A few years ago I passed a small kidney stone and I have to say it was quite painful.
Yesterday I noticed some blood in my urine, after my run in the morning. It then seemed to clear up, but was there again after my second run. This can be running induced. I did feel some discomfort and felt that it might be a stone, however I also had the feeling that it might be some thing in my bladder. The blood problem has gone away and I am optimistic that every thing will be OK.
Sorry if I just grossed anyone out, but this is life and all it entails.

It is a beautiful sunny Spring morning out there. I had such a nice run this morning.
Here in New York there are so many flowers popping up, everywhere I look I see Daffodils, Crocus, Aconites, etc.
My running seems to be going well and I am quite happy that the training schedule I have decided on seems to suite me.

Today was one of those wet Spring days. While I was getting ready to go out and run this morning, it was pouring down with rain. By the time I got outside the rain was very light.Utpal and I went out to Flushing meadow, at one point we passed some Cherry trees that were just coming into flower. My head cold seems to have gone and I felt pretty good out there running. After completing our 10 miles we had a little breakfast at our local cafe.
By the time I went out for my second run around 3:30 in the afternoon I was still feeling good. I decided to run what I call my 5k loop. So my total for the day was 13+ miles. I have had a good week.

My race this morning was affected by a combination of many different things. First of all after my run run in the afternoon yesterday I developed a stomach problem, which was followed by a headache. I am not sure if this is a reaction to my current training or I have picked something up. When I woke up this morning I had a head cold.I must say that not of these things will stop me going out to run. The weather conditions were cool and a light rain. When the race started I felt OK, but with the first few 100 meters I had some pain from my lower back, so I backed off the pace. After that everything was fine, if somewhat slower. I finished in a time of 16:01, which of course I am still happy with and will be able to go out and run this afternoon.

You can feel the energy of Spring when you are outside.When I have gone out for my runs the last couple of days, I have been inspired to go a little further or maybe a little stronger.
It the the third weekend of doubles and for the last 2 weeks Utpal has come out with me on Friday and Saturday afternoons. It turns out he ran on his own this morning, so did not come out with me this afternoon. I tend to run a little harder on my own.

There is an Elm tree just around the corner from where I live, it looks as though it has seen the wars a bit. Every year around this time it is full of beautiful red flowers.

The trees that the city planted last spring are just now preparing themselves for the new journey that nature has in store.Along with some of the more established trees, they are showing lots of buds.
I was planning on running just 2 miles this afternoon as I usually do on a Thursday in my current schedule. However there was a light spring rain falling and when I got out there, I just got inspired and ran 3 with a little bit of a push. Of course it will be my first double of the weekend tomorrow.

I talked with my sister and she filled me in on all the family news. It seems one of my second cousins had a serious operation recently and seems to be recovering quite well. I of course wish him well.
I found out some information about my father the other day that was a bit of a surprise. It seems that when he came to England after the second world war, he maybe took a different birthday. The year was the same, but a different month. Sometimes the past creeps slowly up on you.

When I was at college in the north east of England many years ago, I used to take the train up to Edinborough some times to visit friends. I will never forget walking down Prince's Street one Spring and being almost knocked out by, the amazing fragrance of hundreds of Hyacinth that were planted in flower beds all along the way.
I have seen some Hyacinth coming up in a garden nearby and it has reminded me of this experience from long ago.We are still having cold mornings and mild days.

A cold one again this morning, a few degrees below freezing. Nice easy run, with the legs not feeling too bad.
I did buy my ticket for Slovenia, it is one way, but I will be back in August. It's just that ticket will be a round trip from there.
Still have the sniffles, right now not as bad as yesterday. Not sure if it's something new or a left over from something before.
I have a meeting with a lawyer this lunch time. To do with the court proceedings for the estate of the friend who was killed in October. Nothing serious I just have to sign an affidavit. Oh well! that's about it for now.

This is my second week of my twice a day runs. I seem to have gotten over my lower back problem, but was really sore this morning as we started out on our run. It was cold, just above freezing, but quite pleasant. Again we ran about 10 miles and there were periods of time when I felt quite tired and for some reason my right hip was a little sore. I have fallen into a pattern of taking a short nap in between runs on my double days. This afternoon when I went out the second time the temperature had increased by more than 20 degrees and so was a pleasant easy run. Though for some reason I have sniffles.

