Yes it's Christmas eve and it's a wet one.If it had stayed cold like earlier in the month the rain we have today would be snow and we could have had a white Christmas. We must remember however that Christmas is about family and I am here with mine. I am also getting greetings from those abroad.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL

It's Christmas eve eve. at least that's what we call it in our family.
Went out nice and early for my Sunday run. There was a good frost but it was bright and there air had lots of country smells in it.Ran for about 1 hour and it felt quite easy. One thing that I have noticed is that my breathing seems much better than it has for a while.

It's the winter solstice. so of course it was the shortest day and it went very quickly.
I have been in the UK for 3 Saturdays now and for the second time I got to see Wolves play live on TV. Last time they lost 3-2 to Burnley, this time they drew 1-1 with Leicester. They will be in 7 th place in the Championship at Christmas, which is 7 places higher than the same time last year.
My uncle Dave sent me a photo of me when I was 17 today. It's amazing to look back.

Yesterday the Queen of England became the oldest monarch ever. At 5pm she became one day older than Queen Victoria was when she died in 1910. So there is a little bit of trivia for you.

When I am at my sisters, it's a bit like having a housekeeper. I get to put my washing in the laundry basket and get it done for me. I must point out that I have offered to do it for her. My clothes come back smelling so nice and fresh.

In New York I sleep on a Futon be, which is quite firm. I've been sleeping on a futon bed for probably 10 years and I like it, it's also a twin sized bed. The bed I'm sleeping on at my sisters is a double with a soft mattress. I sleep on the left side of the bed, but sometimes find that during the night I walk into the middle of the bed in my sleep. I have a nice room in my sisters house.

Went to do the weekly shopping with my sister today.Yes Asda was the place, it took us 2 1/2 hours to do it all.
When I got home I got to go for a nice run.

When I was a kid growing up in England, Football was the game I watched the most. Today I went with my sister, niece and her friend to a place called Holly Bush, which is sort of a garden center. When we got there, there was a long line to see someone. It was a surprise to find out that someone was, Gordon Banks and Bert Williams. Two great goalkeepers of the past. Gordon won the World Cup with England in 1966. They were doing a book signing. I didn't have my camera with me, which was a shame. When I was a kid I thought Gordon Banks was one of the best goalkeepers ever. He is still fondly remembered.
Two nights ago I dreamed there was snow on Christmas day.

When I woke up this morning I didn't want to go out for my usual Sunday morning run, I don't know why but I just didn't.
Today was Grand slam Sunday in the English Premier League. Th e4 biggest teams were playing in 2 games. In the first one ManU beat Liverpool 1-0 to go top, then Arsenal beat Chelsea 1-0 to back on top. I watched both games and I thought the Arsenal v Chelsea was the better game.

I've been here for a week now and of course it has gone pretty quickly.It started off on the wet side with a couple of days of rain and now it has turned quite cold.I still feel as though I'm settling in a bit.
One big thing that has happened since I got her is, that as of yesterday the England football team now have a new head coach and he is Italian, at loeast through the next world cup.

One of the great legends of Ultra running died on Wednesday his name is Ted Corbitt. You probably don't know who he is, but people in the UR community will. Besides being a great runner and inspiration to many, many runners, he was also the most humble person you could ever meet. I was lucky enough to have met him many times and even had the chance to run a race with him.
It is a sad day in the running community but I am sure it is one that will bring many of us together in remembering him.

Today there was one of the two weekly stall markets in Penridge, there is pretty good mix of different kinds of fare available,
I am doing quite well with my running at the moment, it is so much more relaxed than in New York and I am surrounded by countryside so that of course helps. The weather has also been pretty good so far and it is usually above freezing during the day.

It's turned quite cold here in Penkridge, but it's bright and sunny. Can you believe it, I was born on this day 54 years ago.
There is a small bakery in the village called Jaspers and they make really good Cherry scones, I bought some yesterday, 4 for just £1:65 and they were scrummy.

Well I've been in the UK for a couple of days no. The flight went well and was quite quick, just five and a half hours. I went for a run Sunday morning from my sister's village to another called Acton |Trussle, a round trip of about 6 miles and felt really good. It is really nice to be here to spend the holidays with my family, Stay tuned.

