Life from Running to Stairs

Stairsmaster, Stairman, OMG…these are the few names which I have been given to me in the last few months after people saw a transformation in my body. And it is quite obvious because now I am a completely changed person internally and externally, thanks to my training which included running, stairs climbing, Abs, SuryaNamaskars and Kick Boxing. I don’t know how I got addicted to these but these are entirely my inclusions.

So, how I started? I have been running for a long time but with no focus on timing; however, I always thought improving my timing. In one of the many articles, I read stairs climbing as one of the core training of all successful runners. Meanwhile, Sharad, an IT entrepreneur and my running fellow did few sessions of stairs in his building which inspired me to do stairs in my building but I found it boring, may be due to non-circulation of air and closed four walls. Parsik Hill was one place where I remembered one small patch of stairs (110 stairs oneway). Next day, I ran to Parsik Hill (PH) and did 1,100 stairs (5 times of stairs run cum jog, 220 stairs up and down). It was an amazing experience for me though I was tired too. In my next run to PH, I did 7 times of repetitions completing 1,500 stairs which went to 3,300 stairs in next two sessions. Meanwhile I realized that I started feeling light due to stairs and my calves were becoming stronger. This made me to include stairs as my permanent training plan. So, instead of mixing running with stairs, I focused on doing stairs only. I landed on PH with my loads of carbohydrates, water  and other stuffs and did my first dedicated stairs jog and ended up doing 5,500 stairs in 1:10 hrs. My other core plans like SuryaNamaskars, Abs, Plank etc were on. I increased my stairs count from 5,500 to 8,000 to 11,111 and then 15,555 stairs in a span of one month. Yes, initially I felt tired but later on, it was perfectly fine except on the day when I did 15,555 stairs, my feets were paining. On an average, I did 5,500 stairs an hour.

These trainings helped me a lot; first, it gave me a discipline and direction how to target and achieve it and at the same time, it made my body strong, rather I would say super strong. I accomplished my sub 2 target of completing ADHM 2014 in 1:53 hrs followed by Emidar Navi Marathon Half Marathon in 1:50 hrs. Because of these trainings which included stairs, I finished Bangalore Ultra (50 km) in a reasonable time (5:40 mins). Believe me, I never ran beyond 21 km but I ended up doing 50 km without any hassles. Yes the last 10 km was tough but I managed to finish strongly. Recently I participated in Stairs Everest Challenge organized by Skyscraper Dash where we had to run 43 times up and 42 times down of Kohinoor Square (52 floors), Dadar equivalent to 106,500 stairs in a team of 6. We ended up doing 109,000 stairs where I contributed 18,750 stairs and rest by my team members. We took an average time of 3:00 hours and beat Bangalore record by a cool 13 mins.

I read a lot of articles on stairs and kick boxing and read few histories of some of the great runners of the world. Two things were common in all – Stairs running/Hill running and Boxing/Kick Boxing which are part of my training plans currently.

I strongly recommend all runners to include stairs, abs and other core exercises in their training plans which will definitely improve their running pace.

My life changed very fast in the last two years, especially in the last one year; everything looked positive to me, personally met so many wonderful and determined people, most of them runners of different ages but in different professions. I am blessed that I am surrounded by positive people, friends and bosses who always supported me in my dreams. God bless everyone!

Happy stepping!

Policy Tools post Global Financial Crisis – US Perspective

Since 2008, the world economy is in bad shape! Post the Lehman fall in Wall Street in 2008, the contagion effect ran scathe through the entire global economy. The governments in conjugation with their respective Central Banks announced a series of monetary and fiscal policies which helped in containing the reversal in growth and boost the economy. Also many countries announced bail out programs for many of its big institutions who had over leveraged themselves and became a victim of sub-prime crisis.

It is largely considered that the world biggest economy, United States defines the path of the market and the world market swings around it. Since the financial crisis that emerged in summer of 2007, the Federal Reserve used various liquidity and credit programs and other monetary policy tools. These tools aimed at addressing severe liquidity strains in key financial markets, cultivating faster economic recovery by lowering the longer-term interest rates and providing ready available credit to troubled and fractured financial institutions.

