The last Run – Dec 12,2008

Before I started the whole marathon program, I used to run on and off on the treadmill in the gym and the maximum I could ever run was 3.14 miles (that's PI for the non-math folks). May be having some inclination to numbers has got something to limiting my distance to PI all the time. This was a biggest wall for me for a long time until I started the marathon program. So, I thought it would be appropriate to run this same distance for my last run before the marathon on Sunday. The evening for perfect for running with temperate in 50's F. I ran the PI (3.14) in the neighborhood which has got some good trails for runners.

Here are the stats form the GPS:

Activity

Type

Activity

Type

Miles

Time (HH:MM:SS)

Avg. Pace (min/Mile)

Avg. Speed

Calories Burnt

Avg. Heart Rate

Morning

Morning

Evening

Evening

None

None

Evening

Easy Run

3.14

0:27:30

8:45

6.8

406

159

Easy Run – Nov 11,2008

After taking a break yesterday, I started late (at 8:20 am). I decided to run on the sidewalks of the streets in my neighborhood since it has more hills than the trail that I usually run. I managed to finish 5 miles with 2 short breaks. Here are the stats from the GPS:

Activity	Type	Activity	Type	Miles	Time (HH:MM:SS)		Avg. Pace (min/Mile)		Avg. Speed	Calories Burnt	Avg. Heart Rate
Morning	Morning	Evening	Evening
Running	Easy Pace	None	None	5:01	0:44:47		8:56		6.7	640	169

Easy Run in Campion Trail – Oct 28, 2008

After doing some upper body training, I went to the campion trial to do a short 4 mile run at a easy pace (9min/mile). As it was unusually cold in the morning, I put on a jacket over my T-shirt and started running. The first mile , as usual, was hard and it slowly got better. It was a little difficult to run with the extra weight of the jacket but I managed to finish the run in under 36 minutes. Here are the stats from the GPS.

Activity

Type

Activity

Type

Miles

Time (HH:MM:SS)

Avg. Pace (min/Mile)

Avg. Speed

Calories Burnt

Avg. Heart Rate

Morning

Morning

Evening

Evening

Running

Easy Pace

Strength

Gym - Chest / Back/ Shoulder

4:01

0:35:59

8:59

6.7

517

158

Easy Run in Neighborhood – Oct 24, 2008

After taking a day off yesterday, I was skeptical as to whether I should risk running before the long run day tomorrow. I decided to jog for 3 miles at an easy pace in my neighborhood. I started at 8:20 am and finished the run in 28 minutes. Here are the stats from the GPS:

Activity

Type

Activity

Type

Miles

Time (HH:MM:SS)

Avg. Pace (min/Mile)

Avg. Speed

Calories Burnt

Avg. Heart Rate

Morning

Morning

Evening

Evening

Running

Easy Pace

None

None

3.03

0:28:17

9:20

6.4

392

155

 

Easy Run on Treadmill – Oct 9,2008

After a hard interval workout yesterday, I decided to do a easy run. Usually my Thursday runs are at work and more often on a treadmill. I have another colleague at work with whom I run on a treadmill on Thursdays. I went to the office gym at 12:00 pm and started running at an easy pace of 9:30 min/mile. I realized that I could push it a bit and increased the speed to 9:00min/mile. I was able to keep this pace and finished 2 miles in 17:30 min. I walked for about 1 minute and started running again at 9:00 min/mile for the next 1.5 miles. I finished doing about 4.15 miles in37.5 minutes at an average pace of 9:04 min/mile.

 

Here are the stats from the treadmill

Activity	Type	Activity	Type	Miles	Time (HH:MM:SS)	Avg. Pace (min/Mile)	Avg. Speed	Calories Burnt	Avg. Heart Rate
Morning	Morning	Evening	Evening
None	None	Running	Easy Run	4.15	0:37:30	9:04	6.64	515	161

Easy Run – Oct 2,2008

After doing the strength training in the morning, I decided to a run at easy pace in the evening. The marathon training calls for 4 runs per week with one of the runs being a easy run. Today, I bought a new water bottle that can be held in the hand. I used the bottle hanging from my waist so far which caused some rashes during my long run. I reached the Chisholm Trail at 6:30 pm and started the run. At the beginning, I thought I would do only 4 but half way through I was feeling good and so ended up doing 5 miles. Here is the log from the GPS

 

Activity

Type

Activity

Type

Miles

Time (HH:MM:SS)

Avg. Pace (min/Mile)

Avg. Speed

Calories Burnt

Avg. Heart Rate

Morning

Morning

Evening

Evening

Strength

Gym - Back & Biceps

Running

Easy Run

5.1

0:54:46

10:44

5.6

655

147

Running and Cycling – Sep 21,2008

Because of being busy at work, I was not able to do any kind of exercise for the past 5 days. I decided to run the weekend long run of 9 miles in the morning. After about 2.5 miles, I met some Asha runners who were also getting on the running routine after a hiatus. I was also feeling really tired after 2.5 miles. So, I just ran with these guys for the next 2 miles and finished after that. Since I started late (about 7:45 am) and was running on a concrete track, I was not able to run the quota of 9 miles and end the run with 4.2 miles.

 

I decided to cycle in the evening since I was not able to complete my running quota in the morning. I started about 5:45 pm and finished at about 7:45 pm. I did a total of 23.4 miles. Here are the stats from the running and cycling today.

Date

Day

Activity

Type

Miles

Time (HH:MM:SS)

Avg. Pace (min/Mile)

Avg. Speed

Calories Burnt

Avg. Heart Rate

21-Sep

Sun

Running

Long Run

4.18

0:47:00

11:20

5.3

525

157

21-Sep

Sun

Cycling

Cycling

23.38

1:43:41

4:26

13.5

1233

140

 

Easy Run – Sep 7, 2008

After the long run yesterday, I did a easy 4 miles today. Since I was running on the road in a new trail, the speed slowed down a bit. Here are the stats.

 

Date	Day	Activity	Type	Miles	Time (HH:MM:SS)	Avg. Pace (min/Mile)	Avg. Speed	Calories Burnt	Avg. Heart Rate
7-Sep	Sun	Running	Easy Pace	4.12	0:45:51	11:08	5.4	513	150

Marathon Training Continued.. [Aug-18-2008]

The past one month has been busy with training. I have been training only for 2 days on weekdays and doing the long runs on the weekends. I also joined the 5 week beginner skating program at the rink in Galleria.


I have been trying to do the regular or Hill runs on Monday's, the interval / tempo training on Wednesdays and the long runs at the Whitewater lake.


Cross Training - Biking


Since I wanted to cross train and it was too boring to do the cycling on the standstill cycle in the Gym, I bought a Trek 1.2 series, size 54 bike (http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/2008/road/1_series/12/). I did my first cross training cycling on this bike last Sunday (17-Aug). Again, here are the stats from my Forerunner 305.


Here is my breakdown of training so far after my last blog post (I will try to be more regular than one month updates J). All the data given here is from my Garmin Forerunner 305. I use the Forerunner with a heart rate monitor to track my progress during the runs and then download it to the Garmin software to analyze the statistics. I am a stats junkie and love to slice and dice the data.

Date	Day	Type	Miles	Time (HH:MM:SS)	Avg. Pace (min/Mile)	Avg. Speed	Calories Burnt	Avg. Heart Rate
26-Jul	Sat	Long Run	6.02	1:06:00	11:01	5.4	820	NA
28-Jul	Mon	Hill	3.75	0:46:16	12:21	4.9	477	NA
30-Jul	Wed	Interval	3.5	0:32:11	9:12	6.5	459	NA
2-Aug	Sat	Missing Training because of Trip to New Jersey
4-Aug	Mon	Missing Training because of Trip to New Jersey
6-Aug	Wed	Interval	3.38	0:31:24	9:18	6.4	457	156
9-Aug	Sat	Long Run	6.38	1:06:00	10:20	5.8	870	176
11-Aug	Mon	Missed Training because of Rain
13-Aug	Wed	Missed Training because of Trip to Phoenix
16-Aug	Sat	Long Run	9	1:33:00	10:20	5.8	1117	168
17-Aug	Sun	Cycling	21.2	2:22:42	10:33	8.9	1221	125
18-Aug	Mon	Easy Pace	6.25	1:05:34	10:29	5.7	844	173

As you can see, my pace has gradually increased for the long runs. Hopefully, I should reach my target pace of 10:00 min / mile for my long distance runs in the next month or two. That would take me 4hours and 20 minutes to finish the marathon which I would be happy with for my first marathon J


I watched the marathon this past weekend and the women runners ran the marathon in 2:30 and I can't even cycle 26 miles in 2:30 L This was a shock to me. I will try my best to better these times. Yeah..I mean cycling J


I will also try to start the swimming thing going this week to complete the cross training.


Strength Training


I was never a big fan of going to the Gym since I can't fathom the fact that you are in a closed Air Conditioned room and trying to pump the Iron. I would much rather plays any good sport or run / swim. But I did take the plunge about 3 weeks back and started my upper body strength training in the Gym. Although I still need to figure out how to do the upper body training for the various body parts, I am sure I should be able to do this in sync with the marathon training. Hmm..I think I am trying to do too many things in too short time. Hope my body holds up J

Training for the TEAM-ASHA, Dallas White Rock Marathon

A big "Hello World" to the blogging world again ! I have been blogging on and of in the past two years and completely stopped it about 10 months back. Now I started to start afresh again.
A perfect excuse to start it again is the fact that I am training for the TEAM-ASHA , Dallas White Rock Marathon (http://www.runtherock.com/) . I started the unofficial running with the wonderful volunteers of the Asha group about 2 months ago. Then I went on a 3 week vacation to Belgium, Italy and Mexico where I did very little training.

We recently (July-12) started the official training program with the Dallas Running Club  http://www.dallasrunningclub.com ). I will talk about my experience with running, the gear and the training in the future posts !

Those of you who run often know what a pleasure it is to achieve your target distance or speed or just finishing your goal ! The most important reason why I am doing this marathon is because of the difference that the funds raised through this event will bring to the children of India. In the near future, I will let you know of the details as to how you can be my 'running partner' by contributing funds to this wonderful cause.