I may have lived in New York for almost 30 years, that's where I live but England is my home and I'm going home for the holidays.I have about 3 hours before I leave for the airport and I'm actually ready to go. Since I am visiting with family it is a pretty easy trip to prepare for. This time tomorrow I'll be checking the football (soccer) scores on the TV in my sisters house.
I will continue to report as well as possible from there.

It was my last work day for the year today, tomorrow I'm going home! I left at lunchtime. i have to finish my packing.
There is a new series on NBC called Life about a detective named Charlie Crews, I even got one of the guys at work watching it. He watches it on TV and I watch it the next day on the internet. Last night was the season finale, when my friend came in to work he said jokingly that I should go straight home and watch it. Well I waited till it was time to leave work and came home and watched. It was totally awesome!

We caught our 11th Raccoon at work today, it was the biggest one so far. he was pretty calm to start with but then he got grumpy. If the Fed Ex boys did their job he's playing in the park now. Though it did get a little snowy and cold this afternoon.
I have to start doing some of my packing tonight, ready for my trip on Friday, I'm looking forward to the break.

I slept well last night and although it was a clod walk work felt good when I got there. I made myself a nice herbal tea, but a short while after that started feel really sick to the stomach. This was followed by sneezing and a runny nose. All the symptoms of a cold. When the guys came in later one of them gave me some ester c powder and that made me feel better. I worked the whole day and even had a bowl of homemade chilli for lunch.
On the way home a did buy a new travel bag, this one has big wheels. I have had trouble before when they have small wheels because they wear out quickly, so we will see what happens with this one.
Oh and Celtic made it into the last 16 of the Champions League!

A Serbian friend from Geneva passed through New York yesterday on his way to DC. We had dinner and it was a chance to catch up on a few things, also to talk about a few possible future projects.
It didn't get above freezing until quite late last night, but then it got quite warm and almost all the snow was gone this morning. Finally vanishing as the day progressed.

We had our first snow of the season today. It started just after I woke up and before I went out for my run. The temperature was in the low 20's F when I ventured out for my run with Abichal and the snow was falling lightly. With the wind in our faces for the first few miles it felt really cold. I went out to run 10 miles again at a good pace, Abichal had a slightly different paln so we split after 7 miles. I felt much stronger this week, but then I hadn't run 2 races earlier.

Though there was bright sunshine it felt really cold this morning when I went out for my run. The temperature was around freezing but there was a strong wind, so it felt a lot colder. For some reason my legs felt very tired. It seems quiet here in New York, maybe the weather has something to do with that. I am sleeping well and it may have something to do with that too, maybe it is part of my natural urge to hibernate.

This is what some of the frames we make at work look like, while they are waiting to be sold.As you can see we have them all nicely stacked waiting for someone to buy them. So the stack of lumber you saw yesterday ends up looking like this. Hey this time next week I'll be getting ready to leave for the UK.

Today I got a phone call from the fraud department of one of my credit card companies. It seems for the last 2 days someone has been trying to buy a few things using my number, only small items for some reason. Well it's not going to happen, but now my account is closed and I have to wait for a new one, only 5 days though.
A few days a week I stop at a local Dunkin Donuts and get a hot chocolate, Cranberry muffin and a cinnamon raisin bagel, on the way to work in the morning. It's a nice start to the day.

This is some of that great Canadian lumber we get 2 times a year. I took the photo with my new Nikon L10 camera, which arrived yesterday and I'm having fun with.

This time of the year Mother nature likes to play a game, she gives us a couple of warm days followed by some cold days and then this continues. Of course your body cannot figure out what is going on.. Nipples, our cat at work is also confused because there is evidence that another raccoon has been in her area and we had just sipped one away last week.

According to UPS tracking my new camera is on a truck, out for delivery. So it should be here some time soon.
It's been a rainy overcast day, but I did get a nice run in. My legs feel pleasantly tired after all the racing I did last week.

This is the Audubon Society building in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.

I went out running this morning with 2 of my faster running friends. Though one of them ( Sundar) has a slight leg problem at the moment, he still sets a pretty good pace. I stuggled a bit but managed to hang in there. I feel that this kind of training, especially after running 2 races earlier will only make me stronger.The Temperature was just above freezing, but the bright sunshine and the beautiful colours were amazing.

Oh by the way, this is my 800th post on this blog!

Since it is Saturday morning the was a local 2 mile race, I had decided yesterday that I would run even though I had just run the 5 mile Turkey trot in Brooklyn less than 48 hours before. This race was so different. Thursday the temperature was 55F, today it was 25F. There was a small turnout of about 12 runners and I was in 3rd place for most of the race. With 1/2 mile to go my legs really started to feel tired and I ended up coming in 4th, My time was a slow 16:12, but of course I was happy.

I dedicated the race to my mom who's birthday would have been today.

Woke up this morning feeling a little blah, maybe it was all the food yesterday. Well I went out for a short run and then had breakfast, now I'm feeling better.After I got back from the race I discovered that the LCD screen on my digital camera was broken. So I went online and bought a new one, I have a broken Photosmart 327 5mp which I paid $110 for 2 years ago. Now I got a Nikon coolpix 5mp for $90 andit has more features, isn't progress great!

So it's Thanksgiving and I went to Prospect Park in Brooklyn to run the 5 mile Turkey trot. It was actually kind of warm with a temp' around 55F. I was supposed to meet my friend Luis, but he didn't show. I ran 41:20 which is OK. I did get this medal and bought the hat for $5. It only took me an hour subway ride each way and 20 minutes walk to and from the park.

It's the eve of Thanksgiving here in the US. The last few months have been interesting for me, I have lost a few of the new friends that I had gained in the last couple of years, but re connected with some old friends I had lost contact with. 2 that come to mind are an old running buddy, Charlie who I hadn't talked to for about 10 years and Jackie, someone I new 25 years ago. What an interesting time for me. Serendipity?

I'm getting some really good ideas from the new book and it's making me look at what I eat a little differently. Our cat at work (Nipples) has been a bit freaked out, we caught another raccoon in our have a heart trap yesterday, but the fed ex guys couldn't take it to the park until today. So we had to feed and water it. the cat wasn't very happy with that.I think this is the 10th Raccoon we've had this year.

In all the years I've lived in New York and gone into central Park, I don't think I have ever gone and looked at Cleopatra's Needle. Well on Saturday I did and here is the photo to prove it.

My Photo Album

Photobucket Album

Didn't feel so bad this morning after running yesterday in Central Park, though I did take an extra hour of sleep. It was still quite cold when I went out for my run with Utpal, but it wasn't raining as was forecast.So we managed to run our 10 miles, which made a total or 25 plus for me for the weekend, which I am quite pleased with. I am feeling quite strong 3 weeks after running the 50k in Chicago and after gaining a few pounds while I was sick a few weeks ago I seem to have lost them again.
Oh this is Oz Pearlman the winner of the 60k race.

So I went into Central Park today. I wanted to take some photo's of a lot of different places, landmarks sort of. It also happened that there was a 60k race going on too. To my surprise Oz Pearlman, who won the 50 mile race in Chicago 3weeks ago was running. Just like he did there, he went out fast and won the race in 4:01:37. Stayed out there most of the day helping and running part of the course myself. It seems I ran about 15 miles, I do feel a little tired but a nice shower when I got home made me feel better.I'll post some photo's later.

It was somewhat of a wintry day today, with not too cold temperatures but with a very strong wind, similar to the winds we experienced earlier in the year.I am planning on going into the city again tomorrow. There is a 60k race in central park, which I am not going to run but thought it would be nice to observe. I used to go there all the time to watch races of all kinds and after watching the Olympic Marathon trails I am inspired to go again. I also want to take some photo's of both the race and the Park.

To the left of this photo is Shea Stadium where the mets play now and to the right is the new Stadium being built. I was surprised to see how close they are to each other. We were running near by on Sunday and I decided to take a photo.

I've been checking out the new book I got, it has lots of useful information about drinks and food I can use in training and in races. Hopefully these things will help me to continue to improve in my races in the coming year. About 27 years ago I had a fall while out running and displaced one of the vertebrae between my shoulder blades, a chiropractor friend of mine fixed it for me. Every once in a while it herniates and gives me a little discomfort. It has been doing it on and off for the last couple of months, today I think I got it back in place myself.

The sports nutrition book for vegetarians I bought online came today, a little faster than I expected. I took a quick look at the introduction and went out for a run. I think it is going to be very useful. After the cold days we have had recently it was quite warm today, with the temperature reaching 60 F ( 14 C) not bad for November.

