I had a chance to visit the two cuties pictured above last weekend. That happens to be an iPad my niece is using to play with Gina the giraffe and my Mac that my nephew is playing with because he finished his Math homework! An apple a day sure seems to keep the doctor away… I went to Gurgaon to meet my folks and I must say, the toll gates between Delhi and GGn are monstrous. After hours of travel, iPad-ing, scrabble, chess and dim-sums later, when we tried to go to sleep, there was some loud music from exactly 2am to 5:30am on loudspeakers with one main opera singer and his sidekicks whenever his throat got hoarse. I am not sure how people think this is OK but, it was amusing to say the very least. I considered going for a jog at 4am but, I remembered that I had no sweater and given that the temperatures were Baltic, I decided to stay warm. Besides my fashion consultant (pictured below) was exhausted and I didn’t want to risk annoying her by not getting my beauty sleep. All in all, it was a great trip to see two kids I am just getting to know but love instinctively, with all my heart. My niece gave me a fashion accessory for my DelhiDaredevils press-con and both of them have promised to be with me at the opening match on April 5th!! Cant WAIT!

In life, the only thing that is equal is the number of hours in a day. Some wise man said that, I didn’t. However, on Monday, being a part of the Delhi Daredevils super fans, I found my motivation going through the roof. I was in exceptional company. My peers Arjun Vajpai, Reena Kaushal Dharmasaktu and Arun Bhardwaj are in a league of their own. I have a lot to learn from each one of them and also from the team itself. I am not a big TV fan, I don’t have a TV at home. If you asked me about the news or even the latest fashion trends (given that I am extremely fashionable) I wouldn’t be able to tell you. As for cricket, like Tennis, it’s a big-money sport and here to stay. Every country has its big money sport. In New Zealand its Rugby and the Black Caps (national rugby team), in the USA its every major league sport (baseball, basketball and American football come to mind) and in Europe probably Tennis and cycling. I have no blanket statements to make, I believe every professional sportsperson has the same set of challenges. Managing time, adversity, mental makeup, funding and most of all the desire to compete at our damndest best. Is cricket overdone in India? I think so. But then, Rugby is overdone in New Zealand. Thus, there is no use in debating the fine-points. What we can debate is the quality of players and after reading up on the Delhi Daredevils team and following the Tri Series that India is presently playing, I must say that I was very impressed with the pressure these chaps are under, day in and day out. In some ways, triathletes overthink travel, rest, etc. But, every sport has some takeaways and I believe there are lessons to be learned about professionalism and performance when the odds are not so good. So, the Daredevils are at the bottom of the bracket right now. However, in picking some off-beat endurance sport enthusiasts, I believe the team is sending the message that it ain’t over till the bell rings. In the past two years, my personal journey through sport has taken a few turns, ups, downs and sine-wavy meanders however, I have persisted Even in my lowest moments, I have felt the sun shining on my back from all my long runs in countries where fresh-air and freedom to cycle without fear could be taken for granted. In saying that, I believe even more firmly than before that India has been the most incredible supporter of our achievements. I believe the tide is changing for the better for the fringe sports. Additionally, I think true Daredevilry implies living life on the OFFENSIVE, not crouching in some corner apologizing for your talents and your dreams. Yes, most of them are the size of mountains most never imagine possible scaling but, that’s the beauty of life.. unless its too much, how will you run freely and pursue the ultimate calling? That is food for thought! I am eagerly looking forward to being a great brand champion and looking at this as a new lease on my own life in sport. Khelo front foot pe! I am liking this slogan!

