reflections

Life in the first quarter

Successes

  1. Completed a full marathon
  2. Almost completed 1150 km ride

Setbacks

  1. Read how I met with an Accident

Books read

  1. The left hand side of darkness
  2. The devil and miss prym

Movies watched

Sapta sagaradache ello – side Bkannada
Mea culpaEnglish
I am Loh kiwanEnglish
ParkingTamil
DamselEnglish
Murder mubarakHindi
Kushi(2023)Tamil
Hudugatakannada
InfluencerEnglish
The fallEnglish
Abraham ozlerMalayalam

TV series watched

  1. Young Sheldon (Seasons 1 to 6)
  2. Demon slayer (Seasons 1 to 4)
  3. Death note – all episodes
  4. Squid game – season 1

Time spent

  1. TV series – 20+60+16 =96 hours
  2. Movies – 0+6.5+10 = 17 hours

Gratitude

  1. To all the doctors who brought me back to life.
  2. To all the nurses for taking care of me while at ICU & ward.
  3. To all the support staff for taking care of me while at the hospital.
  4. To the friends who admitted me in the hospital.
  5. To the friends and family members who visited me at the hospital.
  6. To the friends who contacted me directly and indirectly to enquire my welfare.
  7. To the lorry driver who despite hitting me, did not run away, and accompanied me in the ambulance to hospital.
  8. To my family for taking care of me now.
  9. To all cyclists who rode with me in January.
  10. To the organizers of the events SPCM-2024 & GOH-2024

Unlike last year I decided to review every quarter instead of every month.

Thanks for reading.

experience, reflections

Things I miss while at bed rest

  1. The morning sunrise at beaches
  2. The chit chat with my co-riders during morning rides
  3. The Monday morning ride to drink soup at besant nagar beach
  4. Speed rides on Wednesday at Chennai bypass
  5. Running around madipakkam lake
  6. Walking around the area in the evening
  7. Voting in the upcoming elections
  8. Standing on my own feet – literally
  9. Participating in cycling events
  10. Running in grass and rocky trails
  11. Checking websites to participate in upcoming events
  12. Travel planning for future  events.
  13.  Out-station trip with madipakkam chapter.
  14. Climbing up the pallavaram hill on bike and feet.
  15. Sunday morning run over the flyovers.
  16. Long endurance rides.
  17. The morning sunlight on my skin.
  18. The feel of headwinds, tailwinds and crosswinds.
  19. Meeting and interacting with new people
  20. Checking out new cycling accessories
  21. Window shopping at malls
  22. Watching movies at big screen
  23. Using my iphone camera.
  24. Taking bath in water.
  25. Shitting in the toilet.
  26. Peeing while standing.
reflections

November 2023 review

Things went well in my way

  1. Participated in cycling ITT events.
  2. Mothers health is comparatively better than last month.
  3. Started learning postgresql software.

Things that didn’t go in my way

  1. Unable to go to Trichy for participating in kolli hills 300 BRM.
  2. Mothers health is still not up to the mark.
  3. Rain water entered my house.

Book reading:

No new books read this month. 

Movies watched

  1. Irukaptru
  2. Ramabanam
  3. Bhagavanth kesari
  4. Leo

Net series watched

  1. Maid
  2. Big bang theory

Health statistics

  1. Weight – 72.3 kg  
  2. Protein – 20.5 % 
  3. Muscle – 53.27  Kg 
  4. Body fat – 21.8 % 
  5. Visceral fat – 12
  6. Bone mass – 2.85 Kg 
  7. Water content – 53.6 % 
  8. Basal metabolism rate – 1458 kcal

Cycling and Running

Madipakkam lake
Madipakkam lake (View towards North)
  • 250 km cycling (only two long rides and mostly commutes)
  • 120 km walking, hiking and running
  • 1 hour of weight training
  • 2 hours body balance exercises

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 every way I will strive to become better and better.

