#StayAtHome With Karthik Tharanisingh

Despite some relaxations, India and most of the world remains under lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. Stay at home orders have brought out our inner chef or made us go on cleaning sprees we never thought ourselves capable of. For national champion racing driver Karthik Tharanisingh, however, stay at home means keeping himself as sharp and ready as possible for when he gets to turn a wheel in anger again.

A racer's life under lockdown:

What was meant to be another year of hard racing suddenly seems so fragile with the global COVID-19 situation. I couldn’t imagine back then that such a lockdown would be even possible. In fact, the weekend after the day it was announced, I was supposed to travel to Bangalore for some karting training at Meco Kartopia. But I guess it’s for the greater good that we follow instructions and recover from this situation as quickly as possible.

I am sure that this lockdown has made a lot of changes to the lifestyle of people, and I am no exception but trying to keep the routine of fitness is the most important for any athlete. My day starts at around 8:30 in the morning with some light glute work and a short staircase run. I still haven’t made up my mind about how safe it is to run around the neighborhood just yet, so I am sticking with the staircase runs for now. This is followed by breakfast after which I have the time to do a few webinars. I am trying to use this time to learn a few things (engineering) from online courses and it actually keeps me occupied almost through the whole afternoon.

I have also got back to old, unfinished hobbies. The most recent one is building scale models of old fighter aircraft. I have completed a 1:72 model of a SPAD XIII C-1 fighter and am currently building a Lockheed Hudson Mk. I/II.

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At around 5pm, I do either a strength or a circuit workout. I have always been a guy who relied on my gym for equipment and I hardly invested in any equipment for home use apart from a few bands and a swiss ball for neck training. Thankfully I was able to find my brothers 12 year old barbell and a few weights in the attic. These do come in handy. I also incorporate a lot of bodyweight movements like pushups, pull ups and planks. These still can be very effective with just slight tweaks to make them harder.

The evening is spent on my simulator which I use at my academy Team Alchemy Performance Motorsport. The simulator racing scene has been on fire since the lockdown around the globe started. Sometimes, my whole day is spent at the sim room as there are so many races to take part in. I think it helps keep drivers sharp to a certain extent and it’s pretty cool to race against guys with whom you would have normally raced in the national championship.

I hope the situation gets better as soon as possible around the globe. Although I don’t have an idea when and how our racing calendar would be for this year, I remain positive that we still get out and get racing in 2020.