My 2 mile run this morning was done with a certain amount of caution. Due to the stiffness in my lower back earlier in the week, I wasn't sure how much I could push. I started out quite slow, I was not sure exactly how slow since I didn't get a 1 mile split time.I tried to keep my shape as they say in English football terms and I felt my breathing was good. I ran twice yesterday as per my training schedule and was happy to run 15:51. The temperature was 30F (-1C) and I tend to run a little slower when it is cold.

Mother nature has such a sense of humour! It is the first day of Spring and as I went out for my run this morning it was beginning to snow. As I look out of my window now I can see big snow flakes falling. Of course they are melting as they touch the ground, but it is an interesting start to the day.
My back feels about 95% better, so my run was fine. I still plan to go out again this afternoon and in fact I saw Utpal on my way home and he said he was ready to go out with me on my second run.

When I got home from work yesterday I spent about an hour on my computer. When I decided to go out for my run my lower back was really stiff. I managed to get a run in, but later it felt like I had strained something in my back. I did a few things to try to make it better, but finally decided that the best thing was to go to bed and sleep. I had a long strange dream, which when it started to repeat itself made me wake up, only to find out that it was an hour past my usual waking up time. I contemplated taking the day off since I was still a little sore, but went to work any way. It is still not 100% but is feeling better, so hopefully another nights sleep will sort it out.

On my way home from work today I walked past a flower bed with about 30 miniature daffodils, in full flower in it. It was so nice to see the golden faces standing there in the full sunshine.

I saw this in a newspaper a couple of days ago;
Stress relief
Doctors say the best way
to deal with stress is to
relax and find an outlet for
anxiety. Here are some
suggestions:

Eat properly
Cut out sweets and unhealthful
foods
Exercise
Pursue a favorite hobby
Lose weight
Stop smoking
Cut back alcohol consumption
Spend time with family
Maintain regular social contacts.
So you see it's as easy as that.

So today is St Patrick's Day. It was a reasonably busy day at work.
Yesterday I thought I had seen the first outside flowering Daffodil of the year, in a park that I ran by locally, but today I confirmed that it was just the white skeletal remains of a leaf, that was stuck between the unopened buds of a group of daffodils.
So I guess I will have to wait a few more days to see the champion of spring flowers in bloom.

Slept really well, but with all the running I've been doing the last few days that is understandable. So I went out nice and early this morning and ran a couple of easy miles. Then after a little breakfast I went back to bed. I listened to my body and it told me to go to sleep for a while. It's Monday so I sorted my washing and put a load in the machine. I feel pleasantly sore from my new training schedule and I am quite happy with how the first weekend went. I did go out for a fast couple of miles in the afternoon.

After 2 days of running twice a day, I went out this morning and my legs let me know what I had been doing. I like the feeling of being able to fall asleep quite quickly when I go to bed. This is just the kind of training I feel I need to prepare for the 6 day race. I did similar workouts 2 years ago when getting for 24 hour races. It gets the body used to running on tired legs.

In other news my beloved Wolves won their game on Saturday as did second place Birmingham, third place Reading lost. So there is a little cushion as the season nears it's end, but it is not over yet.

I felt strange before the 1 mile race this morning, The temperature was just above freezing, but with bright sunshine. The feeling I had was almost like nerves, but there was no reason for me to feel that way. Anyway as soon as the race started it was gone. In the early part of the race I had no idea of how fast I was running and at the 1 mile split my time was 7:47, which I think is 2 seconds slower than last week. In the second mile I felt much better and tried to maintain my pace. Everything was good and I felt like I was pressing through to the end of the race. I finished with a time of 15:24, which means my second mile was 7:37. So all in all an 18 second improvement on last week.

This is the second month in a row that we have had a Friday the 13th, I wonder how often that happens? This morning was the first time for more than a week that the temperature was below freezing. Did not feel so great when I went out for my run, but had a pretty decent one anyway.
Need to clear out some of things in preparation for my move, have to work on doing that this today and on the weekend.
Enjoyed Sadhak's gig last night and for some reason stayed up till after midnight, maybe I was a little buzzed fro the hot chocolate I had.

Walking to work this morning, I looked up to see a big old moon shining down. The sky was clear and dark, and there it was a Spring full moon. Well I am not sure if it was full, but it looked like it to me. I am not sure if it has been due to the pull of the moon, but all this week I have been tired when I got home from work. Today was no exception, so I took a nap before I went out for my run.
My friend and co worker Sadhak, singer/song writer is performing at a local coffee shop this evening, so I will pop along and see him.

This will not mean much to most of you, but all four English football ( soccer ) clubs have made it to the 1/4 finals of the Champions League. The draw will be made on March 20, it is likely that 2 of them will play each other for a place in the semi finals.