Woke up at 4am feeling quite fresh, seemed to have good energy when I got to work, even though it was a short day for me. The day itself started cold and overcast, but the temperature has climbed up to 50 F ( 9 C).Over the weekend I bought a book on amazon.com called; Vegetarian Sports Nutrition by Dr Ennet Larson-Meyer. Had seen excerpts from it on Scott Jurek's blog and decided to get it.

As you can see from the photo Utpal was carrying the weight of the World on his shoulders this morning. It was cold, right around freezing, but the wind chill made it feel like 24 F. It was a nice sunny morning with clear blue sky and we managed to run 10 miles.

I hadn't run a 2 mile race for some time and I finally thought this week was time. It was cold and damp and I was still fighting the cold I've had all week, but that just makes it more of a challenge.My first mile was 7:37 and I was feeling OK, but then I noticed my breathing wasn't so good, I managed to keep my form and in fact pushed it in at the end. My second mile was 7:47, for a total time of 15:24, which is not bad for an old guy.

There is truly a feeling of autumn. The temperature is in the low 40's F, it is raining softly as I go for my afternoon run and there are finally leaves on the ground.We haven't had a frost yet but that can't be too far away. Oh! and it is the second week of November and the first round of the FA Cup as started.Need I say more.

It is definitely getting colder. This morning when I left for work it was 35 F (2 C), so I had to be wrapped up nice and warm.There had been a couple of comments over the weekend about the green leaves in Central park during the Marathon. Well I think those leaves will be gone pretty soon if it stays cold like this.

I had a visit from my mother today, well at least her essence. Because I have the sniffles I wanted to blow my nose and when I pulled out my handkerchief, my mother's fragrance was all over it. This happens every once in a while since her death. when it does I feels as though she is there. The next time I pulled out my handkerchief it was gone, but I know she came.

I have some sniffles and sneezes but the sore throat has gone. I guess it's just that time of the year.My energy is quite good so I guess it's just a matter of time. The photo is of the large video screen they had set up in Central Park on Saturday for the Olympic Marathon trials, I don't know if they had one like it on Sunday for the peoples Marathon.

My throat is still a little sore this morning, but my energy is stronger. I bought a friends ibook today, it's the first mac I have used in probably 20 years. I am a PC guy but the price was too good to pass up, so I have a new toy to play with.Ran easily this afternoon, I do feel I want to run a race sometime soon, but we will have to see what comes up.

Woke up with a bit of a sore throat this morning, but still went out and ran 10 miles with Utpal. Maybe it has something to do with the time change, the clocks went back here last night. Today was also the New York city Marathon. I haven't run it since 2000, frankly I don't like to run it anymore, it's just too crazy, but I have a few friends that do run. I watched it on TV and was really glad that Paula Radcliffe won for the women.

This photo is of the lead runners in the US Men's Olympic Marathon Trials. I went into Central Park early this morning to watch. It was really exciting, we got a good position near the finish line and got to see 4 of the 5 laps they ran in the park. The race was won by the runner in blue , who won by 2 minutes in a time of 2:09:02. he looked so fresh when he finished. I was a little surprised. It is so cool to see how well trained these guys are. Hey and I was back home in time for lunch.

I guess last weekends events coupled with the change in the weather finally caught up to me. When I got home from work this morning after a few hours I took a nap for almost 3 hours. I've had a mouse running around my room and my mouse trap Victor caught it a couple of days ago, it was a field mouse, with big ears.

I think that it is probably due to having run the race and the cold weather, but my appetite is very strong at the moment. I eat and then I am hungry a short time later. The fact that I don't have as much fat to keep me warm may also be factor.

It is decidedly colder in the morning when I walk to work, this morning there was a feeling of tiredness, but I felt fine during the day.However when I got home I started to fall asleep at the computer, so I took a nap. My bus ticket for Manchester/ Penkridge arrived in the post, sent by my sister. This will get me home at Christmas time.

Well I'm back from Chicago and everything went well. I got to go to a birthday party on Friday and eat lots of great food. My race went well Saturday, it didn't rain although it was forecast. I felt quite strong and was ahead of my planned pace for the whole race, coming in with a time of 6:11:34, which is 21 minutes faster than my 50k in the spring. On Sunday I got to hang out at my friends restaurant and eat some good food. In the evening we went to a Greek restaurant for dinner, a nice treat. So quite a nice adventure all in all.

