Finished my prep race before the Half Marathon

Yesterday, I completed the Race to the End of Summer with a timing of 1 hr 16 mins. The day was beautiful with 75 degrees, a perfect day for a race. This was the 1st annual event and I hope that they conduct it every year.

It is less than a month away from my final event that I have been working towards - San Jose Rock n Roll Half Marathon. I am feeling confident of finishing the race in a good time and enjoying the bands along the course. I plan to complete my half marathon distance next weekend and continue aggressively with the training over the next 2 weeks and then take it easy a week before the event..I believe it will be right thing to do..But, we will see what Coach Chris has to say :)

Race to End Summer

Its time to for another prep run before my final event - The San Jose Rock n Roll Half Marathon. I have been training for the last couple of months and I am looking forward to this event.

The bands that will be playing along the course have been finalized. The event is exactly a month away. In preparation it, I am running my 2nd 10K race this summer. The race is called "The Race to End Summer" in San Jose, CA and I am looking forward to doing better than my time in the Jungle Run which is 1 hr 15 mins.

To My Readers - Support Me!

Back in May, I started training for the San Jose Rock n Roll Half Marathon as part of Team in Training - My Run to Save Lives. I have been with the training program for almost 2 months and it has been a unique and rewarding experience. As we are train, we always remember the cause we are supporting, which is to find a cure for cancer and support the millions of people who are impact by it by being there for them. 

I have several friends and family who have generously donated and are supporting me in this effort but I would like to call upon my readers to extend your support for this great cause and help me, my teammates and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society find a cure, support those who are struggling with these conditions, celebrate those who have survived cancer and inspire us on a daily basis to make a change in the world we live in.

Fuel Up before Training...A key to surviving long distance

I have been away from the blog for a couple of weeks. After the Jungle Run event, I was sore for a whole week. I guess walking/running 16.5 miles over that weekend was not a great idea. You can store that one under those "rookie mistakes" that people always talked about. I am glad I did not injure myself in the process. I need to be more careful in the future.

With that story behind me, I have started training long distances over the last 2 weeks. I have been keeping up with doing at least 16 miles over the entire week with completing double digit distances on the weekend. I got a couple of great tips from my coach which I thought will be very useful for walk-runners planning those long distances. Most of them are common sense tips but practicing them every time you go to cover long distances will help you go the full distance.

• Eat a healthy breakfast but something that is easily digestible. Do not train on empty stomach ! That would definitely be counted as another "rookie mistake"
• Drink 16 oz of water a couple of hours before you start training
• Avoid stuff that can make you dehydrated the night before the training (i.e. alcohol)

I have kept with these rules and they truly work. I am looking forward to start hill training this weekend at the Stanford Dish.

Hurray! I crossed the finish line

Gosh..It feels like I had been waiting for this moment all my life..I was a little emotional crossing that finish line which was a feeling unlike anything I have experienced in a long time...and all I can say is I wanna go out and do it again.

I was able to complete the race in 1hr:20mins:50sec at the pace of 13.01 mins/mile. I am so happy that I was able to finish under 90 mins (my original target). Now, that I have a personal best for a 10K race, I look forward to breaking that time with my next 10K race..I have to admit this walking/running business is addictive.

The day was perfect for the run..It was a little overcast, a slight cool breeze and the sun was trying hard to shine its way through. We started at 7:20 AM. Now, this course had a hill to climb right at the beginning, which was absolutely cruel..But, there were a couple of downhills which help balance that out. The course is absolutely gorgeous through Vasona Park. I had a rough start for the first 2 miles partly because I came into this race after having run 10 miles the previous day as part of my training for the marathon in October. So, my legs had not recovered fully. But, after we crossed the 3 mile mark, I was able to pick up pace and was able to run certain miles @ 9/10 mins per mile which helped me in the overall time.
Pacing, eating energy bars and keeping myself hydrated all helped in completing the race. The post race scene was awesome...Whole Foods had a large assortment of food. I tried 2 new products, Activate and Muscle Milk, both developed to help athletes recover post race.

This day is engraved in my memory forever and I will cherish it for the rest of my life. I do not have the official race photos yet. I will share them as soon as they become available. For now, here is a picture with a couple of my team members from Team in Training.

Excited about the Jungle Run

So..tomorrow is the Jungle Run on the Los Gatos Creek Trail in Los Gatos, CA. I am very excited about my first event. I had a great workout this morning. I did ~ 10 miles on the Los Alamitios Trail starting in Lake Almaden Park. I maintained a speed of 13.5 mins/mile which I was happy about.

My goal is to finish the 10K tomorrow within 1 hr. 30 mins, which is about 13 mins/mile. I hope my legs cooperate and I look forward to sharing my first event experience. Wish me Good Luck!

Good Gear is Key to Training

When we started training, we had a great shoe and gear clinic which was very informative for me. This was conducted by the owner of Running Revolution, a speciality running store based in Campbell, CA.
The video is split into 2 parts: