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Training days

So how did you train for the Mumbai Marathon? Did you train right? An expert offers a quick ready reckoner.
by Deepak Rawat, fitness training manager, Fitness First, clocked in 4 hours 45 minutes in the full marathon, 2012.

Part II of the ‘Mumbai Marathon’ Diaries

Exercise programmes for people participating in marathon runs are designed based on their current fitness levels. Cardiovascular exercises are given more importance as an exercise modality. For a marathon, long distance and interval cardio training are the main features of the exercise programme. However, one must not focus only on cardio but also do endurance training. Single leg, core and bend-to-extend pattern are the main focus areas in muscular endurance training.

On a weekly basis, I advocate a run that takes you to a distance of 30 to 40 kilometres. You can slowly extend this while running and take it up to even 70 km.

I have noticed that some people have the tendency to over-train for events like marathons. Over training can lead to injury, and cause other surprising issues like appetite loss, irritable behaviour and a drop in performance. As soon as this is noticed by trainers, he/she should point it out to the runner immediately.

Those who should not train for the Marathon are people with a higher BMI or with existing health concerns. I have had to tell people not to train for the run owing to physical constraints on their part. We also advise people to rest well during training, but resting times depend on the person’s age and current fitness level.

Besides this, all runners should bear in mind that the knees and ankles are the most prone areas for injury, so they should train carefully. Plus, ensure that you keep yourself well hydrated, and consume up to six litres of water every day while training.

Lastly, during your training and on the day of the race, wear running shorts, a comfortable vest (dri-fit), and running shoes with adequate cushioning based on the arch of your foot.

Diaries is a series of stories on one theme. The Mumbai Marathon diaries aim to lay the ground for the actual event on Sunday, January 20, 2013. Watch out for Part III tomorrow, where a participant tells us about achieving his fitness goals through the Marathon.

 

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Eat right, run better

A nutritionist explains what a marathoner’s diet just days before the race should be. Plus, diet tips for Marathon runners.
Part I of the ‘Mumbai Marathon’ diaries

Ritesh Shaiwal is fitness manager and nutritionist at Fitness First, Mumbai. He has been consulting on nutrition and training for the last five years, and on a year-to-year basis, he has counselled close to 25 runners. Of these, four are participating in the Mumbai Marathon on January 20, 2013.

If you’re participating in the Marathon this Sunday, Ritesh’s tips on eating and drinking right will hold you in good stead.

What your diet should comprise of:

The diet for someone running the Full Marathon would be completely different from that of a Half Marathon runner. The percentage of complex carbohydrates in the diet of a Full Marathon participant would be at least 30 per cent higher than that of a Half Marathon runner, as he/she would require more energy to complete a 42 kilometre run. The diet for both categories would change every four to six weeks if one has to design a one-month nutrition plan. Complex carbs would increase by five to eight per cent every week, with not too many changes in the percentage of protein and fat consumed.

What to eat while training:

Primarily, the foods that are good to go are whole wheat bread, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, vegetables and salads as mid-meals, plus for dinner, along with a dry fruit meal, peanut butter plus chicken/fish/mutton/tofu/soy will get you all the protein nutrition you require. And last but not the least, a regular intake of fruit will help pace your run as well as your training routine.

What to eat till the race:

The diet, say one week before the race, would be: Carbs (50 per cent), Protein (35 per cent) and Fat (15 per cent) where one should consume complex carbs for breakfast and lunch. A week before the run, one should change the carbohydrates percentage from 50 per cent to 60 per cent, and include complex carbs for dinner. A night before the race, have a good heavy complex carb meal of pasta and chicken because you need the energy for the race the next day.

On race day:

On the morning of the race, two bananas with a slice of peanut butter sandwich does the trick for me. During the race, ensure that you have Electral or Gatorade, as your body requires the nutrition to sustain a long run. Post the race, you can go back to a normal, balanced diet.

