Sunday, October 14, 2007

Seattle Half

I was planning to go for the seattle full, but I dont think I'll be able to get my training upto par in just 5 weeks. I'm upto 21 miles this week (post Ramadan) already so I'm happy with the progress. This time I really want to break 2:00, although just my luck this course is going to be very very hilly. oh well, what goes up must come down.




Course map (click to open the pdf)




Elevation map (click to open the pdf)

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Losing Muscle Mass ... fast

Ramadan is about 70% done and I've lost 3 pounds of muscle (definitely not fat!). Went for the saturday evening run with Sam/Laine/Eric/Larry and Fawad and boy did I feel it. The fact that it was 15 minutes post iftaar did not help.

I'd really like to get in on the Seattle Full marathon on Nov. 24th but unless I can regain my core strength I doubt I will be beating my stellar 5 hrs PR. Oh well lets see. I'll pretend I'm losing fat...

I'm thinking of writing to RW to find out more about running when you are fasting. Lets see...

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Evo Morales

This is quite amazing. I have to read up on south american history. This is the stuff leaders are made of

Monday, September 10, 2007

voodenwille half

After a long hiatus, I'm back. The super jock and jill half was last week and it looked like it was going to be a pretty good day. I was under 9 minutes a mile for the first 11 miles and was all set to break the 2 hour barrier. But then the last mile or two, my neck cramped up, looking out for the cyclists. There were some very un-cooperative cyclists on the course, in fact we had a few accidents on the way as well. Shouting "on your left" shouldnt be that taxing... All in all it was a good day, I was pretty sore because I was running a lot faster than I usually do, I ended up with 2:08 (0:02 slower than my last run) I will break 2 hours one of these days. Ramadan will be fairly quiet but I'm looking at the seattle full end of november. Incidentally, my friend Ather (or Artie or Artemus or Artery as I call him) broke 2 hours on his first ever run, very very impressive.

Anyway, here are some pictures




Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Concert videos

Hey All, we put some of the concert videos up, the sound quality isnt that great, but we'll be updating our myspace page with some studio recordings. This show was done in support of the dreamfly project, what they have to say about themselves:


We would like to make the world a better place - one child at a time. Idealistic? You bet!With so much of the world up in flames, its easy to get discouraged. But we can't afford to lose sight of the reality that every single person's life is worth something. If we can help one child realize her potential, we've started to crawl.We want to begin with at least a 100 children. Children who live on less than 50 cents a day. Whose parents have been unable to break the cycle of poverty. A cycle of at least a handful of generations. Children who have no access to quality education. Yet they dream crazy, imaginative dreams. Of becoming doctors, engineers, pilots, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and presidents. Children whose dreams have not yet been marred by their reality.


more info here: http://www.thedreamfly.org/


Sarab, original:


Woh Lamhey:


Do Pal:


Suno: (original)


Super Jock 'n' Jill half




Another half coming up. I've heard its flat, maybe this time I break 2 hours.



In the meanwhile I might run the redmond footzone 5 K this weekend:

https://www.footzone.com/5k_signup.html

















Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Seafair results

Its been a while since I posted, so I thought I'd post my seafair results. Couldnt break the 2 hours but I'm hopeful for the next one. Does anyone know what division means?

Summary

number of finishers: 1619

number of females: 995

number of males: 623

average time: 02:22:16

Saad Ansari
age: 27

gender: M

location: Bellevue, WA

overall place: 740 out of 1620

division place: 45 out of 82

gender place: 398 out of 629

time: 2:07:03

pace: 9:42

Monday, July 2, 2007

Campus Run

http://www.mapmyrun.com/
I finally got around to using MapMyRun. I like...










You can also get elevation gain. This site is brilliant!

Friday, June 29, 2007

SeaFair half marathon next weekend

some of my TNT teammates and I are running the bellevue seafair half marathon, in preparation we're planning to do part of the course tomorrow morning at 7.

