These days have been imbued with work pressure.

It’s been nonstop and exhausting. I thought it might have been too ambitious to go and run but I did put the alarm anyway. I barely slept as my mind was racing with thoughts about work. I didn’t run and one of the rare times that in fact I didn’t regret it.

When the young boy and I reached the track, the sky was already turning colours although it was still quite early.

Spring-Summer had arrived. But it was a touch cold. At least for us. The young boy was shivering while warming up. Then he took off for his stair and sprint training while I carried on for a solo easy run around the track in my usual place – lane nine.

On the way back we continued our game to play a song for each letter of the alphabet. Levity and a bit of repose comes in capillaries these days.

For running it was rest. For the rest, it’s been mad.

Almost as soon as I parked, I met Shikha, and it was off to a flying start as she had already run fourteen kilometres. We ran silently, all the different loops and combinations of the Shanti Path area.

Then Ravi joined us or rather we joined him as he ran in his loping style trying to keep a slower pace. Young Ravi can manage an under 75 minute half marathon and is aiming for an under 70.

Contrasting with our until now silent run, he chatted nearly non stop for the next half hour until Shikha was done with her long run. Ravi continued along with me and then I was done with my Sunday 30.

I couldn’t be more grateful for the company.

I slept very late again after landing back into Delhi. Woke up and it was straight off to work.

After a very late night, I jumped on the treadmill for a short and slightly woozy run.

Hopefully all the walking around the airport later counted as something.

I woke up fairly early and after coffee in my room, it was back to the gym where I was about twelve hours earlier.

Toggling with speed in a cadenced manner, the hour went by reasonably quick. I followed that up with a solid workout to begin this second day in Switzerland.

It’s nearly the end of March but here in Switzerland the temperature is in the single digits. The air is sharp, fresh and cold.

It was an extraordinary day with Rajan Anandan and Katharina Lehmann for the 150 year anniversary of her company.

After that, it was back at the hotel and we agreed to meet for dinner in two hours. That gave me enough time to jump on the treadmill and get an hour under my belt.

15 x 1k. On the track, just thinking about it made my head spin.

When the young boy and I reached, Coach Ravi and Gaju were there. We warmed up together, and after that it was the stairs workout for the young boy and these relentless intervals for me and Gaju.

Bahut tough hai, Gaju said more than once. But we plucked them off. One by one. The young boy had long finished his stairs and 80m sprints. Coach Ravi had left for school duty. The track had recycled to a fresh set of folks but Gaju and I continued to spin around.

The work itself is just fifteen kilometres. But on track, interval after interval, it was a mental game.

The young boy joined us for 200m for our last six. When there were only two sets left, he said to me, think of the driveway, it’s just three rounds, you can do it.

I couldn’t have done it without Gaju or him. A rigorous morning well spent.