Opt for these slow energy foods:

Slow energy foods are basically complex carbohydrates. The best sources for these are oats, whole wheat bread, brown rice, whole wheat grain roti and whole wheat pasta. Whole wheat pasta is my personal favourite complex carb, along with chicken, on the night before the race.

Avoid:

Aerated drinks and chocolates while you are training, as also chips and cookies. These are high in unsaturated fat.

The deal with energy drinks:

Energy drinks are great while training and during the run, as they contain simple carbohydrates which provide instant energy to the body, as compared to complex carbs. So having an energy drink while training or running is important so that your body does not go into starvation mode and gets instant energy. But be sure to only sip on the drink, don’t gulp it in large quantities.

Hydration on the go:

Hydration is key when you are running a long distance. For every kilometre or 1.5 km, one should sip about 100 ml of water, so that your energy levels are up and about. Once you are in the run for, say 45 minutes to 60 minutes, energy drinks should be introduced as a part of the hydration programme, apart from water. Keep sipping while you are on the run – don’t stop to sip as it will affect your timing.

Diaries is a series of stories on one theme. The Mumbai Marathon diaries aim to lay the ground for the actual event on Sunday, January 20, 2013. Watch out for Part II tomorrow, where we speak with a trainer on exercising for the Marathon. 

(Featured image tumblr.com) 

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Celebration of the year

Nothing celebrates Mumbai like cinema can. The Bollywood Art Project does just that, with an emphasis on community visual art.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Concluding part of the Yearender Diaries

You can’t really divorce Mumbai from its film industry. It’s like one is a function of the other, inviting every person for a tantalising glimpse of the fabled world that is a remote as it is seemingly within grasp. And whatever the degree of trouble we’re in, or whatever the level of our happiness, we are diverted fully by the escapism of Bollywood. Heck, sometimes we’re even totally divorced from our own realities by those in Hindi films.

So what better way to celebrate the city than to celebrate Bollywood?

That’s how the Bollywood Art Project (BAP) was born.

Started this year by artist Ranjit Dahiya (read up on him here), the BAP is “a social community project which aims to remind, recognise and exhibit Bollywood in various art forms.” Speaking to The Metrognome, Ranjit said, “I came to Mumbai in 2008 and started living here and working with a website. I was always in awe of Bollywood, and I loved the brand of escapism our films provided – only in our films could you find a hero who would still be alive after being shot five times!”

Ranjit was invited to Paris in 2009 as part of a cultural fest, in which the Hindi film industry was to be honoured. Later, he had a Bollywood showing in another French city. “This made me understand the impact that our films have even on people outside India, because at both places, there was a lot of interest and knowledge about Hindi films and its actors and directors. When I returned home, I felt that we should celebrate Bollywood in Mumbai before we take it to the world,” recalls Ranjit.

The idea for this celebration came only this year. “Since the film industry celebrates 100 years of cinema next year, I decided to do something to contribute to the celebration in my own way,” Ranjit says. The specific idea for this, however, came after the death of yesteryear superstar Rajesh Khanna in July this year, when Ranjit painted a full wall depicting Khanna in all his glory, at Bandstand, Bandra (see pic on left). “It was well-received, and several people remarked that nobody was painting film posters any more,” he muses. “The city lacks the sort of visual art culture that it rightly deserves. Apart from The Wall Project, there is not much happening in terms of visual art anywhere in Mumbai. Besides, there is an instant connect between the city and popular faces in cinema. And when I paint on walls in public spaces, the area comes alive.”

The BAP aims to create visual spaces for people to come and glimpse popular moments and people in Hindi cinema, and hopefully, offer a few minutes of nostalgia as well. “The only film-related landmarks in the city are stars’ homes and film studios, and the general public can’t access both. So the BAP aims to make cinema instantly accessible to the people, and to promote a culture of discussion about cinema on the streets. It’s a community project, so everybody’s invited to come take a look and participate,” Ranjit says. “When I had finished painting Anarkali (featuring Beena Rai and Pradeep Kumar), a Muslim woman stood staring at the painting and whispered, ‘Mashallah! Yeh aapne banaya? (Did you make this?)’ It feels great to have people stop and watch, it adds a whole new vibe to an area,” he says.

