Snowman

..Dec 20th sunday morning the snowman was built :).First major snowstrom in 2009 happened on saturday dec 19th. Its snowed the entire day. We didn't do much as it was snowing but we spent good time couching all day eating popcorn, chicken biryani watching all the holiday movies it was fun. The entire saturday we spent watching snow and every 3 hrs measuring the height of the snow pile on our patio compound wall.
              Sunday morning we decided to built the snowman in our patio as the snow just piled up into a huge heap. Me and Madhu started building snow and we also played with snow balls it was fun. This is my first snow that I have ever built. So we gathered snow to make the three sections of the snow man and then carved outt he three sections. Then I went ahead to do the makeup part. I had carrom coins as eyes and I had some red color so I used it as blush. Madhu found a stick and he just ran it through snowman so it looked like his hands. later we took pictures and spent time playing with snowballs. After all that we were tired as our boots were getting wet so we went in and rested for sometime. we watched "The Perfect Holiday" movie while we rested. Later in the afternoon we went out and cleaned the car and then we just wanted to breathe some fresh air so just drove the car arround the area. It was a nice view of the white bed over entire plainsboro.so refreshing to go out after one complete day of slacking. Here is the picture of the snowman.
                            

           

finally!!!

..as I said in my earlier post here I'll post my exprience with new hair stylist.so here is the story.I have finally decided to get it done at Rouge Salon. My appointment was at 4.00pm. I was on time and the stylist who did my hair holly was ready to attack :).I stepped in and I got the usual comment "wow you have lovely hair" and unusual response from me "Yes thank you but I am chopping it off today :(" than my usual response " oh thank you". Holly asked if I was donating I guess salon people know when customers get their long hair chopped most of them donate it. so I said yes and mentioned that I was donating it to Locks of love. She was aware of locks of love which made it easier for me otherwise I would explain her how to cut the hair so that it is good for donation.
       I went through few of the hair styles and as expected I liked none except for the Inverted bob-cut style so I decided I would go with it.Holly partitioned my hair into two parts and asked me a rehtoric "are you ready" but I replied "yes please! do it before I change my mind" :) and boom! she almost cut 11inches. It was a very different to see myself with such short hair. I never had short hair but I liked it at the instant as it looked something really very diffferent.Then Holly got my hair washed by another lady and she layered it. I was lillte nervous about madhu's reaction but as a surprise(not exactly as he told me do it if you like it :)) he really liked it.Holly blow dried to set it well so that the Inverted bob-cut style looked as its supposed to :). From next day on it looked something completely different because I am really not very good at blow drying and setting the style.
             Now my next thing is get perfect at blow drying n setting the hair. I am thinking of taking a blow dry class will that help? or can we learn just by watching the blow dry videos in youtube?

..tough to decide???

Is it that tough to decide just about your hair cut? Yes I actually wanted to get my hair done and I am not able to decide? Don't think that I am not able to make a simple decision here just about my hair cut :). It not easy as it looks :P

I have decided to donate my hair to LOCKS OF LOVE.
Q: what is locks of love?
A: Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.
            It’s been almost 5 months that I have decided to donate my hair the next time I get it done. Locks of love accepts all kinds of hair curly, straight, layered etc but there are certain constraints, the basic constraint is donated hair should be at least 10 inches long and if its layered hair then the longest layer should be 10inches long. So I have been sincerely waiting all these 5 months for my hair to grow so that the longest layer is about 15 to 20 inches. I have been measuring it every month :). Now it’s almost 17 inches long and now I am ready to donate because even if I donate 10inches I will still have 7inches below neck level. Everything looks great and I am ready to donate but still I am not able to deicide as hair stylist I regularly visit is not working at the salon anymore, and I am little hesitant about going to a new place which is making it tough to decide. I know that’s little childish. After having cut 10inches I would be left with just 7inches and if want get it layered and they take another inch and it would make it just 6 inch so if the layering doesn't come out well I might end up looking like a clown :(.

