My First Solo Cycling Trip — Bangalore to Goa

It had been a couple of years since I did a tough hike or anything remotely physically straining. I was not feeling fit and needed something to shake me up. I needed something short, intense and fun. My birthday which is in March was a couple of months away and there was an opportunity to do something different this year. That’s when I had this bright idea of cycling to Goa! Yes, Goa is one of my favorite vacation spots and here was an opportunity not only to go to Goa and relax, but also work up towards it!

Palolem (In Goa) — One of my favorite beaches!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palolem_Beach

Palolem, the beach in Goa, which is my usual destination, is about 620 KM from home. Since taking a long vacation was not possible, I had plan my trip around one week vacation from work and the weekends before and after. While the primary purpose was to cycle to Goa, I also wanted to spend a couple of days there if possible. So, if my plan A of “cycling long each day and reaching Goa sooner and spending some days there” did not materialize, I had my plan B, which was to cycle slow, cycle less each day, but reach Goa before the end of my vacation. What this meant was in Plan A I had to cycle an average of 125 KM each day and reach Goa in 5 days, so that I get to spend about 3 days in Goa and return back home by bus or plan B, which is cycle 70 KM each day, reach Goa in 9 days and start back the same day in Bus! One way or the other, I wanted to cycle and I wanted to cycle to Goa.

Getting Fit over 9 Sundays!

While the plan seemed great and I did have a couple of months’ time before my trip, I was not fit. Since my work routine keeps me working late in the night, waking up early and cycling during the week was not possible. Also, since I spend my Saturdays volunteering for an NGO called India Literacy Project, Saturdays was out too and I was only left with 9 Sundays to prepare and a possible long weekend in Jan in-between. Add to this, I had an 11 year old Hercules ACT 107 MTB, which was not ready for long distance cycling and I had to buy a new cycle before my trip. While buying a new cycle was exciting, I didn’t want to invest in one, till I felt ready for cycling long distances. What if I can’t prepare in time? Post March, the summer would be bad (March itself is bad) and then monsoons and my trip would get pushed to October! I would have invested in a new cycle for nothing! There was another incentive for me not to buy a new cycle right now. I knew what I buy will be lighter and better than what I had, so if I practice with a cycle that is harder to ride, then when I buy a cycle that is lighter and faster, I would enjoy it even more.

With all these things running in my head, I started my training on a Sunday in the last week of December 2016. It was my first day of practice and I was cycling after a very long time. Needless to say it was a disaster; I huffed and puffed to cycle 25 KM. I was pretty disappointed with my fitness and was wondering if I will be ready in two months. While during the next two weekends I slowly increased my distance to 50 and 80 KM per day, I used to be completely exhausted at the end of my trip. By the 4th weekend, I tried my first 100 K. While I managed to do the first 50 comfortably, the return journey was painful. I stopped multiple times, cycled at the lowest gear and even contemplated putting the cycle in a luggage auto and coming back home. If it was this tough to cycle 100 KM, then how would I do it day after day for 5 days?

Glycogen to the rescue!

While reading through the internet about preparing for long distance cycling, I learnt about glycogen and how body converts carbs to energy the fastest. If the body got enough carbs regularly, there would be enough energy for the body to not give up, so if we have built the required stamina, then long distance cycling would be easier. I also read that for every one hour of cycling, the human body needs 30 to 50 gm of carbs. Armed with this new information, I was looking forward to my next weekend to put this to test. Before I started my cycling, I had a filling breakfast of cereals, fruits and soy milk. I also packed chapatis (Indian Wheat Bread) and sweet potato (boiled) for my hourly stopovers. Each chapatti provided about 18 gm of carbs, so, I needed two to three chapatis during each break. I took my first break that day after 90 minutes and from then on, stopped every hour to hour and fifteen minutes to eat my 30 gm to 50 gm of carbs. Did that make a difference? Big time! Initially, when I cycled 50 KM, I used to take 3 short breaks and now with this approach, I could cycle 50 KM with just one break in-between. This idea of regular carbs intake was great news and I used it effectively when I cycled to Goa. I continued to cycle 80–100 KM on Sundays for the next 4 weeks. While the distance I covered in a day was comforting, I had not cycled back to back for multiple days, which is what I would have to do during my trip. All I had done till now was cycle on a Sunday and take rest for the next 6 days (except once during the long weekend, when I cycled two days back to back) and that was concerning. But, I was hoping that when I have a better cycle, the effort to cycle 100+ will be easier and I should be able to do this back to back. Looking back, I can see that the best decision I took was to practice on my MTB. Cycling 100 KM on my MTB helped me cycle 150 KM a day on my new cycle, at 50% faster time, and still have enough energy left to cycle 50 KM more if required.

Stretching and Squats — Two important ‘S’ of Cycling!

While the Sunday cycling was good enough for the preparation, there is a very important aspect of long distance cycling or anything long distance, to be injury free and pain free! The worst thing that can happen to you is being injured en route. The second worst thing that can happen is you are struggling to cycle and all your body parts ache. It is just not about reaching the destination, but enjoying the journey. You can only enjoy, when you are injury free and pain free. In general, I am not as flexible as most people and hence generally more injury prone than others, so ensuring that I stretch and be little more flexible than I generally am was very important. Also, as I cycled initially as part of my preparation, I realized that there are a lot of body parts that get stressed and not just my legs. My hips, lower back, neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist and fingers. You don’t realize this when you cycle short distances. So, during week days, since I couldn’t cycle in the mornings, I did manage to stretch at least 4 days a week, focusing on all the parts that get stressed the most.

Also, while stretching helped me stay injury free, to be pain free, I needed to make my legs stronger. Enter Squats. While squats is a great exercise for your legs, it can be bad for your back, if you don’t do it right. So, after enough research on the right way of doing it, I started one fine day with 50 squats. Boy, was it bad! For the next 2–3 days, every time I sat or stood up, it hurt pretty bad. Without losing hope, I started again after 3 days and continued with 50 for the next 4 days. Once I could do 50 easily, I started increasing it by 50 every 2 -3 days. So, went to 100, 150, 200 and finally 250 a day, with each rep of 50 squats. The best part of Squats is that it doesn’t take too much time. a 50 squat rep would typically take a minute or 90 seconds. So, within 15–20 minutes, you can complete a solid workout. I did this 4 days a week, which helped me enjoy my cycling without any form of body ache or injury during the ride.

Buying my cycle!

During the initial part of my training, I did not spend time on researching a new cycle as I did not even want to think about it, till I was fit. Then I got busy with work and too lazy to spend time on research and I kept procrastinating. Just two weeks before the trip, when I could no longer procrastinate further, I started researching. I was clear on buying a hybrid as I wanted something that was light, fast, but still straight handle bar. I was not looking for a road bike as I wanted this to be a both a city commute and touring bike. I was not planning to do off-roading, so I didn’t need a MTB, but since I might be riding on village roads, I needed something more than a road bike, so hybrid it was. While my Initial budget was 30 K, I went way over my budget when I saw and fell in love with Ridley X-Men Tempo, V Brake version. It is a work of art! https://www.ridley-bikes.com/ae/en/bikes/allroad/tempo-x-men/52/tempo-x-men-v-brakes-txm-01am-matte.html. I will write a separate blog about how I zeroed in on Ridley. I ordered my bike 4 days before the D-Day and I received the bike two days before the D-day, just barely giving me a day to try the bike.

My Ridley!! I bought this from Cycling Boutique, Indiranagar Bengaluru

Shopping for the trip!

While during my training, I never wore cycling shorts, I knew it was a must for the trip. 5 to 6 days of back to back cycling for hours can be pretty bad for under thighs and butt! Along with the cycling shorts, I also looked for full sleeves cycling T-shirts. While I had no choice but to buy cycling shorts, I found a good alternative to full arm sports T-shirts. Decathlon was selling arm sleeves that provided the required protection from sun and did not cost much at all. This meant that instead of buying new T-shirts, I could use my half sleeves sports T-shirt and the arm sleeves. That saved some unnecessary spending.

Along with the cycling shorts, I also picked up gloves, which is a must buy. I also considered buying hydration packs, but the hydration bag did not have enough space for my laptop, so I did not buy it. Why am I carrying my laptop?? I will get to that in a minute. So, apart from the gloves and arm sleeves, there was nothing else that I had to buy.

Surprise at work!

