Week-8 (8/25-8/31)

-Tuesday (8/26): I could not run on Monday evening with our group and ran on Tuesday morning. I was planning to do a 5 mile tempo run with middle 3miles @ 8:00 pace. I started off running faster than I wanted and my first tempo mile was @ 7:24 and second one went in 7:40 and I was so tired I had to take a walk break and by the time I finished 5 miles, I was totally spent. I had a pretty bad day at work feeling tired all day.

-Thursday (8/28): My second quality run of the week was Track workout. I am trying to follow the FIRST training program and today was supposed to be 3x1600m interval training. As I was short of time I did only 2 intervals but could average 7:10 for each mile. It felt much better than Tuesday's tempo run.

-Saturday (8/30): I overslept today and so could not run with DRC. Instead I went our on Campion Trail around 10am (bad idea!). I was planning to do 13 miles @ 9:00 pace. I started of great for the first 5 miles, averaging 9:00 pace. After about an hour,I started to feel the heat (~90F) and had to slow down to 10:00 pace. It was really hot and I was glad to have taken couple of salt caps. I decided to cut short the run to 10 miles (boy, that was a smart choice) and finished with an average of 10:00 pace including the 5 min fuel break in the middle. It felt like heaven when I took a cold shower after reaching home. It was a real tough workout after a really long time.

-Sunday (8/31): I finished of the week with a easy 21 mile bike ride today. It is a great cross training and my muscles feel great. I could only bike once this week and hoping to make it at least 2 bike rides a week.

Week-7 (8/18-8/24)

-Monday (8/18): 4 miles Tempo. Had a good tempo run around LaVillita Lake. One mile of warmup followed by 2 miles of Tempo run in 16:00 and ending with a 1 mile cool down.

-Tuesday (8/19): We had our second ice skating class. Today it felt comfortable when I stepped on ice. We were taught to push on one leg and slide. Also, we were told how to do a skate towards back as well. I think we are getting the pushing part but not the back skating yet. Its time to practice it more.

-Wednesday (8/20): Track workout. Another great workout on the tracks at Ranchview High School. It was raining pretty hard in the evening and stopped just in time for our run. We did 4x800m intervals with 1 mile warm up and cool down.

-Thursaday (8/21): Bike ride. I had a nice bike ride on Campion Trail along with Cnu for about 13 miles. I was ale to average ~14 miles/hr. It is a great feeling after the bike ride, I feel my legs so really stretched and relaxed.

-Friday (8/22): 8 mile long run. As I was taking weekend off, I decided to run my long run on friday morning. I started off at 6:30 and had a great difficulty for the first 3 miles. My legs were not warming up and I was feeling terrible. I was walking every few minutes and took ~40mins for the first 3 miles. I started feeling a little better and ran the next few miles in 10-11 min pace, without much breaks. After 5 miles or so I felt great and was running close to 8min pace and finished strong.

Week-6 (8/11-8/17)

-Monday (8/11): I went to Texins Gym after more than a year as it was raining this evening. I did a 3 mile run with 1 mile @ 8:00 tempo pace. I was also able to do some strength exercises after a long time.

-Tuesday (8/12): We had our first Ice skating class at Dallas Galleria. We were first taught to fall and get up on ice and then to walk and glide on ice. It was a good first class and the instructor was impressed with all of us as we were able to walk quite well by the end of the class. Now, we just need to practice 3-4 times a week and get better.

-Wednesday (8/13): Track workout at Ranchview High School. Another good showing by Irving runners as 10 of us had a good track workout. We did intervals of 400m,600m,800m,600m,400m with 200m walk breaks in between laps.

-Saturday (8/16): 9 mile whiterock lake loop. Had a great run around the lake along with DRC. The weather was amazingly perfect, overcast in low 70s at the start with some wind. Sunil and myself ran all the 9 miles together and we did a consistent 9:30 pace (without including breaks) and had a strong finish. Sravanthi did 6+ miles for the first time and she was really tired. She walked the last few miles, but importantly was able to push herself beyond 6 miles. Also, there was a good showing of Asha runners for this run.

-Sunday (8/17): 10mile bike ride. I finally got my bike ready on saturday, with the help of Sravanthi. On sunday morning, while my parents went out for their morning walk, I went for a 10 miles bike ride after a long time. I have been waiting for this day for the last 2 months and here it came. Now I just need to keep this momentum and ride atleast 2 days a week. This week was good, 3 runs, 1 bike ride and 1 ice skating session.

Week-5 (8/4-8/10)

-Monday (8/4): Dallas is in the midst of a heat wave and temperatures are in ~105F with head index ~110F. Most of the team did a indoor run on treadmills. I did a tempo run around La Villita Lake. 1 mile warm up followed by 2x1mile Tempo (7:24 & 8:00) and finishing it off with a 1 mile cool down.

-Wednesday (8/6): We had a good track work out at Ranchview High School. We changed the workout a little and did 4x600m repeats, with 200m of walk between laps. I ended up doing 5x600m and averaged 2:36 for each interval.

-Saturday (8/9): Its a 6 miler for this week but since we lost our way a little, we ended up doing 6.5 miles and had a strong finish in about 1hr. I took almost 3 miles to fully warm up. Another good week of running, but no cross-training:( I am waiting to get my tires fixed on my bike and plan to do at least 2 bike rides per week as cross-training. Also, we start going to ice skating classes from next week.

Week-4 (7/28-8/3)

-Monday 07/28: Hill workout in Valley Ranch, Irving. 10 of us had a great workout. We started off with 1 mile warm up, followed by 6 repeats of a short hill (0.1mi, ~100ft). We finished it off with a 1 mile cool down.

-Wednesday 07/30: Track workout at Ranchview High School, Irving. Another tough and fun workout on the track. 11 people showed up and we did 6x400 tracks with a mile of warm up and cool down. The weather was great as we had light drizzle for most of the run and had the pleasure of seeing 2 semi-circle rainbows. That was a pleasure and I wished I had my camera.

-Thursday 07/31: An easy 4 miler at La Villita Lake.

-Friday 08/01: Ice skating at Dallas Galleria. Our second try at ice skating and it was lot of fun. I managed to do 10 laps and Sravanthi did 6, without falling even once! This can very well be a good cross-training workout if we manage to learn. I can't wait to start our classes in 2 weeks.

-Saturday 08/02: Whiterock Lake loop from Winfrey Point. Ran with DRC group for ~9 miles at 10 min/mile pace. Around 20 Team Asha runners showed up for this hot run in the upper 80s and some humidity. We had amazing breakfast following the run, thanks to DRC coaches who were kind enough to get some bagels and fluids. I loved having chocolate milk after the run.

To sumarize, great start to the training, especially Irving folks of Team Asha. They are a motivated bunch and have amazing spirit.
Go Team Asha.

2008 Team Asha Dallas: Week-3 (07/21-07/27)

Full and Half marathon training with DRC started on 12th July. Details of the training program are here.
-Full-marathon schedule calls for 23 weeks of training
-Half-Marathon schedule calls for either 17/23 weeks of training , depending on if one is training for DRC Half or Whiterock Half.

- Unfortunately I missed almost 2 weeks of training. DRC groups meet on Saturday AMs for long runs and Wednesday PMs for Hill/Tempo/Interval runs.

- My first run with DRC was on 26th July and I joined the Full 9:30-10 pace group. It was a nice feeling to run with a large group again after so long. My first experience of running with a big group was with Team Asha SV in 2004. The big group made the 6 mile run quite easier, except for the slight hills towards the end of the run.

- There were quite a few Team Asha Dallas runners in various pace groups of DRC and we all met up after the run, stretched well and went for a nice breakfast at Einstein Bagels as always.