10th March 2014.
My nail had grown quite a bit. Today morning I thought of trimming it. When tried doing that with nail cutter, was not getting any strength on both the thumbs. They were totally numb.
Don't worry. I attempted a 200 kilometers brevet on last saturday 8th of march 2014.
28th
february 2014. I was riding from home to near HSR layout BDA complex
for a meeting. Crossed silk board junction and was heading towards the
BDA junction to take right turn. A dude was driving a car and slowed
down next to me and he was trying to figure out which brand cycle I was
riding. Once he got his answer he started shouting 'Dahon' 'Dahon'
addressing to his co-passengers and it was so loud that it caught my
attention and already he had created a pile up just by slowing down.
Then he accelerated and a tempo driver came diagonally just couple of
inches close to me to tell something which I did not understand and when
he was overtaking me the tempo's rear end hit my handlebar - because
tempo is narrower at the front and that idiot could not judge it. Thus I
fell. On my left side. Gloves were on to protect my palms. Jeans
protected my knees with a very minor bruise on left knee. Slight bruise
on left arm below elbow. My half sleeve shirt got torn out totally just
above the left side pocket. I fell on my left ribs. So due to heavy
body weight, it got an impact and the inner structure was shaken and
paining if there was any jerk. Behind there was a nano and a motor bike.
They could miraculously stop just in time otherwise I would have become
a photo on wall by now. The lady in the nano was very nice, she stopped
the car, came out, gave me some water to drink and the bike guy also
was quite nice, he stopped and talked to me and was there till I left.
That tempo fellow fled away. My leather messenger bag strapped across
got some cut. Cycle I guess was fine. Immediately I rushed to BDA
complex and bought a new t-shirt and discarded my lovely shirt and went
for the meeting - was 5 minutes late.
Could have been anything but did not get so unlucky this time.
I needed a good ride to come out of this trauma.
Brevet.
Brevet !
200 kilometers !
With ribcage pain !
Yes.
Fine.
So it was a brevet of 200 kilometers. Bangalore - Bangarpet - Bangalore.
I
do not race. Just because I'm not good enough for races. I love to see
people racing. I like touring and long rides. But most of the rides I do
not finish. I intend to do brevets. I've attempted my first brevet four
months ago in Mysore. It was a 200 kilometers brevet. And I did finish
it. Then I attempted 300 kilometers brevet. Due to a cramp in my right
calf, I had to abondon after doing almost 160 kilometers. So the track
record does not look good at all. But I'm quite fine with it. There is
no target to chase. There is no goal to achieve. If I can enjoy my rides
and it helps me to get involved in some thing good then it is
absolutely fulfilling.
So 200 kilometers
Bangarpet Brevet Randonneurs Mondiaux. Completing the ride on time or
before time was not there in my mind at all. I just went for a long
ride. It was so relaxing. I took my folding cycle. Road bike would have
been difficult to ride as it would put more pressure to the ribcage due
to the posture and I was not up for pushing the MTB. And also I wanted
to check how a foldie behaves on a long ride. Short distance brevets are
good game. You get to see more number of riders with all different
capabilities and when you vary your pace time to time then you start
playing hide and seek with the fellow riders across the length and start
building up a very unknown kind of a relationship which sometimes is
temporal and most of the times long lasting. One has to accept the fact
that when it is a long ride, there will be a mix of good and bad sensory
experiences. For example, the place where we started from, in front of a
fire station on sarjapura road, beside a gutter with full of foul smell
and mosquitos. Early morning certainly it was not desirable and it does
not go away until you hit the inner country road which heads towards
chandapura junction. Across that stretch you get some really clean air
and chirping of birds. As I was not too sure about doing this ride till
friday night, I was totally un-prepared or rather unconsciously I wanted
to be like that. Surrendering yourself into an uncertainty is
thrilling. I left this ride totally on my intuition. Did not fix any
cyclo-comp on the cycle. Did not switch on strava on phone. Did not
activate google gps or alike. Was not wearing a watch. Totally depending
on cue-sheet and intuitive judgement about distances. I could figure
out my speed as I do not push too hard on the ride and try to maintain
an average riding speed of 20-22 kmph, it was easy to keep a mental
check of distance travelled and riding speed. From the last unsuccessful
brevet ride, I had learnt that nutrition and hydration is a major part
for the rider to be in the ride for long. I wanted to improve on those
two aspects and thought lets see if I can correct few things in this
ride. In the morning I did not drink too much of water to negotiate the
morning temperature and fluid outflow. Slowly started sipping electral
water and plain water in a smaller quantity at a rythmic interval and it
seemed to be working. Normally I used to get cramps in my legs early on
the rides but this time around there was no sign of cramp at the
beginning and I could cruise easily till the first control at around 35
kilometers. Lost a handsome 20-25 minutes just by standing in the queue
for control slip at the ATM and that costed me quite dearly at the end
of the day. However it was a stupidity not to think some alternative at
that moment to save time and move on. At Hosur there is a food joint
called Saravana where Idli - vada - sambar - chai is a great combo and I
did not miss it. I highly recommend that restaurant for the riders.