I'm just a few hours away from leaving for Chicago. When I ran this morning the temperature was close to what it will be for the race tomorrow, so I know that I will have to dress warmly. I am still a little sore from Wednesday but not much I can do about that, just have to run the race the best I can. Will write something when I get back.

Today at work we got one of our lumber deliveries from Canada. It takes about 4 hours to unload one board at a time with a crew of 8 guys. It is a real workout for the arms, legs and back and assuming I recover well, should help me in the race on Saturday. There were some showers early on which meant that I got a little wet, but in the end everything was fine.

There was a point this morning when I seemed to turn a corner, suddenly my old optimism returned. Instead of worrying about the future I started to live in the moment again. I am feeling a lot better within myself, part of it is that we are becoming quite busy at work and this allows me to just get on with it.

Although we have been running almost every day for the past 10 days, today was kind of our healing run. Utpal and I ran out to Flushing Meadow, about 9 miles ( 15 K ). It was a beautiful morning with sunshine and blue skies. It is just 6 days till my 50k race in Chicago and today I had the feeling that I am ready.

Yesterday I wasn't feeling so great after all the events of the past week. But I have 2 friends from Bosnia in town and it was suggested we go into the city which we did. It was a rainy day with showers on and off, but we actually had a fun time.This included going to the Museum of Modern Art ( MOMA ), which it turns out is free to enter on Fridays after 4 pm. Anyway it made me feel a whole lot better.

It is now 7 days since Sri Chinmoy's passing and preparations are now being made for the interment.I am so grateful to be here and be a part of such a unique experience. When I go running as I did this morning people in the community offer their condolence's and they politely ask what will happen now.

Today I went to work to try and bring some normalcy back. I think it helped a little, but there was no way the day felt normal.I am OK and life will go on having good friends around helps.

yesterday October 14 th I attended the memorial service for Sri Chinmoy, also in attendance were over 1000 of his students and dozens of dignitaries there to offer tributes. Many shared remembrances of times spent with him and the inspiration he offered. This inspiration will be carried in the hearts of each and every one of us. If you go to srichinmoycenter.org you can see many of the tributes and some news articles.

http://www.srichinmoycentre.org/

Yesterday I didn't post because I received some sad news in the morning.My Meditation teacher and Spiritual guide for the last 34 years Sri Chinmoy died.He was and is known for promoting Peace and World Harmony and will be sadly missed in this world. For the next 7 days his students will be honouring his life. He always inspired and encouraged me with my running and through my running I will continue to honour him.

When I got home from work this afternoon I listened to the new Radiohead album on NME radio, I enjoyed it very much. It is called In Rainbows and is only available by download at the moment. It provided a nice transition from work to play. The day started rainy and ended sunny.

It was supposed to be a wet rainy afternoon which it wasn't, but it was noticeably cooler after the hot humid days we have had lately. I decided to get Chinese food for dinner, there is a place 5 minutes walk from my house. On the way back it started to drizzle. Now as I write this post there is a steady rain falling outside my window. I have started to use my desktop computer a lot more than my laptop now, it is faster and the monitor has a bigger screen, but I have to switch a lot of my files over and I'm thinking of getting a new LCD monitor sometime before the end of the year, but we'll see.

The last 2 days , when I I have weighed myself after running I have been 145.5 lbs, which is about 20 lbs lighter than I was on June 1st of this year. I haven't been trying to lose more weight it just happened. After being sick the last 2 weeks my running feels normal again. I used my day off today to get a few things done, which included installing Joost Tv on my desktop computer. It is a new way of watching internet TV, from the creators of Skype, it seems quite good.

It is un-usually warm in New York at the moment so it was running in T shirt and shorts this morning. I feel so much better than last week, so we decided to run to Flushing Meadow and run over by the tennis center. Running nice and easy means that this takes us about 2 hours, which is a nice run. It was supposed to be raining but it was nice and sunny the whole time. I will see if a can do a bit more running this week to prepare for Chicago.

The England rugby team who were expected to lose their world cup 1/4 final to Australia let everybody down and won 12-10. What a great result! My morning began with me running an easy 5k and deciding not to run the 2 mile race again this week. I'm still a little creaky on my left side and don't want to risk anything for the 50k coming up. Other than that everything feels good, I thought I needed some more serious training for the 50k but my body decided otherwise.

