A little bit of Wimbledon

I have been watching a little bit of Wimbledon action every day. Today was a day of big upsets. James Blake, Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova lost. Let me explain why they lost because all 3 lost because of exactly the same reason. Lack of progress. All three are incredible players with big weapons. All three give 100% and are very talented. But if you have noticed, not one of them has made big strides in the last few months while the rest of the tennis world has surged ahead.

Roddick and Sharapova both still have a blow-hot, blow-cold style of play where they dominate for intervals followed by a dip in play. It is just not good enough. James Blake does not attack the net enough and could use a better serve. I know I am nitpicking and am sure all three work very hard on improvements. But the hard work is not showing.

Compare that to Rafa who has a markedly improved serve this year and moves much better on grass and hard courts. Federer has a sublime game to begin with. Dyokovic (although he lost as well) hits the ball much harder now and still manages to be consistent. Relying on just one or 2 strengths does not cut it anymore. Unless you serve like Pete Sampras that is.

Also as a side note, I always find it funny to watch Nadal and Federer at the same time. Federer is the Rolls Royce of tennis, silent and smooth. Nadal on the other hand is like a hemi-powered truck. Not at all smooth, quite awkward but with SO MUCH power that he still gets the job done.

Random thought

I really, really like the current name of my blog and so does my lil’ sister. So I will never change it. But I have come up with a pretty good new name. What do you think of Too pale to be a brother, too dark to be a duuddeee … ? Kinda’ like it

Update: Now I don’t like it as much, eh?

A little bit of interval training

Before I get into interval training, a little detour. Remember how I was complaining that driving on the 405 is soul-sapping. Turns out that biking along the ocean is super rejuvenating I took a long bike ride along the SM beach yesterday. It was freakin’ awesome. My soul is all good now, no bitterness.

OK. So,  Interval training is broadly defined as repetitions of high-speed/intensity work followed by periods of rest or low activity. I had never done it before and even currently, I do it a little unscientifically. But it is still working out very well.

On a treadmill I used to run steadily at 6.2 mph and a 0.5 incline for as long as I could. Now what I do is that in the last 2 mins of every 10 minute interval I run much harder than usual. This could mean that I either set the incline to be much steeper  or the speed to be much faster. I run for about 40-45 mins which means I do four 2 min intervals of very high intensity running. I have only been doing it for about 10 days but it has already made me a better runner.

I now need to figure out how to do the same for biking and road-running. Treadmills allows you to stick to a plan fairly easily. It will be tougher to stay on track on the road where it is easy to get distracted. Let’s see.

For those of you who run/train and are wondering why you are plateauing, please consider doing interval training. It will make a world of difference. Btw, currently my song for the 2 min high intensity intervals is “Mean Streets”

Did you miss me?

Dear Readers, apologies for not writing regularly. Hopefully, I can be more regular from now on. I am certainly going to try. Let me fill you in on what has been going on in my life in the past few weeks, whether you want to know or not

On the excercise and health front, I have started cooking again and started interval training (more in a later post). Last few days have taught me that the human body is an incredible thing. If you push it to its limits, it will adjust to those limits and then you can push it even further. Same hold true for our mind. Sadly, very few of us ever try to push that hard. It is so easy to get stuck in a rut, happens to me ALL THE TIME. It is very sad, we have just one life to live.

I also got my VO2 max calculated. It is the maximum capacity of an individual’s body to transport and utilize oxygen during incremental exercise, which reflects the physical fitness of the individual. It is as a relative rate in millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of bodyweight per minute (ml/kg/min). On a scale of 1-100, I came in at 52 which is not bad at all. I also got my basic metabolic rate calculated. Turns out my fears of low metabolism were unfounded. I am just fine and can eat 2200 calories a day, no sweat! Good news.

