S02 E18 — The Super Randonneur (2/2)
Mechanical Engineer | Cyclist | Sports Scientist | Author
This is part 2 of 2 of the conversation with Raman Garimella. To tune in to part 1 of this conversation go here —
This is the un-edited auto-transcribed version of the episode. If you would like to listen to the episode as you read, check out the episode here —
Raman Garimella 0:00
Even as a child you like sports was one of the only jobs that made sense to me your shit all the time. Can you imagine you’re fit all the time. And then you get paid for doing that that’s a joke, you get paid for playing a sport. And then once checked off all those and you can tick them off in a season you get this card. And if you’ve done this 200 to 600 range of rides, if you’re done all of them in one season, you’re called a super random year. I was part of the community that first caught on to this and I happened to be at the time I happened to be the second youngest person in India to have done that we ape or mimic a lot of what the pros do whether or not it actually makes a difference. We just love to do it. Sharing legs, for instance, aerodynamic gain you get from shaving your legs is almost negligible. The reason we do it is because pros do it and because they do it, it becomes cool. The advertising community gave me so much like I wouldn’t know about cycling in this mustache. work in cycling, Cycling is my livelihood now it pays me money pays me my, you know monthly wages. I would enjoy it if I didn’t if I wasn’t a part of the Heidelberg bicycling club.
Naga Subramanya B B 1:12
Hello and welcome to the Passion People Podcast. You’re listening to season 2, Episode 18. Part Two, the passion people podcast Chronicles stories of people who follow their passion and are making it manifest. If this is the first time you’re listening to the podcast, you might want to check out part one, you can independently listen to part two as well. A couple of episodes as structured as two part special episodes to keep the length of the podcast small. every fortnight we interview a passionate individual from across the world, ranging from mountaineers to lawyers to adventurers, to AI scientists, to cyclists.
We’re trying to cover and showcase that ordinary people are capable of doing extraordinary things. Yes, I’m talking about you. You was tuning in, you can do extraordinary things. And we want to inspire you with stories of individuals who are already doing it. Stories of individuals who you will not read about in the news stories of individuals who you will not come to know from anywhere else. In today’s episode, we’re in talk with Robin garima was a mechanical engineer, a cyclist and a sports scientist. In the second part of our conversation, we talked about the importance of the Hyderabad, bicycling club and ramen and how it shaped his cycling career. What he does when he gets bored easily and how he keeps things interesting.
The importance of having a large amount of complexity in whatever passion that you take up. And of course the importance of the community and having a set of life minded individuals around you when you’re trying to do something significant in your life. I’m sure you’re going to love this episode. Before I wrap up, here’s a quick, friendly reminder to subscribe and rate the show to help improve its discoverability podcast monetization is still a long way for us to achieve. But in the meantime, we’re trying to, you know, make some money by selling some cool passion people podcast merchandise. If you need more details, I leave some information in the show notes. You can always tweet me and get the details of the amazing passionate people podcast shirts and hoodies that we have right now on sale. Thank you so much for tuning in.
Enjoy the show.
So getting back to your day job.
After eight months, you do end up leaving your day job eventually.
Raman Garimella 3:55
Yeah, I did. And no one could talk me out of it. Because I was hard headed and yeah be I decided I decided there was no reconsidering, then yeah, I had my notice period. But what was happening in while I started this job was I picked up cycling as a hobby. Like I said, I joined this hobby club on the weekends. And I got more and more involved with them. It was excited about bicycling club. I don’t I don’t work with them now. But back then it is a very important part of my life. It was community building, it was sports. And it was also travel that we would go on our bikes around Hyderabad we would even go within AP I remember doing trips to Canada. There was in the Neil Greece tour of Neil Gary’s I even went to Osaka and with a friend I made recycling. So Wow. Yeah, this was all yeah. I really love the distance and At that time, so for me, it wasn’t speed or winning races. When I started off, it was just distance challenges. I had this heroes like the Hercules cycle that I bought, just after moving back to my hometown. And the challenge every month was okay, how much longer Can I go now? And that became a bragging rights. When I went from, you know, I struggled to do a 10 kilometer loop in the first month and then, six months later, I thought, well, just looking back, I could do 150 kilometres. And then yeah, that’s when the thing that the seed got in my head that I, hey, maybe I can, maybe, maybe Cycling is a sport I should try out, you know, because even as a child, like sports was one of the only jobs that made sense to me. Even now, it still does like being an athlete. That job just makes sense to me. As you wake up, you take care of your body, your spirit all the time. Can you imagine your fit all the time, and then you get paid for doing that. That A joke you get paid for playing a sport. There’s a bit of show involved, you know, people are watching and they just their job just makes sense to me.
Naga Subramanya B B 6:09
Absolutely. And I guess this is a, this is a nice time for me to ask you this whenever they are, in a lot of cases, and especially for people like you and me who get bored pretty quickly or you’re always seeking new things. How do you stay motivated one to kind of continue doing this on a on a long term basis, like Firstly, when you hit the plateau? And secondly, how do you keep yourself because till now, you were using all of this as a distraction from something else that was occupying you. So did you did you feel some kind of loss of affection for for this, whatever, cycling or whatever it is that you’re doing when you change your attention from a part time thing to a full time thing? Or were you able to just lean into it and you know, it kind of swept you over?
Raman Garimella 6:58
Yeah, I was really obsessed in those four But luckily what happened was my first my focus in the first half of that was distance. So all I used to do was long distance cycling. And then I found events that you could do just as a distance Sharon so I would do you know that it’s called ultra endurance. Like in running this, there’s 10 k half marathon and a marathon and anything above a marathon is an ultra ultra marathon ultra event. So I got into that, the cycling equivalent of that, but I will do 200 300 400 500 600 kilometer rides that and then once I checked off all those, and you can take them off in a season you get this card. And if you’ve done this 200 to 600 range of rides. If you’re done all of them in one season. You’re called a super round in here. I know that. I will. I am that and I was one of the I was part of the community that first call Don’t do this. And I happened to be at the time I happened to be the second youngest person in India to have done that, wow.
Naga Subramanya B B 8:07
I am talking to a celebrity, basically. Haha.
Raman Garimella 8:10
The thing was, I later learned that you don’t have to be young to do this. You can do this when you’re older as well, you probably even in a better position to do ultra events as you’re older because you have your body’s more efficient in doing that kind of aerobic exercise. Your mind is more stable, your you know, there’s more wisdom. There’s more calmness, which is you know, you tend to be lonely in the Can you imagine 600 kilometers, even if you’re with someone, it can be is you’re very much in your head, and it’s almost meditative. So I think all the people, you know, are better suited for for that discipline. Luckily, what I realize is as someone who was 2324 then there was this whole other world of competitive cycling of race. of speed. Yeah, then I immediately jumped on to so I was able to get bored of the ultra endurance and move on to something within cycling. So I got to use all that fitness I had from, from long distance riding and take it to riding fast. And that that was the next chapter for me in cycling. So yeah, that if that answers your question of getting bored with one thing and moving on to another.
Naga Subramanya B B 9:26
Absolutely. And were you able to reach like a similar milestone and like around near equivalent of speed?
Raman Garimella 9:34
No. Well, in races, it’s all about position now. Right? It’s about really win the race to the finish top three. So I did that. Yeah, I was state champion for the last united entrepreneur. So I was the last champion of United entrepreneurs. So you are talking to a celebrity now? Yes. And my distance was roared. I didn’t do mountain biking or track as much although I am the tracks. ampion as well for one discipline okay, but road was my thing road cycling and then I did races locally in Hyderabad then I started organizing races myself you know all the free time you have and all this is you have, what do you do? So I started organizing races by myself. We had a whole season before I left Hyderabad. I also took part in races in my state in Bangalore. I used to come and I used to go to the Nationals, of course, so my best finish at the Nationals was 12. This was in Haryana in 2013 I think.
Naga Subramanya B B 10:34
Wow, that’s amazing.
Raman Garimella 10:36
Yeah, so that that was my training volume was a little less than what it used to be for long distance it yeah, that that can be addictive as well. Because it’s, it’s really one of the few things that can keep you enjoying road cycling. Because you can get bored of the roots. You can get bored of sceneries you can get Lot of people and training partners, but you can never get bored of speed. You should keep getting faster and faster. That’s that’s something everybody should experience I think. And Cycling is perhaps the best way to do that. Because running just in terms of speed, right running you. Exactly. You can do 3540 kilometres an hour by yourself if you’re really good in running the rush, maybe maybe a little less wild.
Naga Subramanya B B 11:28
Absolutely. And as a runner, I think I can relate to what what you’re saying because there’s only that fast that I can go and you also tend to burn out a lot quicker in the running case.