I don't watch much TV these days, I watch some shows on the internet on my computer. There are a few new NBC shows that I have started watching. The one that I like the most at the moment is Life, a show about a detective who has just got back on the force after spending 12 years in prison, wrongfully accused of murder.Another one I like a lot is Heroes which is in it's second season here.

I finally got 2 good nights of sleep and my sciatica seems to be stabilizing.I think that I had to deal with all the other things first before I could get that under control. My running didn't seem to suffer much through all of this.

I may have mentioned that a friend of mine is in Paris at the moment working on a project. I am taking care of his Bonsai plants which include a couple of Jasmin and one of them has some very fragrant blooms at the moment.He also has a Pomegranate which is also showing a new blossom. My sciatica is a little better and I am hoping it will slowly improve as the week goes on.

During the evening last night I started to get some sciatic pain along with the tightness in my hamstrings, it wasn't too uncomfortable, but when I went to bed it really bothered me, I had trouble getting to sleep and it actually woke me up at around 2:30 in the morning.It happened that I don't have any painkillers at home. So when I got to work I took 2 Ibuprofen this did the trick and during the day I noticed that my hamstring tightness was also going away. So I am feeling a lot better now and have a bit of a spring in my step.

So it's the first day of October and I have decided to change my work schedule for a while. I am not working on Mondays at the moment. So this morning I could go for a run nice and early, in fact I went out just before 7 am. It was cool and sunny this morning and on the way back home I bumped into my friend Utpal so I turned around and went out with him for a few extra miles. I am still experiencing some tightness in my hamstrings and my left hip, but I think that will work itself out.

My nephew will be happy because his team West Brom have moved into second place in the Championship, a position Wolves held briefly, not so long ago, before they started slipping down the league. It is still early in the season.I did go out running this morning and ran for about 1 1/2 hours. For those runners out there, Haille Gebrselassie set a new world record in the marathon of 2:04:26 in Berlin. It's amazing they can run so fast over 26.2 miles ( 42km ). It seems that it is also Sufi poet Rumi's 800th birthday today.

I still don't feel 100% after my bout with the stomach bug during the week, so I decided not to run the 2 mile race this morning. I did go out for a run however and ended up running between 3 and 4 miles. I have some lower back pain which I am not sure is a result of my cold and stomach bug, but it is not stopping me running at the moment. I have a month to get myself together before I go to Chicago for the 50k and we will see what I do about the 6 hour in 2 weeks time. My friend Ray from South Carolina is running in a 24 hour race this weekend in North Carolina, I will go with him to the 6 hour if he comes up.

It's been a bit of a strange week, started off with me feeling sick thinking my clod had returned. Then having some kind of stomach bug, which has not completely gone but is feeling much better. I don't think I mentioned it but my agent informed me earlier in the month that I had been passed by the latest set of publishers, that's 21 to date. So it's time to have a crack at the next 10. A friend of mine who is an architect/ designer, has just left for Paris to look at a project he may be working on. He asked me to look after his Bonsai while he's away.

I had one of those strange days. I finally started to feel OK and during the morning my appetite was good and no stomach problems. Then I had a nice salad for lunch, about 20 minutes after returning to work I started to get stomach pains and a feeling like I was going to throw up.I decided to leave work 1 hour early, on the walk home I started to feel a little better. I slept for about 90 minutes and when I got up everything seemed so much better. I was even inspired to go out and run a few miles. My legs felt a little heavy while I was running, but later they felt fine,maybe this time I have turned the corner.

The fact that I still have my stomach problem after 3 days tells me that it is not something I ate. Plus there are a few guys with the same problem.I decided to employ an old eastern european remedy and during the course of the day, I sipped hot water and as I am writing this post I can say I am feeling much better, but I don't really have an appetite.

Still wasn't feeling so great today, did go to work and got through that OK. My appetite is kind of strange at the moment, but there seems to be a positive change this evening and I am hoping things will improve through the week. My nephew will not be happy that West Brom lost to Cardiff in the league Cup 4-2.