We're planning to meet up at the intersection of 4th and 100th NE in the bellevue square mall parking lot:



course map here: http://www.seafairmarathon.com/images/Marathon_Map_2007.gif

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

"just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in"


Back from the hiatus, the show went supremely well even with the mistakes. I thought after accomplishing the marathon and the "Show", life would be peaceful, but it looks like there is more action up ahead. Bellevue half marathon in 2 weeks, 15 minutes show at the Seattle downtown guitar center this weekend and then an open Mic on the microsoft campus in another week. I think I/we are prepared for it all. I just hope my band mates dont find out about my half marathon and my running partners dont find out about my gigs :) As they say the best way to keep a secret is out in the open. This way I will know for sure who reads my blog anyway.

Back to the show, we had a good lineup of songs, including two of our original and very dark numbers. We decided to cut Aitebar, somehow its our Achilles just like Floyd. I'm still waiting on the videos, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, I'll shamelessly copy some unflattering pictures here
The concert was held for a school that Mona and Umaimah are working on setting up in Akri with The Citizens' Foundation. Its a great cause, please check out www.thedreamfly.org for more details.

pictures courtesy of Waqas Ahmed and Atif Gul

Nauman - drummer

Me - waiting for my cue


Take a bow

Do Pal
bla bla bla
more bla
Adil - singer

Alvi with his strat

Friday, June 15, 2007

Concert coming up!

If anyone out there is interested, my band will be performing next weekend on the Microsoft Campus for a charity event for a school in Rural Sindh (province in Pakistan). It is $25 a person to attend and 100% of the money goes to the charity. I'll add some more details about the school, how to get the tickets and the organization we are partnering with (TCF - The Citizen's Foundation) tomorrow. Meanwhile you can check out the videos to the right or check out http://www.youtube.com/tmbrocks


Saturday, June 9, 2007

Bashira in trouble

I just rediscovered this clip :) For those that dont know about this, this was a sketch comedy show in pakistan in the 80s (?) (called 50-50) at par if not better than snl. unfortunately, the standards have since fallen. This clip is about a typical punjabi film shot in english. The results are hilarious

Friday, June 8, 2007

12 year old boy

Some of the race stats

Chip Time 5:14:22
Clock Time 5:20:13
Overall 10194
SexPl 5874
DivPl 985
Age Grace 39.7%
pace 12:00
total division 1267
total sex 7731
10K 1:06:28
half 2:17:07
21 miles 4:03:13

As you can see I was bringing up the rear :) oh and they were diong a fitness test at the expo, here is how i measure up:
- weight 158.2 pounds (my home scale tells me 148 so its obiously wrong)
- Body Fat 12.3 %
- % Total body Water 60.4%
- Muscle Mass 131.8 lbs
- BMR (how much I should be eating) 1832
- Metabolic age: 12 year old :)
- Bone Mass 7 lbs
- visceral fat rating 2 (?)

Thursday, June 7, 2007

pictures!

sun sun sun...







working on my tan





finish line





Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Stop staring at my a$$ - san diego marathon part I

I am now officially a marathoner! Thank you everyone for your support and loyal (hint!) readership. I'm still waiting for some pictures so I thought I'd do a piece meal update.

The plan ride there was very unique. I have never known so many people personally on a plane (alliteration coincidental but doesnt make me any less cool) on a single day. With the exception of the first class seats, pretty much the entire plane was ours. There was a lot of ra-ra-ra and everyone was chanting "go team!".

trivia: how can you tell if a plane is carrying marathoners? As soon as the captain turns off the seatbelt light, everyone makes a bee-line for the loo. oh and when you're done, you just get back in the line :)

Sitting next to me was Ilana, a tnt mentor and a good friend. We talked Dave Matthews and the conflict in the middle east. It was a very enlightening conversation until my happy pills kicked in. Everything is a blur beyond that :) I think I dosed off for a bit.

Cut to the day before the run. I discovered a little late that I had been given a girl shirt. The plunging neckline and the form fitting shape still causes uncontrollable laughter amongst the fellow runners(namely Fawad) The only replacement was a triathalon shirt (sleeveless). Thanks to my macho-men-dont-need-sunscreen policy my arms are like crispy strips of bacon (turkey and halaal)...

