After every uphill, there is a downhill...

.. and then some more uphills, maybe. That's life! Or.. at least that's how hill training is. You just have to enjoy the down hill, make sure you don't go crazy and I guess brace yourself for the uphill that you are going to weather.

Speaking of which, it was a great weather to go out for a long ride. Not too hot.. and a gentle breeze.

If only I knew where I was going. I have never used a cue sheet so far for the rides (only because I am too lazy to get a cue clip?). So, I had a vague idea of the ride. Add to that, I was riding alone. I knew I had to go on Alameda Las Pulgas.. and the next road I remembered was Sand Hill Rd. I had no idea for how long though. That made for a really interesting ride on Alameda Las Pulgas. It kept going on and on.. and on. For 9 miles. At that point, I felt.. in general about life too.. that perhaps it was good to have some short term direction. :) Luckily, for me, eventually, I did end up on Sand Hill, but those 30-40min, I was totally lost!!

Thoroughly enjoyed the whole 'solo' thing though.

simple joys of watching TV..

It's been almost a year since the transition to digital TV, and boy have I missed watching it!! :) I had a CRT at home, and got my channels using regular bunny ears but ever since the transition, I have been very lazy to get a digital converter to receive the digital transmission. Now, I have Moski's big flat-screen TV at home -- and I don't need a converter for that! :)

I get to watch all the local channels using my bunny ears now. Ah! good ol' days! The Frasiers, The Seinfelds & all those CSIs, SVUs, NCISs et al..

Life is good. Let me enjoy it while it lasts.. :)

ooh.. feels good

Oh.. it felt so good to have cooked and invited friends over. It's been such a long time since I last cooked. I guess I should do it more often.

In the process, attempted a new dish -- beetroot paneer!! :) It turned out pretty good too, I guess the paneer does it to all dishes?

Made pulusu, beerakaya pachchadi, cabbage appetizer, beetroot raita in addition to the curry.

Now I am all set for Christmas, waiting for mom & sister and family..

Mile-time-trial

Went to volunteer at the TeamAsha Mile Time Trial at the Palo Alto high school. Oh boy, what tracks they were... excellent surface. The kids here are pampered, I say!! Went there with my flip flops.. and couldn't resist running on the tracks, so, ran barefoot. It was great fun cheering runners on and pacing them - truth be said, running barefoot was so awesome (felt so light.. and more importantly the legs felt good). I was egging folks on, and just helping around, as we had sufficient volunteers for other stuff. And once everyone finished, the vols went for their time trials. I wasn't planning to do mine (first, I am not training with TeamAsha this year) but didn't mind running on that surface at all.. and if someone wants to time you and pamper you, grab it with both hands.. err.. legs. So I did that. And got a great kick out of it!

I ended up shaving about 21 seconds from my previous best to do a 6:36 mile. That means a sub-4hr marathon under ideal conditions. So, those hopes still stay alive.

After all, it looks like the legs are doing alright, with all the stretching and stuff. I have a 10k coming up in 2 weeks. Want to hit that in 55min. Let's see how that goes.. 

Playing to a gallery

It was a fun participating in the hole-in-one competition at Deep Cliff Golf Course. This is an annual event organized by the Rotary Club of Cupertino -- they hold qualifiers for ~3 weeks and winner from every day qualifies for the event. The proceeds of the qualifiers went to a different non profit association every day. I qualified on Asha for Educations's qualifier with a distance of 4ft to the hole.

Including sponsors and organizers, a total of 30 people teed off on this 165 yard par-3 hole. Every one got just one shot at it, and out of 30 people, just two made it on to the green! It is quite a tough hole with two bunkers and narrow fairway. The first one to get on the green was eventually the winner for the consolation prize for 'closest to pin' -- he got 3.5ft away from the hole. 3.5ft was the distance between him and a Mercedes SUV!!

It was my first experience of playing to the gallery, obviously.. and it was lot of fun!!

on the run again..

3 weeks back, to date, I had gone for a run -- this after a prolonged absence. Maybe even as far as October 2007 when I ran the Marine Corps Marathon. Picked up a hip/ITB injury during my training, and basically was taking a long break. I worked with a physiotherapist (not sure if it was during or after the marathon) but I basically refrained from going out running. I was out playing ping-pong and basketball once in a while but I was putting off running until I got myself a pair of sneakers. Finally, did that and ventured out to the gym.

It feels good be running again. I limit my running to only two days of a week though, don't want to stress out my ailing body too much. Thanks to my sneakers, I have ramped up the workout at the gym as well... and all of a sudden, just like that, it's gotten busy. At least it's not like the time when I signed up for TeamAsha training. Then, it was super busy! Mar - Oct seems to be the crunch time for projects around here at work, so, TA training coincides with that perfectly. So, that's some respite that I am on my own without commitments to programs like marathon training or Stanford courses or swimming classes.. just one commitment is the Asha SV chapter meetings & stewarding one project. At this point, that is pretty much what I can handle.

Oh, yeah! I am on the run again.. but I am not sprinting this time!

interesting rating I found on yelp..

Indian Buffet Rankings:
1) Turmeric, Sunnyvale
2) Passage to India, Mountain View
3) Priya, Berkeley
4) Bombay Garden, Sunnyvale
5) Mehak, Berkeley
6) Sargam, Walnut Creek
7) Madhuban, Sunnyvale
8) Rangoli, San Jose
9) Maharaja?, Mtn View --- on Castro St., can't remember name but it's not Sue's, maybe Godavari?
10) Tandoori Mahal, San Francisco
11) Mayuri, Santa Clara
12) Khana Peena, Berkeley
13) Sahib, Richmond
14) Taj, Sunnyvale
15) Swarna,Walnut Creek
16) INDIA GATE, SANTA CLARA
17) Mezbaan, Santa Clara
18) Grand Indian Buffet, Sunnyvale
19) Tandoori Bites, San Jose
20) India Palace, Berkeley
21) Raj, Oakland
22) Nawab, San Mateo
23) Udupi Palace, Sunnyvale