Thursday is Turkey Trot!

The Applied Materials Silicon Valley has organized the Turkey Trot this Thursday. These charities help valley families meet their most basic needs, for health, hope, and a home. So, join me on Thursday! :)

Missed Saturday practice

I missed the Saturday's practice session. I was down with severe cold. :(

Tuesday and Thursday evenings

Group exercise is a very motivating form of work-out. As I mentioned, I had tried participating in the various classes offered by our gym. But I have liked Turbo Kickboxing the most! Its held every Tuesday and Thursday from 5:30pm to 6:30pm. :)

There's never a dull moment during that one hour. The music is engaging enough and the steps are so much in sync with the beats! It has a little martial arts feel because of the kicks and the boxing style punches. This is so much better than the karate class which I attended as a kid. Almost the same moves or type of moves, but with a zing! Plus, we have a cute instructor who smiles often!

Check out this link if you want to know more..

Our 2nd practice session

We all woke up at around 6:30am this morning. Today, the coach led training session was at Campbell Park. Unfortunately, in spite of getting up early we were late and missed part of the Information session.

We learned the significance of walk breaks during the runs. It's always easy to appreciate the importance of some theory which you already had been putting in practice...I was already taking ample walk breaks! :)

Coming back to the theory, it's from a chapter in the book "Marathon - You can do it!" by Jeff Galloway...Walk breaks helps to conserve energy, fluids and muscle capacity. So, effectively, each walk break erases the accumulated fatigue and gives strength to run that extra mile. It reduces the damage to the leg's muscle groups and eventually will improve stamina...

I had two myths about taking walk breaks in marathon-

1. When you sign up for Runner's Marathon, you just run...no walking and halting..turns out, I am partly wrong. You can run and walk. In fact, you should take healthy amount of walk breaks. The book also mentions crawling. I hope I will refrain from that! ;)
2. Walk breaks are for wimps. In this context, I never really cared if I was one.
   

Last weekend, I ran 4 miles with the run-walk ratio 1:1 minute. This weekend it was 3:1. I felt so much better after the run. And I did not even take the water break. I think it was partly because of the new pair of running shoes. I spent a good one hour in Running Revolution store last weekend. The shoes are lighter and they absorb moisture. The "specialists" in the store will measure your foot arch and based on that, they find the right pair. They also have a treadmill where they observe how you walk or run. They take that analysis into consideration. I had never imagined that so much of science and technology goes into fitting sportsmen with the right gear. Check out my first ever running shoes - Adidas Supernova.


Later, one of the honorees shared his story. A young man in his late twenties. He discovered a lump on his neck, which led to the diagnosis of Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He went through the chemotherapy sessions and was cured. He is in remission now. That's the long story cut short. There are many people who need such medical attention. The money that TNT raises goes for such a cause. One of the many ways in which this money is invested is for funding the clinical trials.

My Story

I am fairly active and health conscious. I eat healthy food most of the times. I exercise moderately. Lately, I have been participating in some group exercises like pilates, yoga, spinning , kickboxing or bosu. Not been very regular, but once in a while. But, I have noticed that in cardio exercises like kickboxing or spinning, I get easily exhausted as compared to my peers. My movement slackens eventually. I also timed my running. I can barely run 2 minutes without taking a break. At 25, I expect myself to be in a little better shape. That's why, I thought of joining TNT program. It also gives a terrific sense of satisfaction to know that I will be helping others.

That's my story for now. I look forward to learn a lot from this program. :)