We woke up at 3 am to get to the course before the city woke up. Didn't get a whole lot of sleep but that was too be expected. The run started out fun. As the clock started, the gun shot echoed and they began playing U2's "Its a beautiful day" and it was (initially!). There was a lot of energy and a lot of excitement. I was just done with my 4th of a total 9 restroom breaks on the course so everything looked set.

Now the rock 'n' roll marathon gets its name from the fact that there is a band almost every mile to pump you up (re: hanz und franz). The first band was appropriately dressed in boxers pyjamas and bathrobes and with coffee cups in hand (this was around 6.30 am) they bid us good luck.

The first couple of miles through the city (downtown area) went by pretty quickly. I tried to absorb as much as I could. San Diego welcomed us with open arms and a hearty cheer. It looked like everyone was out rooting for us. I had noticed the restroom lines were growing progressively longer so i decided to christen the bushes with my 5th.

Up until now I was running with Fawad, Sam (my mentor), Melodie and Claire. My servicing nature's call cost me around 15 - 20 minutes (this number may be different depending on where I tell this story - detail embellishments are a necessary evil). I caught up with Sam twice after this one. I think I should probably drink a little bit less now :) I saw Sean (tnt mentor and responsible for tntmarathon.com - thanks Sean!) a few times as well.

Runners are pure geniuses when it comes to T-shirt slogans, some of my favorites:
- stop staring at my ass. and naturally you have to start staring in order to stop
- wine bottle - 26 ounces, marathon - 26 miles, coincidence? I dont drink but it sounded funny :)
- superman and flash were also running putting to rest all doubts that superman although invincible and a veritable super-man still has his ass handed to him by mr. speedy. its the cape that does him in
- there was a guy without shoes dressed as tarzan. paaainful
- winning is a habbit
- front [SYN], back [ACK]

Stay tuned for some more updates, heroic stories, pictures and the exciting conclusion!

Here are some numbers:

- 20,000+ participants
- 6,000+ team in training people who raised a whopping $ 12 million for LLS
- The washington/alaska chapter raised over half a million buckazoids

aaaaaaaite?

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Cake on my face...

... salt cakes that is (will get to this shortly). I've been told that I havent had any "relevant" updates on the blog so here goes. I thought it would be more interesting to watch yngvie teach little boys about their new guitar god but anyway.

So I'm up to 19 miles now. I checked and I double checked and thats the most we're supposed to do before the run. That 19 miles was two weeks ago, we have officially entered the tapering part of the run. Which means lots of rest, runs are much shorter and we get to eat all we want (healing etc.). So I'm loving it. We ran up and down the samammish river trail. Its a total of 10.8 miles. We started at Redhook brewery ran south to marymoor and back (5.5+5.5 == 11 miles) and then further up north for another 4 and back. Probably the 2nd worst run I've had this season. I did it in under 180 minutes so slightly better than a 10 minute mile pace. The fact that it was flat was nice.

The scary thing is that this was hard and I still have 7 miles to go. I'm a little nervous. I'm told its all good and we're sticking to the plan. oh well... The run is in about a week and a half. Its a little underwhelming right now. I think I should start packing, that will get me in the zone.

oh and when the sweat on my face dries up the salt cakes up. sorry... stay tuned for some good tips

Thursday, May 17, 2007

quick coffee anyone?

This is very cool. They average around 3$ per cup. I'm still wrapping my brain around this...

http://www.terrabite.org/

From their site:

Terra Bite Lounge is an upscale voluntary payment cafe/deli. We serve espresso, blended drinks, sandwiches, baked goods, and desserts in a hip upscale setting. Patrons choose what to pay, and are encouraged to pay what they would elsewhere. You may use this as a convenience feature, e.g. get your daily coffee and drop in a $20 at the end of the week.

We also cheerfully serve those who cannot pay, in a non-stigmatizing customer setting, with no political or religious message, and with full-time availability. Terra Bite shares profits with our baristas and will also donate profits to various charities. Those charities are strictly non-political, non-religious, and entirely non-controversial; they will be listed here on the web site.

The first space is in Kirkland, WA, on the corner of Kirkland Ave and State Street. If it works out we will open others in areas that actually need it. We have free wifi access. Terra Bite is also a console game boutique, offering free XBox/PS3 gaming and games for sale. The console games offer another draw for the public, introduce a greater social aspect to the space, add some revenue, and also let us balance the service and retail aspects of the space for zoning purposes.
Terra Bite is founded by Ervin Peretz and directed by Susan Allsup.

Mission Moment: Cancer Vaccines



Cancer vaccines – new hope for the future, and the future is now!

Our immune systems are designed to recognize "self" versus "foreign" so that they can attack cells that are made foreign by viral or bacterial infection. Unfortunately, cancer cells develop tricks to evade immune attack, and anti-cancer treatments can seriously damage normal immune cells as well as cancer cells, allowing life-threatening infections to occur in many patients, especially those treated with high-dose therapies.

So, researchers are learning how to strengthen immune responses to improve clinical outcomes for cancer patients, by fighting infections and fighting cancer too. These new treatments are called "immunotherapies" and include vaccines.

Of course, vaccines have long been used to prevent potentially life-threatening infections like cholera, measles, polio and flu. Now, vaccines are being developed to help cancer patients by stimulating a patient's immune system to better recognize and attack foreign molecules on cancer cells. Especially good progress is being made in developing therapeutic vaccines for lymphoma, myeloma and leukemia patients. The Society is currently investing almost $24 million in sixteen investigations at the forefront of vaccine research.

As with so many advances in blood cancer research, the vaccine strategies that are proven effective for our patients are likely to help other cancer patients too. The foreign molecules will be different, but the basic principles will be the same.

For more information go to: www.lls.org www.teamintraining.org

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Peter Griffin and Homer Simpson vs. Mario and Sonic

These guys have modded the game to add these characters. I'd like to see Stewie take on He-Man



Speaking of He-man. Here is a Public Service Announcement:

Monday, May 7, 2007

2 weeks notice

Apparently, I have to rest for 2 weeks after my marathon to avoid serious injury. I may still be able to run the half marathon in bellevue, but my coach has advised me to put this decision off until I come back from San Diego. Woe is me, pox on injury and all of that...

Friday, May 4, 2007

life after life

So I've been thinking, this running thing is good. June 3rd is building up to be a real climax, but I know I'll be down for weeks after it ends. Especially considering what follows the runner's high. Interesting thing, no one told me about the runner's low. you gots to keep on running lest you hit the low. Then a body at rest tends to stay at rest. so in keeping with one of them Newton's laws, I shall keep this body in motion. What better way to run a marathon than run around your neighborhood! The Bellevue seafair marathon actually cuts right through where I live. Now I dont mean to join them mistream, but I've always wanted to run past my house . Ever notice you never run/drive past your house, only to or from? I've counted 3 times total in my lifetime that I have actually gone past my place of residence. Some juvenile fascination I guess.

Its a month after San Diego and I dont know what physical state I'll be in. I still have to consult the coaches but if I can pull this one off, then I know the first time wasn't a fluke.

hilly... its very hilly

Monday, April 30, 2007

where the hell is matt?

I am inspired by people's love to travel. A colleague of mine and his wife took a year off work and are biking around the world http://www.erck.org/ Also Matt is dancing all over the wolrd (http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/):

ice ice baby...

This weekend marked the 17 mile marker for me (~ 2 hours 40 minutes) . I have never been so sore in my life. knees/joints/muscles everthing was aching. the solution as crazy as it sounds was an ice bath. waist deep in ice water while wearing my ice-age-is-coming-jacket gloves and hat. The first 5 minutes felt like my feet were about to explode. Then everything just goes numb. its very nice :) but 10 minutes is all I wanted to spend on this. the pain goes away and the endorphins do the rest. I'm on a 3 day runners high today. absolute bliss.

called up my doctor cousin. He said something about capillaries and blood and cold and good. So medically this is all very sound.

oh and never carry pretzels with extra salt in your pockets while running. this gives chafing a whole new meaning.


blurk blurk blurk

Friday, April 27, 2007

The day the music died

... May 15th 2007. Because of new licensing fees internet radio, internet radio stations will all but shutdown operations. We are talking npr, pandora, this is no good.

http://www.savenetradio.org/ read more here. I dont know why there isnt more buzz on this. I'm sad today.