Here is a brief about the different policy tools used by Federal Reserve; these tools are widely used by other countries too.

Open Market Operations – The Federal Reserve considers it as the principal tool for implementing monetary policy. The objective of OMO can be a desired price (Federal Funds rate) or a desired quantity of reserves. The federal funds rate is the interest rate at which the depository institutions lend balances at the Federal Reserve to other depository institutions overnight (similar to Call rate in India).

However, Fed objectives on OMOs have varied over the years. During the 1980s, it concentrated on attaining the specified level of the federal funds rate and in 1995, it explicitly targeted federal fund rates. Table 1 explains the movement of Fed’s fund rates.

The Discount Rate – It is the interest rate charged by the Federal Reserve Bank to commercial banks and other financial institutions on loans under its lending facility – the discount window (Similar to Call Money in Overnight Segment). The Federal Reserve Bank offers three discount windows to depository institutions – primary credit, secondary credit and seasonal credit, each with its own discount rate. All discount window loans are fully secured.

In the primary credit program, the loans are extended for a very short term (usually overnight) for financially sound institutions. Those institutions which are not eligible for primary credit may apply for a secondary credit to meet short-term liquidity needs or to resolve severe financial difficulties. Seasonal credit is extended to relatively small depository institutions that have recurring intra-year fluctuations in funding needs, such as banks in agricultural or seasonal resort communities. The rates charged are minimum in Primary Credit followed by Secondary Credit while the discount rate for seasonal credit is an average of selected market rates.

Reserve Requirements

Against specified deposit liabilities, the banks are required to hold a minimum percentage of holding in reserve in the form of vault cash or deposits with Federal Reserve Banks. Reservable liabilities consist of net transaction accounts, non-personal time deposits and Eurocurrency liabilities. Since Dec 27, 1990, non-personal time deposits and Eurocurrency liabilities have had a reserve ratio of zero. Beginning Oct 2008, the Federal Reserve Banks will pay interest on required reserve balances and excess balances. The table 2 shows the reserve requirements as decided by Federal Reserve.

Interest on Required Balances and Excess Balances

The Federal Reserve pays interest on required reserve balances – balances held with Federal Reserve to satisfy reserve requirements and on excess balances – balances held in excess of required reserve balances and contractual clearing balances.

The interest rate on required reserve balances and excess balances is determined by the Federal Reserve Board. It gives the Federal Reserve an additional tool for the conduct of monetary policy.

Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility

The Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) is a funding facility that will help market participants meet the credit needs of households and small businesses by supporting the issuances of asset-backed securities (ABS) collateralized by loans of various types to consumers and businesses of all sizes.

Under the TALF, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) will lend up to $200 billion on a non-recourse basis to holders of certain AAA-rated ABS backed by newly and recently originated consumer and small business loans.

Term Deposit Facility

It is a new tool announced in 2010 by which the Federal Reserve can manage the aggregate quantity of reserve balances held by depository institutions. It will facilitate the implementation of monetary policy. Funds placed in term deposits are removed from the accounts of participating institutions for the life of the term deposit and thereby drain reserve balances from the banking system. Reserve Banks will offer term deposits through the Term Deposit Facility (TDF), and all institutions that are eligible to receive earnings on their balances at Reserve Banks may participate in the term deposit program.

While the above mentioned policy tools are currently operative, some of the programs has been wound down on improved economic scenario. The Money Market Investor Funding Facility expired on Oct 30, 2009, and the Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility, the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, and the Term Securities Lending Facility were closed on February 1, 2010. Also, the final Term Auction Facility auction was conducted on March 8, 2010.

The world dynamics has changed; so with geo-political issues. PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain), once a flying and splendid investment horizon have been on the verge of sovereign crisis. We believe that the Keynesian has left a strong theory to be followed by US which have initiated many quantitative programs – QE-I (worth Trillion dollars) followed by QE-II (worth US$ 600 billion). 

Happy Reading!

Source: Federal Reserve