Last day raw

This is the last day of this years raw food diet for me. I am very happy with how it has gone, my weight is just about the same as it was last year at this time. Just like last year I have decided to take a few days and then start to build up my running training.
This past weekend the weather was hot and humid, today it is much drier and not so hot, but the Sun is very strong and one can burn quite quickly if not careful.

Raw food running

OK so I am nearing the end of my raw food stint for this year. When I went out for my Sunday run with Utpal my legs felt a little tired, partly from the race yesterday and I think partly from not eating enough protein the last couple of days. The fact that it was also 84% humidity may have helped to make it a bit of a struggle.anyway I managed and near the end I stopped and bought myself, my new treat for my Sunday run, a bottle of Perrier water.

On a personnal note

So once again it is Saturday morning and time to run a 2 mile race. Once the race got started I didn't feel so fast. Maybe it was the very humid conditions, because some of the fast runners that usually beat me easily, were only just in front of me for most of the race. In fact I just beat out one runner that I had not beaten for 2 years. My time was 14:55 which is 13 seconds slower than last week, but now I have gone under 15 minutes 2 weeks in a row, so that's good.

The humidity by the way was 84%, so yes it was a little sticky !

3100 mile race- Day 12

A different view of the world on the course of the 3100 mile race.
Today was very humid, but everyone is still going around and around. some are struggling more than others, but that is the nature of the race. You struggle and struggle and then suddenly something gets better and away you go. A few runners out there are looking for that moment. And still the days go on.

3100 mile race- Day 11

It seems that after day 10 all of the runners are ahead of their totals from last year. Some by just a mile or two, others by as much as 60 miles. Despite the problems some of them are having they are still doing well.

Here you see one of the snack and drink tables where the runners can load up on a few things to keep them going.

3100 mile race- Day 8

Sunday morning and after running my usual schedule during the 3100 mile race is to stop by and see how things are going. Ananda- Lahari said to me with a smile " I have a shin splint", I told him "Don't worry it will go away".. The humidity was very high and I had sweated a lot, Pranjal as he passed asked me if I had been swimming. So you see that the spirits are good and even though they are working hard, there is good humour.

3100 mile race- Day 7

It's Saturday morning and there is a 2 mile race at 8am around the school adjacent to the 3100 mile course. I am running in the 2 mile race and since all the runners in the 3100 mile race know me, they shout encouragement to me as I come around. This is a great boost to me and probably entertaining to them.

A few people are making reports on the race and here you see Utpal ( on the right ), taking some photo's for his blog.


My time by the way was 14:42, which believe it or not is my fastest time so far this year.

3100 mile race- Day 6

Abichal had one of his classic days on day 5, his knee started bothering him during the day, so he decided to have a short day and go home early with just 55 miles. Today everything seems good, he is running well and had completed 54 miles when I left him with 4 hours to go in the day.

You can see from the photo that some guys eat on the run and from the smiles, it's easy to see that they are enjoying it out there.

3100 mile race- Day 5

Yes it's day 5 so it's still early on in the proceedings. Each runner is settling in to their position, both on the board and their daily routine.
Abichal tells me that everything goes well until the evening then he struggles. He is still trying to figure out how to deal with that.
Sopan keeps telling me that he has not felt warm since the race started, but I am sure that will change.
Pavol has had trouble with a knee, then it got better and today it bothers him somewhat. Though he told me with a smile it's really OK.

Day 3 - 3100 mile race

Of course it is early in the race yet, but today was the best day so far. The first 2 days had been hot and humid, although yesterday was not so hot.
Today was humid at the start but the temperature was quite low, around 62 F. There has been a fairly nice breeze though out the day. Some of the runners are starting to get their first aches and pains, which they pretty much know how to deal with. I think generally all are happy with the mileage that they are doing this early in the race. From my multi day experience I know that they are now beginning to adjust to their new race lifestyle.

Remember to check out the race site using the link in the blogs I read column.

3100 mile second day

Though the weather was quite warm on the first day everyone is strong so they get through it with good mileage. I stopped by the race 2 times today and everyone was still looking good. The weather has turned a little cooler and that helps, though the humidity was quite high. In the early evening a thunder storm blew through, there wasn't much rain, but the winds were very strong and blew a lot of things around. Which made for a lot of running around by the crew and helpers and anyone else who could help to batten down the hatches.

To find out about daily results etc click on the link in Blogs I read to the left.

