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Monday, March 30, 2009

Rejuvenation required and a new discovery...

I had a great Sunday on March 22, managed a 25km run, but could not follow it up with an improved week of running. Last week I managed 4 runs during the week on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, all runs of 11-12km, taking the weeks tally to 45km. This was almost the same as the week ended March 22, when I managed 47km.

During the two weekend runs, my legs felt tired right from the start of the run and I was not able to enjoy my Sunday run. My Sunday runs are very important for me, as they are very rejuvenating & relaxing. Am hoping that things get back to normal during the week. I hope to continue with weekday runs and then follow it up with a couple of swims/cycling over the long weekend. I guess I need a break from the routine... to improve things and move into overdrive.

New development - have registered a url www.letsrun.in, with a hope to build a website, which will provide a platform for runners in India to interact with each other. I have always wanted a website/forum for Indian runners, as the realities of running here are very different from those in the western world. This coupled with the fact that many fellow runners like me have also been looking for a similar platfrom. Plus I was recently inspired by the efforts made by a website www.cyclist.in, which has done a very good job for cyclists in India (esp. Bombay).

Currently I am working at gathering volunteers who will help me build it and contribute resources to host and run the site. I have the basic structure ready, but don't want to do too many things using my own instincts. Instead, I want to start with something basic and small and then build on it based on user feedback/opinions. Unlike a commercial product there are no revenue pressures, so the product can evolve and find its own way.

The trigger for going ahead has social media (comments on my blog) and I plan to use social media at each stage to build this online product. I asked for suggestions for a suitable name for this runners platform on Facebook and Twitter, and it threw up a whole host of diverse options, some of which I could never have imagined. I finally decided on a suggestion given by a twitter user @ekalavyab as this was simple, easy to remember, no opportunity for typos and most important of all it was available for registration.

3 comments:

Bedders said...

Good luck on the new website.

Unknown said...

check out runningandliving.com . it is mainly based out of delhi but has a lot of stuff you are looking for. rahul verghese is the person promoting this site.

@GirishMallya said...

@bedders Thanks, will bounce it off you when I have something ready.

@urja they have done a decent job. I am hoping to do something which is for the serious runner (someone who is already in it and runs round the year) and aiming to provide a platform for them to interact with likeminded people.