While there are a bunch of crazy online competitions going on to keep folks motivated over the winter, I decided to start my year with an advantage and an attitude. The advantage I created was using the whole month of December to contribute towards my 2012 season. All of 2011 was spent travelling a lot (50 flights in less than 100 days(!)) for work, teaching at two huge Indian colleges (IIT and IIM), two kinds of students (engineering geeks and management geeks) and making slow but steady progress on business – ah the joys of the exchange rate! The attitude I took on was to work on whatever intimidated me the most, first. Post April 2011, I found it hard to swim as pools in India are usually manned by pigeons, crows and other wildlife and the water quality is dubious and “ladies swim times” are often in the order of 30 minutes with lane lines being drawn width wise making the pool resemble a Turkish bath. My five week camp kicked off in December and within the first week, I set my sights on a “hard” goal, which for me was to swim 100K in 5 weeks, in the smallest number of days possible.

I remember the kind of fitness I had when I had my PBs on the swim and the reason I was intimidated by the swim bit was mostly mental – it’s the hardest facility to come by in India. I cannot recount the number of days I’ve had arguments with coaches and custodians to remove lane-line madness and give us our 60 minutes that we pay for (both in cash and in skin-rashes). The first week into the camp, I swam 17k, which for me was an achievement. I even threw myself a pity party on the Monday that followed by swimming a 1K, as if my arms would fall off if I swam any more than the prescribed minutes of swimming. The second week, I managed to swim 20.5Ks with not too much toil and two days off. The third week was Christmas/NewYear-coma week #1 and I managed to swim 21.5 on short rest sessions with reduced pool hours. Week 4 was Christmas/NewYear-coma week #2 and overall my motivation was low owing to bad attitude. I was busy hero-worshipping the folks that swim 1:10 or less for a 100 and forgot about my swimming, and managed only 14.5K with three days of rest. The last week started with a 3K set done as 3*1000 for time with various contraptions but, my times were starting to come back from the PB days. That evening was a 2.5 hard session with many, many short bursts of effort. On Tuesday I swam 2.5K and managed to scare off the Canadian Fashion Police (who then refused to grant me audience as they took one look at my swimsuits from the 1920s, floral prints and frills and all and hid in their alpine cabins instead of the various caffeinated treats I had on offer, in exchange for information on How to be a faster swimmer?!). I also think my flip turns were the deal-clincher as on every attempt to flip turn I looked like I was trying to change a shirt, arms flailing everywhere and nearly jog/walking at the wall in the pool, with a depth of 4 feet that I managed to call my home for these 5 weeks. Wednesday was one of 4-5 triple swim sessions totaling a whopping 5.5K, I couldn’t make the intervals with one single long session so, I took the rest was to make sure the effort didn’t suffer. It worked. After the last session that day, I was the last one in the changing room hoping that the pool staff would accidentally lock me in so that I could finish the rest of the swimming that night and never set foot in the pool again! My husband couldn’t stop laughing for a few hours after I told him what I was wishing for. I couldn’t understand what was so funny… 25 days of swimming hard can drive one over the edge. Thursday was pity party galore with a 2K continuous swim and a huge CTI (Can’t Take It) moment where I couldn’t get myself to swim again as I couldn’t bear to set foot in the pool. Friday was 6.5K in 2 sessions and Saturday (day #28) was a 5K with a big grin on my face and a very, very sore set of shoulders. I took Saturday evening off on dry land with the last week’s total being 27+K in 6 days. I can now say I have a small glimpse into what the really good swimmers in our sport are doing and I am really amazed. While for three weeks I managed to keep my bike/run volume up, it really hit me in week #4. Additionally, I am loving this new crowd whose articles Ive enjoyed reading including coach Joel Filliol whose articles on swim fitness make a lot of sense to me. I have had no formal swim training, ever. I managed to complete the Ultraman swim after a year or two of consistent swimming (12-20km per week) focusing on miles. This camp was mostly to make a dent in my fitness and a substantial one. The technique and times came on their own, once I was fit enough to stay in the water for 90 minutes without thinking twice. Last year, I took the advice of someone who screwed up my intuitive breathing pattern Id set for myself (breathe on either side and three-stroke breathing). I really paid for it with an extremely sore left shoulder and general misery in being unable to decipher how something so enjoyable had become such a pain in just a short time. This year, I asked another coach who had watched me swim for 4 weeks up-and-down, over and over and she told me, very kindly that I was thinking straight – breathing on both sides is important for balance, some “work” in every session is a must (speed, paddles, pulling) and fitness is more important than fancy 2k swim sessions with “variety”. I don’t need variety! For me, battling the gatekeepers to the pools here is “variety” enough. That being said, I’m psyched that I managed to complete this camp with a big grin on my face. On Sunday, I went on a 3 hour run in the hot sun, just to enjoy the fresh air and my favorite songs. I love running! Maybe, Ill do a little run camp next! The wisdom is the same across sports, quality in every session, understanding our thresholds and sustaining them better over time and finally, frequency. More is always better!