While I had no intention of working during this trip, something really important came up at work and it was something that I could not have postponed. I had two options, postpone the trip or work on the trip. I did not want to postpone the trip as March was already so hot, so April and May would have been crazier. If I did not go before June, then Goa shuts down for monsoon and the earliest I could plan was for late September or early October. That was too far off and who knows what is in store at that point in time. In summary, I was determined to make this work. I cut short the number of days that I won’t be in office to 5 days, which effectively gave me 9 days of travel time including two weekends. Also, in those 5 days that I was not in office, I decided to cycle in the mornings, say till 12 noon or 1 PM and then work in the second half. While I knew I could pull this off from a work front, this plan meant that I had to now lug my laptop along with me! When you pack for your cycling trip, a lot of time is spent in figuring out how to pack as light as possible and here I was adding 2 kilos. But, I had no choice and I decided to carry my Laptop along with me with a Reliance Jio hot spot for internet.

Packing, Packing and Packing!

Packing light means resisting the temptation to pack extras! Packing light also means that you are willing to wash clothes every day and don’t mind wearing the same thing day after day:). So this is what I packed in total

1. Two cargo shorts with multiple pockets — One for emergency like torn shorts because of a fall or something and the other that I was planning to wear for 5 days
2. 3 sweat absorbing, light T-shirts
3. Cap for sun cover
4. Helmet
5. Gloves
6. Two extra pairs of socks
7. Glucose
8. Twenty Chapatis with Jam
9. Energy bars rich in carbs as an alternative ( just chapatis would be boring to eat for 5 days)
10. Towel
11. Toiletries
12. Repair kit for cycle — Tube, puncture kit, tools, hand pump
13. Balaclava
14. Goggles
15. Battery pack for my phone charging
16. Laptop bag with my Laptop and its accessories
17. Two bottles on the cycle frame and one bottle on the cycle carrier
18. Surf sachets and soap to wash clothes
19. A long cloth rope (similar to material in skipping rope); for tying the cycle, in case I had to carry it back on a truck or bus.
20. Candies — This is a great energy source as you can keep one in the mouth and slowly release the sugar to the body. Because there is continuous food going into the body, it keeps releasing stored energy in the form of fat

My laptop bag was 2 KG and the Panniers/saddle bag weighed about 8 KG. Well, it was the lightest I could pack given that I did all my shopping and packing just two days before the trip.

D-Day! Surprise from friends!

My out of office days were 27th Feb to 3rd March. So, I got 25th, 26th Feb and 4th and 5th March as weekends. By the time I finished packing on 24th, it was mid night. My plan for getting a good 8 hour sleep did not materialize. I was anyway too excited to sleep early. I slept at 12, woke up at 6, surprisingly fresh and raring to go. As I was getting ready, a car pulled in front of my house. Wondering who it was, I opened the door to see two of my friends Vijay and Kirthana at my door step. Surprise!! They had booked a cab and wanted to drive along with me till Sira, my first day stop over point. This was such a nice gesture and I was overjoyed! Since I was riding alone, they wanted to give me company for the first day. I am pretty sure, beyond company, they wanted to make sure I could indeed cycle and in case I could not, they had my back:). I Got ready, loaded everything onto myself and my cycle and I was all set to start by 8 AM. This was the plan I had.

“End point 1” was the bare minimum I had to cycle every day and “End point 2” was the best effort. This way, I would either take 5 days or 6 days to reach Goa.

Since I had to work from Monday, the 27th, I wanted to maximize my weekend, if I had the energy that is. So, even though I had two options for ending a day, my goal was always end point 2.

Day 1– Bengaluru to Sira

Though my initial plan was to start by 6 AM, I started only by 8 AM as I slept late and woke up only by 6. I took the outer ring road from my home in Kalyana nagar to Hebbal, Gorguntepalya and then Tumakuru road. Having been used to riding my 20 Kilo Hybrid and the effort it takes to climb elevation, I was pleasantly surprised with the effortless ride on my Ridley. It was so easy to cycle at 30–35 KMPH. On even slightly downward inclined roads, I could quickly reach 45–50 KMPH. Felt awesome overtaking motor bikes, other cyclists and all other vehicles going less than 40 KMPH:). Vijay and Kirthana followed me for some distance and after that drove 20–30 KM ahead and stopped till I overtook them.