I had already decided to take the day off today, but when I woke up I wasn't feeling too good.I had an upset stomach and a bit of an headache. So maybe my cold has come back. It was such a nice morning that I thought I would go for a run and maybe it would clear my head a little. One of my friends who also had a cold a couple of weeks ago said he also felt like his had come back. I got a call late morning from a friend in Chicago saying that it was OK to stay there in October when I go for the race, so I'm all set.Though I am running in the 50k I know at least 2 people who will be running in the 50 mile race, so that will be nice.

last night my right ankle became very weak, it wouldn't bare any weight and was very pianful when I tried to walk. I think this was a reaction to my 2 mile race earlier in the day. Experience has taught me that the problem is actually in the calf muscle, so I worked on this. The Hamstring on that leg also felt tight. Anyway this morning it was still there but not quite as bad and it got better as I walked around which I could do. I decided to run as I usually do on Sunday's and ended up running easy for 2 hours with my friend Utpal. There is still some soreness but I think it will be OK. I have a couple of long races coming up and need to do some serious training in the next few weeks.

I went in on the subway with Sadhak for his gig last night. The Yippie Museum Cafe where he was playing was pretty small, but had a nice atmosphere. There was a band on first and then Sadhak played about 45 minutes, mostly his own songs though he did do Eve of destruction by Barry McGuire and ended with a Woody Guthrie song. The audience was small but they seemed to like him, it was a good night out and I was home by 11. This morning I had a better than expected 2 mile race. I have found a group of runners that run the pace I want to run at, so run with them and hang on at the end. My first mile was 7:24, second mile 7:17, for a finishing time of 14:41 again my best this year. I have signed up for a 50K race in Chicago in October, so now I have 5 weeks to prepare.

One of my colleagues at work is also a singer/ song writer and is performing at a club in the city tonight. So some of us are going in to show our support. It's funny I go about a year and a half without going in to the city and now I'm going in twice in 8 days. I signed up to run a 50 K race in Chicago today, the race is by the Lakefront on the last Saturday in October. I may run in a 6 hour race 2 weeks before out on Long Island, for me the 2 races should just about be the same.

One of my colleagues at work had his bike stolen, he is the second on in 2 months. This is one of the harsh realities of living in New York. He locked it while he went into a restaurant and when he came back 5 minutes later it was gone. I ran for the second time this week in the new shoes I got on Monday, I am beginning to like them and will be happy to see how they hold up and if I will use them in a 6 hour race coming up next month.

This morning I ate 1 1/2 lbs of grapes ( red seedless ) and then had a large salad at lunch. My cold is feeling a lot better. Last night I was a bit spacey and while I was writing something I kept spelling one word incorrectly, I did it 3 times and thought it was OK, until someone pointed out what I had done. Now the Champions League report; Ranger, Man U and Arsenal all won there their match day 1 games, so of the 6 British teams only Celtic lost their first game an this years competition.

I had a huge headache for most of the morning, obviously the result of my coldm it also included a bit of a tickley dry throat. It did seem to get a little better as the day went on. When I got home though I felt really tired so I took a nap.The weather is getting warmer as the days go on his week and I hope that will help my cold. Champions League started today Chelsea and Liverpool both drew and Celtic 2-0 to Shaktar Donetsk.

My friend Utpal had to go to Home Depot to get some garden supplies this afternoon, I went with him and he dropped me of at Sports Authority, which is virtually next door. I found a running shoe I liked at a good price, but they didn't have my size, which is 10 US, 44 Euro. Well I have learned a trick a women's 11 is 43.5 euro and fits fine, it's also big for women so they don't sell so many. The regular price is $65, but they were marked $49.99. When I went to pay for them they had a register price of $39.97, can I shop or what.

It got cold last night down to about 50 F ( 9 C ). For some reason I had a bit of congestion in my head. Ran nice and easy with Utpal for about 6 miles, we stopped for hot chocolate and a muffin on the way back. I've had my windows open all summer with the screens in, it's time to start closing them at night, or put an extra blanket on the bed.I forgot to mention yesterday that Arsenal have gone to the top of the Premiership by 2 points, it's early in the season yet.

This is the Terry Fox track where I ran the 24 hour race last week. This week I once again ran a good 2 mile time, my second best of the year 14:46, my splits were 7:27 and 7:19. So once again I am showing that the races are making me stronger. Basically I am just enjoying myself and getting into race shape, or so it seems.

My hi speed internet service went out this afternoon, so i took a nap and when I came around it was back. So Adele didn't play last night, I don't know why, I saw her there. I had the veggie pie with salad and a root beer at the Australian tuck shop and it was delicious, it only cost me $5. It was only a 10 minute walk to the Bowery Ballroom from there.

