Balance

Life is a chaos. The choices we make -- consciously or unconsciously -- are meant to bring some order to it. Balance is my favorite word and it is a challenge to balance different aspects of life on a daily basis. Invariably one aspect becomes dominant than the others, by choice or otherwise.

Ever since I've returned home after my sister's wedding -- late April -- with my wife and daughter, spending time with them has taken priority over anything else. So it was little surprise that my running took a back seat in the overall scheme of things. I guess the lack of momentum and lethargy coupled with the busy work schedule are to take equal share of the blame. Adjusting my activities around the random schedule (is that an oxymoron?) of my daughter has been something that took some time to come to grips with. Only recently I've rediscovered the motivation and adjusted my daily schedule to resume regular running. In the process, I have fallen way behind with regard to achieving my goal of 100 hours of running this year. So as it stands now I've about 15 weeks left in the year and more than 60 hours left to complete. That comes out to be little more than 4 hours a week. Gotta to pull out all the stops now. Let's see how far can I go.

Running Time (Goal: 100 Hours)
Year To Date: 33:27 (47 attempts)

Books Read (Goal: 25)
Year To Date: 36

May
The Soloist By Mark Salzman
Smith Delivered By Louis Begley
Payment In Blood By Elizabeth George
With No One As Witness By Elizabeth George
The Rhythm Of Life By Mathew Kelly

June
America - A Citizen's Guide To Democracy In Action By Jon Stewart
The Charlie And The Chocolate Factory By Roald Dahl
The Historian By Elizabeth Kostova
Pundits from Pakistan By Rahul Bhattacharya
The Education of a Coach By David Halberstam

July
Hungry Tide By Amitav Ghosh
Night By Elie Weisel
Mile High Club By Kinky Friedman

August
The world is flat By Thomas Friedman
Beyond A Boundary By CLR James

Neat!

I guess I will have to switch to Nike shoes.

Progress Update - Apr 06

Running Time (Goal: 100 Hours)
March : 01:30 (1 attempt)
Year To Date: 21:46 (30 attempts)

Books Read (Goal: 25)
March : 1
Year To Date: 21

This Month

• Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
  

Progress Update - Mar 06

Running Time (Goal: 100 Hours)
March : 09:44 (12 attempts)
Year To Date: 20:16 (29 attempts)

Books Read (Goal: 25)
March : 8
Year To Date: 20

This Month

• Great Deliverance By Elizabeth George
• The Tipping Point By Malcom Gladwell
• King Solomon’s Mines By H. Rider Haggard
• Beyond The Blonde By Kathleen Flynn Hui
• Swimming To Antarctica By Lynne Cox
• Time Machine By H. G. Wells
• And One More Thing Before You Go By Maria Shriver
• Today Matters By John Maxwell

Previously

• Winning By Jack Welch
• The Broker By John Grisham
• High Country By Nevada Barr
• On The Road By Jack Kerouac
• The Zahir By Paolo Coelho
• Black Beauty By Anna Sewell
• Story Of My Life By Helen Keller
• Mary Mary By James Patterson
• The One Thing You Need To Know By Marcus Buckingham
• The Tale Of Two Cities By Charles Dickens
• On Bullshit By Harry G. Frankfurt
• At First Sight By Nicholas Sparks

Progress Update - Feb 06

Running Time (Goal: 100 Hours)
February : 04:44 (7 attempts)
Year To Date: 10.32 (17 attempts)

Books Read (Goal: 25)
February : 9
Year To Date: 12

This Month

• Winning By Jack Welch
• The Broker By John Grisham
• High Country By Nevada Barr
• On The Road By Jack Kerouac
• The Zahir By Paolo Coelho
• Black Beauty By Anna Sewell
• Story Of My Life By Helen Keller
• Mary Mary By James Patterson
• The One Thing You Need To Know By Marcus Buckingham

Previously

• The Tale Of Two Cities By Charles Dickens
• On Bullshit By Harry G. Frankfurt
• At First Sight By Nicholas Sparks

The inertia

I went for a run this morning after almost three weeks. And boy, did it feel good!!

Why the gap, you ask? Well, I haven’t really been doing well. The month began all right but then I started feeling some pain in my chest. I didn’t think it was serious but I didn’t want to take any chances either. The physician asked me to take it easy for couple of weeks.

During one of those weeks my tooth started giving me trouble. They (my teeth) have always been my achilles heel (I am not sure if I can use that metaphor but you get the point). I could probably buy a lifetime supply of toothpaste with the amount of money that I have spent on them. I finally caved in and had it extracted. The surgeon asked me to take it easy for couple of weeks.

I guess you know what happens when you take it easy for such a long time. The inertia builds in and it forces you continue taking it easy. It took me almost four days to fight it off. The good thing about the inertia, though, is that it works both ways. Now that I’ve started again, I’m hoping it will force me to continue running.

The Zahir

I haven't been running for past three weeks 'cause of bad health. It has allowed me to spend extra time on reading. I recently read a very interesting novel by Paolo Coelho. The review is in another blog I participate in. Click here to read it.