From the time the elevated road was built on Tumakuru road from Gorguntepalya, I had never taken the road below, so was not aware of the traffic or the number of traffic lights. Since the elevated road is a two lane road on each side and vehicles move quick fast on that road, I thought it was better for me to take the road below and it was not a good decision. The traffic was bad and there were too many traffic lights that completely slowed me down. From a safety perspective too, it was not any better. But despite that, I was comfortably averaging 27+ KMPH. This was the fastest I had cycled before. On my hybrid, over long distances (like 100 KM), my typical average used to be 18 KMPH. Ridley felt so light in comparison that it took me a couple of hours to get comfortable and not feel like I would fall off, when I got up from the saddle and peddle.

My first short break was at Nelamangala. After that the next break was planned close to the toll on the Tumakuru side, where there is a Kamat. We had a quick breakfast at Kamat.

Since I was not tired and could cycle a lot longer, I decided to reach Sira, which was my best case plan. Also, since it was still 10.30 AM in the morning and I had already covered 60 KM, I could easily reach Sira for lunch. I had 70 KM more and with breaks I thought I could reach Sira by 1 PM. It was not as easy as I thought. Once I crossed Tumakuru, there was a lot of head wind, which completely slowed my cycling speed. I was pushing my way through the wind and fatigue started to set in. Instead of one short break, I took two and finally reached Sira around 2 PM. Vijay and Kirthana who had reached before me, had already booked a room for me. Once I reached and freshened up, we had lunch, spent some time talking and it was time for them to head back to Bengaluru.

After seeing them off, I came back to my room, washed my clothes, watched a bit of TV, had an early dinner, talked to folks at home and hit the bed by 10 PM.

Day 2 — Sira to Davanagere

Plan was to wake up by 5, but woke by 6:). Thanks to summer, clothes that I had washed previous evening were crisp and dry. Luckily I did not have any body ache and was feeling fit and fine, except for a bit of butt sore, courtesy sitting on the saddle for 6 hours previous day. Packing and loading stuff on to my cycle typically required 20–30 minutes. My breakfast all 5 days was 4 Idlies (South India Rice cake) . Irrespective of how hungry I was, I made sure I ate that, so that I had the required amount of carbs to kick start my day. After a good breakfast, I started from Sira at 7:45 AM.

Even though I have driven to Goa in my car multiple times, I had never noticed the number of flyovers between Bengaluru and Goa. Since this was a highway, which crossed multiple villages and towns, to ensure uninterrupted fast commute, there was a flyover built every 1 to 1.5 KM. These flyovers provided the required exists on the highway. You don’t notice elevations on the road when you are on the motor bike or car, but when you are on a cycle, every small elevation is obvious. I might have climbed between 150–200 Flyovers from Bengaluru to Goa.

When I reached Chitradurga, 90 KMs from Sira it was still 12 noon. My initial plan was to stay here and visit the fort. But since I had reached early and I had a lot of time at hand, I was contemplating cycling further. Starting Monday, I anyway had to work and would not have been able to cycle the whole day, so it was best if I could maximize my time that day. I checked the map and Davanagere was 60 KM from Chitradurga, The only question was, do I have the energy to cycle till Davanagere? There was no place to stay between Chitradurga and Davanagere. I started calling hotels in Davanagere based on results that showed up in google. If you managed to read this far, I know what you are thinking! Did I not book all my hotels before I started? The answer as you might have guessed already is a big no. The reason for that is that I was not sure of how much I would ride each day. Since I don’t know where I would reach on a given day, there was no way to booking hotels upfront. I had to take each day as it comes and I was even mentally prepared to sleeping in a school in a given location, if I could not find a hotel. So, the only preparation I did was to google and make sure there are hotels in a given town, however small or bad. So, depending on where I reached on a given day, I would look for hotels in that area.

When I started calling hotels in Davanagere, I learnt an interesting challenge. Hotels don’t allow cycles inside the room! Their problem was cleanliness and my problem was safety. I was not prepared to park my cycle in the basement or in front of the hotel. Even after I told the hotel guys that I would clean the tires and carry the cycle to my room, people declined. So, now, the most important criteria for me to pick a hotel were not just price or quality, but their willingness to allow my cycle inside the room. I called my friend Deepak, who started checking out hotels in Davanagere and both of us started calling different hotels. After trying a couple of different hotels, Deepak managed to find a place called Anand residency (https://www.tripadvisor.in/Hotel_Review-g2531360-d6015401-Reviews-Anand_Residency-Davangere_Davanagere_District_Karnataka.html) that allowed me to take my cycle inside the room. Deepak also suggested Mysore café for lunch, which was 10 KM away from Chitradurga on the way to Davanagere. So, my next stop was at Mysore Café at 2 PM. Had an awesome lunch, relaxed for some time and started again by around 3 PM. There were lots of admirers for my cycle at the hotel. Everyone was inquisitive to know, where I was from, where I was going, if this was a race, would I get a prize at the end of the trip, and if not, why was I doing this and most importantly, why on earth was I riding alone instead of a group:). This was not just at the hotel, but these questions followed me throughout my trip. People on Bikes, tempos on the highway would slow down and ask me these questions.