Licensing killed the (internet) radio star...

SaveNetRadio.org

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

310 miles ...

I was doing some math and I've run 310 miles since February. Thats around 100 odd miles a month. Apparently when you're training for an iron-man thats your weekly mileage. and if you're Dean, thats your daily mileage :-)

Here's a thought, I should run from lahore to islamabad. Thats about 370 km on the motorway, 290 km on the old highway (GT Road). So I'm roughly looking at 230 miles. I could run 10 miles a day (very aggressive for me) to finish in about a month. There have to be lots of stops in the middle and no porta-pots ... hmm. this actually sounds doable. To the wanderers on this page, is anyone interested? Just nod if you can hear me.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Official results - whidbey island half

Chip Time: 2:13:42
Gun Time: 2:14:57
Pace: 10:18
Position in age group: 59/76
Overall position 768/1289

Race Summary
number of finishers: 1289
number of females: 815
number of males: 473
average time: 02:14:29

I'm in the 40th -50th percentile, not too bad for a beginner...

my stop watch results:
00:24:04 - miles 1 and 2 plus restroom break
00:07:55 - mile 3
00:10:17 - mile 4
00:10:16 - mile 5
00:09:53 - mile 6
00:10:25 - mile 7
00:09:37 - mile 8
00:10:10 - mile 9
00:09:55 - mile 10
00:10:16 - mile 11
00:09:57 - mile 12
00:09:58 - mile 13
00:00:53 - mile 13.1
total 2 hours 13 minutes 41 seconds

Half Marathon - Done!

2 hours 15 minutes (gun time) which is of course prone to error :-) My stop watch says 2:13 ;) my chip time should be close. I got a finishers medal and everything. I ran with two of my team-mates (Eric/Yi). All of us were pretty comfortable doing 10 minute mile paces which was great. We screamed the mile numbers as we crossed the markers! It was a beautiful day and we ran next to the whidbey coast. couldnt has asked for a more perfect first race. I wasn't quiet anticipating the hills though.



The full marathoners had a killer hill around mile 5 and they got to run over deception pass. I tried walking over it and it made me dizzy :)

But this isnt even the big news! I met Dean Karnazes!!!! My running hero, my main motivation for taking up running. The ultramarathon man himself! He was supposed to show up for the pasta dinner the night before but couldnt make it. However, he made it to the race. Very cool guy.





I made sure I hit the lap-time on my stop watch, I'll post the results here tomorrow.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Endurance Sports

Speaking of endurance sports, I'm hooked onto NINJA WARRIOR! Named Sasuke in Japan where it has been airing for the past 10 years (?) is probably one of the best "reality" shows out there. The obstacles the participants have to overcome are insane! and one mistake you are out.

trivia:
Unlike all the other shows out there, you have to finish all four stages to become NINJA WARRIOR! and boy its hard, in the entire history only 3 people have successfuly cleared it. I think Sasuke was a famous legendary ninja and the shows pays homage to the great one. In the US it airs on G4 tv every weekday right before AOTS (which rocks btw)...

And now my favorite, Makoto Nagano.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Super Mario Brothers

ok, so this isnt really related to the running, but zack kim is a rocker!


Thursday, April 5, 2007

$3,906.00

That is my fundraising total as of today! And that is the minimum I committed to raising (actually it was $3900). 75% of this goes directly to cancer patient services or to cancer research. 100% of anything raised above this total goes to these causes. If any of my sponsors are reading this, I cannot express my gratitude for your support, but I will try. I'm very touched by the support and encouragement people, both strangers and friends alike, have given me. So thank you very muc. and now I'm roaring to go!

I got my official registration for my San Diego Marathon as well as my whidbey Island half. Very excited, I am! May the force be with you...