For know the latest work under BAP and to sponsor the project, check out www.facebook.com/BollywoodArtProject.

(Pictures courtesy Ranjit Dahiya. Featured image by The Metrognome)

‘Diaries’ is a series of stories on one theme. The Yearender Diaries seek to capture the most telling moments, happenings and people in the city this year.

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Trend of the year

Moving from armchair activism to armchair argumentativeness, we bared our souls on social networks, and hit back hard in disagreement.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Part 10 of our Yearender Diaries

They say a society unites in times of collective crises. That crises struck us, again and again this year, and in several different forms, was a fact nobody could have missed even if they wished to. Corruption. Scams arising out of corruption. Dismaying crimes. Absurd arrests. Several freedoms curbed repeatedly. Apathy from the authorities in the face of demonstration. Forced imprisonment inside our homes as somebody’s funeral cortege passed through the city. Women being murdered inside their homes by building security men, or by men they knew.

And we protested in the best way we possibly could. We logged on to Twitter and Facebook.

We’ve been so good at protesting online, that we’ve actually assumed an entirely new social role on the Internet – we have a reputation on Twitter and Facebook, and we work really hard to cultivate that reputation and keep it consistent. If we’re a weepy kind of soul, we tell everybody on our friends list about our latest heartbreak (even if it’s a cooking disaster in the kitchen). If we’re the demonstrative kinds, we put up pictures of everything happening in our lives. If we’re the ‘keen, media professional types’, we demand that others put up pictures of everything happening in their lives, as proof that it happened at all.

And out of this last, arose the Trend Of The Year – general argumentativeness over social networks.

This was also the Year of Short Tempered Sniping. The moment somebody said something even remotely sensational or contrary, there were 99 people vehemently disagreeing with that person or calling him/her an ass, and one person demanding a Twitpic or it didn’t happen (this ‘How many snipers does it take to pull down a Tweeter?’ joke tells itself). If a stand up comic made a joke out a situation that saddened everyone else, everybody united to call that stand up comic a joke on humankind. If a celebrity died, everybody was supposed to say ‘RIP’, not ‘I’m so glad he’s finally dead.’ Any behaviour not adhering to these norms was swiftly censured and publicly humiliated.

It’s like we’ve forgotten the time when we weren’t so combative. When we actually took the time to understand a contrary point of view and have a healthy discussion about it. When we, even when we wondered if somebody was telling the truth, gave them the benefit of doubt and gossiped only amongst our friends. When we didn’t butt into conversations two other people were having, only to either say one or the other party was being really funny, or being an idiot. When we still had some manners and didn’t count the general mood of society through the number of ‘Likes’ on a page, or the numbers of Retweets. This year, we challenged others’ opinions with impunity, staunchly defended our own and demanded that others agree with us as well, besides ganging up against those whose words or actions did not fall in line with ours.

This year, we shot down the message, the messenger and everybody else in the vicinity. Then we sat back in our armchairs and felt morally superior, because we’d actually gone out there and ‘done’ something.

(Picture courtesy theaggressor.blogspot.com)

‘Diaries’ is a series of stories on one theme. The Yearender Diaries seek to capture the most telling moments, happenings and people in the city this year. Look out for Celebration of the Year tomorrow.

 

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Controversy of the year

Vasant Dhoble played Bad Cop to the hilt this year, riling Mumbai citizens but gaining popularity with the anti-pub brigade.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Part 9 of the Yearender Diaries

As policing went, this was a strange year for Mumbai. Crimes against women went through the roof in 2012, but while the police showed ineptitude in preventing these crimes, there were a few notable and quick arrests within days of most of these crimes occurring. Similarly, the police had some success in nabbing certain chain-snatching gangs, house-breaking units, Nigerian drug peddlers, and Bangladeshi immigrants living in Mumbai without valid paperwork.