World's longest race

yes I felt some soreness this morning, but other than that I'm OK. We had thunder storms over night, but it was still quite warm and humid this morning.
The world's longest race started this morning in New York, it is 3100 miles long. In the photo you can see some of the participants. I jogged out there to the start and back. I will be going out there everyday for the next almost 2 months to see how things are going on. They run around a scool that is about 10 minutes from my house

Just too hot

I woke up nice and early and walked the 3 1/2 to 4 miles out to Flushing Meadow for the 50k race. I got there just in time to see the 100k race start. It was already warm and the humidity was high, but as we started the 50k race an hour later it didn't feel too bad. I was mostly running on my own, though there was almost always someone not too far ahead of me. The weather seemed to be getting quite hot and the Sun was feeling quite strong, but everything seemed to be going OK. At 21 miles I was on pace for a sub 6 hour time. Then I started to really feel the heat. I had been drinking a lot and making sure I was well hydrated, but then I started to feel a little dizzy, then nauseous and in the space of 3 miles I had lost it. As I completed 24 miles I knew it was a mistake to carry on. I discovered that 3 other runners had become sick and on medical advice, the 100k race had now been reduced to a 50 mile race. I spent a half an hour sitting in the shade and drinking lots of fluids and started to recover, but I had no feeling to go out and try to complete the 7 remaining miles. I had a problem with a heat related sickness about 20 years ago and have tried to be smart and avoid that problem since.
Once I felt well enough I packed my bag and walked the almost 4 miles back home very casually, getting more drinks on the way. When I got home 1 1/2 hours after I had stopped and after consuming about 50ozs of fluids, I finally went to the bathroom. When I weighed myself I was down 4 lbs even after re hydrating myself. So a lesson learned.

The day before tomorow

The weather is finally cooler and I have to say my last run before the race went well. Of course I am never quite sure what race day will bring, but right now I am feeling good. One thing I will learn is just how well I recover from doing a 10 day race in 6 weeks. So I will let you know.

50 Days

My run this afternoon was quite pleasant in that the temperature was 85 F ( 29 C ) and there was a nice breeze, the humidity was just 33%. It was also the 50th straight day that I had gone out for a run, making it my second longest streak of the year. I feel that the 50 day threshold is usually a significant one. I like to be consistent in my running, I feel it helps me throughout the year.

Different Day

Such a different day from yesterday. Although the temperature in the mid 70's F when I left for work this morning it felt much nicer. It's nice to work in the basement though it is starting to warm up down there too.
I could feel the difference in the air as I walked home in the afternoon, it was 90 F , but there was a cooling breeze. After a short nap to kind of break the day, I went out for my run. By this time it was down to 86 F ( 30 C), but it only felt a little bit better than yesterday. I was trying out my new pair of Addidas Urahu, which I knew would be good since I had a pair before. Yes they felt comfortable on my feet.

Heat acclimation

So yesterday and today I got to see what it's like to run in some summer heat. This afternoon the temperature was much higher, but the humidity was less. I went out in the middle of the afternoon with the temperature at 93 F ( 33 C ), but the humidity was a modest 42 %. So believe it or not it didn't feel that bad, of course I was only running a few miles and I had made sure I was pretty well hydrated. I was sweating pretty good though by the end of the run.

Hot Run !!

The temperature was already 74 F ( 22 C) when I went out the door this morning and the humidity was 85%. So yes it was a hot run. I had decided to continue following my paln and only run 6 miles today. Utpal is training for a marathon in August so he wanted to run longer, so after about 3 miles we parted company. Shortly after that I had a drop in energy, even though I had eaten a granola bar about 45 minutes before we left. I ran through it and later regained my energy, I was in fact feeling quite strong at the end, though I was sweating a lot.
I like my new Addidas Duramo shoes!

Just right

Last week I mentioned that I got a pair of running shoes. Well while I was there I saw another pair that were on sale, they were also a model that I like, but I decided not to get them at that time. So I went there today and they had been reduced for clearance, they only had 5 pairs left and one of them was my size. So by waiting a week I got just what I wanted and at a cheaper price. I have to say though that it usually works out the opposite way, I go back and they have sold out, so I was kind of lucky this time.

The combination

I had a feeling today that maybe the combination of running a hard 2 mile race on Saturday and a long run on Sunday, may be too much. It did feel like my legs were tired today and it has been taking me 2 or 3 days to recover. The only way to really know, is to not run the race the 2 mile race this week and not run too long on Sunday.. I have recovered from 24 hour races and then run 50k races in 6 to 7 weeks, but never tried it after a 10 day race, so maybe I have to adjust something.
I have been walking around in my new Addidas Duramo's for the last couple of days. This afternoon I ran in them. They feel very good, I am happy with them.

Hot and Humid run

This morning was the first time this year that it has been quite warm when we went out for our run. It was already 65 F when we started at 7am. Since it had rained during the night it was also quite humid. The run as usual went out to Shea Stadium and back. During the run however we covered about 80% of the course that will be used for the 50k race I will be running in 2 weeks. After about 9 miles I started to get a numb feeling in my left foot, similar to that I had 2 years ago when I developed my foot injury. It did however go away and was fine for the rest of the run.