Pedaling the resgination blues, Circa 2019 - Cycling to Ooty at 2000+m in elevation gain.
I resigned from Zoho in 2019, and it has been a roller coaster since then. I jumped careers like a rabbit, break years, fitness detoriated like hell and I did hit 100+KGs. Though I did cycling explorations like (Tour De Delta - 2021 & Grand Southern Tamilnadu Ride - 2023), nothing gave me that rush as the Tour De Tirupathi of 2019.
I was all coasting and there was nothing to push myself against.
It was better late than never and had no other chance but to loose myself in KGs. As always it all with the support of the loving family & friends. This blog, as always an photo heavy (Plog?!) would tell in details how I ran, cycled out of my blues and would give you some hope to pedal yours. So prep yourselves and ride along.
The last workout I did was around Spetember 2023 and it was an year long break from it. Health has detoriated, and I started small. This time my aim for 2024 was to climb Ooty, I laid out a solid plan and my friends we around in Coimbatore that time so we hoped all in for this training. Initally I started calorie deficiting, losing about 6KGs in a month with 0 very light cycling. Once that milestone was reached I slowly started increasing the mileage, this time I wanted to run and life weights. So we joined a gym and signed up for Coimbatore Marathon for 5KMs. In my life time all I had run was an 400m during the PT period during school days. We laid out a solid plan, 2 days of running, 2 days of cycling, 2 days of gym (especially weight training) with 1 rest day. All thanks to Instagram reels found various athelets and training techniques.
For climbing to Ooty , this was the plan, we continue this rigor schedule, have milestone of climbing to Conoor - M1 & Ooty was eventually M2. I have earlier climbed till Burliyar which was very tough an year back. Weeks into this schedule we saw tremendous improvements, running at max HR slowly decresaed with ease, cycling was at Zone 2 for 30KMs at a stretch and even steeps seemed easy.
To complete M1, I started slow to Conoor on November 9th 2024, used the lower gear on front after long, I was riding at 22 & 21 at times, the more I climbed, the more stronger I became. I started out late for this ride around 6.30AM from the house, to my luck the Aapam Paati at Barliyar was still making piping hot aapam’s with 3 Chutneys and Kadala curry, had a hefy BF with omlettes and started the ascent.
Cycle’s have the lowest turning radius and it was fun to do so. The ususal thumbsups gave energy to go further.
I took glucose and ORS packets with me which helped a lot.
On touching the Kattery park the views changed, opening upto valley below. Pedaling further 2KMs, Conoor welcomed with a vigorous falls and I was all happy. As “Boards Person” this was a mandatory picture. You will later know how OCD’ed I’m(We are) into this. 😂
The ride ended with mandatory visit to Indian Bakery. The downhill was a disaster, the brakes failed eventhough being mechanical disc, the pads got heated. The brakes closed full and I was slowly descending.
Uphill seemed easy at times doing this.
I called my friends to the foothills to pick me up in car as uphill was all that I wanted.
Near our house we had Thandigai Hills as our Calibration Ground, it was 300m uphill to a perumal temple but the gradient was steep. Into the weeks, I saw effortless climbing of this CG.
There was euphoria to rejoice at the gates of the temple.
The shirts that were years old fitted perfectly, with 2 days of gym ChatGPT told me I adding muscle mass and loosing belly fat and I was happy.
Yeah, we became parents to our lovely boy Revanth
Before Ooty, there came our Coimbatore Marathon for 5KMs and oh boy did we breeze it!
It was all with the boys at the end of the day with tea & tea & tea & tea & tea…!
Fianlly, the day did come for my Ooty climb on the boxing day(26th December 2024). Having researched all about the elevation and distance it was about 2000+m in EG and 70KMs of ride from my home with 40KMs of climb. I knew Conoor was the task and from Conoor to Ooty would be easy.
The night before was calm, relaxed for my D-Day, I packed in glucose, ORS, powerbanks.
Starting by 4.30AM from home, my friend Kattu accompanies me till Mettupaliyam where we had some refreshing tea for the cold. Tea was fantastic and we did buy some raw tea from the bakery.
