Texas tour

Winter break was spent in a Texas tour. Temps in Texas ranged from 20F to 70F in the last 2 winter weeks of Dec and sometimes in the duration of the same day.

Inspite of standardization across USA, these are the things that stand out about Texas.

• Not enough greenery. Nope. No big trees, just shrubs. Very much brown color-tone like the Millenial Bangalore.
• No rivers or ponds or brooks. Very few man-made ones were there.
• No recycle bins anywhere - not airports , offices, apartments. Shocking !
• Plethora of Indian restaurants in every city. Each with different choices within Indian cuisine, I had forgotten they exist. Indo-chinese, Chennai style, Kerala style, Andhra mess, South buffet,.... 
• Birds on electric lines. Hitchcockian pics in the bottom of this post.

Houston

NASA Johnson Space Center.
A tour of the facility in tram which ends in Rocket park. And some fun Space setup in the main building. This is the only thing to do in Houston apart from a trip to downtown.

Water Wall Park near Galleria in downtown Houston. Its a thing of beauty to see so much water falling from such a large height. And I guess this man-made waterfall counts in a place with no natural waterfalls, I think. Everyone's eyes need this view.

Houston Downtown

Galveston

Beachtown an hour drive from Houston.

San Antonio

Tower of Americas

Riverwalk: No real river. Manmade canal works for Riverwalk.

San Antonio downtown - art district

Austin

State Capitol

 

State Park Trail

Graffiti park is an interesting place to go.

Austin downtown

Dallas

Downtown lit for the holidays

Birds

There were birds everywhere. Surprising for December.
Birds on electric lines, signals. And most shocking were these crowds in a Dallas mall parking.

Run nay Fitness Report 2017

This year's focus has been more on fitness then on running. Atleast for the first half year, I worked on picking up skils for weight-training and strength-training. Once the gym machines and dumbells stopped scaring me and I had a ST routine, I could ramp up my running on the remaining days. Not on the exceptional race-training mileage, but just enough to know that I have not forgotten it.

Running:
I did kick off 2017 with a Commitment day 5K. But rest of the Jan and Feb were my least mileage ever I think. Jan was a continuation of the workout series I joined in Nov 2016. Then in second week, I was busy packing and then went on an India trip for 4 weeks. And another week of settling down after return. I slowly crawled back to running in Feb-end. And got into a flow in March. In April, I woke up to the fact that I had signed up for some races. Which meant it was time to get serious.

All this while I had been riddled with self-doubt, for a while now. Reading some workout books makes me realize this is the usual cycle of a relatively short workout-life. But it does not help me find solution. I needed to choose between reducing running distances vs increasing strength.

In June, I found the word I was looking for. I had been asking, how did I run so fast in the first year of running ? How did I loose weight in the first year only ? How come my toenails never went black again after that year ? Answer is intensity. Yes I have been very cautious in my running, simply to avoid any injury. But that meant reduction of performance.

By Nov I had made my peace. Its possible to balance running and strength training.

Races:
I did reduce the number of races. But I ran them with my Run-buddies. So they were very enjoyable. This is in addition to hte usual goodies of great location and awesome support that each on of them offer. I can even notice my progress in times.

Temp	Name	Date	Distance	Time
20F Cloudy	Commitment Day	1-Jan-17	5K	40 min
53F	Get in the Gear	29-Apr-17	10Mile	2:20:00
54F	Lake Minnetonka - Half Marathon	7-May-17	Half-Mara	3:01:53
69	Minnesota Half Marathon - StPaul	5-Aug-17	Half-Mara	3:05:01
57-87F	City of Lakes Half - Calhoun & Harriet	11-Sep-17	Half-Mara	2:57:34
35F Cloudy No-Wind	Minneapolis Halloween Half Marathon	28-Oct-17	Half-Mara	3:06:54
35F Sunny No wind	Hindu Mandir Thanksgiving 5k	24-Nov-17	5K	37 min

Weight control
For the overall goal of weightloss, I took help from Personal Trainer. It is worth all the fees charged. I learnt most of the workouts and how to do it. I actually introduced the needed diet changes because PT said so; and found out I can do so much more even within a restricted diet. All past experiments actually helped me with the transition, without making me feel deprived. Plus there are so many time-lapse recipe videos floating on FB, its bound to leave some impression.

But every single change takes a month or so to adjust and only then you move onto the next changes. Trying to do everything at once wont work.
Make a calorie log for a week or so. That gives an idea on

• what foods to discard, just downright stop buying,
• what foods to replace with something better
• how to reduce calorie count by 200 every month till you reach the goal of 2000/1800/1500 whichever works for you. This also means it takes months to bring down your regular calorie intake - not a few weeks of dieting.

There was also the realization that there is a range of difference between Thin, Fit and Healthy. People can be one of these or all of these, but they do not mean the same thing.
Different lifestyle behaviors can bring about each of these results. But its easy to avoid comparing one goal with the other and being disheartened. Just something to keep in mind.

S1:E9 Mr Monk and the Marathon Man
Before I end, I want to share this I found this year, from my favorite show. Mr Monk & Running - I couldn't believe ! And him fanboying an elite runner in SF Marathon. Lovely.

S1:E9 Mr Monk and the Marathon Man.

All of my yearly Run Reports are here.

Surila 2017

Films are lengthy - not everyone has chunks of time for that. Songs meanwhile can play endlessly. Songs are the gift that keeps on giving. Films are best consumed hot, fresh. Nothing in it for later viewing. Songs meanwhile are forever.