On the other hand, there was Vasant Dhoble.

Dhoble (57), heading the Social Service Branch (SSB) of the Mumbai Police, made a terrific noise this year, armed with his ‘special’ brand of discipline using a hockey stick and video cameras. He conducted raids at several city hotspots this year, Cafe Zoe and Shiro being the most notable examples, while also allegedly attacking the manager of Amar Juice Centre at Juhu with a hockey stick for conducting his business after midnight.

As far as logic went, Dhoble’s was simple – “We are only enforcing the law. We have not told anybody not to enjoy the nightlife. But nobody, citizens or establishment owners, must break the law,” he said, when we spoke to him earlier this year. “And if I am to be blamed for enforcing archaic laws, what can I do? As a member of the police force, I have to lay down the laws that are framed, I cannot change the laws on my own.”

So the city’s popular night spots witnessed raids on grounds of playing loud music and disturbing the peace, DJs playing music without the licence to do so, establishments admitting more patrons than allowed to, patrons consuming alcohol without valid liquor permits, and so on. On some occasions, patrons were rounded up for questioning, and in one case, two women who were rounded up with several others after a Dhoble raid, later pressed charges for defamation. “The women were soliciting customers at the bar,” Dhoble said, even as protests erupted about the women being wrongly detained and defamed as being prostitutes.

The cop’s seemingly high moral compass – he famously said early this year that it was the police’s job to protect the young from corrupt influences such as drink and drugs – would even have been grudgingly appreciated save for the glaring blemishes on Dhoble’s career. He was suspended from service in 1989 for accepting a bribe while on a posting in Pune. Five years later, his role in a custodial death landed him with seven years in prison and a Rs 1,00,000 fine, but he got away without serving the jail sentence. Dismissed from the force that year, he was reinstated two years later. A few months later, he was also accused of being lax with an important file related with a Dawood Ibrahim investigation.

Most officers in the police force did not agree with Dhoble’s methods, especially the hockey stick he carried on most raids. When asked why he kept a hockey stick in his office, he shrugged and said, “I like to play hockey.” However, then Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik was a staunch supporter of Dhoble, who is also said to be extremely well-connected in political circles. Which was why, despite Mumbai outraging over every successive Dhoble raid, there was no reactive response from the Police or the State Government.

Before the city woke up to the cop’s antics in earnest, Dhoble even gave a few interviews in which he spoke against the youth adopting lifestyles that were against Indian culture, wearing clothes that demeaned their parents and took up habits that corrupted society, and that he would not allow the young to be “influenced” and that they must be “saved”. However, following the backlash to these comments, he quickly adopted a man-of-few-words stance, replying to reporters’ questions in practiced one-liners, not revealing details of raids conducted, and explaining in detail only the laws and sections of the law that he and his team tried to uphold.

Even as protests against him grew, especially on social media, there emerged an equally strong lobby for Dhoble. This largely comprised members of housing associations that have been campaigning for years against the nuisance caused by pubs and bars in residential areas of the city.

Then Patnaik was shunted out following the Azad Maidan riot this year, and the new Police Commissioner, Dr Satyapal Singh, wasted no time in getting Dhoble out of his SSB posting. Dhoble is now ACP of the Vakola Division.

(Picture courtesy mid-day.c0m)

‘Diaries’ is a series of stories on one theme. The Yearender Diaries seek to capture the most telling moments, happenings and people in the city this year. Look out for Trend of the Year tomorrow.

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Heartbreak of the year

Sachin Tendulkar retired from ODI cricket. And the big hole he leaves behind proves that in cricket, Sach is life.
by Vrushali Lad | vrushali@themetrognome.in

Part 8 of the Yearender Diaries

I was not a cricket fan when Sachin Tendulkar started playing international one day cricket. I wasn’t even in the country when he first started receiving a respectable amount of newspaper coverage – we stayed in the Middle East and my parents would read about his exploits in the day’s Maharashtra Times that would arrive on our doorstep later that afternoon. My early impressions of the diminutive, curly-haired boy were ‘Okay, so he plays a bit of cricket, doesn’t everybody?’

