Running, music, and some confessions

I was never a serious runner. I used to love the 100 m dash in school and considered myself a short distance speed-runner (Ha!). Then as usual, I grew up. I started enjoying the tipple, or two, or three, and puffing the nicotine on and off. Started working out in the gym but balanced it out with a beer for every kilo progress with the dumbbell. Eventually giving up exercises and just devoting myself to Lord Bacchus (Dionysus).

Till last year that is. Sometime in May 2013, I realised that I need to build up stamina for the upcoming trekking season. I started walking a bit and then combined walking and a bit of running. In the first couple of treks, I realised how screwed up my stamina was (Not that it has improved to the teenage-level, but somewhat significant improvement. And more so, boosted confidence!). I realised that not only should I take up running a bit seriously, but I should also be cutting down on the Bacchus potions (Easier said than done!). But then I somehow, surprisingly, stuck to chasing the breeze a bit, pushing the ground and running about. Soon the walking and running combination evolved to just running. Treks happened in between, and running continued.

One thing I would like to specifically point out was the motivation given by the Android application called Runtastic. I don't remember if it was the application that made me take up running or whether it happened after I started walking-running. Whatever the case (that eludes my memory) is, it has been motivating me throughout. I really started enjoying my run, and further enjoying the treks. Did a lot of treks last season!

Coming back to running, the course hasn't been easy. Yes I set up some goals like 5K continuous, then 10K continuous, and then average 15-18 K per week, and thankfully I was able to achieve them, but with all the sudden intensity, shin splints returned. Google helped me to realize that a lot of runners experience shin splints. Everywhere I checked people mentioned that there is no cure as such for shin splints, just try changing shoes, modify your gait, apply ice after every run, and keep doing stretches after a run. Shin splints are painful. Shins hurt not just while running, but they make every step painful if they are inflamed.

I don't remember when I switched from a random 3-4 K per day to 6K every alternate day. The rest day in between helped me contain the shin pain. I got into a good running regime and then ran the December 2013 Pune Marathon in the 10K category. (That marathon made me realize how beneficial it is to have a running partner!) Sometime back I did a continuous 10K on a weekend and then joined a Pune Running 10K event and was happy to complete it in 65 minutes.

So, after 12 months of somewhat consistency, Runtastic tells me that I have managed to do 170 km walking, 70 km hiking (haven't measure all of the hikes though), and 320 km (rounded up) running. There is a lot to do. Next up I would like to target more immediate goals like sub-60 min 10K, sub-25 min 5K, sub-30 min 6K, et al. Then a 1000 km running year. I need to pray more to the Greek God (TIL Goddess) of running now and also pray to whichever gods the Tarahumara people pray to.

Now, on to the reason that triggered this post and the second word from the title of this post.

I never tried running with music because I remembered making a mess of the headphones and the way they kept pulling out. I also got used to observing and following the rhythm and rhythmic change in my breathing during a run. I kept wondering how it will be to run with a non-falling pair of headphones and good songs. Searching for the difference between runners who run without music and runners running with music gave me some good insights on the psychology of runners and running. But then, there are times when you are bored with the usual routine and want to try out something new. So yesterday, I made a playlist of what I thought would be good songs for running and added an early-morning reminder to not forget the headphones, and today I ran while listening to music.

Yes, it was a positively good experience. I had to keep pushing the headphones back in the ear frequently, but it was all right. What need adjusting was my habit of listening to my breathing. As I mentioned earlier, I am mostly a nose breather and tend to exhale loudly thus forming rhythmic exhale sounds that change with different pace. Music distracted me from listening to my usual air-music. But then after 1-2 km I was grooving. I must tell you that Lonely Boy by The Black Keys has got a nice rhythm to it that matched my running pace brilliantly and I enjoyed that stretch quite a bit. I had added Daft Punk, Prodigy, Avicii as well, but it's The Black Keys and AC/DC that I enjoyed the most.

Music distracts you from the usual thoughts and sounds while you run, if you are used to running without music. It adds to that necessary change as well. I might not run with music every time, but I will definitely go back to running playlists once in a while.

