I slept in.

Today because of travel and because of – well – because I feel that I can – the day was off.

But it’s back to Delhi, and hopefully it’s a running weekend ahead.

Gaju was there. As was Coach Ravi, his hand in a cast and arm in a sling.

Time time ki baat hai, he said. He had had an accident just in the past year and now again.

I had a flight to catch to Bangalore and I needed to run. Lane nine it was for a reasonable ten kilometres.

When I reached the track, we were the only people there. As the minutes went by, the track filled up. People, children of all stripes filled the ground, as the kids call it.

Then it was off to Bangalore.

Because it was my best friend’s birthday, I went to his home on Tuesday evening to wish him. It turned out that a bunch of folks were there – and that then went the late evening route. Oh well. Post this marathon, cutting myself some slack is perhaps okay.

This morning I reached track at an early time. It had been a while since I had done that.

Gaju was already waiting for me in the parking lot sans Coach Ravi who I heard had fractured his hand.

Off we went out for a road run. Immediately, we took up a reasonable pace and two kilometres later we found our stride and were running at a tempo-ish effort.

It was our usual out and back and surprisingly there was a cool breeze in the air that translated to a headwind on our return.

Back home, it was on the bar with leg raises and pull ups. Following that were dead lifts, calf raises, kettlebell exercises, core work, squats and a smattering of other exercises.

This is what good feels like.

Rest today ! Felt bombed but in a good way. I knew my body was recovering and catching up.

After yet another late evening, I woke up late but I absolutely needed to run.

I hit the driveway after giving the young girl a long hug and stepped out to a blazing summer morning.

But at least, I was on my feet and I was running – finally.

I switched to my Delhi Half 2023 playlist and off I went to Black Eyed Peas.

After a reasonable 10k that left me winded, I did a new circuit workout. The young boy ran on the treadmill while I did a smattering of pull ups, leg raises, seated calf raises, Bulgarian squats, reverse lunges and more to round up a solid session.

Later in the morning, it was all about the London marathon. On one hand to see the legendary Eliud Kipchoge – although he didn’t win – and watch my coach Eilish McColgan’s debut marathon where she broke the Scottish record.

A Sunday sports day of sorts.

Shake it off ! Enough of the nonsense !

It seems as if I am on a weird holiday. It’s been a few days of no training – other than the pull ups and core workout yesterday – and what with continuous late nights expected this week, running has been shelved for a bit.

It’s Thursday. I can’t wait to start training again. I am a bit jet lagged so woke up late-ish.

Got into workout gear and headed out to the pull up bars. This is one exercise where I see noticeable decline if I don’t do it regularly. The opposite isn’t true. It takes a while – at least for me – to increase continuous repetitions.

So pull ups it was. Leg raises. Hip thrusts. Calf raises. And some other smattering of core work.

I rounded it off with stretching and hopefully set the tone for a new training block to begin.