       ......After I came to know that Nicole(Stylist I regular visit to get my hair done) is not working anymore at Daniel Pucci salon I tried to find out her contact details but my efforts were in vain. So I decided I'll pick a different salon and have been googling and I found one close to my work place called Rouge salon. Place looks ok and their prices are way too high. I am ready to pay extra $5 or $10 if I can get what I want. So I walked into Rouge finally got the appointment and got their brochure and now again I feel may be not this place...hmmmmmmmmmmmm...?  Long story short I am little worried to try new stylist :(.
     I guess I should decide in a day or too as my hair as grown beyond my regular length and its getting uncomfortable.
                  I am sure I'll get it done this week for sure. I'll post my experience with new salon Rouge or something else.

Philly half Marathon

...I know this race report is due from 2 weeks. I actually thought of posting it the same day Nov 22nd but I was not in a condition to switch on my PC. I couldn't walk properly after we got home. Anyways let me put it down now all pre and post race experience.




Pre-Race day Nov-21st-2009.
The entire week before the race I didn't get to run much as I was busy preparing for my interview. I had my interview on friday during the lunch hr and I was a little relaxed after that. As usual I started from work at 5.00pm and reached home by 6.00pm had a good dinner and thought of sleeping early so that I can start my day early on saturday. As planned the day started at 7.00am had a good breakfast and started packing the bags for the race. I was kind of nervous as this was my first race and was thinking about how would I finish those 13.1miles. As always madhu was with me and giving me the confidence saying "you did 11miles easily so two more is not really much" that helped me little to calm down. I thought If I can't run I would walk but would not quit the race. I have packed my tights, ASHA Tshirt, chapstick, shoes, GU(thinking that what if I need it before the 10th mile as ASHA volunteers said that they would provide us GU at the 10th mile) and also some food for the dinner. We started driving to philly and it took us 1hr to get to philly downtown and our GPS took us to the wrong street(though the right name) then I started googling on I-phone(was very handy as its supposed to be :)) and found the exact address of philly convention center. We started driving to the convention center as its in downtown didn't really find the parking and we kept going from street to street thats when I decided to get down and walk so that I can collect out packets before they close and madhu can join me after parking the car if he finds any parkings. So I started walking and asked couple of people about the address and it wasn't too far. After walking two block I could see the convention center and walked towards it when I saw many people arround with black bags which were nothing but our race packets. I entered the convention center and they had clear directions to about where to collect the packets at needed points in the convention center. I went in to collect the packets and on the other hand madhu couldn't find any parking so he just switched on his hazard lights and was waiting on 12th ave. There were many people collecting the packets and taking pictures. I asked madhu if he can come so that he can have a look at it but he said no as he couldn't find any parking. As I was collecting both the race packets I heard a voice yelling my name and turned back expecting it to be either satish or madhu and as expected it was satish. It was happy to see him and chatted for couple of mins and started heading back to the car. I thought it would be a good idea to have dinner with satish but it was getting late so we thought we'll can meet the next morning. I wished good luck and said bye. We went to hotel and got the keys to the room and stepped in found that is was a smoking room so we had to call the front desk to re assign a different room. As there no more rooms available we were given a room with 2 beds. We went and decided not eat the food we bought from home and ordered half veg and half chicken dominos pizza. Madhu called his friend while I was busy pinning the bibs to T shirts and having everything ready for next morning and went to bed at 8.00pm. I really couldn't sleep as it was not our usual bed time. I woke up couple of times in the night at 11am and 2.00am thinking that I slept too much.I had good night sleep.



