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)

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...

Evo Morales

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

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

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.

http://www.superjocknjill.com/SJJ-half-07/index.html

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

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

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

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!

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

"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

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

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

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 (?)

pictures!

sun sun sun...

working on my tan

finish line

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?

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

Yngwie malmsteen Super Amazing Guitar God lesson

No words needed...

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

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: