Tag: Misc

My blog is now just TanvirKazmi.com!

Well, I had been thinking of doing this for a long time, and had ownership of my domain name for years now, so finally today I did a quick google search of how to use a custom domain name, tanvirkazmi.com, for my blog instead of the longer tanvirkazmi.blogspot.com.

Below is one of the links on how to do this:

and Blogger help itself has details of the process at:

So, from today, my blog and all the old and new posts will be accessible using the new domain name. Older links will also continue to work without any issues. All content continues to reside at Blogger, so hosting does not change. Enjoy the love!

Time for some inspirational read

I have been looking out for some serious motivational stuff in recent weeks, and finally decided to take a plunge into some of the stuff which I have been putting down for a long time. I ordered the following books online from indiaplaza.in (which I find to be the most reasonable online book store in India, others being firstandsecond.com, flipkart.com):

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari (Robin Sharma)
Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance (Pirsig Robert)

Greatness Guide (Robin Sharma)
Greatness Guide 2 (Robin Sharma)



I also subscribed to the Runners’s World Magazine for an year (its the 4th largest selling magazine in the world, and #1 in sports, as per Amazon). The US/Canada rates are extremely low at a US dollar apiece, but its much higher for international audience). That should really keep up my spirits through the year, particularly in the non-season months.

Recently finished with Haruki Murakami’s What I talk about when I talk about Running , a sort of log of Murakami’s training for some marathons, an ultra, and triathlons, including the original running course from Athens to a place called Marathon in Greece.

Welcome to the new year 2009 post

This is my official “Welcome to 2009” post. As I sit in front of my computer doing absolutely nothing, and with no late night parties, I wonder what the new year has in store for me.

As always, this blog, and almost all my posts have something to do with running (or sports). So let me write down what I think my goals for 2009 should be.

  1. Run at least 3 marathons (42K). The 3 possibilities I see for 2009 are as follows. Mumbai marathon in Jan, Running and Living Gurgaon marathon in Feb, and Mawana Sugars Indian Open marathon in Dec.
  2. Do a sub 5:00 marathon, possibly at the Running and Living Gurgaon marathon in Feb.
  3. Do a sub 2:00 half marathon at next ADHM.
  4. Run the Bangalore Ultramarathon (75K) in Nov

Seems like a lot of stuff for the year, and potentially conflicting goals as well, like goals for time and distance together. I guess I will have to make at least one compromise somewhere in this list.

Running Surfaces: Whats the best

It was some months back when I read this article in the RunnersWorld on the quality of running surfaces and their comparison. Today, I tried to google my way to locate the same article, and finally found it. It is an interesting read, where the authors rate various running surfaces on a scale of 10. Below in short is the result of the their analysis:

1. Grass (best)
2. Woodland Trails
3. Earth
4. Cinders
5. Synthetic Track
6. Treadmill
7. Asphalt
8. Sand
9. Concrete
10. Snow (worst)

 Also, below are references to a couple of articles which talk on the “asphalt” versus “concrete” debate:

Jim Fortner from thefinalsprint.com says:

“… Concrete is a much harder surface than asphalt or macadam. It’s the worst commonly encountered surface that you can run on and should be avoided like the plague. To compare the “hardness” of concrete and asphalt, hit each surface with a hammer and see how it feels to your hand and arm. You will find quite a difference. You will leave a dent in the asphalt, but not in the concrete.”

In terms of risk injury, concrete is rated 2.5 on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 is the greatest risk of injury and 10 is the least risk of injury) and asphalt is rated 6?..that’s a significant difference.

Bob Glover in “The Competitive Runner’s Handbook” says, “Concrete used on sidewalks and some roads is the worse surface in terms of shock absorption. If the choice is between concrete and asphalt, take asphalt since it is much more forgiving.”

 Another of Jim’s article on this subject can be found here.

Fun at CRY Cadence Corporate Citizenship challenge


The 9th edition of this multi-event corporate sports challenge for the cause of charity was a smashout success, with teams loving the new format with a lot of new sports events. A total of 12 teams, and more than 500 employees participated. The overall results were as follows (total 9 golds on offer in six different events):

1. Freescale Semiconductor (3 golds)
2. Cadence Design Systems (3 golds)
3. K.P.M.G. (1 gold)

We did good in badminton, managing to sneak out a silver in the team event. Cadence got golds in Football, Table Tennis (mens) and Table Tennis(Veterans).

My overall perception was that the field in most of the events was not of the level you come to expect in a specific sport corporate tournament. And that is to be expected as well. The field in the Eventus corporate badminton tournament will always be stronger than the badminton field in a multi-sport corporate tournament. And the same holds truth for other games like Basketball, Football, Table Tennis, etc.

In Badminton, Freescale was by far the best team of the competition. Cadence was second best, and though we thought that given certain combinations we could give them a decent fight, it never really worked out exactly the way we would have wanted. The first day was the league, and the second day had knockouts starting with the quarter-finals. The rest of the teams were easy meat. KPMG guys were okay (though their womens team counterparts were sweeter). In short, we finished our tournament by Lunch on Sunday and were off to Modern school to catch the rest of the action.

Was able to catch up on the Football finals at Modern school, where Cadence won a hard fought encounter with KPMG. Also saw the Basketball finals, where KPMG won an engrossing match against QA Infotech. The Cadence guys were all cheering for KPMG as they got some rough handling from QA in the semis, and suspected some non-regular players in the QA team. I myself gave some of the choicest to the QA guys.

We went into the 5K run with the hope of getting a medal, probably a gold, from one of our best runners. However, running is something which is an unknown, and a talented or experienced athlete can whip a passionate runners ass like anything, and that’s what we got. There was one runner from Freescale who we later heard runs like a 16 or 17 min 5K, and who was the comfortable winner. Our guy stretched hard towards the end to outrun another of those Freescale runners to get his hands on the bronze. In fact there was a confusion at the finish, where the runner who came in second may have run a lap less, but the objection did not stand, and a bit of poor race management by the organizers did not result in any other resolution.

Media reports on this event: Times of India, Sindh Today

Snaps from the event: http://picasaweb.google.com/CRYCADENCECRICKET

Final Results Tally: