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In this episode, I talk to Joel Sundaram who just came back from winning Asian championships selection trials. Since the last time we spoke on the podcast he won a bronze at the Nationals in cycling and a bunch of other races. In this episode we talk about what transpired over the last year or so with his training and racing and how he has been dealing multiple crashes and various other setbacks to come back stronger. We spoke about the mistakes and the learnings from those mistakes and how they have been helping his journey. As always he brings a refreshing bit of honesty and fun to the conversation. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
0:00:00 Intro
0:07:10 The flurry of crashes including one 2 days before the Nationals
0:16:20 Talking of the joy of riding
0:20:00 Tour of Thekkady
0:30:00 Not being picky with equipment, Bangalore Classic
0:40:00 HCL Cyclothon, Missing the National games
0:46:00 BBCH Nandi Epic win,
0:57:10 Tour of Nilgiris 2023
1:00:30 Cycling Nationals 2023, Overcooking the pacing and ending up with Bronze
1:20:00 Dealing with injuries
1:22:30 Asian Championships Selection trials
1:30:00 Pacing for different conditions, wind, heat, altitude etc
1:40:10 A case of Merckx style TTs
1:45:10 Asian selections road race
1:51:10 Safety at Nationals
1:53:10 Running Banter
1:54:00 Closing
About the podcast:
The working athlete podcast is a podcast with and for working athletes from all walks of life and various sports. The goal is to provide inspiration, training tips, mental hacks, time management and life-style advice through conversations with some of the best in sport, from athletes to coaches. If you think you can benefit from this, please consider subscribing and hitting the bell icon so that you don't miss the weekly episodes in future.
Who is a working athlete? Someone working fulltime/part-time, entrepreneur or anyone who has to work to make ends meet and doesn't let being busy to stop him/her from pursuing an active lifestyle is a working athlete. I consider stay at home moms/dads who pursue a sport, as working athletes because homemaking is a full-time job.
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The audio version of the podcast can be found here:
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A bit about myself:
I'm Venkat/Venkateswara Rao in my work avatar, working as a Chief Data Analyst in the IT industry in Bangalore. I'm Venky/Bikeyvenky for my friends in the cycling community.
All through my life I struggled with weight and health issues. After multiple failed attempts through the life to get fit and healthy, in 2008, I managed to lose 16kgs. My motivation was to be able to take care of my unborn son with the thought that "if I'm not able to take care of myself, how am I going to take care of my family?". When my son was 6 months old, having lost 16kgs, I picked up a bike to keep that weight off and stay fit. That became a passion and lost more weight and became better at it. I continue to train myself not just to stay fit but also race competitively in races in and outside the country. I also have been coaching a few riders to get stronger and faster at cycling since 2016.
With 'The Working Athlete Podcast', I have a bit of a selfish motive. That is, it will provide me an opportunity for me to meet and talk to many people from all walks of life across different sports to learn how they manage an active lifestyle while doing well at work. I hope to share those learnings with all of you. That way, it will help both you and me to keep learning and keep growing.