Walking out the door this morning into a beautiful breezy cooler morning, almost quiet and peaceful. Only to have the quiet broken by the sound of a Police helicopter flying suddenly near by. After walking a few blocks I crested a hill and came around a corner, to see several police vehicles and several police. Standing with some people in front of a house. Everything seemed quite calm,but the people looked a little disturbed. I continued on, not finding out what had happened. This was a reminder that I live in New York City.
With a temperature in the mid 80's F and 33% humidity I had a pleasant run this afternoon. It happened to be the 50th straight day I have run. My streak is starting to become something.

Oh by the way the photo is of a deer in Italy that was born with one central horn, kind of like a Unicorn. It apparently is quite rare for a deer to be born with one horn and usually they are to one side or the other, amazing !

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

After what seemed like a cold Friday night the days began to warm up and the weekend was a little un-comfortable. I guess I adjusted a little and last night seemed to sleep pretty well, but when I woke up this morning it was already 79 F ( 24 C). Fortunately I work in a basement of an industrial building and it was nice and cool down there when I got to work. Un fortunately I only worked for a few hours and had to come out into the heat. By the time I got home it was 91 F ( 32 C ). At the time of writing this post it is 94 F and with 44% humidity they say it feels like 98. This would probably be normal for July or August, but this is just the second week of June and it comes after much cooler temp's last week.
Yes it is hot out there. Maybe this is getting us ready for some hot August nights.

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!

Keeping to my idea of tapering for the race next week, I did not run the 2 mile race today. Instead I went out a little earlier and ran about 3 miles nice and easy. It actually felt good not to run hard and near the end I could feel myself running at the start of the race next week.
It is supposed to be really hot today, but I think it got a little bit cooler in the night than expected, so we will have to see.
The European Football (soccer) Championships has started , so we get to see if Greece can defend there their surprise title from 4 years ago.

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.
Today has been very nice, there is a quite strong breeze and the temperature has stayed in the 60's F. It is however supposed to be quite hot this weekend.

I got a message from my agent manager about an opportunity to submit my Dilly and Dally books to a new publisher that is looking for authors. I have to fill out a submission form and then we wait and see what happens. I also have to deal with them directly, but Beth my agent manager will help me out with any advice I need or any questions I might have.
So my plan to run easier this week seems to be going well. I guess I have started to taper before the race next week.

There is a song I remember called "Summer Breeze". Well this morning as I walked to work in the rain, I started singing this song to myself. Though I did replace the words Summer Breeze with Summer Rain. When the temperature is pleasantly warm and it is raining, it is actually kind of nice. Of course I was wearing my rain suite and my wellies. on the way home in the afternoon however, my feet did get a little warm .

The last 2 summers I have followed a raw food diet, I have found that it seems to detox my system and re-energize me. Last year I started at this time, but with the 50k race coming up in 11 days time I have decided to hold off until after the race.
However with the warmer weather coming around, I was inspired to stop at my usual fruit and veg' market and get some nice salad things, so as to start eating a few more salads for lunch at work.

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 ahve 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.

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.

For the last 3 or 4 days I have been fighting something, with on and off headaches and a need to cough, especially when I lay down to sleep.
This morning when I woke up the headache I went to sleep with was still there and my mind said that maybe I should not run the 2 mile race. My heart really wanted me to run. So I found myself on the starting line ready to run. Once I got going I felt quite comfortable and my first mile was 7:31. I tried to maintain my form and my pace, but was finding it hard. My second mile was 7:43, for a total time of 15:14, just 5 seconds slower than last week. I actually found this encouraging, because I feel it shows that I am in fact stronger than last week, since I ran almost the same time when I was sick.
It feels kind of strange that there is no football to follow on this last Saturday in May, but next week the European Championships begin and that will keep me going until the new season starts in England.

On Mondays and Fridays as you know I only work a few hours. I then take the long walk along the avenue to my favourite eatery. This morning I counted 21 gentlemen of the Hispanic persuasion, spread out in groups of 4 looking for a ride out to Long Island. Where they hope to find work on various construction projects. This is a phenomena that has shown itself over the last year or so.
On my way home I stopped off in a local sports store and got myself a new pair of running shoes. When I paid for them I got a $20 coupon which I duly spent on 2 new pairs of running shorts.
We are now only a couple of days away from June and finally the days are getting warmer, buy late morning the temps were already well into the 70's F. I had a very pleasant run in the afternoon

Well I did feel a bit better today, though after lunch I had the same nagging headache I had on Saturday. This time I did something I don't do that often, I took some over the counter medication, it took the edge off.
So my run this afternoon was definitely better, though that may have something to do with the meds. I have to say though I have been running the same distances this week, the quality of running has been better, so that is encouraging.

I am not sure if it has something to do with the recent spell of warm weather, but I noticed today, that when I am running I am wheezing a bit. I usually do not have a problem with Hay fever, but if there is a lot of pollen in the air that can sometimes give me problems. Anyway it is not a major thing since I am just trying to run easy at the moment.
Last night I kind of did a little "Spring" cleaning and my room looks a bit better, but I plan to do some "Major" work over the next few weekends.

As I left my house to walk to work this morning it was just starting rain lightly, the temperature was a nice 60 F and it was quite refreshing to walk. I did however feel quite sore from yesterdays run. Although it was only 4 miles, I guess combined with the 12 miles on Sunday it was a little too much for me right now.
I was reminded that the machines we use for our work can sometimes be quite fickle, as I had what seemed like silly problems getting started. Once all was working well the day just went by very quickly.
When I came outside from my days work it was a pleasant, if somewhat humid afternoon and completely different from the start of the day

Yes it's Memorial day here in the US and it's a real beauty! Went out at 7 am and ran 4 miles with Utpal, the sun is up, the temperature is in the mid 60's F. Of course it is laundry day for me, so that has to get done and I have to do some "Spring cleaning". I was sensible and didn't go out for a second run yesterday and probably enjoyed my run this morning more as a result.

Woke up feeling pretty good. So it was out the door at 7 am and off to run with Utpal. Apart from a little soreness in my hamstrings I was feeling good after the 2 mile race yesterday. I guess Utpal was feeling good too because we went out a little faster than we usually do. The weather conditions were really nice and we had a good run out to Shea stadium.
The water fountains are on in the park so we stopped about half way and had a nice drink of water. There were no aches and pains this week and I felt really good at the end of the run. Yesterday afternoon I had the feeling I wanted to go out a second time to run and was feeling that again today, but I have to be sensible and wait for my 2 a day weekends. I do not want to over train and get injured.

The weather for the 2 mile race was very pleasant this morning. It felt like I was actually running. I have been running a little harder in training this week and my legs were feeling a bit tired.Once I got going I felt good and knew I was running faster than last week. I did struggle a little bit with my breathing in the second mile, but pushed about as hard as I could at the end. First mile 7:38. second 7:31, finish time 15:09.

I get to see this kind of sky in the morning on my walk to work, though it's not as dark as the photo looks.
Many years ago I got to run with a couple of local legends and there was a photo that was taken at the time which was displayed at the Multi day races, well after the 10 day race 3 weeks ago, was given the photo to make a copy of. For a mere $3 I got a 5x7 made of it today, as soon as I can scan it I will put it up here. There is a Holiday on Monday so we have a long weekend.