A few days ago, I wrote about my 2.0 running journey. Today it was the three of us at Nehru Park. Maneesh said it had probably been a few years.

Well, if one can’t remember, it’s already been too long.

In the beginning, we took off towards the PM house, then down Safdarjung, crossed over to Lodi, ran the length of Amrita Shergil Marg and circled back to the Nehru Park parking lot.

Then the young boy joined us and we carried on towards Nyaya Marg where eventually the young boy and I finished the last few kilometres by ourselves.

At some point, he took off his shoes, and it always surprised me how fluid his form was when he ran barefoot.

A 2.0 merging into a 3.0 morning.

The young boy came with me to the track this morning. After a warm up together, we parted ways. He joined the group with the kids running 400m repeats and I had 3 minute fartlek sessions. Gaju joined me for the whole session.

It wasn’t easy but it wasn’t terribly hard. I think I’ve dropped a bit of weight this week so I did feel lighter on my feet.

After I was done, I watched the young boy go through his session which by now was 150m repeats. The weather wasn’t helping him reach his target but he was trying hard enough.

Back home, it was a solid circuit, Gaby from Portugal on my mind, to round up a reasonable Saturday morning.

I slept in today. Must be something that my body is demanding more sleep than usual. But it was early enough that I could head out for pull up sets and back in on the treadmill.

I enjoy playing around with speed and elevation on the TM hut especially elevation. Ran a steady hour with more than half playing with inclines every kilometre for 700-800-1000m. Up, down, pyramids, whatever I felt like doing.

I like to call 2015 the beginning of a new chapter in my running journey. It started off with an episode in January that led me to staying dry for nearly a year. In the meanwhile, I took to triathlon with my then coach Simon Ward.

That summer I met my good friends Maneesh.

Maneesh, Amit and I became a trio till when into the Covid years. But it is those formative years that began a journey into training unlike anything I had known before.

On one hand it was intense – what with the three sports – and on the other I learnt a playful disdain in taking the training too seriously.

Which is not to say they didn’t take their training seriously – what with countless marathons, Comrades, triathlons, duathlons, cycle tours, climbing and more. But let’s say I’ve always been more on edge, and they have always been more free.

Over these years, I’ve come to appreciate both sides of it but there remains a yearning towards their easy freedom. They taught me not to listen to music (not every time anyway) to enjoy a day out or certainly a morning out just running or cycling free, to drink half a bottle at night in a cheerful open air nightclub in Pokhara and begin all over again the next morning.

Since then, they have become near teetotallers and I jump on and off the wagon – I can never seem to remember what is what.

But those days of eating Maggi by the Nainital-Mukteshwar hills, falling off the bike on the Greater Noida expressway, running and cycling on the GFR, having breakfast after Sunday long runs at Smoke House Deli at Khan Market – memories and experiences that have left an indelible impact in my life.

Maneesh moved back to Nepal and this week he is here. It was wonderful to run a usual Gurgaon route on Golf Course road catching up on old and new times.

Back in the day, the meet up was Chai Point. That shop is now replaced with Chayoos and the meeting point is no longer our secret. Many runners and cyclists use it as a start point now.

At any rate, the intimate familiarity of the route as well as each other made for the perfect morning run.

Because of a birthday celebration, it became an off today. I need to get full on back to training.

This time with Gaju and Nikhil. Coach Ravi’s cast of off so he is driving the scooter himself. Dogs, cars, buses, trucks, vendors, chai and paan wallas, cow dung, cows, cabs, pedestrians, walkers, runners, a microcosm of Gurgaon lines this stretch.

But no run. Dashed off for a site puja and inauguration.

Running in this weather impacts performance. This is a fact I know intuitively. It’s good perspective to read about this, dew point and such.

But to begin to describe it – phew. This weather is something else to for long distance training. It’s draining to another level. I saw many spent runners taking walking breaks.

Electrolytes and cold water never felt more important.

I am quite used to seeing glistening six pack bodies at the track. But today when I reached, I had to do a doubke take. Standing at the start line was a guy I hadn’t seen before. Wearing Nike short tights and shirtless, he looked as if carved from molten lava poured into an action figure mould. He ran pretty good too.

Gaju wasn’t there today but Kapil gave me company over the mile-200s-mile repeats that went on endlessly. Kapil has a unique running style – his neck sways from side to side, gently, as if listening to classical music. Below neck, he’s effortless with a long stride length.

Spending the morning with Kapil and watching action figure now and then was a good start even as everyone was sweltering in the deep heat. Back home, it was a solid core workout to round up the session.

Because of travel yesterday, I thought I would make it up today. But I couldn’t wake up on time. I gave myself a hall pass. Does working on cello passages in the evening count?