But apart from me, everyone else in my batch used my guitar. I never figured how to play it properly. Spencer taught me like super basic stuff and that is pretty much it.

Recently, I figured I would try to learn a musical instrument properly. Of course Guitar was the obvious choice. But a long conversation with Gemini kind of convinced me that Piano is the way to go.

So I bought a cheap digital keyboard. Is it the standard 88 keys. The left and right hand independence is pretty tough. But after a few days of practice, I am getting better.

I found this Youtube Channel called Pianote. It is pretty good. I loved their one video which takes you from zero to 20% within like 20 minutes.

Also with less than 5 days to go to my 40th birthday, I feel now is time to get into routines:

1. Cardio: Run, Bike, Row
2. Brain: Piano, Korean
3. Body: Bodyweight exercises (calisthenics), Yoga
4. Rest: Sleep 8 hours, Sauna/hot tub twice a week
5. Sports: Climbing

I drove a two-wheeler back in 2007 and I crashed. That was it. I decided that day I won’t ever drive again. It has been 19 years since and I still use public transport.

I took Srilankan Airlines once in 2023. There was a huge delay in Colombo. Flight cancellations and delays are acceptable. But the way the ground staff handled it and how they behaved like they were doing us a favor was pretty bad experience. And that day I decided I will never fly Sri Lankan Airlines.

I had a terrible experience with Airbnb in 2022. I decided I would book hotels going forward. Since they I just use hotels. It doesn’t matter whether the hotels are more expensive or not. Just the fact that I don’t have to worry about crazy hosts and crazy charges and I could leave the room however I wanted to, was worth all the extra money.

I booked a ticket using booking.com. It was a stopover itinerary. Both the first leg and the second leg were with the same airline and this meant the transit is protected. But booking.com instead of booking them together, booked them with separate PNR. The first leg flight got delayed. The intimation came a day earlier, that it will be delayed. I called up booking.com and they said they couldn’t do anything about it because they decided to book separate PNRs. The airline was willing to help but they said they could do so if and only if it was same PNR. In the end I had to rebook new flights and Booking didn’t do anything. And in fact were rude about it. I was stressed about the flights that I had to take in a few hours and they were like making me run around. That day I decided I would always buy my flight tickets from the airline website itself and never from these middlemen. Even if I had to pay much more, it was much better than having to go through that experience again.

There are many such things where I have had a terrible experience and I just never did it. Adding to that list very recently is visiting a particular close relatives’ house.

People are living in such silos these days, they don’t even know how to host people. The job of the host is to make the guest comfortable. But I felt ultra awkward the whole time and I couldn’t help but think, man a hotel for a day would have cost like a $100 and would have been immensely better experience.

But I am not too worried. I am eating right. I continue to have many hobbies and I have huge cognitive and cardio reserve. But as a long distance runner for over 20 years, my body can’t add weight. The biggest worry in ageing is sarcopenia. And so you need to add muscle mass and bone density during your 40s to 60s. And this can be done by lifting weights.

Only issue is, you have conditioned your body for 20 years to be a lean running machine, it will just not add muscle mass. How much ever you feed, that machine will just burn it all off. Also in the oft chance I do put weight, I will feel it while running. And overcomming that psychological shock of slowing down is also tricky.

But apart from that depressing thought, I am looking forward to the rest of the year.

I have a specific plan:

1. Learn the Piano. Unlike the guitar, the Piano requires you to use both hands independently. This is superb for the brain
2. Do the Jeju Trifecta challenge - Run the 437km Olle Trail, Bike the 234km Jeju Fantasy Bike Path and finally Kayak 253km circumnavgating Jeju
3. Run at least one marathon
4. Finish at least one level of KIIP - Korea Immigration and Integration Program

That is pretty much it. I don’t want to complicate it a lot.

Mikhail Tal is the best example of the last style. He didn’t calculate everything. He just would introduce chaos where he thinks the opponent is weak. And if the opponent successfully navigates it, he would just introduce another chaos.

You must take your opponent into a deep, dark forest where (2 + 2 = 5), and the path leading out is only wide enough for one. - Mikhail Tal

The above quote clearly encapsulates Tal’s method. But this isn’t just true for chess. If you are a good systems thinker, then you probably possess this skill. When I talk to someone, I quickly start building the mental model for whatever they are discussing and it becomes clear where my mental model is shaky. I then ask a pin-pointed question. If the person has thought of it, they answer it, and I get my piece to complete and strengthen the shaky mental model. If they don’t, then they are amazed I asked that one question where their entire argument/proposal/insight/recommendation fails.