Race Day:
We woke up at 4.00am got everything ready packed the bags ready to leave and thats when I remembered that I forgot my light sweatshirt which I usually where when I run. So I wore the full sleeve black regular T-shirt which would keep me warm but didn't suit for running. We started driving towards philly downtown and forgot the exact location of where to meet the team. Then I pulled the email(again handy I-phone) and we finally got the location address and thought of meeting coach and the rest of the team at the meeting point. We reached downtown and I started looking for parking and found that’s not really that far from the start point. It was arround 5:30am in the morning and the place starting crowding. We parked the car (the parking management thought of making the most of it I guess so they charged 15$ which otherwise on a regular day would be 9$). We started heading towards the start point and figured that it wouldn't possible for us to meet the team and it was real crowded. So we decided to be by ourselves and didn't get a chance to look for satish around. I used the restroom on the way and headed to the start point. There 20,000 people at the location. It was amazing to see such a great crowd. All the runners where classified into groups based on their expected finish time and each group was given a color. As I have put 3hrs as the expected time for both of us when registered we came under the blue group and satish was in purple. So at a time one group should start the race and it was 7:16 when it came to blue group. We started at 7:20am and I was so nervous when I crossed the start line and we started jogging slowly. The downtown view at the start line was amazing and at 1or 1.5mile we saw ASHA volunteers sriram and sohil they took some pictures. We both were running together for the first three miles and at which point we took our first break to pee. After the first water stop I told madhu to go at his pace and he took off from there. I started running slowly that’s when I came across one of the ASHA runners from central jersey chapter. He ran with for a mile thats when I have picked up my pace. After 5th mile praveen took off and I was running by myself. At 5th mile I again saw sriram and other ASHA volunteers. I had water and Gatorade almost at all the water stops which I have to stop in my next run. At mile 7 was the first hill which was very bad. I managed to jog slowly and after 8mile started my cramps. I had crapms in stomach and they were getting worse but I managed to run thinking that I will be ok until I don't get cramps in my back. I managed to reach the 10mile while was another dreadful hill. We weren't trained for running on hills. That's when I saw Madhu and it was so refreshing when I saw him. I guess he slowed that’s the reason I could see him. At mile 10 we were given GU and I gulped down 1 GU packet and started running from there. At mile 11 I could talk to madhu and we both gave each other a high five saying good job. From 11th mile onwards I didn't feel my legs anymore and my back became was so stiff with cramps that I felt like it was froze but I pushed myself as it wasn't that far and just two more miles. I reached 12.5miles and that's when satish was running back to support the ASHA runners by running with them those last miles. I tell you this helps a lot and gives so much strength to runners when their energy is almost exhausted. I was so happy to see him and he ran with me for couple of mins and thats when he told that he ran with madhu couple of mins ago. Satish was supporting me saying that the finish line wasn't that far. We were almost at 13th mile I saw madhu waiting for me :). I was surprised. Satish had let me go as I had madhu to run with me and he went back to support other ASHA runners running with them those couple of miles. I was so happy to see madhu at 13th mile and I asked why was he waiting he could have finished ran back like satish to support me but as it was our first race together he wanted to finish together which I felt was very sweet. We both started running to the finish line and OMG I can't express the feeling I had when I saw the cheering crowd. It felt so nice to see so many people and some were yelling my name as it was short to read and It really felt very nice. 30sec before the finish line we saw sriram and he clicked some pictures. We held our hands and raised them together as we crossed the finish line.

We grabbed some after race refreshments and madhu was completely down and he said he couldn't walk. We stretched, took pictures and rested at a place for sometime and started heading towards the parking lot. I didn't get a chance to get back to satish again. We sat in the car and madhu called his sister and I called my sister had a short chat and started heading towards home and called saitsh on the way to say that I couldn't meet to him. On the way we were thinking about people who ran full marathon. 26.2miles is not a joke hand down! But I am planning to run a full marathon next year. Let’s see how the plan goes :)

Crysanthemums...

often called mums beautiful flowers and I can't resist myself from bying these every fall. So I bought some this year too. You can find them in severals colors other than just the traditional yellow. I bought 3 for $12 which I felt wasn't that expensive but I bought them from the expensive store (whole foods) :). 

Week # 7

Training-11/2/09-11/8/09 ::: Week # 7
Monday- off- relax and stretch
Tuesday- 4 miles easy
Wednesday- 4 miles easy
Thursday- Off- strength- train- crunches and push-ups
Friday- 5 miles easy
Saturday- Off- relax and stretch Sunday- 11 miles

Week 7 training was good but it was tough to finish 11 miles. next sunday is 8 miles and sunday after that is the race day excited and nervous too. Am not sure of any preparations though. Just going with Coach Tom's guidance. Lets see how the day goes.

Week # 6 & Poconos

contd...(week #)


...so madhu was concerned if I had the energy to do go. I assured him that I was completely ok and we can go.We went home had good breakfast and had a glimpse of Perfect Bride, charged the camera batteries had shower and started to Pocono's with all the Enthu and Energy I could have. I also made some upma to eat on the way.Drive to Pocono's was good. Most of the leaves on the tress had started turning brown and few of them already sheded. But when millions of tress are together the view was awesome. I took few pictures on the way to Pocono's. We had upma on the way to Pocono's so that we'll have some energy to walk around but I guess that wasn't enough.

When we reached there it was almost packed. We have parked the car in a metered parking lot and headed towards the crowd to see the market that was setup. Several items were being sold like food, hand made decorative items, t-shirts, beads, jewelry etc. We walked around looking at all the stalls. I almost bought one of the hand made decorative piece until I saw the price sticker. OMG it was way beyond my bugdet but the decorative frame was really cute. They have actually stuck some of the dried flowers and leaves on a sheet of paper and framed it and it was really cute.After walking around for sometime we both ended up at the information center to find out about the train timings. We got what we needed and having abrief look at the brochure we finally found out where to buy the tickets and headed towards the ticket counter. We both were standing in line to buy the tickets and we had an option to sit on regular car but madhu was interested in going in Kaboose. Forget to mention that while we were walking arround the stals we had some french fries and also something called potato pancake which was completely floating in oil. But somehow we both ended up eating it all :). We got into kaboose and I wasn't impressed much with it but I thought madhu made a right choice because it was very cold outside. So sitting in the kaboose which is a closed compartment of the train was good. Kaboose had limited tickets. So there were only three families including us. It was 45min ride through mountains. The train started from the village it would go 20min to another stop and return.The ride was very beautiful but I thought it would have been more colorful it we went somewhere 3rd week of september but you know what never mind. Everything was going good so far. We were on our way back to village where we started and thats when started my headache. It was mild but it was seriouly getting worse min by min. by the time we got down from the train whirlpool started in my head and I was so grumpy. I know it was because of the run and dehydration and to that was the culprit the potato pancake. We started heading towards home and Madhu sugessted me to take taylenol if its really worse.I thought may be I should take the tablet.Madhu bought me taylenol and a water bottle and we started from there. On the way we stopped at DD(Dunkin Donuts) for madhu's coffee and I used the rest room meanwhile. Madhu started making fun of me and he was asking if I would like to eat another portion of potato which was nothing but Hashbrowns I was like please I have no patience to laugh don't make me laugh. We started from DD and almost after 10mins drive I almost felt like throwing up and I asked Madhu to entertain by himself while I'll catchup on some nap which might help me feel better. I almost slept for an 1hr and I was better after that 1hr.I repented all the way till I got home for eating that junk food. I thought the day start good but didn't end good. But anyways we got to see the glimpse of fall colors for 2009. As always said to myself again never eat food thats too oily on an empty stomach :)








Training-10/26/09-11/1/09 ::: Week # 6


Monday- off- relax and stretch
Tuesday- 4 miles easy
Wednesday- 4 miles easy
Thursday- Off- strength- train- crunches and push-ups
Friday- 4 miles easy
Saturday- Off- relax and stretch Sunday- 10 miles


week 6 training was good and felt good after long run but it wasn't easy to do though.

Week # 5

The Big race day is just arround the corner. Two more weekends and that's it the third weekend from now is the big day Nov 22nd Philly marathon and half marathon race day. Training is going good so far with no major injuries.The weekday runs were good we could run almost all scheduled days. so below is our week 5 schedule.


Training-10/19/09-10/25/09 ::: Week # 5

Monday- off- relax and stretch
Tuesday- 3 miles easy --yes
Wednesday- 4 miles easy --yes
Thursday- Off- strength- train- crunches and push-ups
Friday- 4 miles easy --yes
Saturday- Off- relax and stretch
Sunday- 8 miles



