Ankle Sprain
Posted by Thanesh Sadachcharan in Injury Prevention & Treatment on October 30th, 2009
I am hoping I will not need any surgery.
The Half-Marathon Experience
Posted by Gautham Kammaje in Personal, Running on March 23rd, 2009
It has been about 2 months since I crossed the finish line of my first half-marathon - the Phoenix PF Changs Rock and Roll Marathon….and I cant wait to do it all over again…infact I cant wait to compete in my first full marathon before I turn 25…Why am I so eager and anxious if it was so painful and exhausting? Why do thousands of people every year, many repeatedly take part in such long endurance races?
Never before did I think about the joys experienced while pushing yourself to your physical limits. Even though I feel a sense of accomplishment after completing my first race in 2:20, I feel like I could have done much better. If not for the cramps I experienced during the last two miles, I could have shaved 10 mins off my time. For long I have dreamt about pacing my race so that I have the energy for the final dash during the home stretch. But this was not to be as I barely limped home…
If not for the overly crowded race, I feel like I could have shaved another 5 mins off my finish time. Maneuvering through the crowd to run the pace I was comfortable with turned out to be more annoying than I thought. I guess, I underestimated my finish time while others overestimated their times. This obviously resulted in many corral mismatches. Realistically speaking, I am happy with my time but thanks to good ol Jess and some past training runs, I was pretty confident I could have done it under 2:00
This brings me to my next question…how do I avoid these cramps in the future? I thought I managed my fluid intake very well over the few days before the race but looks like I was wrong. Also, to improve my time, I need to run more and run faster! This means that I need to work on strengthening my lower body. How much time do I devote to running and how much to strength training? How many half marathons do I need to prepare myself to compete in a full and finish under 4:00 or even 4:30?
After this experience, I am not sure if I ever want to run another mega-event-marathons but I cant wait to put my running shoes back on…so where do I want to run my next race? and when and where will the special full marathon be?
NEXT HALF - Prescott - May 2nd 2009
FIRST FULL - SAN DIEGO BABY!!! MAY 31st 2009!! Bring it on TK!! lol
How it all began….?
Posted by Gautham Kammaje in Running on March 23rd, 2009
Out of shape, lazy, lethargic, fat…. Summer of 2007 and I weighed 170 pounds. I wore size 34 pants and would always buy a loose and large shirt which would hide my stomach. This was not how I had imagined myself to be when I was 22. I had to do something and quick, but I lacked the motivation.
The defining moment came when I was walking by the pool on a sunny day. While I was too conscious and ashamed to take my shirt off, the others were having a great time – drinking, eating and being extremely comfortable in their ‘six pack’ figures. This was when I decided to hit the gym and I gave myself a target of loosing 20 pounds and getting that desirable six pack.
The initial period was as motivating as it was disheartening. I was not able to run for more than 3 minutes at a go and running a mile was quite a task. To increase my stamina, I had to try various cardiovascular methods. I decided to include 10 minutes of biking and 10 minutes on the elliptical to my routine. This increased my stamina and I was able to run for longer periods.
With increased stamina and energy, I was able to run longer, further and faster. The stats and numbers that you see on the treadmill are great motivators. The joy and the exhilarating rush that I get by running is paralleled only by my desire to push myself further and log that extra mile every time I put on my running shoes.
What Running Can Do For You?
Posted by Thanesh Sadachcharan in Personal, Running on March 23rd, 2009
265 Pounds
215 pounds
————————————–>
Why am I Running?
Posted by Thanesh Sadachcharan in Personal, Running on March 23rd, 2009
So recently I was asked a question… Why am I running? Why am I losing weight? What is the deal? Arranged Marriage? I could not hide my laughter at the sight of these questions but it did get me thinking. Why?
Well at around the period of November 2007 or so - I was weighing around 265 pounds. My waist size had hit 42 inches, I was lethargic, I was drinking hard and eating the most “yummiest” but unhealthy foods in the world. I decided well it was time to hit the gym - and I did. Around May 2008 - I was weighing around 240 pounds and I was hitting the gym but I still did not see any major shift in my life style nor my health. I was not increasing stamina and I was definetly not giving up the “good-life” food.
Around December 2008 - I was up around the 245 mark again and well had lost the daily routine of hitting the gym and doing any kind of exercise. Then I made a trip to Phoenix to see some of my friends for the holidays. I was very impressed by the fact that they were “living the life” but also doing some routine work on their bodies - like running, weight training and some conditioning. They had also decided to run the Rock n Roll Phoenix Marathon. This in a weird and complicated manner motivated me. I also realized that my company had a Health plan which allowed me to reimburse certain costs associated with fitness. This was relieving since I did not have to pay attention to costs - at least for the time being.
So I went and got a really good pair of shoes which cost me around 140$$ and some apparel as well. Gautham and I hope to write about this as well in the future. I got a beginner’s training plan and planned on the baby steps - 1 mile at a time :).
And thus I decided to start running - why? Well basically to change my lifestyle, to make me less stressful with work and some of the other aspects of life - well you can read about this at 1tkny 
. I also wanted to feel and make myself much more healthier, look fit and hopefully one day to get into a 32 size pant.
Right now I weigh around 210-215 pounds. Size 35 inch. My goal is to reach 190 and then figure it out from there. I try to run a 10+ miler once every week but I also want to make sure I improve on my stamina and my strength as well.
It has been fun so far and I finished a half marathon in Austin, Texas on February 14th 2009. I will write more about how I trained for this on another future post. There are definitely areas for improvement and I am working on them and hopefully they all get translated into some blog posts on this site.
So again why run? Well if you want a “high” - it comes cheap, free and nothing gets more healthier
-
Media RSS
Gallery
Recent Comments