In my experience this is very rare. Most people I know meet irregularly. Once in a while and then most of the time is spent catching up on life and events.

But I have been lucky to have my phases on regular meetings. Regular meetings are great because the quality of conversations get immensely improved. If you meet someone for lunch everyday for 6 months, you end up talking about everything.

I had my first such experience when I was in highschool. Everyday after school (even before board exams), a bunch of us would gather at the beach to play football and then end up at the roof talking for hours, playing chess, talking random things about weird math or physics problems or algorithms. It was the most intellectual phase of my life back then.

This continued till university. Then at Infy it was everyday Lunch and Dinner with Spencer/Deo. And then in Singapore it was everyday lunch with Vijay. Then in China it was everyday Lunch with SHP.

And then in Korea in my first stint it was everyday lunch or dinner with Ryan and Chris.

And in my second stint it was everyday Lunch with Ryan.

The thing about these is you need to have a bunch of people who have a lot of interests. If they are too one dimensional, you run out of topics after a few meetings or it becomes one way, where you are the only one talking.

And finding such people is difficult. Finding your daily gang as an adult is one of the most difficult part in this chaotic world. Which explains why people take to Reddit/Forums etc.

So in 2020, when I wanted to like check that email id, Google just locked me out. It told me I needed to enter the security code that it sent to my mobile number (the one I used back in 2004). No amount of emailing, contacting google support was useful. It didn’t have a recovery email id etc. So I just gave up and forgot about it.

Recently, I was going through some old hardware. A raspberry pi that I used to run my home automation system. And somehow this email was attached to it on the firefox. I was able to recover it.

I started reading some of the old emails that I had written and received back in 2005. So good memories. Also I wrote a lot of emails back then.

I also got my first email id back in 1996 with Hotmail and then one later with Yahoo back in 1997 or 1998. I bet there were some crazy good email converstations in them till 2004. But it is a pity that both Hotmail and Yahoo deleted all my emails when those accounts weren’t used for a long time.

I am glad that even without logging into this gmail account for like 10 years, google still didn’t delete the emails.

While having the food, he mentioned I am pretty good at cooking and where did I learn from?

“From your mom? Or some youtube recipes?” “Neither. I think I just figured it out. It is science after all.”.

We both laughed, purely because he knew I thought of everything as science and he disapproved of that idea that everything is science. Partly, because he is the type to beleive that if someone is good at somethibng, is is because they invested a lot of time in it and so they must be bad at something else, as they didn’t invest the same amount of time in it. I certainly don’t believe in that theory. But he does. So every time we kind of get close to this topic, we end up just laughing and moving on, because we know that no amount of argument will change the other person’s mind.

But it got me thinking. I have never watched youtube videos or read any recipe online. I know both my parents are very good at cooking. But both of them never taught me to cook. I never got involved in the kitchedn when I was in Singapore. Even when my mom used to take off for some events/functions, my dad used to cook, but my involvement was bounded to just doing the dishes.

So I really have no clue how my cooking is good. It is not even trial and error. It just was always good. And no, I never had to figure what I have to put first, what I have to put next to make sambhar etc. It just intuitively felt right.

It sounds like a lot of bullshit. But I really can’t figure out how I am good at cooking.

1. Running
2. Climbing
3. Chess
4. Cooking (more than half the world cooks, so this might seem like a bold claim, but I am a pretty good cook and if you random sample 100 people who cook, I will be better than 50 of them)
5. Coding/Logic
6. Memory (I can remember things/numbers from long ago and recall them with surprising accuracy)
7. Data Interpretation and analysis and finding the story in the data and simplifying them.
8. Exploring new things, learning new things and taking risks. I have huge risk appetite.

That is pretty much it. In everything else I am average or below average. The last 4 are the ones that has helped me in my career. And the first 4 are the ones that has helped me settle anywhere in life.

There is another ratio which is the leg length (hip bone to floor) to height ratio. My leg length is 108 cm. So my leg length to height ratio is 60%. Normal range is around 52%-55%.

These have some Pros and some Cons. For climbing and running these are great.