Dwelling into the taste of the tea, kattu forgot to wear the helmet on his way back home 😂
I stopped at the checkpost for the sun to rise and refuelled my water bottles with kind help from poilce officers at the CP.
There are elephants, bisons roaming in the Nilgiris.
I started around 6.30AM from the checkpost and started climbing from the first bend around 6.45AM. The climb was easy, I was pedaling at an increased speed from my Conoor ride.
This time the gears were 2 * 4, I could pedal easily with tough gears, throuhout the ride I stuck to this gear ratio and boy I was proud of myself.
I reached Burliyar around 8AM to find that Aapa kadai was closed and went to an nearby hotel Annapoorna, had some piping hot uthapams with sambar, this was the last good meal of the day. After stretching and walking for a bit found that Aapa kadai was opened by 8.30AM.
Sometimes early bird doesnt catch the Aapam’s buddy !
With such energy, pedaled my way further.
One thing in hills is, it is better to split your entire trip into milestones to make you happy. For me to Ooty it was Burliyar, Katteri, Conoor, Ooty.
Reached Conoor around 11.30AM and there was the holiday traffic near the bus stand where I cruised pass buses and bikes 😂 with some walking.
The mandatory Indian bakery brunch was done with Varki, plum cake for the season and coconut balls.
My frame bag was full so I gave some of the items to IB receptionist and started climbing. The gradient was easy from Conoor, I used my glucose only once and none of the ORS packets.
As the climbs were easy, switched gears to 1 * 7 and even 1 * 8
It was inhabitants after Conoor and carrot stalls started emerging. So after 10KMs of cycling, the board emerged.
It was all emotional and I was crying, I wanted to hug my friends who were all along the way after seeing this board. There were no thoughts, It was complete BLISS. Having powerbank I resorted to listening to music on phone speaker and as Lukas Graham’s 7Years was playing, it was all emotional.
I wanted a photo with me in the frame, to my luck a couple stopped their bikes for the same.
Pedaling through the emotions, I planned futher for 2KMs to find another board, see I told we were a bunch of board guys. I waited for around 15minutes for someone to take a picture of me, and all thanks to a gentleman.\
For me the board was enough, hear it in Niki Lauda’s voice !
I Started my descent the gradient being small, was humming all the way around 7 years, bought some fresh carrots with leaves and reached Conoor.
Then started the scary part, I was not sure of making till foothills fearing the sunset, but I wanted to be in control, so pushed myself from Conoor. Before that bought some Varki, coocnut balls & plum cake from Indian bakery, packed in my backpack.
The brakes started to fail early on, learning from the earlier ride, I didn’t fully apply the brakes, braked intermitently with just 50% load. Even though front brakes failed compltetly, I was just surviving with rear for some time. Rain started pouring in & mist seaped through. It was hell, i stopped for some tea, had good conversation with an athelte student running tea shop.
For the rest of the downhill, used my legs to slow the bike and even started to walk with the cycle. Walking gave the fear of elephants and cycling gave the fear of an accident.
I asked Kattu to come to Burliyar to pickup as it became pitch dark, when I reached the car, Strava showed my 98.5KMs tracked, then came out our monsters , we looped for about 1.5KMs just to complete the 100KMs mix of both uphill and downhill 😂 The ride was compelted at 7.15PM.
We ate Varkis along the ride ahead, got back helmet and rode home.
Health is everything, Discipline is everything.
If a boy who stopped 4 times to complete a 400m jog, goes onto climb Ooty, run 5K, why not you…!
Life is a Pandora’s Box, full of surprises. Push yourselves to become the best of you.
On & upwards towards the next targets of 2025 to climb major hills in Tamilnadu & Run a Half Marathon at Chennai or Coimbatore.
And before closing, I want to thank Walkaroo for their wonderful shoes, I have being using their mere 800Rs walking shoe for cycling around 5000KMs. Man, what a quality and comfort. Justt go for it.
After my ride and becoming a local legend on Kallar - Conoor route, found out that Sebin ran the same distance faster than me ! Man, Body is the limit.
To more struggles, climbs and adventures futher. 🖖 Run, Ride, lift weights.
And yeah,
The hardest climbs have the best view.
Fin.
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