Thanks for Reading.

reflections

October 2023 Review

Madipakkam lake

Book reading:

No new books read this month. 

Movies watched

  1. Kranti
  2. Dream girl 2

Net series watched

  1. Friends
  2. Behind your touch
  3. Caliphate

Health statistics

  1. Weight – 69.7 kg  
  2. Protein – 20.8 % 
  3. Muscle – 52.32  Kg 
  4. Body fat – 20.9 % 
  5. Visceral fat – 12
  6. Bone mass – 2.8 Kg 
  7. Water content – 54.2 % 
  8. Basal metabolism rate – 1427 kcal

Cycling and Running

  • 700 km cycling
  • 120 km walking, hiking and running
  • 6 hours of weight training
  • 2 hours of Abs workout
Madipakkam lake
  • 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.

reflections

September 2023 review

What worked well for me this month?

32 KM trail run successfully completed

Went for a kolli hills and bettered my PR in climbing.

Participated in a Time Trial cycling event and bettered my PR.

Visited Thaiyur lake along with cycling group.

Book reading:

No new books read this month.

Movies watched

  1. Equaliser 3
  2. Mundhina nildana
  3. Preethse
  4. Kowsalya supraja rama
  5. Sapta sagaradache ello – side A

Net series watched

  1. Friends
  2. Celebrity

Health statistics

  1. Weight – 67.9 kg  (2 kg weight gain due to increase in muscle mass. It can be a machine error. Forgot to check my weight and accidental data loss in this month on too many days)
  2. Protein – 21.2 % 
  3. Muscle – 52  Kg 
  4. Body fat – 19.2 % 
  5. Visceral fat – 12
  6. Bone mass – 2.78 Kg 
  7. Water content – 55.3 % 
  8. Basal metabolism rate – 1400 kcal

Cycling and Running

800 km cycling

60 km walking, hiking and running

8 hours of weight training

6 hours of body balance exercises

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.

reflections

Monthly review – February

What worked well for me this month?

Doing single leg stand for one minute in each leg everyday.

Started riding my MTB and also road bike

Birdwatching in pallikaranai eco park

Started running after a break of six months.

Writing to do list everyday of the month

Updating food habits and expenses everyday

Playing online chess everyday

WCCG Madipakkam chapter 2nd Anniversary celebration

Book reading:

No new books read this month.

Movies watched

  1. Raangi
  2. 18 pages
  3. Night drive
  4. Thunivu
  5. Dear David
  6. Quantamania- Antman and the wasp
  7. Varisu

Net series watched

  1. Little Women – 12 episodes

Health statistics

There is no change in any of the below parameters this month.

  1. Weight – 76 Kg (1kg weight loss achieved )
  2. Protein – 20 % (0.7 % increase from last month)
  3. Muscle – 54.7 Kg (1.2 Kg muscle mass increased)
  4. Body fat – 24 % (2.5 % reduced compared to last month)
  5. Visceral fat – 13 (No change)
  6. Bone mass – 2.93 Kg (0.6 kg increase compared to last month)
  7. Water content – 52 % (1.5 % increase )
  8. Basal metabolism rate – 1527

My health increased due to resuming cycling and running.

Sleep

  1. Deep sleep – 16:00 hours
  2. Light sleep – 70:50 hours
  3. REM sleep – 26:50 hours

115 hours of sleep in February approximately 4.5 hours per day. Let me see if this increases with my upcoming activities in this month or remains the same.

Cycling and Running

No of days: 17 days

No of kms: 403 km

New Problems faced in Feb-2023

  1. My MI 6 smartband failed to charge and so could not track my step count sleep and other parameters for a few days
  2. Less sleep

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.

reflections

Monthly review – January

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

  1. Gutta kusthi
  2. Beast
  3. Echarikkai
  4. Everything, Everywhere all At once
  5. Varalaru mukkiyam

Net series watched

  1. Itaewon class – 16 episodes
  2. Fight for my way – 16 episodes
  3. K2 – 16 episodes
  4. My liberation notes – 16 episodes
  5. Misaeng: Incomplete life – 20 episodes

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.