Many times a V7 problem feels pretty easy to me, purely because my reach is pretty long. Most dynamic problems became a static problem for me. Yes, there are problems where I need to like put my feet next to my hip etc and due to long femurs I can’t do it. But in general, it is more helpful in climbing.

This problem is pretty challenging for most people at the gym. You have to run up the wall step on the foothold and jump and hang on to the start hold which is pretty high. You then have to balance on the sloper and transition your body weight to the sloper and move your right hand to the hold to the right of the sloper, all this while not losing balance. Then you move your left hand to the nice jug like hold. But you are not done there. You have to then make a dynamic lunge and grab the two holds at the top.

But for me this is a V4 problem. I just skip all the difficult parts due to my ape index and leg to height ratio.

When it comes to running, even with low cadence my speed is pretty high because my stride length is pretty long.

I sometimes wonder if I stuck to these two sports over all other sports purely because my body was built for it. I had a natural advantage in these two sports compared to other sports like ultimate frisbee, kayaking, wing surfing, underwater hockey (the long arms and legs help though), scuba diving etc.

The long legs also explains why I prefer running over biking. Apparently, when your femur bones are so long, normal bike frames just don’t work. The geometry is off and you end up in awkward form which hurts your back and knees.

Having long legs also explains why I suck at Pilates and swimming. Try doing leg raise or keeping your legs up in swimming when most of your body weight is your bottom half.

March 7th: Korea Open Race - Half Marathon

March 21st: Bucket Run - 10K

This also means I need to start training regularly to always be race ready. For the first race in March, I have about 5 weeks. And below is my training plan:

Because the race is on March 7th, it is a short timeframe, I am sharpening my current fitness and getting myself comfortable holding a faster pace.

Key Treadmill Speed Conversions

• Easy/Recovery: 10.0 – 11.5 km/h
• Goal Race Pace (Tempo): 13.8 – 14.2 km/h (Let’s call this 14 km/h)
• Speed/Intervals: 15.0 – 16.5+ km/h

The Training Schedule (Feb 1 - Mar 6)

Phase 1: Base & Threshold (Weeks 1-2)

Focus: Getting used to sustained speed without burning out.

Week 1 (Feb 1 - Feb 8)

Sun (Feb 1): Long Run. 60 mins total. Plan: 40 mins @ 11 km/h + 20 mins @ 12.5 km/h. - Done

Mon: Strength & Row. 10 min Row (warm-up) + Full Body Weights (Barbell Squats, KB Swings, Pull-ups).

Tue: Speed Intervals. Warm-up: 10 min easy. Set: 5 rounds of 3 mins @ 14.5 km/h + 2 mins walk/jog. Cool-down: 5 min easy. - Done

Wed: Spin Bike. 45 mins steady effort (moderate resistance).

Thu: Tempo Run. 10 min warm-up. 20 mins continuous @ 13.5 km/h (Just below race pace). 5 min cool-down.

Fri: Rest or Light Core/Stretching.

Sat: Easy Run + Strides. 40 mins @ 11 km/h. Last 5 mins, do 30-second bursts @ 16 km/h.

Week 2 (Feb 9 - Feb 15)

Sun: Long Run. 75 mins total. Plan: 45 mins @ 11 km/h + 30 mins @ 13 km/h.

Mon: Strength & Row. 10 min Row (Intervals: 30s hard / 30s easy) + Weights.

Tue: Speed Intervals. Warm-up: 10 min easy. Set: 6 rounds of 2 mins @ 15.5 km/h + 90 sec walk/jog. Cool-down: 5 min easy.

Wed: Spin Bike. 45-60 mins. Include 5 x 1-minute hard efforts.

Thu: Tempo Run. 10 min warm-up. 25 mins continuous @ 13.8 km/h (Goal Race Pace). 5 min cool-down.

Fri: Rest.

Sat: Shakeout Run. 30 mins easy @ 10-11 km/h.

Phase 2: Peak & Sharpen (Weeks 3-4)

Focus: Hitting max specificity. This is the hardest part.

Week 3 (Feb 16 - Feb 22)

Sun: The Big Simulator (Long Run). 90 mins total. Plan: 60 mins @ 11.5 km/h + fast finish 20 mins @ 13.8 km/h + 10 mins cool-down.

Mon: Strength & Row. 10 min Row + Core/Upper Body focus.

Tue: VO2 Max Intervals. Warm-up: 10 min easy. Set: 8 rounds of 90 seconds @ 16 - 16.5 km/h + 90 seconds very slow jog. Cool-down: 5 min easy.

Wed: Spin Bike. 45 mins easy recovery.

Thu: Threshold Intervals. 10 min warm-up. 3 rounds of 8 mins @ 14 km/h + 2 mins jog recovery. 5 min cool-down.

Fri: Rest.

Sat: Easy Run. 40 mins @ 11 km/h.

Week 4 (Feb 23 - Mar 1) - Start of Taper

Sun: Medium Long Run. 70 mins total. Plan: Steady run @ 12 km/h. No fast finish.

Mon: Strength. Lighter weights, focus on mobility. 5 min Row warm-up.

Tue: Speed Maintenance. Warm-up: 10 min easy. Set: 4 rounds of 2 mins @ 14.5 km/h + 1 min jog. Cool-down: 5 min easy.

Wed: Spin Bike. 30 mins easy.

Thu: Short Tempo. 10 min warm-up. 15 mins @ 13.8 km/h. 5 min cool-down.

Fri: Rest.

Sat: Easy Run. 30 mins @ 10-11 km/h.

Phase 3: Race Week (Mar 2 - Mar 7)

Focus: Fresh legs.

Week 5 (Mar 2 - Mar 7)

Sun (Mar 2): Easy Run. 45 mins @ 11 km/h.

Mon: Rest.

Tue: Race Tune-Up. 10 min warm-up. 10 mins @ 13.8 km/h. 10 min cool-down.

Wed: Spin Bike. 20 mins very easy or Rest.

Thu: Rest.

Fri: Shakeout. 15-20 mins very slow run + light stretching.

Sat (Mar 7): RACE DAY!

Notes

1. Rowing Warm-up: 5 minutes total. Minute 1 easy, Minute 2 medium, Minute 3 hard, Minute 4 easy, Minute 5 hard sprint. Then get off and lift weights.

2. Key Exercise 1: Bulgarian Split Squats (holding dumbbells). Essential for runners.

3. Key Exercise 2: Single-Leg Deadlifts (with kettlebell or dumbbell). Prevents hamstring injuries.

4. Key Exercise 3: Plank Drag-throughs (using the kettlebell).

5. Routine: Do 3 sets of 12-15 reps. We want muscular endurance, not bulk, for the race.

6. Incline on Treadmill: For all “Easy” and “Long” runs, set the incline to 0.5% or 1.0%. This mimics air resistance outdoors. For interval days (speed), you can leave it flat (0%) to maximize leg turnover speed.

7. The “Essential 4” Daily Routine (5 Minutes): Immediately after every run or bike session while your muscles are still warm. Hold each stretch for 45–60 seconds.

8. The Treadmill Calf Stretch (Calves): Why: The treadmill belt pulls your foot back, overworking the calves.

How: Stand on the edge of the treadmill (or a step). Drop one heel off the edge until you feel a deep stretch in the lower leg. Keep the leg straight. Switch legs.

1. The Couch Stretch (Hip Flexors)

Why: Running fast (14km/h+) tightens the hips. Tight hips lead to lower back pain.

How: Kneel on the floor facing away from your treadmill or a wall. Put one knee on the floor and your foot up against the wall/machine behind you. Squeeze your glute and push your hips forward. You should feel a massive pull in the front of the thigh/hip.

1. Lying Hamstring Stretch (Using your Resistance Bands)

Why: To prevent knee pain and improve stride length.

How: Lie on your back. Loop a resistance band around one foot. Keep that leg straight and pull it towards your face using the band. Keep your butt on the floor. This is much better than trying to touch your toes while standing.

1. The Dead Hang (Using your Pull-Up Bar)

Why: Running compresses your spine. This decompresses it.

How: Simply grab your pull-up bar and hang loosely for 30–60 seconds. Let your body weight stretch out your back and shoulders. Do not do a pull-up; just hang.

1. The Friday “Deep Reset”

Deep Squat Hold: Hold a deep squat (use your kettlebell as a counterbalance weight in front of you) for 2 minutes to open up hips and ankles.

Pigeon Pose: On the floor, brings one leg in front bent at 90 degrees. Leaning forward. Great for the glutes.

Cat-Cow: On all fours, arching and rounding your back.