Around 4PM, I had already covered about 25+ KM from Mysore café and my cycle, all of a sudden, started wobbling! Darn! I had my first flat tire on this trip. While a flat tire was not what I wanted, here was a chance to try my hand at fixing the flat tire for the first time. Patting my back for having carried the puncture kit, I was about to remove the tire when I realized that I don’t have a bowl and water to check where the puncture was, duh! As I was thinking about what to do next, I quickly made a mental note to carry a low depth plastic bowl for my future trips. As I was deciding to walk ahead or behind in search of a cycle shop, I remembered seeing a shop, which looked like a place that fixes flat tires a km or so before. So, I started to walk back, pushing my cycle to this shop. When I reached the shop and I checked with the guy there, he said, he does not fix cycle tires, but only motor vehicles. I anyway only needed water, so I asked him if I could use the pan of water and fix it myself to which he agreed. Thanks to quick release wheels in these cycles, it was easy to take the wheel out and remove the tube. Once the shop guy saw that it was easy to remove the wheel and the tube, he decided to help and he took over from there. After thanking him and taking a few selfies with him and others who had gathered around to see my cycle, I continued my journey.

Day 3 — Davangere to Bankapura

Since this was a week day and I had to start working, I only had half a day to cycle. I started around 8AM after breakfast and cycled to Bankapura, which is 100KM away in 4.5 hours with 3 short carbs breaks. I had already booked a place based on the contact given by the hotel in Davanagere. This place is called Panchavati and I was pleasantly surprised with the hotel. It was another big, awesome, friendly, helpful, value for money place. Both Anand Residency and Panchavati feels like a 3 K to 3.5 K INR type of rooms, but both were sub 1 K INR. After reaching there at 12:30 PM quickly freshened up and started working. By evening, I had a small niggle on my hip and I wanted a hot pack, the hotel staff were super helpful. One of them took me on his bike and roamed all the medical stores in Bankapura. Since I did not find the hot pack, I just took a pain killer and slept by 10 PM as usual and was up again by 6 the next day.

Day 4 — Bankapura to Yellapura

My initial plan for Day 4 was to reach a resort called Shri Sai resort, which was 30 KM from Yellapura. So, Yellapura was 70 KM from Bankapura and the resort was 30 KM further down, effectively 100 KM. But this 100 KM would have been through Ghat section. There were multiple options to go to Yellapura. When I went by car, I always drove to Hubli toll and took the Hubli-Karwar road. If I cycled that route, it would add another 40 KM to my trip, so I wanted to take a shorter route which goes via Mundgod. I checked around with people and everyone suggested that to be the better route. Also, the road was good, except for a small stretch.

I started from Panchavati hotel by around 7 AM. While the first 10 KM was uneventful, I start feeling that I was putting in more effort to cycle as compared to the previous 3 days. Initially I thought it was because of the head wind. When the head wind subsided and I was still struggling, I thought, it was probably because of fatigue. A third possibility was the tire rubbing against the breaks. Since I had removed the tire two days back to fix the flat tire, I might not have put the tire back properly.

I stopped, removed the tire and put it back again, but the effort was similar. After some distance, I removed it again and tried, but no luck. The problem became unbearable once I started climbing uphill. I moved to really low gears and yet I was struggling! I was exhausted. The combined effort of last three days was similar to the effort for the first 40 KM this day. I then checked the front tire, didn’t see anything wrong. So, finally, I removed the rear brakes completely and tried. I was no longer sure if it improved or not as I was exhausted, dehydrated and at the verge of giving up. I was in the middle of nowhere and I had no choice but to reach Yellapura. So, taking multiple breaks, I cycled my way to Yellapura. It took me close to 6 hours to cover this 70 KM stretch. Compare this to 150 KM I did on day 2 in the same time. I was tired and hungry by the time I reached Yellapura. I quickly had lunch, which gave me the energy to think of next steps. I still had 30 KM to ride to reach my resort and I was yet to call that place and check if there was a room available. I called the resort to see if I can book a room and to my bad luck, the resort was closed and I had no option but to stay in Yellapura. Got a not so good room in Yellapura, lied down for a couple of hours and then worked for a bit. I tried to see what was wrong with my cycle, but couldn’t find anything. I thought the problem was my fatigue and left it at that. Had dinner and slept, hoping for a better day tomorrow. Since I did not cycle much on day 4, I had to make up for it on day 5. I had 140 KM to cover on day 5.