  1. Weight – 77 Kg
  2. Protein – 19.3 Kg
  3. Muscle – 53.5 Kg
  4. Body fat – 26.5 %
  5. Visceral fat – 13
  6. Bone mass – 2.87 Kg
  7. Water content – 50.4 %
  8. Basal metabolism rate – 1540

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

  1. Deep sleep – 22:50 hours
  2. Light sleep – 88:20 hours
  3. REM sleep – 36:50 hours

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

  1. MATLAB onramp
  2. MATLAB OOPS
  3. MATLAB machine learning

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.

experience, reflections

2022 review

2022 review

January – The year began with lockdown and uncertainty due to the pandemic. The events scheduled for new year got cancelled or postponed without further dates. I was supposed to participate in a long cycle ride and it got postponed. I spent my time inside home as like lockdown in previous years.

I watched two Korean series with the help of English subtitles. The first one is ‘Its ok to not be okay’ and the second one is ‘Startup’. Both the series influenced me a lot in a positive way. 

 Every year on Pongal day and subsequent two days , we used to for 100 km rides with our cycling group. These events also got cancelled this year. But unlike previous years there was a hope that this will end soon in everybody’s mind and this positive thinking and other measures and experience of past years led to removal of lockdown by the end of the month. However by the end of the month I had clocked 1700 kms.

February– The event which got postponed in January was rescheduled for 14th of the february. Got my cycle serviced and booked train tickets to Bangalore and packed all things required for the event(Gates of Heaven – 1200 km cycle ride). Couldn’t finish on time but nevertheless completed climbing five hills. The event will take place again in 2024 and I am waiting for it. A short write up was posted recently.

I watched neither movies nor net series during February and all focus was only cycling. I rode around 2250 km in February.

March– It was again only cycling in march and I rode around 2300 km. I was  preparing for a thousand km ride via Jog falls in April. Also a hope of compensating the late finish in February.

I watched the movie ‘Shyam singha Roy’.

April – A thousand kilometre ride which i quit at 450 km was a major disappointment. I did climbed and descended the kudremukh hills before quitting. After returning, I started running to participate in my first ‘Hell race’ which got postponed to the first of next month.

In April I watched the movies ‘ No time to die’ and ‘Hey Sinamika’.

May – In a  65 km trail running in Darjeeling, managed to complete 50 km and then had to force quit due to weather and late coming. For more about this read here. I am participating again in 2023.

A cycling competition between cities as to who will clock more mileage among a selected list of participants. This event was conceptualised by crooze app and the first edition was conducted. Our team Chennai cheetahs won the first place.

I Watched ‘Dr Strange: Multiverse of madness’ in Imax3D. It was a big disappointment in the storyline for me.

Applied online for UK visa to participate in LEL-2022. Ordered online for cycling accessories and a friend of mine carried it from UK.

June –As part of  training went to SL-7 High altitude training centre at ooty and had a wonderful experience. Participated in the first edition of Spartan-600 BRM conducted by Madurai Randonneurs, had to climb four hills and successfully completed on time.

I reapplied for my visa in priority basis and got it on time.

July– The entire month was spent on preparation for LEL, packing for a long international trip. Apart from that I watched four movies in July. ‘CBI the brain’, ‘ Love and leashes’, ‘Thor: Love and thunder’ and ‘Dear Friend’.

I watched ‘Man vs bee’ and it was a disappointment for me. And then watched a Korean series ‘Crash landing on you’.

August – First ever visit to UK. LEL experience. I am yet to post my experiences in UK and the LEL ride. However I have posted about the incident that happened in UK.

While returning back in flight I watched three movies and two more movies on reaching home.

September – First ever surgery on my body. Not a proud thing to brag at. Post surgery I received Memento from WCCG for my attempt at LEL.  

I watched ‘I am not a robot’ and ‘Hometown cha cha cha’.

October – Reading books, Watching net series, Movies. I watched ‘Run on’ and ‘Twenty five Twenty one’.

November – Reading books, Watching net series, Movies. I watched a small series ‘ Remarriage and Desires’.

I started tracking my food daily and writing it in a notebook and by the end of the week entering into excel.

December – Reading books, Watching net series, Movies. I watched ‘Doctors’ in December.

A review of this year for may look like- Watch movies and Net series, Cycle, Sleep and then Repeat. But it was not so. I learnt a lot more things which I forgot to record and hence unable to quantify.

Movies – 34

Web series – 145 episodes

Cycling – 15000 km

Running – 650 Km

Reading – 5 books

I haven’t quantified how much time I spend working, sleeping, trying new foods at new restaurants, hiking, and other things I do in life. I should try to add these things in next year in case I succeed in quantifying.

reflections

One month post surgery

It has been a month now post my collarbone surgery. Xray has been taken today and the doctor has asked me to slowly get used to without the arm sling. It feels different now with a plate inside my body and also removing the sling. Its now time for me to get back to the usual routine of things. However i contemplated a lot of things during my rest period about how to go about everything in my life. Although i am facing more problems now than ever before, i am still cool and confident of overcoming them. Really surprised myself with this new attitude developed over years. Worrying has disappeared altogether. My whole focus has turned towards learning many new things and revise unused skills.

My cycle is yet to be assembled after my return from UK. Will this new attitude of mine stay shorter or longer, only time can tell. My weight has not significantly increased during the recovery period. And another good news is that visceral fat has started reducing after 20 months. Once visceral fat goes down, rest of things like body water content, Protein, muscle mass etc will fall in place. one area of concern is my skeletal mass is going down despite taking calcium tablets. May be because of lacking vitamin-D since i am staying indoor all the time.

Likely to resume cycling by middle of December month as per my estimation, Missing out the participation in next week dandeli ultra running event. I am now setting my eyes on “The buddha trails” scheduled in the month of April next year. Finished reading another fiction book “The influencer” and binge watched another korean series “Run on”. Gave my used ipad air to my cousin. And now ready to spring up to new highs.

See you in another post.

reflections, travel

Time travelled to my room in 2008

I was cleaning and organising my room today with left hand only. Suddenly my mind travelled back to 2008 and i checked my photos of my room in 2008. I stayed away from my parents for the first time in 2008. It was in KPCL quarters at raichur. When i joined office, i was told there was a vacancy in quarters where no one wanted to occupy. Someone has committed suicide and people imagined the house to be a haunted one like they show in movies. The house was very close to main road, very near to our office mess, and close to a football stadium, helipad and swimming pool. Despite its strategic location, out of fear no one occupied it. When i was offered the quarters , i readily moved in. What a wise decision it was. I was too minimalist at that time, which i regretted later. I should have bought basic things and lived better. Now in 2022 i miss that big house which was spacious. It is not that i have too much stuff, i am living the best of my life now. Spending time the way i want to and Doing things i love too. Back in 2008 i had a big house for myself with a hefty salary, which i did not spend wisely.

Wall poster in my room in 2008.

Everyday morning i will wake up to this poster and think positive. It sure kept my day positive.

I wake up to see this every day in 2008

I did not even buy a bed with my hefty package. Slept on a mat without a cot. This went on for two years till 2010, when i became little wiser.

Books i wanted to read

Due to mismanagement of time, i couldnt finish reading half of the books. Most of them got damaged when flood waters entered my home in 2017. Now i use kindle. Some of these books cannot be read in kindle and i want to buy again.

Hall
Gifted

Back to 2022, I am determined to organise my room better than it is now. Getting used to commonly use left hand, dreaming of becoming ambidextrous. That’s how you have to see the current scenario.

Cheers.