Today is fourth day after resuming ride and mutukadu is one of my favourite places to see the sunrise at beach. Today there were way too many birds in the lake. We could see many different species of water birds today morning. It was a splendid scene. Cormorants, pelicans, ibises and herons, and grebes were in maximum numbers.
I started cycling after six months of recovery and i am very happy about it. The first four months went really quick fast. The last two months lasted longer and longer. Initially i went for local grocery shop riding 1km up and 1 km down. Then went to the starting point for bird watching. Yesterday there was a cricket tournament among our cycling chapters.
We went as a group to cheer our cricket team players. I thought even i could not go fast eventually i can catch up with the riders at the ground. However to my surprise i was able to ride with the team despite a gap of six months. Day before yesterday Individual time trial within the chapter was conducted. I could not participate due to not starting. Now after yesterdays ride, again today went to celebrate the chapters second anniversary by cake cutting at besant nagar beach.
I have to give my road bike for service and hopefully by next week i will start riding my roadie. It is a new beginning for me after surgery. The distance i rode yesterday and today put together is 65 km. These small ride helped me gain confidence to go for further rides. Tomorrow we are going to ride uphill in pallavaram hills, one of my favourite spots in the city. I am looking up to it eagerly.
Cycling group from WCCG Madipakkam and WCCG Navalur chapters jointly organised for a bird watching walk at pallikaranai Eco park situated between the pallikaranai marsh land towards kaiveli and behind the garbage dump yard. The original pallikaranai marsh lands extended to several kilometres from Velachery to Sholinganallur during my childhood days.
The pallikaranai eco park opens at 6:30 am in the morning and closes at 6:30 in the evening. It is a very nice place for joggers and runners who can carry out the activities without disturbing the birds. The water inside the marsh lands had dried up within forty five days of monsoon activity in the region.
I am very happy that my ride activity resumed in this way. I also got to meet fellow birders who are also cyclists. I reached the park entrance 15 minutes before opening time and got to meet Mr Sudhakar, an avid bird photographer. We exchanged pleasantries and had a chat regarding birding in the area.
Once all the cyclists assembled we parked our cycles and locked together in a combined way to avoid theft. Few months ago during my UK visit I observed a lot of cycle parts and locks on the roadside. On enquiry it was informed that there is rampant cycle theft in UK. They remove the parts and take it with them leaving the lock along with the parts that cannot be removed. In that way India is far better. They steal the whole cycle or they leave it as it is. Things would be different If we have wings like our feathered friends. No vehicles, No pollution, No exploitation.
We were able to spot the following birds during the one hour walk.
All the pictures were taken by fellow bird watchers. I missed my camera very much. I just watched everyone taking pics of birds. I am eagerly waiting for the next bird watching activity with fellow cyclists.
Thanks for visiting my blog.
What worked well for me this month?
I started writing to do list for new habit building and I could see the results straightaway. I wrote everyday on my notebook in this month.
I am updating my food habits and expenses everyday. I write date and time and each items I eat and an approximate qty in numbers and weight wherever possible. It was tough initially for a few days but past experience helped me. I tracked my food using an app in 2020 and there were lot of distractions while using phone, so I forget to record and I cannot remember later. But a separate notebook reminds me every time I see the notebook. I would like to continue to do this for the rest of my life.
I am playing online chess(only one game per day) everyday with a random player. I chose chess for rekindling my chess skills and mental well being. All my friends used to come to my house and we play carrom and chess a lot in childhood days. By the time we completed schooling only one another person could manage to play with me while the rest could not even stand with us for more than twenty moves. I continued playing chess with him till graduation. Afterwards work life has taken this habit away from me. Now it brings joy when I play chess everyday. I started getting addicted in the first few days and then decided to play only one game per day which I did for the whole of the month. I would like to continue to do this for the rest of my life.
I started meeting my friends at madipakkam lake post surgery. I will start my cycling activities by this weekend.
In an attempt to reduce my laptop screen time started buying Economic Times Wealth newspaper every Monday. I have reduced atleast two hours of screen time by this way.
Subscribed to Kukufm app and started listening to audio books periodically. However yet to take notes after listening as it is difficult to remember after a period of time.
Book reading:
At present I am reading hard copy of the book “ ALGORITHMS TO LIVE BY” written by Brian Christian. It is not a fast readable book. I enjoy reading the contents and could relate my life with some algorithms.
Movies watched
Net series watched
I am unable to decide whether I should reduce my time spent for movies and net series. Few more months of data after I start cycling and running will help me decide. I convinced myself that this is recovery time and you can do this for this period.
Health statistics
There is no change in any of the below parameters this month.
Now that I can go out and do cycling, running etc after six months. I have to plan activities and lifestyle so as to reduce my weight , Increase my body protein content and water content, Reduce Body fat and visceral fat.
I have started tracking my food habits to find if anything can be done for achieving the above objectives.
I am planning to use my MATLAB programming skills to study weight loss or gain on those days when I ate outside food.
Sleep
150 hours of sleep in January approximately 5 hours per day. Let me see if this increases with my upcoming activities in this month or remains the same.
Completed the following online courses
Pre-Registered for PBP-1200 KM ride
Started organising my physical and digital documents. Converted all my pictures in HEIC format to the much usable JPG format. Changed the settings in iphone to save my files in JPG format. To free up my phone memory space started removing unnecessary videos received through whatsapp forwards. It has become quite cumbersome since the size is over 50 GB.
I have not travelled anywhere this month except to my medical checkup.
New Problems faced in Jan-2023
My laptop crashed due to a hacking attempt by unknown person. Also I am not able to use my laptop for GIS programming.
My wifi device problem was rectified by an expert within a day.
Have to find better methods for my progress tracking and email management.
I will keep writing monthly reviews for my self development. Also by chance if somebody reads this and can give better ideas and suggestions. Day by day in everyway I will strive to become better and better.
Thanks for Reading.
