea, caused me to lose all the weight I'd put on thus far:-)) Not bad, not bad at all.