Specially when I need some motivation to run.

On that note:

Oh, oh-oh I got a love that keeps me waiting
Oh, oh-oh I got a love that keeps me waiting
- Lonely Boy by The Black Keys

Those lines could very well be dedicated to a glass of fine whiskey and puff thereafter. ;)

A Cool, Dark Place by Supriya Dravid - Book Review

"All these words turned out to be wretched custodians of memory. They cut me to the core and taught me that absences have a presence too."
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Don, the Mother, Gravy, Zephyr, Sancho, Robert, the Banker, et al. The characters in this book are as eccentric as they come. Some, specially Don. Scratch that, just Don. Larger than life. Almost like making a peg of whiskey that is too much for the poor glass to handle. The glass is not half-empty or half-full in this case, but overfull.

After a turn of events, Zephyr comes across these poignant cobwebs in her family history that trap her. And guess who the liquor-loving Spiderman is? As the pages turn, new information is revealed to Z and from then on, there is a downward spiral. If there can be further downward movement when one is already down.

She gets to know about her wild grandmother, her effervescent mother, and the other puppets in Don, her grandfather's, kingdom. How he pulls the strings, how he jokes, and how he plays with their memories is A Cool, Dark Place.

Somewhere one doesn't need to go, but is already present, in the recesses of their minds.

The language used in the book is beautiful. There are some phrases that are too much to handle, but I guess there are moments in life that make you think of ghastly atrocities too. Language is just an outreach. I would definitely recommend this book to people I know who'd appreciate the dark poetry that this book is.

It's like drinking a fine, yet eccentric single malt whiskey.
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“How often do we tell our own life story? How often do we adjust, embellish, make sly cuts? And the longer life goes on, the fewer are those around to challenge our account, to remind us that our life is not our life, merely the story we have told about our life. Told to others, but-mainly-to ourselves.” - Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending (My review here.)
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A Cool, Dark Place has these strong flavours that remind me of another story. I know the exact story that the book reminds me of, but putting it as "another story" serves as a temporary respite.
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A Cool, Dark Place is that intensely flavoured dish that you like from your favourite eating place that one day has been slightly overdone. All the flavours have been magnified such that individual flavours stand out and overpower the other, yet each sustains it's own battle.
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Don Draper, after being divorced from Megan lost the custody of his boy to Betty. After a lot of convincing and legal power play, he managed to be a custodian and guardian to the effervescent Sally, his daughter.

Don moved to India, Madras to be more specific, started a leather business and resumed his love for the life-saving brown fluids and power. More like dissolving his life in alcohol one peg at a time. Just like the way specimens are preserved in a biological laboratory. It's tough to figure out how Don eventually turns out to be, but that's life.

A Cool, Dark Place could very well be a story of Don Draper's fall and rise just like the bubbles trapped in a champagne bottle falling from the bottle in the champagne flute and escaping from there.
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“History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.” - Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
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For an actual (and good) review of the book, check here.

His position on Whiskey

In 1952, Armon M. Sweat, Jr., a member of the Texas House of Representatives, was asked about his position on whiskey. What follows is his exact answer (taken from the Political Archives of Texas):

"If you mean whiskey, the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean that evil drink that topples Christian men and women from the pinnacles of righteous and gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, shame, despair, helplessness, and hopelessness, then, my friend, I am opposed to it with every fiber of my being.

However, if by whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the elixir of life, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer, the stimulating sip that puts a little spring in the step of an elderly gentleman on a frosty morning; if you mean that drink that enables man to magnify his joy, and to forget life's great tragedies and heartbreaks and sorrow; if you mean that drink the sale of which pours into Texas treasuries untold millions of dollars each year, that provides tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitifully aged and infirm, to build the finest highways, hospitals, universities, and community colleges in this nation, then my friend, I am absolutely, unequivocally in favor of it.

This is my position, and as always, I refuse to compromise on matters of principle."

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Found this excellent and eloquent piece from a link shared on Twitter.

What is YOUR position on Whiskey?