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Inspired

After my saturday morning 11 mile run, i was planning to take a chill pill today, untill i saw this. I had seen "Team Hoyt's" story on hbo but a friend sent this to me the other day. This is a very inspiring story. Inspired me to run another 5 today.

The sports illustrated article is here: http://cjcphoto.com/can/

"Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a Wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and Pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day."

watch the video, gives you pause... right before you head out for your run :-)

Friday, March 30, 2007

Running Heroes

Fauja Singh holds the record for marathon runners in the 90 year old age bracket. Somehow that never ceases to inspire me.

Quick facts:
Born: 1 April 1911 in India
Former occupation: Farmer
Running career: Rediscovered at age of 81
Diet: Ginger curry
Marathons: London (5), Toronto (1), New York (1)
Marathon debut: London, 2000 aged 89
London marathon pb: 6h 2m

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/funny_old_game/4631111.stm

His marathon record is 5 hors 40 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauja_Singh

I wonder if I'll be 90, much less be running at 90 ... hmmmm

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Oprah and Magwai

Warning: Dane Cook at his finest.
I know exactly what he's talking about here :)

I took out the embedded video because I couldnt figure out how to default it to "pause" and it was very annoying when it would self-start... anyway, here it is

http://www.danecook.com/v/v.swf?key=75

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Whidbey Island here i come

To make sure I'm still on track with my running, I've registered for the whidbey Island Half marathon (april 15th) http://www.whidbeyislandmarathon.com/. Had a great run with the team yesterday at Discovery Park. Beautiful place, opens up into the Puget Sound. Some brutal hills though. Speaking of hills, hiked Tiger mountain today, good fun, if done at a leisurely pace :D More hill training coming up this tuesday. We will be doing lunges uphill in downtown bellevue. Does not sound like fun. I've taken on a new cognomen, "thunder thighs" its unfortunate because I dont plan to buy another pair of jeans for another year. Anyway, i love oatmeal.

Oh, and I'm at 2700$ of my 3900$ total (some cheques on the way should bump it to 3k!) so if you (the reader) wanted to chip in some cash, now would be the time. http://www.active.com/donate/tntwaak/SaadAnsari As always, any support is very highly appreciated. oh and they are doing a star trek tng marathon (marathons, they're everywhere) and I have decided to vegetate for the rest of the evening. ciao my audience of two!

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Nutrition

I was reading some interesting articles a few days ago and its quiet common for long distance runners to underestimate their food intake by almost 2000 calories a day! So thats where my extra pounds are coming from. To be more vigilant, I have taken the following steps:

1. More complex carbs (hi-fibre) and less processed sugars. So Oatmeal is on my must-have breakfast list.
2. More fresh fruit and vegetables. I have been hitting the meats a lot more than I should have been. I am going to include some sort of salad during lunch plus a regular fruit snack a few hours before my run.
3. keep a journal. I'm thinking of logging my food intake just like I log them miles.
4. more frequent meals. In a recent study (not authoritative:) ) they took a 20 year old, 40 yearh old and 60 year old and gave them 3 daily meals totalling 2000 calories. the 20 metabolised 100%, 40 did 60% and 60 did 40%. When they broke up the same food intake into 5 meals all three groups metabolised 100%. So more frequent meals (total quantity should be the same)
5. magic number 40. In the 40 minutes after a work-out it is estimated that food you eat gets stored in the muscles, as opposed to going to the liver after the 40 minute timeout to be stored as fat? so must eat 40 minutes after my run
6. In my food journal, I should not have any reports of me being famished. Starving is not a good thing, the body doesnt like to have tricks played on it :)
7. more daaal (lentils) and other proteins. Protiens help repair and build muscle. This shall be in my dinner methinks
8. Omega3 fatty acids. Once a weak grilled salmon should take care of this, plus my cod-liver oil pills.
9. Hydration/electrolytes/salts. This one I'm doing aaaiiitte.