I am now president of Toasted Yahoo!s, our charter club with Toastmasters Inc. Toastmasters is a world wide organization that helps people improve at public speaking. I am also one speech away from being a Competent Communicator. The one important thing I have learnt at Toastmasters is that the greatest public speaker is freakin’ useless if the material is boring! Kind of obvious, actually. However this means I usually do decent, since I am a way-above-average writer. If you haven’t guessed already, I am also quite up there when it comes to blowing my own trumpet

Work wise, well, its work as usual. Yahoo! is in a bit of a turmoil, as everyone and their mother know. Our team gave a tech talk in Sunnyvale that went well. I had not done something like that, it gave me a chance practice my public speaking skills It also gave me an opportunity to spend time with Milind Mama, Sujata Mami, Neel and Nikki. I always love visiting them.

Also, I learnt the every time you drive on the I-405, you lose a small part of your soul. You become a slightly more bitter individual and slightly worse human being It is the darkest and worst stretch of road in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD, no shit!

On the bright side, summer is here to stay. Yabadabadoooooo. 80 degree plus weather, I welcome thee and bow before thee. Stay as long as you wish.

I will explain tommorow what interval training means and review Juno the day after. Cheers.

Who to root for at the French Open?

There is no fun watching any game unless you can root for one of the teams/players. For me, it is actually quite simple. I always root for the under-dog, unless India is playing Therefore I am having a really hard time choosing a player to back at the French Open because neither Rafa nor Fed-Express can be called underdogs. Let us analyze both players before making a decision.

Roger Federer

Player: Beyond doubt, the greatest tennis player ever! This guy is a magician with a tennis racket in his hands. He hits incredibly unbelievable shots as if they are the easiest thing in the world. He is cool, unflappable and knows how to step up a gear under pressure. Impossible to beat if he is playing at the top of his game.

Personality: By all accounts, a very nice popular guy. Good personality and very smart. He is extremely smooth, never puts a foot wrong, whether it be a tennis court or a press conference. If anything, he is a little boring on the court because he keeps winning so easily.

Clay court play: 2nd best clay-courter, the only player better is Rafa. Federer can slug it out from the baseline with the best of them. He has a strong serve and attacks the net even on clay when he can. A very smooth, all-round game with a wicked forehand.

Why he should win: He is too good a player and too good a clay courter to never win a French Open. No one deserves a Grand Slam or atleast a career Grand Slam more than Federer.

Rafael Nadal

Player: Beyond doubt, the greatest clay court player ever! He is super fast and gets to balls that would be sure shot winners against other players. Not only that, he  can turn defense to offense in twinkling of an eye. He has an incredible, never-say-die spirit and fights for all points like a maniac.

Personality: A little rougher around the edges, quite endearing actually. I like the fact that he always has a good word for his opponents and he is very humble. On the court, he wears his heart on his sleeve and like I said, he fights every point like a madman. If he does lose, you can bet your ass that he left it all out there on the court.

Clay court play: In one word, flawless. Rafa is the 3 time defending French open champion. At the top of his game he is unbeatable on clay, even if Federer is on his A-game. His forehand has to be seen to believed the way it kicks up on clay.

Why he should win: He is too good a player to end up with just 3 French Open titles. He would have won many more Grand Slams and been number 1 for a long time if it wasn’t for Federer.

My pick:

It is a close call since I like both players, but am going to go with Rafa. I feel bad for Nadal because he is a great tennis player in his own right. But he will be always remembered as the number 2 to Federer’s number 1. I want him to at least have French Open glory. I also love his personality and his will to fight. He is not as gifted at tennis as Federer but he is a supreme athlete and plays with a rare passion. Vamos Rafa!

Update: Nadal destroyed Fededer, 6-1, 6-3, 6-0. Maybe I should have rooted for Federer .

 

 

1 New Year’s resolution crossed off the list

I ran a 7 minute mile for the first time in my life yesterday. It is usually a breeze for a lot of people but I am not one of them. Took me forever and I was stuck around 7.20 and 7.30 for a long time. Feels good though.

To put things in perspective, top marathon runners run 26 miles at at 5:20 minute per mile or thereabouts. Quite humbling when you think about it. But I bet they can’t write JavaScript

Update: According to a couple of my friends, seems I can’t write JavaScript either