2009 and Happy New Year!

2009 started with a flu after being flu-less for almost a year. Flu came back couple of more times - could have been the running (longer distances and higher pace) or just the flu! All in all a good year, but ended with a low having injured my knee running and the low impacted life(and blogging) in general. But it was an eventful year overall, the "green" bug really bit me during the year.

• Commute by cycle for 8+ months(suspended after knee trouble since October)
• A truly car free commute except for one day(to carry old clothes for N.Karnataka flood relief), and just 2 long drives.
  
• Terrace Gardening(that was a bit of surprise to myself - monkeys had a good share of our harvest though)
• Composting at Home
  
• Trained to run(ended up with an injury and a runners' low though)
• New job closer home(nothing exciting but a job!)
• Nishka growing at an amazing pace(it is fun)
• Free from colas, packaged juices, milk and junk food, mainly relied on tender coconuts and fruits and nuts
• Frugal(12K cycle was the major investment) and debt free at the moment.
  

No major goals for 2010 - need to keep myself healthy physically and mentally, keep running and biking and hope to get more returns out of the terrace garden.

Wish you all a happy new year!

New Running Shoe - Adidas Response Control

After going through a knee trouble that kept me off from running the Bangalore Ultra 2009, I was under therapy at Recoup. After couple of weeks of therapy, I was declared fit to run and started running. But the knee could last only about 30 minutes, the muscles got tighter and the same pain starts. So my therapist suggested a shoe insert for my pronated feet. I then figured out that I had used my current shoe ,which was a control shoe to handle the pronation, for more than 1400KMs which was way over the recommended distance of around 500-800KM, especially for people with overpronator like me. I also remembered that I didn't have any problem for the Ultra 2008 25K whereas I had problems at Kavery Trail Marathon 2008(and 09) - the difference was the shoe!

So I went around Adidas shoe shops in town, but my shoe, Adidas Response Control was out of stock and the newer shoes, Adidas SuperNova Sequence were comparatively expensive(INR 7K) as well. I cursed myself for not having picked up one when there was a 30% discount on Adidas shoes. So I was going to check Reebok and Nike shoes of the control variety. But I happened to be around the Brand Factory in Wilson Garden and just stepped in to check the shoes. They had my shoe and immediately picked it up at a 30% discount, INR 3700.

Now the problem is, this shoe is gone out of production and I may need it in another 8 months. Either I need to pick up another pair or shop around for another descent one with more money. With an average 80KM of running per month, it will be 600KMs in around 8 months. Not a good thing but. And remember this is crutch that will help you run, the real problems will be hidden for a while, before it resurfaces again when the shoe wears out. So the real problems need to be attended too - strengthening the muscles around the knee should be an important thing to do to keep me running till I am 100!