Raman Garimella 11:40
Yeah. And in cycling. Well, my work now deals a lot with how to get faster on a bike. Not in terms of physiology, but aerodynamics. And once you get into that, that bracket of 30 plus kilometers an hour it becomes about chasing the wind. How aerodynamic Can you position yourself. However the enemy can you set up on the bike be can you add or remove a few elements that can make you faster or more streamlined? Can you wear a jersey that can you know, a race jersey that can or a helmet that can get you faster by a few seconds? And you know, all that tends to matter, your diet choices and it Yeah, so once speed it once you’re obsessed with speed, there’s a lot of things to keep you occupied for a few years. It’s one year on fitness, your apparel, your equipment, your accessories, and just some strategic decisions like what kind of tires Should I put on and what pressures should it be? What is the weather conditions on if it’s going to be slippery? Do I have the skill to manage being fast and keep my balance on the bike that Yeah, there’s a lot of things that you can do to get fast. that kept me occupied for what hilarya
Naga Subramanya B B 12:53
honestly, Raman before before it’s I spoke to you. I always knew that there are a lot of cycling enthusiasts and There’s a lot of science that goes into it, but I had no clue that this is the level of complexity or the level of, you know, preparedness that goes into it. And you know, it just it is just something that blows my mind.
Raman Garimella 13:14
Yeah. And what blew my mind was, when I was in Goa, I read Lance Armstrong’s book. And as much as you know, the dishonor he has brought to himself and the sport and people. That book is, you know, it still, even in the book, we wrote Google and I, we feature this book in, in the recommendation, this is in our top 10 books that we would recommend to anybody who wants to learn about cycling, because, I mean, it’s the best it’s a worldwide bestseller for a reason. And that reason, one of the biggest reasons is that people realize that Cycling is so much more than just, you know, a guy getting on a bike and riding. One of the things that I learned was back then before I even started, was the cycling is a team sport. And how important having a teammate is one very obvious way is, like I said, it’s cheating the wind. And if you can position a teammate in front of you to cheat the wind for you, and you drive you ride in the slipstream. That’s already, you know, there’s been research on this. And based on how many teammates you line up in front of you, that game can be anywhere between five and 40%. And that’s the physics aspect of it. But then this if you have all these people, if you can imagine you have four people at your disposal, who make it their job to make you win the race. And then strategy. This is almost like a game of chess, where you may ask a teammate to shake an attack. And then that may force arrival of yours to chase that attack and in turn himself out. And that way you kind of burn the matches, you know, it’s called burning matches, you burn the matches of all your opponents if you have, you know, strong teammates. And one of my favorite quotes is racing is all about licking your opponent’s plate clean before you lick your own plate clean. And yeah, so strong book is, you know, full of nuggets like this. And I would recommend, you know, after you’ve bought my book, you should buy. He’s had two autobiographies. And the first one is what I’m talking about now. Okay, okay.
Naga Subramanya B B 15:37
So, I guess the takeaway for me in all of this, and as someone who who talks to people who follow their passion, right, is that, I guess we need to choose something that is sufficiently complex enough that we can keep getting more and more out of it. And it seems very evidently that Cycling is one of the sports because I remember reading somewhere that you know, playing an instrument You have like a billion permutations and combinations of how you can get the same same note on a guitar or how you can recreate a specific sound. And I can see the similarities that’s there in cycling as well. And what what is interesting for me is that for people tuning in, it’s important that they understand that when they’re looking for a passion or when they’re looking for an adventure, or when they want to dive deep into something, it needs to be a subject with a lot of depth. And Cycling is, you know, very well positioned to be that.
Raman Garimella 16:34
Yeah, I would like to add proceed. In the cycling community, we a power mimic a lot of what the pros do, whether or not it actually makes a difference. We just love to do it. Sharing legs, for instance, any cyclists who’s done it for you know, most cyclists have done it for a year or two road cyclists. They start shaving their legs immediately. You know, first A lot of people think what’s the point is it Become aerodynamic. It’s not actually, you know, the aerodynamic gain you get from shaving your legs is almost negligible. The reason we do it is because pros do it. And because they do it, it becomes cool. They do it because they have a couple of other reasons they do because you know, they get massages every day. And having hair on your skin can be painful if you’re getting massages every day. That’s one reason. And road cyclists are also prone to falling a lot and getting Road Rash and, you know, scabs on the skin, and cleaning those wounds becomes easier when it’s when it’s, you know, free of hair. So that’s why we do it. And a lot of like I said, you know, the gear choices and this obsession, which you know, every cyclist tends to have beyond after you’ve gotten into cycling for, let’s say, two, three years. It’s very obsessive. And part of that obsession is because it trickled down from pros to us. Whether or not it makes a difference in you know, in my local league. That’s a different question, but they do it. So we should do it. And as you say, it probably is probably a healthy way to keep your mind occupied in that complexity.
