Old Friend

My running is going quite well this week after all that speed work.
I received an E mail from US Ultra Running Hall of Famer Marcy Schwam yesterday, it was actually in response to one I had sent her. A mutual friend had given me her address last week. She lived near to me in the late 70's and early 80's and was partly the inspiration for me to get involved in ultra's. She now works for Reebok and it seems is in NYC quite often, so I hope that we will get a chance to meet and maybe talk about old times and future running adventures. it should be fun.

10 The Hard Way

For a change this morning I went out with 2 of my faster running friends. One of them has a slight leg problem at the moment but still moves pretty fast. We went out at 6:30am and the temperature was just above freezing, but beautiful sunshine and fall colour made everything feel really nice. After about 4 miles I started to feel my legs on some of the hills, but decided to hang in there as well as I could. I struggled over the last few miles, but was happy to finish a hard 10 mile run, I know this will help me in the future. With the 2 races I did earlier it made for a good hard training week for me.

2 Races 48 hours

This morning I went out and ran our local 2 mile race, the temperature was 25 F with the wind chill it felt like 17 F. It was such a big difference from Thursday when it was 55 F. Due to the cold weather only about 12 people showed up. I finished 4th, though I was in 3rd place until the last 1/2 mile when my legs just started to get really tired, probably because it was my 2nd race in less than 48 hours.My time was not so fast either. 16:12, but the average was a little faster than my 5 mile race. Once again I was happy just to run.
Hey how do those guys in the Olympics run heats and finals in just a few days.

It's Thanksgiving in the US and there are lots of races called Turkey trot going on everywhere. I chose to run a 5 mile Turkey trot in Prospect Park Brooklyn. The park is quite hilly and although it's late November the temperature was around 55F. There were over 1000 runners and I think part of the race fee goes to funding a local high school track team. I was supposed to meet my friend Luis who lives near the park, but he didn't show. I of course ran anyway and my time was 41:20 which is not bad for me at the moment. I got this medal and bought the hat for $5. My 8:16 pace was sufficient I used to be able to run 6:16 25 years ago, but hey I'm older and wiser now, he he.

yesterday I went into Central park, where the Knickerbocker 60k was being run. There were over 100 runners. The photo is of the eventual winner, this is with 2 laps to go. His name is Oz Pearlman and he is the guy who won the 50 mile race at the Lakefront 50/50 that I ran in Chicago 3 weeks ago.Though I hadn't planned it I myself ran 15 plus miles in the park too.Oz ran the 60k in 4:01:34
This morning I went out for my usual Sunday morning run and covered 10 miles, so I had a 25 mile weekend, which I am quite happy with.

This weekend there are a lot of ultra races going on; in Texas the Ultracentic 48/24/12/6, the JFK50 in DC and here in New York there is the Knickerbocker 60k in Central Park. Quite a few years ago when I still owned a car, I used to go into central Park a lot to watch all kinds of races, but then for some reason I stopped. Well after going in the see the US Olympics marathon trails a couple of weeks ago it has once again peeked my interest. So will take the subway into the city and spend a few hours Observing the 60k. I think I may have a few friends actually running. I will try to post some photo's and a report as soon as I can get something together.

I read a few other running blogs, one of which is Scott Jurek's. In one of his posts he recomended a book on Vegetarian Sports Nutrition by Ennet Larson-Meyer. Well I bought it on amazon.com and it arrived yesterday. It's great! it has some great suggestions for drinks and food I can use during training and races, that will really help my energy levels and also with my recovery from long runs and races. Something I also discovered recently are Chia seeds, which are amazing, because you put them in water and after a few minutes they make a gel, which can be used as an alternative to some of those sports gels and you control what goes into them. So I am making lots of new discoveries that will hopefully help me with my races and training in the future.

Well it was time for me to run in the 2 mile race again.I hadn't done one since September I think, so here I was on a cold damp November morning. I wasn't expecting much, so I was pretty relaxed. Going through the first mile in 7:37 was not as bad as I thought, but my breathing was starting to bother me a little, probably because I had a cold all week. I ended up with a time of 15:24, which means that my second mile was 7:47. Well not bad for an old guy. I am never unhappy with my times, it gives me an idea as to what I need to do next, or how my recovery from a race or injury is going, there is always something to learn.

Today is the New York city marathon, I haven't run in it since 2000. To tell the truth I don't like to run it anymore. There are too many people, it's such a pain trying to get into it and there is so much waiting around. First to go pick up your number and then at the starting area. Of course lots of people like all that stuff, in fact I have a lot of friends who do run the race. When I first ran it in 1978 it was a lot different.
I did go out with my friend Utpal and run for 2 hours in Flushing Meadow park, it is cool and sunny, I think pretty good conditions for the marathon. Oh yeah I hope Paula Radcliff wins the womens race!
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This morning I went into the city early with my friend Sudip. We actually went to Central park to watch the US Men's Olympic Marathon Trials. There were 133 elite Americans vying for 3 spots on the Olympic team.This was the lead group as they passed us for the second time, just after this the runner in blue, Ryan Hall from California made a break and eventually won the race by 2 minutes in a time of 2:09:02. He looked so fresh at the end and actually jogged and waved to the crowd as he crossed the finish line. I know it is almost a year away, but I think the US will have a pretty strong team in Beijing next year. It was just really cool to see these guys running, what a thrill.