Well so much for my nutrition post. There are some interesting sites online:

www.dietdetective.com
http://www.mypyramid.gov/

Thursday, March 8, 2007

More Videos

The live performance for Do Pal and Aadat. We decided to redo these songs, TMB-ized them, if you will. If you like these, please consider sponsoring my run:
http://www.active.com/donate/tntwaak/saadansari

Monday, March 5, 2007

Lose some weight

I've decided to lose 10 pounds so its a little less weight for me to carry around. I am still working on a diet plan, but overall its less oil, fried stuff, more fruits, more milk, more lean meat, more complex carbs.. stay tuned for the finished plan!

I also added pushups,crunches, leg raises, bicycle kicks to my work out regimen. Its hard to find time in addition to my runs so I do these after stretching a bit in the morning. Total cost: 30 minutes.

My targets for the end of this month are:
pushups 60 x 2
crunches 100 x 2
leg raises 40 x 2
bicycle kicks 90 x 2

I'm currently at:
pushup 11 x 2 :D
crunches 36 x 2
leg raises 10 x 2
bicycle kicks 20 x 2

since this is relatively easy stuff to do, I wont be incorporating rest days like my running (need to talk to my coaches about this though)

Friday, March 2, 2007

Getting up at 7 am for my Saturday run

Getting up on Saturday morning seemed to be the least exciting part of the training. I was very wrong. I'm surprised at how motivated I am to brave the chilly and wet seattle mornings. I think the fact that my team is there keeps me honest :) Last week we did 70 minutes, for some strange reason we are dropping to 50 minutes. oh well, I trust my coaches completely


Thursday, March 1, 2007

Quotes

I got some great quotes today. Trying to figure out which ones are by Gandhi and which ones by Muhammad Ali


I'm not the greatest; I'm the double greatest. Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round.
It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.
Floats like a butterfly, sting like a bee, his hands can't hit what his eyes can't see.
I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalised a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick.
I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and got into bed before the room was dark.
The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.
Superman don't need no seatbelt.

Pictures!

well just the one:

Saad reaching for the other foot!


check out my training schedule and my team page:
http://tntmarathon.com/skeds/sdfull.htm
http://tntmarathon.com/index.htm

Monday, February 26, 2007

Do Pal NTSC Secam

Do pal ka yeh jevan hay. from our practice session.


Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Music videos

Some of our practice videos are up:

http://www.youtube.com/tmbrocks

Remember to donate for my run! http://www.active.com/donate/tntwaak/saadansari
Thanks in advance!

Letters

Sending out the letters today. upto 300$, should go to $600 in a few weeks. Need to get people more motivated!!! Running has suffered a bit. I had a sore throat and missed yesterday's run. I'll run for about a half hour today during lunch. Need to get back on track!
Also thinking about recording our music in a studio setting. Live recordings only go so far...

Friday, February 16, 2007

Concert!

Hey All. I think I have an audience of 1 right now, me :) hopefully when the word gets out more people come here. today is the concert. I'm going to try and steal 5 minutes and tell people about LLS (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society) and about the marathon and about the fact that I need to raise some moollah! My checklist is all good and ready. I have:

- My letter to the people
- My "friends romans countrymen" speech
- donor forms
- alaska air miles form
- matching forms

oh i still need the envelopes. Got the posters all ready too. now i can focus on the music :) watch this space for the music videos/clips. oh and check out www.myspace.com/tmbrocks thats my band. TMB.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

The Chroniks ?

... Kullz ah Narnia... I always thought that was a good name to give a blog. Derived in part from a brilliant short produced by the gifted writers at SNL. This is my attempt at chronicling my quest to run a marathon, all 26 point 2 miles of it. I'll put pictures, training schedule, general thoughts on how its coming along. I am running this as part of team in training for the Lukemia and Lymphoma society, and I need *you* to sponsor me. I promise to do my bit and run the entire distance :) TNT pledges that 75% of all donations go directly to a patient or cancer research, so please donate generously. As I start this blog I need to raise $3900 over the next couple of months. Let me know what you think.
Donate here: http://www.active.com/donate/tntwaak/saadansari

As I leave, a thought (copied from one of my team-mate's blog :) )
"There is an underappreciated truth about disease: it will harm you even if you never get it. Disease reverberates outward, and if the illness gets big enough it brushes everyone."--N.R.Kleinfield