.....for sunday run we woke up as usual around 6.00am got dressed and tied up the laces to start the day. I don't remember the temperature but It wasn't that cold. We got into the car and started heading towards kingston lock the usual spot for long runs. It takes 10mins from my place to get to kingston lock.We reached the spot and found sriram who was trying to setup the water bottles for runners. I and madhu had a chat with sriram when he mentioned that coach Tom was also running today. So we started running but this time we had to run along trail 2 not trail1 as trail 1 was flooded becuase of the heavy rain the day before. Personally I like new trail much better than old trail. The new trail is much wider and little less trees on both sides compared to the old one. The first water stop was after 2.2miles so to finish 8 miles we had to go lillte beyond 2nd water stop and come back that would make total of 8 miles. The first 2.2miles was ok I managed to run most of it without much walking. Madhu reached 1st water stop way ahead of me and waited for me then we both started from there to strech our legs for another 2 miles to finish the first four miles. Here started the problem I had to pee and wasn't sure if I want to or not and I was also little hesitant. Madhu said thats ok you can go ahead there is nothing wrong in it but I was still contemplating and finally decided to pee behind the bushes :) for the first time. I have seen people do it before but never did and this time couldn't help it. What do you do when you have no other options Within 5 mins we started running again and it took almost 2 hours 30mins for us to complete 8miles with all the stops and all. After run we met coach for the first time and he showed us some streatching excercise to do after run which I thought were very helpful. We had a sip of gatorade and then started heading towards home. While we were driving back we were discussing about going to Poconos for fall foliage visit. All about Pocono's visit in my next post labeled Poconos.

Week # 4:

I questioned myself about my determination on making it early to work and get back home early for my week 3 run so that I could stick to my run schedule and YAY I did it! :)

Training-10/05/09-10/11/09 ::: Week # 3

Monday- off- relax and stretch

Tuesday- 3 miles easy-- yes

Wednesday- 3 miles easy-- yes

Thursday- Off- strength- train- crunches and push-ups

Friday- 3 miles easy couldn't run as we had to visit the autobody shop again :(

Saturday- Off- relax and stretchSunday- 6 miles -- yes

monday we were at the George Davison park which is at the intersection of tamaron rd and George Davison rd for our run. Oh man this park is all crowded during summer for that matter I guess most of the parks are crowded during summer season. In summer you can find all age groups in GDP kids starting from new borns to elderly people arround their 60's or 70's. GDP has a kids play place with all those swa saw , sliding games etc. it has a basket ball court and also a volly ball court, people who walk their dogs, runners, walkers, elderly people(specially parents who come from india to visit their kids have nothing to entertain themselves except watching TV, reading books etc etc which doesn't entertain 'em at all Poor souls :( ). so we went there to do the 3 mile run, GDP had a track kinda path for runners and walkers. running once arround the track would make it 0.6miles so we made 4+ rounds which was almost like 3.7 miles. On wednesday as it was cold outside we couldn't run outside we ended up in Y! for a thread mill run.

long run on saturday was good. This time we wanted to meet Ravi Ganagavarapu the head mentor of ASHA princeton chapter and also our trainer Tom, so we were at kingston Lock(place where we do our long runs every weekend) by 7.00am. As usual we did our streches and went to have a chat with sriram thats when we came to know that Tom was running somewhere else that saturday and Ravi would join us later. Madhu was really disappointed as he wanted to ask Tom about his shoes. His shoes are not real running shoes so he wanted to get some advise on them from Tom but he wasn't there, so Madhu mentioned to Sriram about shoes and he advised us to go checkout two different running shoes stores one in North Brunwick and one in Princeton. Ok leaving about shoes there we decided to start. 6 mile run was good, I didn't walk as much as I do. I felt good after the run.It took us 1hr 20min to do 6 miles that was my best so far I guess as I don't have the record of my other runs timings. Didn't have any major issues after run which was a good sign. overall the week 3 was good.

Training-10/12/09-10/18/09 ::: Week # 4

Monday- off- relax and stretch

Tuesday- 3 miles easy

Wednesday- 4 miles easy

Thursday- Off- strength- train- crunches and push-ups

Friday- 3 miles easy Saturday- Off- relax and stretch

Sunday- 7 miles

I know its mid of 4th week training. I'll write about 4th week run in my next run update post :)

I in fact we both really don't know if its ok to run on thread mill when you are getting trained for big runs. With the knowledge I have I think its all about how long you can run not how fast so its a good idea to run on the trails, roads but not on thread mill.But but what could you do when its cold outside I really hate it. So we end up running on the thread mill when its cold outside but I guess that's not a good thing to do. Any ideas?