I think the biggest deal on Hindi Music front, this year, has to be T-Series MixTape. I cant stop listening to them even now. Fusing 2 songs, sung by pair of singers. Lyrics play stands off and how the orchestra supports their singing. Even if they were existing movie songs, T-Series Mixedtape orchestra made it all new. Lyrics are the only one that stayed true. But by intervening 2 songs, the original was not easy to decipher.

Especially Jubin Nautiyal in "Tu Jo Mila Raabta | Shirley Setia | Jubin Nautiyal".
the Shennai part in "Kabira Naina | Neha Kakkar l Mohd Irfan",
and "Kaise Mujhe/Tum Ho Song | Palak Muchhal | Aditya Narayan".

And then the other biggest phenomenon has to be the reworking of 90's songs. The line-up shows some awesome choices. Especially Tanishk Bagchi's magic, has made my teenage songs, my kids favorites in 2017; with no extra effort from me.

Tamma Tamma had so many elements in it to love. Retained Bappi Lahiri and Anuradha Paudwal voices, original lyrics and primary beats, while adding new elements like Amin Sayani's voice., agin, Badshaah’s rap portion and new instrument hooks. (Salaam le jata hua, udan khatola, Aur been bajati hui naagin). This portion was the Biggest hit  in our house.

Raabta - When the teaser was out, Gandhi voice did not seem magical and ofcourse the original was better thing started. But listening to the full song, it has caught on. It has dominant female voice, with the male in a few paras down. The mukhda music is the Caribbean xylo beats.
Beautiful and catchy song.

Tumhari Sulu had other songs with very interesting music.

Original / Albums
There were some very impressive albums.
Lucknow Central with some familiar punjabi songs set in new music with new voices and some new  songs is one of the repeat play albums.

Ok Jaanu - Trusty AR Rahman with his songs playing on a loop.

Reading Book list of 2017

Libraries are a blessing. This year I took up and gave up about tens of books. Imagine the expense and guilt-trip if I did buy them. Also, this year I had nothing in mind to read. Nothing noteworthy seemed to be around. So I guessed I could explore picking something up with no set mind. Read books I do not want to read. See how it goes. In process I left many half-read. Brought a bunch of Art books and browsed through before returning to library. But here are some I finished and felt good about it.

The Panem Companion - Unofficial guide to Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games - From Mellark Bakery to Mockingjays - By V Arrow

So I am a Hunger Games Trilogy fan and find them flawless. I have read the 3 books more than thrice. So this time, instead of going through them again, decided to pursue other related books. One of them is this one.

The introduction and first few chapters felt like drudgery and bunch of dense words. But soome its picks up steam with some interesting chapter ideas and content.

Got to know some scandalizing theories coming from internet fandom (which I haven't explored) and I find them incredible, but hmm possible and I never thought of.

Loved the chapter on root of character names.

Disappointed that the book did not draw any parallel with East Europe situation in 80s. That's what I have seen on TV all the while, even Emil's book.

Becoming Odyssa - By Jennifer Pharr Davis

Last year I read her book on the Appalachian Trail Record endevour where she became the record holder for fastest thru-hiker. This book is on her first steps in hiking and those adventure. Again a lovely read to immerse myself in a jungle.

Read My Pins - Madeleine Albright

Fascinating. Being a fan of Madam Secretary, I wanted to read Mad Albright bio books to extend the binge. This book in first person narrative talks about her early years, start of her career, many diplomatic meetings. I was thrilled to read about the gift of Horse by Mongolia, which appeared in MS (S3Ep11) but no mention if the scandal shown in the show really happened. The common theme through them are the various brooch pins she wore through them. There is also a chapter dedicated to talking about value of ornaments and bauble in various royalty, societies and America. Good quality color pics enhances the reading. Hence makes for a quick reading.

She used pin to convey moods or convey her approach before any diplomatic meeting. Pins became her signature. There are thousands of pins captured in this book and stories around them. Its really fascinating.

The Marathon Made Easier - Cliff Temple

 

Published in 80s or before I think. Very simplistic when read now. All Run magazines and online articles seem to have built on each of the chapters and tips from this book.

Hal Higdons - Masters Running - A Guide to Running and Staying Fit after 40

Highly recommended book for those continuing/starting to run in their 40s. Detailed book which covers many aspects.

Run Fast. Eat Slow.: Nourishing Recipes for Athletes - by Elyse Kopecky and Shalane Flanagan

First off Congratulations to Shalane Flanagan for wining the NYC Marathon ! Yeah ! 

She is a reputed Olympian runner and I have followed her races and this one is so much deserved. Its a sight to see her cross the finish line - her stride, her thrill and there was no competition around her - she was the only leader finishing. Beautiful.

I got to know of this book via her social media. Good recipe book for new ideas, very good quality pictures. 

Hidden Figures

I read & saw Hidden Figures book & movie this year. 

The genius of the 3 ladies (computer) and the whole group they worked with, shows through. Not just 3 but 100s of ladies were experts in Math and Science; so much so that computing was associated with ladies. So, how did the skill gap happen and demographics change between 60s & 90s Tech boom ? 

Samething in India. I remember my early 90s CompSci batch was viewed as ladies branch vs manly Mech. Now there are news articles of male programmers bullying female ones. How the flow changes in a few generations ! 

In USA, bullying/teasing middle school girls who excel in or are interested in STEM and gently goading them towards makeup, looks, baking and crafts has reaped its rewards.

The Eye Of Minds - James Dashner

It popped up in Recommendation after I read "Ready Player One". So naturally I have to make comparisons. Don't care if it was written by the author of Maze Runner. This is just a filmsy book written on RPO template. I will always be a RPO fan and will measure others harshly. The game scenarios or situations written were so boring I skipped through most pages and went for the ending.

Yours

What books did you read this year ? Which one stayed with you ? Which one sent you on a journey of knowing more on the same topic or theme ?

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