The day before

So it's the day before the 50k race. It's actually a really nice day, but things are supposed to change. The latest forecast says that there will be some snow and the temperature will stay in the low 30's F. My run this morning was nothing great, of course I did not do the 2 mile race. There is also a local marathon going on today and 20 years ago I would have contemplated running that easy and then running the 50k, think that was good multi day training. I will probably run for 6+ hours tomorrow and will try and post something when I get back.

At the end

It was an overcast morning for our Sunday run, but the temperature was around 40F. It was the first time this year that Utpal had run out with me to see the baseball stadiums. When we got there Shea stadium was gone. You can see from the photo that the view west from Willetts point station is completely different.
We ended up running about 10 miles, which is good because it's about a third of what I will be running at the same time next week. It began to rain lightly as we finished our run.

A week to the race

The 50k race is a week and a day away, so it was OK to run the 2 mile race this week. It was a little cold, but nice and sunny. Though I was running quite fast it felt almost like slow motion. I managed to maintain my pace and finished with a time of 15:55, which was only a few seconds slower than 2 weeks ago. I know that next week I will run a more relaxed pace, so I thought that this was a good race. I realized after the race that I am not fully recovered from my cold, but I have another week and it should not really be a problem anyway.

Cold and rainy, but fun

So this afternoon, I went out for my run and it was cold, well not too cold, but it was rainy. But you know when I got out there, it was so much fun!

Feeling bouncy

My day went quite quickly and before I knew it I was on my way home The afternoon was a little warmer than I expected. After checking out my e mails and stuff I went out for a run. Although I am not 100% it felt as though I had a bit more spring in my step. So barring any major setbacks I think with 12 days to go, I am OK for the 50k on March 1st.
I have only missed one day of running in the last 10 months and it is this kind of consistency that helps me to feel relaxed with a race coming up. I don't really compete these days, I just enjoy participating in the race, I see it as another chance to learn something about myself.

Back to normal, sort of.

Now that Utpal is back from his travels I had company for the Sunday run. I think not racing yesterday paid off, because I felt a lot better this morning. However it did feel colder than I thought it would, at least at the beginning of the run. We went out to Flushing Meadow park. With Utpal suffering the effects of jet lag it was decided to just run around the lake and back. I am quite happy with the run and actually felt fresh at the end of it.

Oh yeah! I did not run the 2 mile race yesterday. My throat was still bothering me and I thought that the best option was to be cautious and not wipe myself out 2 weeks before the 50k. I just jogged a couple of miles.

Running Frog

I woke up this morning with a deep croaky voice, we often use the expression, "I have a frog in my throat". So when I went out for my run this afternoon, I was taking the frog out for a run, so to speak.

Old creaky legs

It was a nice morning, with the temperature already at 40F when I left the house at 10 to 7 .I felt kind of sore and my left hamstring and knee seemed to be telling me something was a little tight. When I got out to Flushing Meadow Park, things were a bit different from last week, though there were still a few icy patches. Once again I went out to Shea stadium and Citi field. My run of 2 hours felt good, but still a little sore at the end.

Official race starter

Due to a lack of officials, I was the starter for this mornings 2 mile race.The other official stayed at the finish line. I was given his watch, which I started the race with and handed it to him as we ran by on the first loop. There were only 6 official starters, not sure why this was, as the weather was much better than in previous weeks. For some reason I was feeling a little sore when I left my house for the race, so I did a little extra warming up before the race.I finished 4th with a time of 15:52, yet another improvement on the previous week. So slowly, slowly I am getting some speed back.

In Perspective

I have been sorting through some of my things and the other day I found my diary from 2001. Yesterday I sat down and looked at a few pages, I was interested to see what I wrote on September 11. This is what I wrote;" The day started out so normally. When the flight got to within 3 1/2 hours of New York, we were told that terrorists had attacked. The plane had to go back to Vienna. We would land in London first.The airspace over London was closed, so we landed in Manchester. Then finally on to Vienna, arriving back 13 hours after we left".
My final note was; My running streak ended today
4 years 6 months 8 days.
I don't know why but that is what I wanted to post today.

On fresh snow

It started snowing around 9am, so by the time I had come home from work and settled a few things, there was maybe 3 inches of snow on the ground. Probably because the temperature as stayed at 30 F all day, the roads have stayed clear for the most part. For some reason as I ran with fresh snow all around me and more blowing in the wind. It reminded me of a run I had at the beginning of the year in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Shea Stadium says goodbye

I think the last time I ran out to Shea Stadium was in November with Utpal. Today was a good time to go out there again. The temperature was just 1or 2 degrees below freezing when I started out and by the time I finished 1 or 2 above. As you can see from the photo about 3/4 of it has gone. The lake in flushing meadow was almost completely frozen. I ran for 2 hours, so I am quite happy with my run. I have about 3 weeks of training before the 50k race, which is also training for the 6 day race in April.