Week # 2 & 3:

I was thinking about how do I start this post and where do I start. In a span of 1 min I thought writing something about letterman's public apology for hurting his wife, one of my friends first ever half marathon exprience, the movies I am planning to watch, the trips madhu's is making to the autobody shop to get our car fixed, the new fall mums I recently bought, the floods that swept AP and Karnataka :(:(, Govt. flood rescue troops demanding money from the victims for rescuing etc.:):) soon I realised this post is about my week # 1 run exprience and the schedule for 2nd week :). I know am about to start my third week run and am writing about my first exprinece :D

1st week run exprience.
Training-9/21/09-9/27/09 ::: Week # 1
Monday- off- relax and stretch --yes.
Tuesday- 2 miles easy -- yes.
Wednesday- 2 miles easy -- yes.
Thursday- Off- strength- train- crunches and push-ups --no (relaxed at home :)).
Friday- 3 miles easy -- yes.
Saturday- Off- relax and stretch -- yes.
Sunday- 4 miles -- yes.

we could stick to the schedule for 1st week which I think was good, but there is cluase to the practice. Is it ok if I run on the threadmill???? The entire 1st week evening's were mostly chilly so couldn't run on the roads so we both ended up running on the threadmill in Y!(YMCA). Day time is getting shorter day by day as Fall(One of my Fav season in US's 4 seasons) is already here. so I made a point that I should leave to work early and get back early so that I can run when the SUN is still up.

That was the plan for 2nd week run, but couldn't stick to the plan entirely as I had few trips to make to Enterprise-REN-A-CAR,Vendor and the autobody shop in newark, NJ from Mt.Laurel,NJ after work.

so here is my week 2 schedule n exprience.

Training-9/28/09-10/04/09 ::: Week # 2

Monday- off- relax and stretch -- yes as always :).
Tuesday- 2 miles easy -- yes.
Wednesday- 3 miles easy -- no
Thursday- Off- strength- train- crunches and push-ups -- no.
Friday- 3 miles easy -- no.
Saturday- Off- relax and stretch -- Yes ofcourse :)
Sunday- 5 miles --yes and we did almost 6 miles.

The guilty feeling was making rounds in my mind as I couldn't stick to the schedule. And again this time I made plan for week 3 to get back home early so that I can stick to my run schedule. So far I am sticking to the plan of getting home early. Today is the first day of my 3rd week run. so let see how this week goes n how determined I am:):)

Training-10/05/09-10/11/09 ::: Week # 3

Monday- off- relax and stretch
Tuesday- 3 miles easy
Wednesday- 3 miles easy
Thursday- Off- strength- train- crunches and push-ups
Friday- 3 miles easy
Saturday- Off- relax and stretch
Sunday- 6 miles

With a hope of sticking to the schedule I am looking forward to have a good run this week.
Will keep you'll posted :)

Week # 1:

oh well, just got started with the training for Philly half marathon 2009 and this is our 2nd week. The big day is on Nov 22nd looking forward to it :). Running the half marathon on behalf of Asha a non- profit organization. I was introduced to Asha in June 2007 Austin, TX. How I got introduced to Asha deserve's all together a separate post. Though I got Introduced to Asha in 2007 I didn't do much running then. I just did three races 10K,10miles and 20K in Austin, TX.

This time I have a good company to run n its none other than my better half madhu :). I think he never imagined that he would do something like this. I guess he might be still be wondering how he got conviced to run all these miles. So kudos to P for convining M :).

Training-9/21-9/27 ::: Week 1#

Monday- off- relax and stretch
Tuesday- 2 miles easy
Wednesday- 2 miles easy
Thursday- Off- strength- train- crunches and push-ups
Friday- 3 miles easy
Saturday- Off- relax and stretch
Sunday- 4 miles
Have to get some good run, strecting today n tomorrow. excited about the long run over the weekend.

What am I doing now?

Instead of updating orkut , facebook or twitter I am updating my status on my blog for a change :)
just came in and feel like dng nothing ..I know I am at wrk n I have to do some work so that I can update my status reports :). oh Come on its friday and what else you want me to do other than just scribbling something in my blog.

Its friday have a nice day and a very gr81 weekend paddu.