Specifically for the sambar. After a sumptuous breakfast I was very
happy and that happiness took me till Malur easily on a newly carpeted
road. At Malur intersection while having a fruit bun, met with couple of
riders and pushed off in a while. By then I had crossed nearly 65
kilometers and got lot of energy in legs to push on a relatively flat
terrain and it lasted till Tekal railway station where I stopped for
coconut water along with others. After Tekal, road is quite textured and
that was hitting me accutely at times till Bangarpet. I had be extra
cautous so that I dont hurt my ribcage and as a result it was slowing me
down. In all the villages on the way, we were quite entertainers for
the school kids. In-between I stopped for a water break along a paddy
field. The setting was quite dramatic. One side there was a series of
mountain of bald rocks and an railway track adjacent to it and then the
road along the paddy field on other side of the road. I was standing
under a bunch of coconut trees and there was a gentle windflow and out
of the blue a train appeared with a gentle speed and the locomotive was
creating a perfect sound - mesmerising nostalgia. Still we feel so good
about small thing like a train going pass you and left a painted canvas
in your memory - why do we need a camera ! Let few images be there just
for you in your memory.
Bangarpet.
The brevet is named after that.
Nothing
much to talk about the place but certainly food joint is a crisis over
there. By the time I reached there it was 12.30 in the afternoon and the
nice breakfast was all gone down under and a great hunger was poking
from within. After searching in the town, finally got a food outlet
where I could manage to get a meal. I was hungry. The food was extremely
spicy. And it was just not going through. I'm not so fussy about food
and if I get something to fill my tummy, I'm generally happy and
ofcourse I've a great desire for good quality food but there is
absolutely no problem to hold that desire for appropriate time and be
adaptive for the moment. But I feel really irritated if I get to eat
something very hot or spicy or too cold when I'm extremely hungry or
thirsty. And the meal was very spicy for me - there was a layer of brick
coloured powder on top of the rasam and that blew up through my head.
Finally could eat little bit of plain rice with curd. And on the way got
some nice sugar cane juice. Left the Bangarpet town by around 1.20 pm
and hit the highway. Absolutely hot but on this stretch there were lot
of tree shades and pleasant wind. After a good patch of road and
relatively less elevation gain, could reach the OMR national highway at
around 120 kilometers mark. The next control at Emerald Isle resort was
looking a bit tough but not impossible. Started gaining speed on the
highway but at this portion after Bangarpet I was riding alone and that
slowed me down a bit. Stopped next to the road for watermelon - it felt
just good at that moment. Some relief to the burning powder which had
gone inside sometime back at Bangarpet. On this part actually I could
have gained acceleration on a road bike and made up for the lost time.
Foldie was good fun to ride but the only thing was on the down slope, I
could not capitalise as much as I could have done otherwise on a road
bike. On the way saw few riders were sitting and chatting and pulled
them along till Emerald Isle resort. This was the place where we had a
fantastic Individual Time Trial race just two weeks back and the marking
of the finish line was still there. I was looking for a place to go
flat and take a power nap. Did not get a better place and finally slept
over the road divider between the main road and the service road. After
around ten minutes resumed riding. Almost 155 kilometers was done by now
and the pain in ribcage was bothering me. Time was becoming imbalanced
and my core was just not supporting me to push harder. Everytime I
started pumping, felt a shrill pain in the deep inside.
Easy.
Easy.
Easy.
At
this time around I felt, I'm still not prepared for the brevets. I
might be able to pull up couple of them randomly but that is something
which I do not want. I want to create a platform where I'm comfortable
and enjoy the ride and can finish brevets at any terrain at any
condition. Long way to go. One thing I was feeling good about is, my
hydration was quite good this time. But nutrition needs to be thought
through much deeply. It may be good to attempt multiple brevets in
future without any expectation and just to be familiar with the routes
and it will give me a better clarity about planning the entire ride.
Nutrition, Hydration and building up core strength would be the focus to
build up a sustainable platform for doing brevets over and over again.
Its addictive. Every brevet rider would say that every brevet is a
torture but the same rider will come back for the next one with a
smiling face. What a beauty. Its one on one. Its just you and yourself.
Its pure test of oneself. With these thoughts I was close to Chikka
Tirupathi. The equation was simple. I had one hour and 25 kilometers to
cover. You do it or you do not do it. Its a choice. I chose not to do
it. Its not because that I was completely not able to do it. But I told
myself that, this is not the last brevet I'm riding. I texted Vasu that
it is looking tough for me and not healthy to push anymore. Vasu replied
immediately - ' bullshit, just bend down your head and pedal hard as if
you are the happiest man on earth and keep going'. I was not unhappy
either. I took a decision to do this ride despite of the injury just to
check on the hydration, nutrition and stamina part. And ofcourse to try
out the folding bike on a long ride. Every single ride is opening up
more avenues to improve myself. That is more important than clocking a
good time on a finishing chart somehow.
I
texted my wife that I'm burnt out and just short of finish line. She
replied saying that you have done very good for the day. My day is done
at 190 kilometers mark. I'll ride another brevet on another day.