I am at the airport and its 2am. As with all Indians, I seem to suffer the genetic predisposition to travel light. With most airlines these days ripping off passengers in a very big way by charging more for the Asian sectors than the Americas, making the engineer in me quickly compute an alternate world where that would be equitable, I have ended up carrying more hand-baggage than check in. Yes, in an athlete’s world, excess baggage fees are the bane of our existence. In fact, flying around the world with your bike has severe financial repercussions with the total cost of travel increasing by up to twenty percent. This, added to airline staff being incredibly challenging to deal with, occasionally, during check in (when one almost has to remind them that they don’t own the airline, just the two hours when we have to make the flight) makes for a dangerous combination sometimes in terms of keeping one’s morale high. All of the above mentioned hazards of travel aside, I am glad to be waiting to board this plane tonight. I have a specific goal for the coming month and I hope I achieve that goal. 2011 has been an incredibly challenging year.

On Tuesday, February 22nd, my husband and I were at our rented premises in Christchurch, New Zealand, on what was supposed to be our honeymoon. It was about lunchtime, I was finishing a report and nibbling at some pasta, he was heating up his food. At first, we felt what seemed like an aftershock but when the rumbling continued and my food fell on the carpet, we ran out of the first-floor apartment, helter-skelter. Within minutes of coming outside the house, we felt what was a series of aftershocks. On further inspection, we found the whole neighborhood was ravaged but nothing sank in on the first day. We hardly slept that night and woke up at least a dozen times to more aftershocks. Sadly, we were stuck with an unethical house-owner who was more interested in getting rent than in ensuring our safety. The power went off immediately after the first quake hit and we expected that it would be back in 24 hours or so. What followed was a bizarre nightmare of outlandish proportions including having to pay the landlord for time we had not stayed there, severe post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia and several visits to several doctors before settling on an all-natural Ayurvedic route to cure our minds and bodies. We came home in April and I took up a Visiting Faculty position at IIM Ahmedabad to be able to join my husband in his one-year pursuit of an Executive MBA there, I taught a class for the two-year MBA students (the rules stipulated that my husband could not take my class, which was fair enough.. what if he ended up not doing his dishes and I gave him a “D”.. that would be a tough call). In any case, we were the only household on campus that could boast of a student to faculty ratio of 1:1. Both my husband and I under-estimated the stress of an MBA, let alone a one-year MBA. This, added to our health woes and my organic business and sport was a sure shot recipe to long-term disaster. I competed from January to April under some extenuating circumstances, often toeing the start-line of races with more than slight trepidation.

However, as the adage goes, the older you get, the more you seem to have to lose. I love teaching and I love research even more. Being an academic is not something I am very proud of (in sporting circles) but, I love books, libraries and words as much as I do running, cycling and swimming. On one race early this year, after the earthquake, my mind went on a trip of sorts and I dug up some old memories. An endearing memory from an early visiting to San Diego for a conference had me running around town one night when the question on everyone’s mind was either “Where is the Wonderbread factory?” or “are you going to the Wonderbread factory?”. A huge set of baseball fans had just checked out of Petco park and were making their way in the general direction, as well. I personally was on the lookout for my Canadian friend Pierre .. to bid adieu to him and his partner. And tell them that though their cars did not start in the Ottowan winter, that they were inspiring in their verbose love for someplace called “home” – what does that mean, exactly? Sadly, I didn’t find them that night and jumped into a cab to get to my hotel. The cab driver answered “no automatic” to the question “Where are you from?” making me giggle like a three-year old. Whether it was the sadness of possibly not seeing Pierre till next year, at Toronto, the warm summer night, the uphill turns to Ash Avenue or the murky dark sky that seemed to make “lasting” friendships (composed of Wednesday night scrabble and 
green tea) impossible, I couldn’t tell. He kept sighing and placing his chin on his free hand every stop light we hit. I wondered if he secretly was like Marvin from the Hitchhikers Guide.



After I was done visiting memory lane in San Diego, I decided to run 50km up some high alpine country. However, one of the best ways NOT to run an Ultramarathon would be to to NOT run one when your longest run has been weeks prior to the race itself and then you have moved, and wheezed and whiffled your way through subsequent workouts, have been unable to sleep and are generally tired. But, speaking of stubborn-ness, this came into play that morning and I decided to run anyway. I wanted to run. I wanted to be alone, for one long stretch and really see what 4200ft of climbing would feel like. Although the outing ended disastrously, I was inspired once more to stay on track with sport, on that cold, blue day in April. Similarly, in the past seven months, Ive constantly kept my inspiration in sight, while taking the time to heal. Teaching has been a huge gift to me and it succeeded in making me keep things in perspective. Detours, I have decided, are the ultimate answer to finding one’s true path or calling. For myself, I have found that unless I am focused for 18 hours a day, I get restless. While I am tempted to say that choosing sport for the forseeable future has made me opt out of the unglamorous and unenviable life of a CEO or a teacher, I don’t think that is true. Irrespective of the paths Ive taken, my work-ethic has taken over the destination thereby making the journey vastly more enjoyable. The destination (known or unknown) is only one milestone. Here is looking forward to 2012, filled with great perspective and fortitude.

Anu Vaidyanathan (PhD) is a long-course triathlete and the first Asian (male or female) to compete in and place 6th at Ultraman Canada (a three day endurance event comprising a 10K swim, 420K bike ride and 84.4K run). In her copious free time she also consults and teaches Engineering and Management students. Her website is at www.anuvaidyanathan.com.

I got a message today (possibly from a Facebook fan) that he wanted to grow up to be like me. This made me smile (obviously, I am flattered) but, immediately I panicked… someone like me? Little sleep, always discontent, moving around at crazy speeds, brain capable of frying eggs and potatoes when left alone for too long? Did I really want all this for this kid? (This “kid” is a 20 year old, who is 6 foot tall and a budding engineer) I am still flattered but also a bit concerned. I believe the really amazing people are all around us – every story of every runner in every big race in India is worth a listen. I remember going to the Mumbai marathon in 2009 and meeting some really cute kids in the after-race tent. They had run the dream run and were enjoying cake! I would like to grow up and be like them =) Until then, Facebook will have to listen to my endless rants and conundrums…..

As the year winds down, I find myself introspecting about the two years that have been! Yeah – I missed the day of introspection in 2010 – it ran by so fast! Some pleasant detours included meeting my wonderful life-partner, whom I have been lucky to find. I also taught at two colleges, met two different sets of students (but pretty much the same sense of entitlement – sorry kids! I washed dishes when I was going through college… so, I could never take anything for granted), loved a majority of my time teaching and researching and also was on more than two dozen round trip flights. I discovered a partner, a new path, an old dream, a far away horizon and most of all my sense of purpose.

The thing with discoveries is that they often take a while to sink in and adapt to. Last night, I took a few photographs of the sunset and smelled the roses for a while. Life is whatever we make of it, we get out what we put in. In the coming years I hope that I take the chances that I have been waiting to take (for a long, long time). I am not one for New Years resolutions, rather every day resolution. I am hoping that I can keep my spirits up, appreciate the bounty of  the life that I am lucky to be a part of, be brave to take long leaps and appreciate the sunsets.