Mile Time Trials -- New PR for one mile 8:19.. Improved by 1.5 minutes from last year

Mile time trials is a way to test your fitness level. After a warm up, runners run a mile as fast as they can handle and time that mile. It is called MileTimeTrial (MTT). This is short enough distance to test the speed and long enough to test the strength.

I participated in the mile time trials conducted by Team Asha 09. I am happy to note that my timing was improved from last year by 1.5 minutes. Last year it was at 9:47 and now I complete the mile in 8:19.

Bike to Work (Mountain view to Menlo park) 11+ miles

I have been planning on doing the bike to work ever since our office moved from Mountain View to Menlo park. I talked to few folks from work to get an idea on the route options and finally got one good route from Matt Foist (who commutes by bike to work whenever he misses caltrain). He offered to ride with me one day to show me the route. Finally, we did it on wednesday 5/27/09. I joined him at Rengstroff/Central. It took us total 70 minutes to cover closer to 11 miles. Left the bike at work that night and next day, we rode back on the same route to home. It was very fun, relaxing and enjoyable ride. Thanks Matt for giving me company and I didn't feel any boredom or tiredness during the ride.

I drew the route using a great site bikely. It has nice to drawing tools and calculates the distance for every point. If you haven't tried it yet, check it out at www.bikely.com.

Here is the route textual description:
Started from Ferguson/Central -> Ride until Santonio Road -> Pass Sanantonio -> Take the first right turn -> get through that street, take left on MacKay Dr -> At the end of that street, right right at Shasta Dr -> it curves & become Nelson Dr -> Left At creekside -> Pass the creek -> Get on to Duncan Plaza -> It touches Charleston -> Cross that st, get on to Carlson Ct -> take right at Redwood Circle -> Ride on that a bit to see Bryant St -> Get on Bryant St, ride about 5 miles. it goes via palo alto neighborhood, pretty safe street -> Cross main streets like Oregon Express way, Embarcadero Rd, University Ave -> It dead ends at Palo Alto Ave -> On right, there is a bridge, get on that bridge to cross the creek -> Get on to Willow Road -> Take right at willow -> Left at Middlefield Road -> Right at Ringwood Ave -> Go all the way to end of ringwood ave -> See overpass to cross 101 -> Cross that to get on to market pl -> left at market pl -> at deadend, right at Del Norte Ave -> Left at Terminal Ave -> Cross the tracks to get to the campus..

Link and Picture:
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Whisman-to-Menlo-Park-Intuit-Campus

Fundraising Clinic for Team Asha 09

Mahesh and myself organized the fundraising clinic for Team Asha 09 team with the help of Anup. As this was done in a park, we decided to present the material in a skit form rather than powerpoint slides. Despite some initial audio challenges, it went fine.

Here is the video clipping of the clinic for the people who missed it..



Key Messages & topics covered:
1. Raise funds by forming teams of max four runners
2. Submit the recommittment forms by May-31st with your marathon selection, health history etc.
3. Start Early.. Ask your prospective donors before they committ to other charities for this year
4. Create awareness for Asha using blogs, emails etc. Use the templates provided to jump start this campaign.
5. Why donate to Asha? does all funds raised goto asha?
6. How to choose a project of your choice?
7. Touched on the company matching etc..

All the material covered is kept in a FAQ format in the teamasha 09 groups site.

1. Fundraising FAQ -This will answer most of the common questions you have.

2. Recommitment form - Please complete this form and submit it by 31st
May to Team Asha 09 coords

3. Runnernet user guide - Instructions on how to use runnernet -
create blog, log funds etc.

4. Company Matching instructions - List of companies known to match
donations for Asha and instructions on how to obtain matching from
some companies. If your company has employee donation matching program
and Asha is not one of the supported charities, then please email
fundraising@sv.team-asha.org. We will work with your company to add
Asha as a supported charity.

5. Email and Blog templates - Email templates to be sent to
prospective donors. Ex runner, Raju's blog.

6. Quotes from Ex - Runners - Fundraising experience of ex-runners.

Contact Fundraising Team for any questions, concerns related to Fund raising for teamasha 09.