Naga Subramanya B B 18:13
Absolutely. And like I said, like, this is this is so insightful, and I would have never thought of it in the way that you’re putting it across. And that’s great.
Raman Garimella 18:23
Then there’s diet. Of course, as you know, cyclists are about being at their minimum weight, the lowest body fat possible and checking in on the weighing scale every day. That’s another, I should probably make a list of all these quirks.
Naga Subramanya B B 18:38
But is that is that an unhealthy thing? Do you think like you used to be doing the 600 kilometer races or the speed races, this is where you finished top 12. That meant that you’re obviously a very rigorous exercise regime, but now you’ve kind of you’re more on an academic path right now. Right? And so does that mean like you did your fitness completely reduce or are you still you know, moderately, you know, I do feel if I force you that you consider like a 300 k kind of ride
Raman Garimella 19:09
Yeah, I do that actually this year so I stopped competing in races I stopped doing competitive events. I’d still do 123 events every year if if it’s a route that I like, or if it’s a challenging road I do under 200 kilometer rides now, but they wouldn’t be they wouldn’t be anywhere close to the speed. I used to be doing that. I still have my bike but every year I think oh is next year going to be the comeback to cycling. And then I think No, because I got back to football. I play a lot of football now. I’m actually I used to hate running and this year has been my best running year. And I do stay fit. That’s always that never gonna go away. But cycling fitness racing fitness. That’s not the right I don’t know if I’ll ever decide to you know, do masters racing masters racing is above 3540 that age category. Maybe I will I don’t know.
Naga Subramanya B B 20:10
Got it. So what what what have you done to kind of package all of this learning and knowledge and experience that you have on cycling right now?
Raman Garimella 20:21
Yeah, this this book man, I first, like when I was acting, I used to do a variety of jobs. I probably did, you know, eight or 10 different jobs, some of them part time, some of them freelance. One of them was writing so I should write for sports Kida. I was the cycling contributor for sports kida.com. Then I should write for my friends bike shop and their blog, and another friend who did events for corporates I used to write for the magazine. And somewhere, you know, I’d always wanted to write about cycling again, and Debt now with a very good friend of mine Goku from Hyderabad, we both decided as a new year’s resolution to start to come out with a book. And it was last year, it wasn’t this year. So we’re a whole year behind our resolution, but we finally got it done. It’s it looks beautiful. It looks absolutely gorgeous of the paperback. The idea at first was just to come out with an E book. But then people you know, in vocal circles, he’s the one more active in the Indian cycling scene now people started asking for paperbacks, and then we finally got it out. And we’re very proud of it. One reason, there’s two or three reasons why we noted one was we were getting tired of rehashing the answers to the same questions. Our friends and family had, you know, friends and family will come to me, hey, I want to buy a bike Which one should I buy? And then we get into Oh, no, you don’t understand. It’s not that simple. We have to have this whole blah, blah, blah. You know, we need to understand what budget you have, what goals you want to have. Why do you want intersecting why not something as Are you sure about cycling? How do you share about cycling here is here the checklist. So there was this whole like, algorithm of figuring out which bike someone should buy. Then we thought, hey, we’ve we’ve done this dozens of times over the last 510 years. Wouldn’t it be smart to just put it in writing somewhere? So we did that we we have a book. I don’t know how many pages how many I haven’t seen the paperback yet. How many pages like 1900.
Naga Subramanya B B 22:30
I’m opening it as we speak.
Raman Garimella 22:32
Yeah, it’s a nice, nice booklet with a lot of basic information. It has answers to all the questions that anybody who’s curious about cycling has, it spans across ages. In fact, it’s in it’s been featured on Amazon India’s is number one bestseller on Amazon, India, in the sports category. Thank you in the good sports. So it’s for kids, for young adults for anybody who can who reads English and is interested in in the sport of soccer as a hobby as a lifestyle choice or as a competitive sport, this book, I want to say I believe in it, man, it’s it’s a quality product. It has all the answers, or there’s nothing else that I would like to add to it. It’s quite comprehensive.
Naga Subramanya B B 23:16
Right? It’s 128 pages. And looks like you’re really doing that. The selling thing. Well, good job.
Raman Garimella
Yeah, yeah. I also want to say that one part was as getting tired of people asking this question that I was making a joke and I don’t get tired of, you know, helping them out. The other part was the head about cycling community gave me so much like I wouldn’t know about cycling. In this much that I work in cycling, Cycling is my livelihood. Now it pays me money. I wouldn’t know it if I didn’t. If I wasn’t a part of the Hyderabad Bicycle Club, the wonderful people there who took me under their wings, who taught me the basics and then I somehow surpass them, let’s sort of speak right? Because I got into it a lot more seriously than they did. So both from Gokul. And me this whole this book is dedicated to the cycling community at large but in specific to Hyderabad, because it’s our way of giving back. Yeah.