My cousin Jo', who has been living in New Zealand for the last 7 years, is moving to Australia it seems. I was chatting with her sister Mandy today and she says the move is on April 26.

I am seeing more and more crocus as I walk home from work, a couple more warm days and we could see some Forsythia showing it's face.

It has turned a little colder, but still above freezing. Any possible trace of snow has now gone.
My running seems a little better too.
One of the routes that I take home from work brings me by a new auto parts place that has recently opened. There is a sign outside that reads " Tinting window ". Now unless there is an auto window that becomes automatically tinted when the Sun shines, I think it is supposed to read window tinting. This is kind of confirmed by another sign in the window of the store that reads " window tints ". Sometimes the guys that make the signs do not have a complete command of the English language.
I did take a little nap in the early evening, it just seemed like I needed one.

It's hard to believe that at this time last week there was snow everywhere, because when I looked out my front door this morning I could not see any.
Well the clocks went forward an hour here in the US and although it is not officially Spring for another 11 days, it sure is beginning to feel like it.
This is only the second time in the last 13 or 14 years that I have been in New York at this time of the year, I am usually in Europe now, but things of course will change in May.

So it is one week after the 50k Championships. What a difference a week makes, last week it was 30F and snow flurries, this week it was 44F when Utpal and I went out for our Sunday run. After running the 2 mile race yesterday on tired legs, they legs were not too lively this morning. These Sunday runs are about 2 friends spending some time running together and talking about the past week. So we managed to eek out about 7 miles and have a pleasant run. It is 7 weeks to the start of the 6 day race, so I now have about 6 weeks of decent training to put together.

It's 6 days since the 50k race and a beautiful morning. There was bright sunshine and although the temperature read 42F, it felt warmer. I felt pretty good as I started the 2 mile race, but was not quite sure how fast I was running. There is a short steep hill about half way around the loop, I always try to maintain my leg speed up this hill and sometimes re pass runners who have passed me just before. About half way through the second mile I started to feel my legs were tired from the race last Sunday, but I just tried to keep my form. I had gone through the first mile in 7:44 then ran the second mile a little slower in 7:58, for a finishing time of 15:42. Which is not as fast as my friend Amanda thought I should run, but still my fastest time so far this year. I can usually get it down to around 14 by the summer.

Finally the weather has turned warmer and it felt nice on my run this morning.. It looks like the weekend will be really nice.
I finally filed my State and city taxes, it's probably the last time I will have to do them
I watched a couple of movies today. one of them was Frozen River, which was up for a couple of Oscars. I liked it.

Finally it seems as though the tiredness is going form my legs. I did feel generally tired at the end of my work day, but after a short break when I got home, I went out for a run. I realized that I am 7 1/2 weeks away from the 6 day race I will run at the end of April and feel that I am in pretty good space right now. The fact that the weather is getting warmer may have something to do with it also.

Maybe it's the cold weather, but I am sleeping really well and when I leave for work I feel good. Then as the day progresses I start to get really tired and my legs feel wasted. I know I ran a 50k race 4 days ago, but it feels as though I should be a bit more recovered than this by now. It is supposed to get warmer from now on. Maybe I'll have a better idea of how I am by the weekend.

Everything felt a little better when I woke up this morning., but the temperature outside was 14F ( -10C ) and my walk to work was sometimes on rough frozen terrain. When I got to work my legs felt quite sore again, during my last hour at work I started to feel tired. However when I got home I saw that Wolves had won their latest league game albeit by a score of 1-0. This of course made me feel a little more awake and I went out for a run, which also loosened things up.

Woke up to 6 to 8 inches of snow on the ground and it was still snowing. My legs and feet had been quite sore during the night, but I slept quite good. It was not possible for me to go out and run early as I would usually do on a Monday, so I waited until the afternoon.By about 2 pm most of the roads were quite passable so I went out for a short run to shake things up a bit. It is quite cold out and there is a strong wind, which is blowing some of the snow around. Oh yeah! By the time it stopped snowing there was another 1 or 2 inches of snow and the temperature is 23F.

Drove out to Long Island early this morning with Ray K, who had driven up from South Carolina yesterday. The weather prediction was for snow with some accumulation. It was col, around freezing and there were some snow flurries during the race, but also a very short period of sun. I will write a full report on my running blog tomorrow, but I will say that I ran 6:14:45, which was only 3 minutes slower than my time in Chicago 2 years ago.I expected to run a little slower, so of course I am happy.