I thought I would run today – but eventually I needed the sleep and the rest was worth it.

It seems a while since I did a long run here.

So when I parked at my usual spot with the young boy, I breathed a sigh of relief and familiarity.

It was still dark and we started at an easy pace. We chatted and ran a couple of rounds with my friend Gokul. The young boy increased to a blistering pace to do his last kilometre – he got claps and hoots of encouragement.

After I saw him off, I carried on for long run Sunday. I decided to keep up an interval formula every round using the slight slope down Shanti Path to my advantage.

By the time I was done, Nehru Park was heaving with runners, a carnival like atmosphere, an aura of festive energy, training and camaraderie.

The day was a bit of a wash out because of a friend’s party last night. In the evening, I debated whether to go to track to run. I knew I didn’t have the energy to do intervals but a short time on feet might do the trick.

As I touched the track’s surface before entering, I muttered a prayer to the track. I needed a decent run.

Within a couple of rounds I felt better. A line of kids including the young Khushbu joined me. I thought I would do half hour but decided to push on. The kids petered off but Nikhil stayed.

Lane Nine as always did not let me down. By all means it was a good run. I touched the track surface at the end, infinitely glad that I made it to track this evening.

Because I arrived very late and barely got any sleep, I didn’t do the Friday optional run. I was hoping to do it in the evening but that didn’t quite work out.

On a whim, I packed my running clothes in for a day trip to Qatar. We landed before time, reached the hotel hours ahead of the meeting.

Time to put in a run. Before you could say Jack Robinson, I was on the treadmill. It was an uninspiring gym but I had the place to myself and i couldn’t fault the fancy Technogym tread. Run and workout done, Doha meetings awaited ahead.

On the young girl’s birthday, I went to track. I was a bit late but that turned out to be okay. When I reached, the wonderful Suryansh was limbering up.

Main bhi late aaya, he said. While we ran the warm up rounds, he proceeded to tell me that his bicycle broke down and that he waited for an auto for an hour, nearly going home, and then it showed up.

Le, aa hi gayi, he said. I laughed at that telling myself that I would check how well ‘le’ would translate through Google and ChatGPT.

Neither Google translate nor Google did so well. But ChatGPT got it after a couple of prompts.

Me: It can also be used to express surprise.

ChatGPT: Yes, exactly! “Le” can also be used to express surprise or shock in casual slang, especially when something unexpected happens. In such cases, it’s similar to saying “Oh, wow!” or “Seriously?” in English. The tone of voice plays a key role in conveying this meaning.

For example:

• “Le! Aisa kaise ho gaya?” (“Oh! How did this happen?”)
• “Le! Tu yahan kya kar raha hai?” (“Oh! What are you doing here?”)

Here, “le” is used to highlight surprise or disbelief about a situation.

Nearly quite so. The way Suryansh leaned on the word when he told me his morning adventure makes me laugh and think about use of language.

He did every other interval with me. A relatively new kid, Raju, did all the one kilometre long intervals. It was brutal training but thankfully I felt strong.

This was exactly what I had written about yesterday – feeling the effort – yet the training and strength backing you up.

On the young girl’s birthday, I thought of her, especially on the last interval, imagined her calling out to me, and I raced down to the finish line for a best time.

I sense that I may have used the same headliner before in a post. I woke up on the later side – I was surprised at how tired I had been last night – and still more so when I got on the treadmill.

Sometimes, it is important to listen to the body. Even after twenty odd minutes, I couldn’t take the speed dial beyond a point. I felt as if I was stretching myself already and I stayed within reasonable limits of playing with the dials.

It makes me think – what makes a run hard? I would categorise today as hard but the basic statistics of pace, speed and time wouldn’t reveal that. Perhaps if I had the watch heart rate function switched on or wore a WHOOP, maybe that would tell me where I am at. That’s not me. Pace and time is enough.

I have tried those functions at Whoop and Garmin. For me, the good old RPE is enough – a simplified version – checking in on myself. Today I was nowhere in performance and just exhausted.

Other times, at the hardest of intervals or races, it is both possible to feel a nine or at near maximum effort and yet feel like a million bucks, especially afterwards. Of course, every athlete, amateur to professional knows this. Perhaps humans know this intrinsically in other ways too.

This, I find to be fascinating.

After a full weekend, including an unexpected long run, I travelled back to Delhi and straight to work from the airport. When I got back home, I was exhausted and spent. Glad for the rest day.

This morning when I woke up, I was determined to do long run Sunday. I had made it up by running long this past Wednesday but I think I needed to wash off the excesses of the last day. Perhaps I just needed the Sunday routine.

At any rate, it was up and down the driveway until I was quite numb. When it was done, I was satisfied enough to make the most of a full day here in the hills.

I am in Mussoorie back at our friends Jayati and Mohan’s beautiful home. It has been raining here too but the weather is gorgeous and they are the perfect hosts.

After one too many last night, I woke up to do a not so easy short run in the driveway itself.

In the evening, I played pickleball with their daughter Mayana. It was enormous fun. The evening gave way to dusk and soon the floodlights were turned on to continue the game.

The young boy joined us too and the exercise, banter and running around was the perfect way to settle the day.