Naga Subramanya
Right. And what’s the, what’s the premise
behind the name of the book? Escape Velocity?
Raman Garimella 24:22
Escape Velocity. Yeah, that’s a it’s a personal reason why I came up with it. It was my idea. I pitched it to Gokul. It’s a it’s a phrase that stuck to me, goes back to 2014. When I was in India, I was racing. And I still somehow felt. Again, I thought I was done with the just like my corporate job, I probably need needed to move on to something else. And for that I needed an escape velocity because it almost felt like I couldn’t do it just by myself. So I needed an escape velocity, something that could take me out to orbit and take me The next step which was studying sports and studying cycling, rather than just being an athlete in it, and you know, that way I can influence more lives than just mine. So escape velocity comes from that. And Google like the phrase as well, because he guides people. He’s a coach. Now he coaches cyclists. He coaches athletes, he also coaches people who just want to get off the couch. So it’s he liked it because to get on a bike, you need an escape velocity to take you off the couch. And that’s, that’s the reason behind the name.
Naga Subramanya B B 25:35
Fantastic. And for our as has tuning in and who is interested in knowing more about the book, there will be details on the show notes and the related posts on how what you can do to win a copy of the book, and links to Amazon and related websites from where you can buy the book will be part of the show notes. And so that’s where people can get the book. So a random be okay if people also email you reached out to you with questions on cycling on your transition. And if someone is, is willing to embark on a similar path will be okay. If they reached out to
Raman Garimella 26:13
Yeah, Absolutely. We’re more than happy to do that. Because it if there’s something that the book doesn’t answer, we’re more than happy to show people. You know what comes after that there’s so much more than cycling. And we’ve seen a bit of that we’re happy to show other people that, especially young people, because I was a young guy who, who could have used this book, you know, if I was starting off in cycling, this book would have saved me a lot of time, and effort. So if there’s anybody else, young people or their parents will be more than happy to talk to you. Talk to talk to you about cycling and racing and cycling. Now, before I forget, I always forget to mention this before I forget. I want to mention Victor components. He’s the gentleman who wrote the foreword for our book. He is he’s no ordinary guy. He’s Actually the fastest man in the world, there’s this thing called the hour record, where a guy goes on a bike in a velodrome on a track, know those things. And there’s the cycle for one hour. And he holds the current world record of more than 55 kilometers on a bike. So he is the fastest man on the world in the world. And he was gracious enough to to write the foreword for our book, and I can’t thank him enough I always forget to acknowledge him. But I just wanted to mention his name, once again, is he’s younger than us. He’s an absolute gentleman. And, you know, thanks once again, providing the
Naga Subramanya B B 27:38
Fantastic! Thanks Raman, for being on the show and walking us through your journey. And, you know, concluding on the book, I’m sure a lot of our listeners are going to order the book and learn more about cycling and the cycling community in Hyderabad. And I hope that they also reach out to you in case they need any any kind of guidance and Thanks again for taking time to be on the podcast.
Raman Garimella 28:04
Thank you. Thank you very much. It’s always a pleasure talking to you and I can’t tell you enough. What a good listener you are of the 60 minutes. I may have spoken for 58 and thanks for giving me that stage.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
If you like what you read/heard, please subscribe, leave a review and spread the word!
Get in touch here :-
Raman Garimella
Twitter — @Top_Raman
Buy Raman’s Book — Escape Velocity
Podcast Information:-
Interview by: Naga Subramanya B B
Recorded on: AudioTechnica ATR 2100
Recorded using: Audacity for Windows 10
Jingle Credits: Shankar from Writer and Geek, Edited by Naga Subramanya
Recorded online: Zencastr
Photo Edited on: Canva
We’re Social!
Twitter: Tweet us and share your thoughts! ❤
Instagram: @PassionPeoplePodcast / https://www.instagram.com/thepassionpeoplepodcast/
If you are someone looking to start something similar, following your passion or just found this post interesting, get in touch!
What is your passion? Have you found it yet? Did you find this interview something you can relate to? We endeavor to bring people to take action and get inspired by listening to others who are doing the same and giving you a chance to interact with the people in the interview so that you can take the plunge too! ❤
You can also follow The Passion People Project for inspiring stories every fortnight.
Share this story with your friends on WhatsApp and Facebook!