I am making one of my rare visits into the city tonight. A friend of mine is going to a club called the Stone and I am going to the Bowery Ballroom to see Adele. He suggested that we go in early so that we can have dinner at the Australian Tuck shop which I am told is very good. OK we will see!

Even though I felt good at work I was really tired when I got home, so I took a long nap. I was trying to follow the England v Russia soccer game but missed the last 20 minutes when the score was 2-0, it ended up 3-0 and England moved up to second in their group. The 24 hour race probably caught up with me and that is why I was so tired. I feel a lot better now.

6 years ago today I was on a plane flying from Vienna to New York, when we were told that there had been some kind of attack on the financial district and US airspace had been closed. So we returned to Vienna, refueling in Manchester, England on the way. I then spent the next 3 + days learning about what happened. The experience made me think a lot about this world we live in.

Well I jut got back a few hours ago from Canada. The 24 hour race in Ottawa was great. There were about 5 runners in the race who had also been in Drummondville in July, so it was nice to see some runners I knew. Running on a track is completely different, we did change direction every 6 hours so we didn't go crazy, it also helps your muscles. I didn't have any major problems and managed to go pretty much the whole night. I took one 15 minute and two 20 minute sleep breaks. My unofficial total was 81 miles or 131 km, the official results have been delayed. So I improved on the Quebec race, I have to say I feel a lot better the day after than I did in July. So it looks like I may be getting stronger. Hopefully I can post my official result soon. That's it for now.

I'm about 5 hours away from my flight to Ottawa, I actually fly to Washington DC first and then to Ottawa, I have some meeting me at the airport so all I have to do is get there. I went for an easy jog this morning just to loosen things up, so there you go.

Today was my last work day this week. Tomorrow I leave for Canada to run in a 24 hour race. This will be my second 24 hour race in 6 weeks. I hadn't run one for about 20 years and now I am running 2 in less than 2 months. the last one was on a hilly road course and this one is on tartan track, so they are both completely different. We will see what different there is in the results.

On my walk home from work this afternoon as I passed my local park, I could see that the leaves on some of the trees are beginning to change. So I guess Autumn is just around the corner. I am getting excited about my trip to Canada this weekend and I can feel it in my running, only a few days away.

A bit of a strange day today. It was one of those days when you don't really want to work. Here in New York lots of people keep parrots as pets and occasionally they escape, sometimes you will see a flock of sparrows with a budgie in there. Today as I was walking home I heard a strange bird call, when I looked up there were 2 African Grey parrots flying overhead. Lots of these birds seem to survive New York's harsh winters.

It's Labor Day here in the US, so I labored. Well I had to go to work for a couple of hours, the cat needed feeding and there was a Raccoon in the trap. Our Fedex guys have been taking the Raccoons to a local park for us, but this one will have to wait 'til tomorrow. This afternoon I re potted some of my Clivia plants ( I have about 11 of them ) and hopefully I will get some nice blooms, like the one in the photo, this coming spring.

A cool start to the day 59 F. Both Utpal and myself had some congestion, there is a little flu going around. I also seem to get this when I have a race coming up, maybe it's the body's way of making me slow down. Anyway we ran about 4 miles, when we stopped I had a ginger tea he had a froze fruit. Then when I got home I updated my firmware on my router so hopefully it will work better now when I start it up again.

I ran in my first 2 mile race in about a month, also 1 week after the marathon, so I had no expectation. The first mile felt very comfortable and I thought I must be running slow though the time was 7:26, I tried to pick up the pace but still stay comfortable since I didn't want to hurt anything. It turns out that I ran my best 2 mile time of this year 14:43, with a second mile of 7:17. So you never know what is going to happen when you get out there. I guess that just running easy and allowing myself to recover from the marathon worked.

I ran in my first 2 mile race in about a month, also 1 week after the marathon, so I had no expectation. The first mile felt very comfortable and I thought I must be running slow though the time was 7:26, I tried to pick up the pace but still stay comfortable since I didn't want to hurt anything. It turns out that I ran my best 2 mile time of this year 14:43, with a second mile of 7:17. So you never know what is going to happen when you get out there. I guess that just running easy and allowing myself to recover from the marathon worked.