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Rest after the half. Felt like squeezing the tiredness out from my muscles today.

When I slept last night, I had my doubts. I was under slept, under trained, and not in great shape. All of these continued to be true when I reached the start line of today’s Tuffman half marathon with my sister Roshini and Gaju from track.

The route was ever familiar – out from Jawaharlal Stadium, down the cobbled bit passing the Sai Baba mandir, left at Lodi Road to Jorbagh, U-turn at the end, past Lodi Gardens, Chinmay Mission, India Islamic Culture Institute, Golf Links, the back of the golf course, left at the Nizamuddin intersection, on Mathura Road, pass the blind school, The Oberoi, under the flyover, opposite Sunder Nagar and a U turn again at the 6.85 km mark, retracing the route, except turning left at the Lodi crossing and back to the stadium for 10.5 kilometres. Do the loop again for a half marathon distance.

It was a fabulous race. It was hot and humid and my training didn’t suddenly jump to utopian fitness. But within a kilometre, I found a rhythm and an acceptance to where I was at. Now I could push just hard enough, feeling great, finding joy in these roads that weave through the centre of Delhi.

Hundreds of other runners around the course, the various distances at play, this is why this is one of the world’s greatest unifying activities.

I did a short run on the treadmill today. It had been a while since I ran on the treadmill. It was comfortable and at an easy pace.

After that it was a solid circuit workout that left me drenched.

I’ve been thinking today – what does getting in shape mean to me. What does it have to do with a mental state of mind. How do I get there.

While it was an off day today, it’s now, as I have written recently, of urgent need for me to fix and get back to the sweet spot that I enjoy in training.

The last many months have been training that has felt many times off centre. It’s been a combination of gaining weight, long, stressful hours at work, the injuries and a palpable loss of stamina.

It was an average easy run today. Also a test in patience – running in lane nine after a while.

At the last mile interval, Gaju and I were interrupted twice by two different gangs of dogs. They probably just wanted to chase us away rather than attack us, but I wasn’t taking chances. We stopped both times.

The overall run itself was not good. I am feeling like a lump of lard who has also lost a ton of stamina. It’s time to train with resolve.

Because I have a half marathon race coming up this Sunday, Eilish dialled down the week.

I had a short-ish run today. Perhaps good for my back to get the rest too.

Rest day !

Last couple of nights, I started watching F1 on Netflix with the young boy. We’ve been enjoying it thoroughly. I remember watching a season or two during the time I had Covid. I binge watched it then in a blur of popping medication and eating chocolate I couldn’t taste while isolating in a room.

Push push, I keep hearing in the documentary from the team to car radio. Push push, I tried to today to achieve a somewhat tempo long run at Nehru Park.

My back started hurting a bit too much at some point, as did my ankle. Maybe I pushed too hard. I met a shirtless Navy man who joined me for about the second half of the run. Around my age, we ran together keeping reasonable pace although far off from my initial start.

Push push. Not quite but not nothing.

Today was kilometre intervals. Gaju met me at the parking lot of the track. Off we went for a short warm up before hitting the intervals.

The dogs all over Delhi and Gurgaon are the bane of my existence. In all things running on the road, the one thing that bothers me supremely is the dogs. For example, I intend to start a bit earlier tomorrow, and the first thought that occurs to me is to question if there be enough runners – even at Nehru Park – where the dogs should be used to the runners.

But back to today. The dogs near the track are unpredictable. Or perhaps it’s just me giving off vibes.

Today we didn’t have Coach Ravi with us and Gaju and I had to make do by ourselves. For the most part the dogs ignored us.

The intervals themselves were brutal and I was way behind prescribed pace. Perhaps it was because of my back. Maybe it was the lunchtime Aperol spritz yesterday. Could be the weather. Probably all three.

I was glad when it was all done. When I got back home, I did a quick circuit workout followed by some half-hearted stretching. Although, with my back the way it is, I should really be paying more attention to stretches.