111, 222 or (yes) 333 km non-stop up in the Himalayas, running up & down the world’s highest motorable pass…here is a link to an earlier blog post which gives you a little of the background info on this unbelievable race.

It’s one heck of an exciting adventure.

So, yes, where was I? I’ve officially lost my thread, I think

Right, back to where I started : over the few years of its existence, La Ultra has become a major event in the world calendar of extreme running events, and this weekend, the qualifying run took place.  The Garwhal Runs.

76 km in under 11 hours, with an altitude gain of 7300ft.

Quite.

2 of my running friends took part in this punishing run – Harminder Singh (whom you all know well from his regular photo contributions here) and Nischint Katoch (both last seen in the pre-dawn darkness, when we all 3 arrived at the Mumbai marathon holding zone together).

Here is their post Garwhal Run photo on Saturday.

Crazy stuff from 2 super nice crazy guys!

Nischint runs huge distances as if they were going out of fashion: he had a ridiculously high mileage total for the first ever edition of our #100daysofrunning challenge and as for Harminder…well, he started running for 100 days during this same challenge (summer 2015) AND HE STILL HASN’T STOPPED!!

Someone please tell Harminder the challenge is over

Well done, you two.  Proud to know such amazing nutcases sorry sorry, slip of the tongue, athletes  

My California based girlfriend Nadine went running on El Porto Beach with her hubby, Mike, and this is what they saw.

Burrowing sea cucumbers.

Dunno how you top that one…  Cows in the streets of Delhi just don’t seem that exotic, compared with these beach finds…

Thanks, Nadine, and please keep a lookout for us, for more weird and wonderful things from your beach runs!

But as I set off, I had to change route 3 times in less than 2 km, to avoid troops of boisterous rhesus macaques in Lutyens Delhi.

For those of you not familiar with Delhi, there is a real problem with monkeys (macaques, to be precise) which roam brazenly around central Delhi & are pretty darn aggressive.

I absolutely do not try and get the macaques to move out of my way.  Instead, I move away from them.

First of, as I walked away from my parked car, aiming to turn left, this is what I saw:

So obviously, I turned right.

About a km later, this is what I saw ahead of me:

So obviously I back-tracked, since the macaques were on both sides of the road.

But then I encountered this.  They were fighting pretty aggressively, so yet again, a quick double-back…

All in a day’s run in Delhi…

This little gem MADE my morning, as I collapsed back home after a very slow (a very, v-e-r-y slow) LSD this morning.

No need for me to elaborate on this article, is there?

No need for me to gloat, either, but I shall …oh yes, I shall!

#toldya to all those naysayers who like to criticise me for starting running “at your age”…

Here you go, since I knew you’d asked, I’ve provided a pocket definition of “tempo run” for you.

I’m nice like that

“Comfortably hard” – yup, that sounds right.

But before we ran at tempo speed around Nehru Park, we did our stretching, our warm up jog, and our running drills. This bit of my Garmin track log clearly shows how much up-and-down we did, including a post tempo drill which I’ll talk about in a moment.

So, yes, about that tempo run.

One round of the park is 2.7km according to Coach Vijay and I admit to flagging en route (which is worrying when I have a marathon in a week…) but according to Coach I took 15.7 minutes which, I suppose, isn’t too shabby.  Not fast, but OK.

After the tempo run we did another drill…which was not my finest moment, intellectually speaking.

Coach pointed out a bench (which he later estimated to be about 170 metres away) and at this point, God knows how, I completely misunderstood his instructions.

He wanted us to do 8 fast repetitions, ie running fast up and down between the start point and the bench.

But what I heard was (DON’T ask me how or why, yaar) that we were to cover that distance in 8 strides.

WHAT?

8 strides to cover 170 metres?

I held back, to see how my super talented fellow runners would tackle this and, guess what, they all sprinted.

No giant strides.

So feeling distinctly foolish, I meekly trotted behind them…total #seniormoment.

Bewildered looks from my fellow runners when I said I’d thought we had to do 8 giant strides…

What else?

Oh yes, group photo, as ever, and cool down stretches, and then a bit of a running clinic when everyone plied poor long-suffering Coach with questions.

All in all, despite my #seniormoment, another great session.

Here we are doing sumo stretches:

Coach takes stretching very seriously –  as you can see below, as he demonstrates the correct position by pinioning his victim – sorry sorry – runner, to make sure he stretches properly!

And here’s a “same-to-same matching-matching” moment

Team photo:

And then, when I hear their answers, sometimes I wish I hadn’t asked…

This, dear reader, is El Porto beach in California, where my lovely young friend Nadine Currimjee Quane runs.

“I only do barefoot beach runs now – soft sand or hard sand depending on the tide,” quoth the young lady herself.

Only barefoot.

Of course.

One only runs barefoot on gorgeous Californian beaches, right?

(Where’s the emoticon for green with jealousy when you need it?!!)

Joking aside, Nads – fab photo, and please keep them coming.

I’d like it anyway (because that’s what I do with running-related things these days!!) but this gets an extra special from-the-heart like….because it stars Cape Town.

Ah…Cape Town…one day I’ll be fit enough to be able to run up Lion’s head like this…

Yes.

Quite.

After a month of amazing travels – to Ladakh to trek on the frozen river Zanskar – and to Muscat – to party over a girl’s weekend – this morning was Reality Check Time.

Since my disastrous performance in the Mumbai marathon in mid January, I have travelled (too) much & trained w-a-y too little.

2 runs in a month, folks.

Yes, you read that correctly.

2 runs in a month.

So this morning’s training with the ASICS Running Club was a lesson in humility.

Forget anything you ever read about muscle memory :P.  Nothing.  Zilch.  Muscle memory wiped clean…

My poor, old, over-partied body could hardly manage to keep up with the rest of my tribe, who have all been diligently running & cycling & training away.  And it shows, guys!!  You all looked in super-fit form.

It was LOVELY to meet up with my tribe again, after a long gap, and a friendlier bunch of folk you couldn’t wish to meet.

So, huffing and puffing away, here’s what we did.

– Stretching.

– 3 rounds of the park in an easy warm up jog.

– Running drills.

– Interval training.  The intervals put me to shame and showed me how a month off has slowed me down quite terrifyingly.  Coach Vijay tacitly recognised this when he told me to do only 5 rather than 6 rounds

– Stretching to cool down.

Coach demonstrating the sumo stretch.  Difficult version. (Arms folded, not on legs)

Here’s my track-log from this morning, with the outer loop being the warm up run and the inner loop my 5/6 intervals.

And, no, I have NO idea what that wonky bit at the top is.  No idea at all

Oh yes.

Of course.

Our team photo.

Here I am reunited with my tribe:

Please note the terrifyingly fit Raina Solanki planking.  And smiling.  And looking cool as a cucumber…sigh…#fitnessgoals

To be honest, this was my first “proper” run since the marathon last month…yikes…but yes, you’re quite right, let’s not start thinking about the rapidly-approaching New Delhi marathon at the end of this month, shall we?

Total mood spoiler.

So yes, avoiding the subject of total under-preparedness (my super specialty), I wanted to talk a little more about this little gem of a park, in South Delhi.

The Aravali Bio-diversity Park is one of my preferred running venues, as you might have noticed from this blog and my track logs.  Although the park is not huge, far from it –  there’s really only one track – the very fact that I can walk there rather than having to drive to a venue through the crazy Delhi traffic counts for loads.

Then, of course, I get to run on a dirt track rather than on the road, which can only be good for ageing knees, right?

And the icing on the cake? Being able to run amidst wildlife is super amazing. There are loads of birds in the park, including zillions of peacocks, there are jackal, neelgai, butterflies galore – what’s not to love?

For months I have been trying to track down Dr. Shah Hussain, one of the driving forces behind this park, having overseen its development from a wasteland, with poor soil quality, all minerals stripped by mining and, inevitably, being used as a dumping ground.

Emails bounced back.

My local Resident’s Association had no clue what I was talking about.

Ditto the guards on duty.

So yesterday, when I tried the office for the nth time, what a joy to find a gentle, mild-mannered man sitting at a desk who said “Yes, I am Dr. Shah Hussain.”

Bingo!

He told me loads about the park, modestly brushed aside my congratulations on a job brilliantly done, and we had a good old chinwag.

The dear man doesn’t know what he’s got himself into – I’m dying to volunteer there, in a gesture of thanks for the hours of pleasure this quiet little corner of Delhi gives me, so will be on his case, until he caves in and lets me help…in the meantime, I shall continue to pick up the rubbish that I come across – not a lot on the scale of the problem across Delhi, but all the same, it’s the least one can do.

Yeah.

You’re right.

I also practised taking selfies yesterday.  Should’ve run more, but this gave me an excuse to goof off…

Like Harminder Singh.

Last seen in the pre-race, pre-dawn darkness of Mumbai last Sunday, where we met by chance on the road towards the marathon holding area, this young man (who ran a fabulously fast race) is now partying up a storm in Amritsar.

And running.

Of course he is.

Runs every day, does our Harminder

He started running as part of our #100daysofrunning challenge in the summer of 2015-and hasn’t stopped since!

Here is his lovely B&W take on Amritsar:

Even his track log fits in with the arty B&W vibe!

Harminder, my dear, #keeprunning #keepinspiring –  and have fun in Amritsar