We returned to India for good after the Gulf War broke out in 1989, and I began watching cricket when cable TV was installed in my house and the general hysteria over cricket in the country got to me as well. From being somebody who played a bit of cricket to somebody who got cuter the more you saw him and who batted like a dream and actually kept you interested the entire time he was on the field, Sachin Tendulkar absolutely did it for me. I was completely and absolutely in love with Sachin Tendulkar, and as the years passed and his form plummeted, then peaked, as he took long injury layoffs and came back and played with even greater genius, my love for him only deepened. It’s like never forgetting your first love, especially if that first love continues to reside in your neighbourhood though both of you are now married to other people and have children, but as you watch him leave for work every morning, you feel a rising respect for his poise, the first grey hair on his temples, the way he keeps his temper even when his kids are pummeling him with his fists in the throes of a mega tantrum…

But I digress.

Sachin Tendulkar also did it for me because of the absolute class he exhibited, especially off the field. There was no pushy trophy wife tailing him all over the world as he toured and played, there were no hints of inappropriate dalliances with film actresses. No politically incorrect, flippant comments. No comments at all in the face of unrelenting criticism. No sign of his phenomenal success going to his head, no sign of his frequent failures pulling him down. In time, Sachin became the gold standard for all that was expected of role models around the world – so much so, that when the world crashed all around Tiger Woods, I heard several people remark, “Not everyone can handle success. Not everyone is Sachin Tendulkar.”

I never realised how strong my attraction for Sachin Tendulkar was, till I got the chance to see him in person at a book release event. I am still disconcerted by the fact that Sachin is not as portly as he appears on screen or in pictures. And while everybody chased him at the end of the event for an autograph or a picture, my awe of the great man prevented me from doing more than shoot a video and click several pictures from afar; I didn’t have the courage to ask him for an autograph. It even pained me a little to see how patient the guy was with the swarms of reporters around him, smiling at all those he made eye contact with, never refusing to sign the notepads brought to him by shy, wide-eyed little boys and girls who could only stare.

It took me very long to realise that Sachin Tendulkar had always been a role model for me, long before I had vocalised the thought that I didn’t have any role models who were also celebrities. I probably thought my only sporting role model was Roger Federer, but as I clapped till I couldn’t feel my hands any more every time Federer won another Grand Slam, I dimly recalled losing the feeling in my hands in similar fashion every time Sachin gave us a century.

What links me for eternity to somebody like Sachin Tendulkar is the confidence that he will never let me down. That if he does, I will still forgive him because he’s been such a definitive part of my growing up years. For being a standout role model in a land otherwise littered with Bollywood types, whose sole claim to any fame is that they make extraordinary amounts of money for not much work or talent. For being the reason why noobs such as I began watching cricket in earnest, and learnt the various tricks of the game while he delighted the nation.

Sachin Tendulkar finally called it quits last week. An expected end, but this may have been the first time he’s let anyone down with his timing. Call me selfish, but I would have liked to see him hang about for the Pakistan tour, and yet, I felt a quiet pride over a career that was beyond sterling. Despite all the respect I feel for him, I’m not a sycophantic, blind believer – I felt his new hairstyle was the stupidest thing I saw all year, and he shouldn’t have postponed his retirement despite a dip in form, occupying space that was precious to those waiting impatiently in the wings – so I truly believe that he should have gone in happier circumstances.

And yet, though I knew this was coming, this was truly the heartbreak of the year. And my heart will remain broken all through this lifetime.

Now if only I can do something about getting that autograph…

‘Diaries’ is a series of stories on one theme. The Yearender Diaries seek to capture the most telling moments, happenings and people in the city this year. Look out for Controversy of the year tomorrow.

 

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