Week-13: 9/29-10/5

-Monday (9/29): 5 mile tempo run. I did a pretty hard tempo run on Renner Trail averaging 7:50 per mile for 5 miles. My HR stats are here.

-Wednesday (10/1): 6 mile track workout. I met few other Team Asha runners and did a nice track workout at Park Hill Junior High School. I did 2x1200 intervals followed by 3x800 with ~2:00 walking breaks. I did pretty hard intervals as I averaged 5:04 for 1200m and 3:24 for 800m. I did 2 miles of cool down for a total of 6 miles. The details of the run are here.

-Saturday (10/04): Today's plan was to race at DRC's The Loop 15K and do 6-7 miles before the race for a total of 16 miles. Sravanthi is doing 5K and she had to come with me and wait in the car till the race started at 8am. I started off running with the group around 6:45am and we did 7 miles of easy running in about 1:05. The weather was great and temperature was in mid 60s. The race was about to begin when we finished our pre-race miles and I did met the rest of Team Asha runners. Race started around 8:05 and sun was out and temperature was about 70F. I started out fast and soon realized that I did 8:05 for the first mile. I was happy with the pace and tried to maintain it as much as I could. The first 6 miles were good and I was around 8:00 pace. But, I think my HR was creeping up slowly every mile and I felt that I might not be able to sustain this pace for the whole race. I took a 30 sec walk break after mile 6, and that did indeed help a lot. I started to feel better and miles 7-9 went by fast and I was able to sprint to finish in 1:14:44. All of Team Asha runners did good and Sravanthi finished her 5K in ~49mins. My run details are here and the race results are here.

-Sunday (10/05): I wanted to maintain my tradition of a good bike ride on Sunday and went out to Whiterock Creek Trail. I started on the creek trail and after 7 miles merged with Whiterock lake trail to loop the lake and came back on the creek trail to finish a 24 mile bike ride. I did the first half of the ride about 16mph and the second half in~17mph. I had a great feeling after this bike ride as I have ridden the bike little faster than normally, which probably explains the fact that I was a little sore in my legs after the ride. Details of the ride are here.

Week-12: 9/22-9/28

-Wednesday (9/24): 5.5mi Hill workout @ Prairie Creek elementary school. It was my first time at this place and it had nice long hills which makes it ideal for hill workout. After about 0.8 mile of warm up, I did 5 hill repeats. Each repeat was about 0.37mi with ~60 foot elevation gain.

-Thursday (9/25):6 mile tempo run @ Renner Trail. I did an easier tempo run at an average pace of 9:11 per mile as I did a hill workout the day before. I usually take a rest day between 2 hard workouts as per FIRST training, but this week I could not do it as I skipped running on Monday and Tuesday. My HR stats are here.

-Saturday (9/27): 15 mile long run. I finally was able to join Greg's group (8:30-9:30pace group) for this week's long run. The group was planning to run at an average pace of 9:15 per mile, which is just about what I wanted to do. We started off at Mockingbird DART station and ran toward the Whiterock lake. By about mile 5 we joined the lake and had a great run around most of the lake. I saw our other Team Asha runners, who are running with other pace groups. We took a water break at mile 12 and then finished off well back at the DART station. Our route can be found here. My stats for the run are, avg. pace 9:25 min/mile and Avg.HR=150.

-Sunday (9/28): 24 mile bike ride on Chisholm & Bluebonnet trail. I got on my bike after about 10 days and it felt good. I started from my home and got on the Chisholm trail in couple of miles. It was a nice and long trail when you combine Chisholm and Bluebonnet trail and I could bike about 24 miles in ~1:45. My average speed was less than what I would have liked, due to the frequent breaks at the many places the trail crosses the roads, but other wise it was a nice trail to either bike or run. I am thinking, next time I might bike on the Whiterock creek and lake trails from my home, which would make the round trip about 30 miles.

Week-11: 9/15-9/21

-Tuesday (9/16): I did a 6 mile Tempo run on Renner trail. Started the run with a mile of warm up as usual and then did 4 miles @ 8:35 average pace and finished of with a mile of cool down. After the race on Sunday, this run did not feel nearly as difficult. I need to get some biking done tomorrow as it have been almost 2 weeks since I did a bike ride.

-Wednesday (9/17): After a 2 week hiatus, I was able to do a 12 mile easy bike ride on Chisholm trail. Sravanthi and few other Team Asha runners did a tempo run.

-Saturday (9/20): I had to skip my track workout this week as there were high school football games going on at the local high schools. We had our usual long run at Whiterock lake. This weekend happened to be Tour De Fleurs 10K/20K race and most of the DRC group is taking part in it. Most of our Team Asha has decided to have a long run of our own and we started off a little earlier than the TDF and were running in the opposite direction of the race to avoid being over run by some 3000 runners. It was an amazing day to run with temperatures in the mid 60s at 7am and also with some mist cover. About mile 6, I started seeing the fast runners in the race and boy they were flying. I wanted to run about 15 miles this week at an average of 9 min pace. When I reached the TDF starting point after doing the loop, I have finished about 11 miles. I decided to do the last 2 miles a little faster (closer to 8 min miles) to have a strong finish. I ended up doing ~14.7 miles in 2:10 for a little under 9 min pace. It felt great and not so tiring, maybe because of the weather. This week I did not do my track workouts and also biked only once. But, I am still happy with the fact that I did a 15 mile run after a long time and it felt great. My HR stats are here.

Vibha's Dream Mile 10K

Wow!! I finished first in overall male category, what a feeling! I have never dreamed of finishing first in any race, even the small local races. Okay, this is a small race with only about 30-40 people in 10K, but still, first is first, right :)

About 10 of Team Asha runners participated in Vibha's 10th Annual Dream Mile 5K/10K race at Whiterock Lake. After spending some 10 minutes trying to find a way to reach start point, I saw a fellow Asha member and finally reached the start. I actually wanted to warm up for about 2-3 miles, but I was actually happy to reach the start line before the race started. My goal was not to run faster than 8:00 pace. The start felt fast and my first mile of 7:22 confirmed it. I tried to slow down a little, but boy it is tough to slow down with all the adrenaline of a race. I was running in good rhythm and miles 2 and 3 were about 7:40 pace. I realized that I was currently second to a lady few seconds ahead of me at the turn point. I had a feeling that if I finish strong, I can even pass that lady, but at the same time I did not want to push too much and remember that this is part of training for a marathon. I still maintained my 7:40 pace for miles 4 and 5, but it was getting tougher and my heart rate was creeping up slowly. In the last mile I have decided not to really sprint and just run my pace. As I approach the finish line, I again could not help but sprint and I almost passed the other lady, but just managed to finish right behind her for overall second position. Wow! and my stop watch read 47:16 and that a PR by a few minutes. Sravanthi ran the 5K in 43:00, he first race and she looked great after the finish. She was very happy to have run a good race herself and more happy for my finish. My HR stats for the race are here.

Vibha did a great job in conducting the race and I got a 1-hr free "Discovery" flight ride over Dallas with Indus Aviation.

Week 10: 9/8-9/14

-Tuesday (9/9): I could not run on Monday as I was too sore from my move over the weekend. I think I have climbed the stairs at least 5o times, which is a pretty good cross-training workout :) I heard about the Plano Prediction 5K run for today from a friend and I was raring to go as I wanted to do this for a long time. It is interesting to do a race where you try to match your prediction time without a watch. I was a few minutes late and my friend was waiting for me. We started off later than the main group. I have predicted a time of 25:00. I started running my usual tempo pace, which I realized later that I was running close to 7:30 pace. After a mile, my friend wanted to slow it a little as he predicted 26:26, and so I was running my myself. I realized that I was running too fast and I took the last mile a little easy. I ended up finishing in 24:01 which is about a minute slower than my prediction. They give ribbons for the top 20 closest times to their prediction times. I finished 29th in prediction differential with 59 secs. I am planning to join the Plano Pacers club and join their monthly prediction runs and also races.

-Thursday (9/11): Interval workout at JJ Pearce High School. I have a good track workout with a sequence of intervals 1200,1000,800,600,400,200 with 200m rest intervals. I did average ~7:00 pace for the intervals.

-Saturday (9/13): Many of Team Asha runners are planning to run the Vibha Dream Mile 5K/10K race on Sunday. I have registered for 10K and Sravanthi for 5K. I actually planed n doing some biking today as I will do the race tomorrow. But, thanks to Mr.Ike, I did not do biking as it was very windy and raining. I went out for a 6 mile run on Renner Trail, which is right next to my place. It is a nice trail and also has quarter mile marks for part of the trail. I had to take shelter under a tree for 5 mins in the middle when it rained heavily. It was great weather to run, overcast, windy but humid though. I finished my 6 miles @ ~9:00 pace.

-Sunday (9/14): Vibha's Dream Mile 10K. I got my PR in 10K by a few minutes as I finished in 47:16 (7:37 pace). Details are in another post.

Week-9: 9/1-9/7

-Monday (9/1): I did my first run of the week, a 7 mile Tempo run with the middle 5 miles averaging 8:30 pace. I will try to adhere to the FIRST training program which prescribes only 3 quality runs a week and cross training workouts on the other days.

-Tuesday (9/2): An easy 10 mile bike ride on Campion Trail.

-Wednesday (9/3): I had a nice track workout at Ranchview High School. After a easy 1 mile warm up, I did a 4x800m around 3:30 per interval and finished off with a 2 mile cool down. The weather was cool and perfect except for the strong headwind, up to 30mph.

-Thursday (9/4): An easy 10 mile bike ride on Campion Trail.

-Saturday (9/6): I ran on Campion trail to save some time for packing my stuff for my apartment move. I met a friend in the trail and we ran together for the first 10 miles. Miles went by fast as we were chatting and I have averaged ~9:30 for the first 10 miles. I picked up the pace for the last 2.5 miles and I have averaged 9:15 on the whole, which is exactly my target for this long run. It did not feel that hard and I finished by 8:30am before sun intensified.