Day 5 — Yellapura to Palolem

I got to know from folks at Yellapura that I was at the top of the hill and so I would get a good 20 KM of downhill now. Excited at the prospect of riding fast, riding easy and making up for lost time, I started around 7:30 am from the hotel. Things were not as rosy as I thought. I still faced the same issue with my cycle. Even on downhill, it was not going beyond 25 KMPH. I stopped again and now took a close look at the front wheel as I had done enough for the rear wheel. There it was!!! The front wheel was indeed rubbing against the break. When I lift the tire and rotate it, it was not obvious, but the moment I put weight on it, the rubbing was very obvious. I felt like a moron. How could I have missed this? It was troubleshooting 101! Feeling lousy and happy at the same time, I loosened my front break a bit. My cycle was back to its original self:). I was now able to touch 50 KMPH even without pedaling because of downhill. I thoroughly enjoyed the 20 KM ride. Once I reached the bottom, I had to ride another 50 KM in the Ghat section, which had a combination of uphill, level roads and downhill but it was like the first 3 days. I was able to cycle comfortably at 25+ KMPH average.

By around 12:30, I saw the Karnataka –Goa border. I was just another 30 KM away from my final destination. I thought the last stretch would be a piece of cake as it was coastal area and I expected it to be a level road. Was I wrong! From Goa border to Palolem, I had to climb a lot of uphill. Since it was the last stretch and I was excited to complete my ride, I was riding pretty fast. I exhausted all my energy in the last stretch and finally reached Palolem around 2 in the afternoon. This was it! It felt great to have completed this ride. Felt even awesome to have managed to do it, without compromising my work, which meant lugging my laptop on my back. I reached on March 1st, which meant, I had 3 days in Goa before I head back and I would be on the beach on my birthday.

As I looked back, I knew that if I had full days to cycle, I could easily do this trip in 4 days. I was also sure that people, who were more fit than me, could probably do it in 3 days too.

Bye Bye Goa! Returning back

I had no choice but to return by bus as cycling back would mean more vacation, which was not possible. I read online that KSRTC bus had enough luggage space to carry the cycle. I tried calling the KSRTC depot and they did confirm that they will allow the cycle. So, I went 30 mins before my boarding time to the bus stand on Sunday, bought a bunch of bubble wrap and wrapped my cycle completely to prevent any damage during transport. When the bus arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of space in the luggage area. My cycle could actually fit there vertically. I kept the cycle close to a separator in the luggage compartment, tied the cycle to the separator with the big nylon rope I had carried with me, ensured that the cycle was secured tightly before boarding.

This was it! I was heading back after one of the most exciting experiences of my life. It was an amazing experience to ride from Bengaluru to Goa which at hindsight I believe, one can can attempt even with little practice. Since most of the cycling is on the highway, there are enough places to eat and rest. Also, since there are many towns on the way, hotel accommodation is not an issue.

My inspiration has been all those cyclists in Bengaluru who do Brevets. Their unbelievable energy is awe inspiring. While what I did was not a brevet, If you have read through this much, I hope this has inspired some of you to wipe the dust of your cycle, pick the next 9 weekends and get set for your long cycling trip!

PS

Is riding alone boring?

Riding alone is one of the best things you can do to yourself. Since I am introvert, I thrive on ‘Me time” and this was the best ‘me time’ I could get. With so much time, a lot of ideas flow in your head. I crystallized many ideas for both at work and at ILP. It is time with yourself to think, contemplate, ideate and relax

Not inspired enough? — Here are some stats for the calorie conscious

Over the 5 days, I burnt about 18,000 calories. Beyond improving fitness, I lost 2.5 kilos in just 5 days. Here is a quick fix solution to lose 2–3 kilos in 5 days