Slooooooow January..

Here on the east coast the blizzard is behind us after leaving a huge pile of snow in its wake. In Morris Plains here we saw 33 inches of snow which is a historical high. However, people have dug themselves out, mostly, and life is getting back to normal at a quick pace. As far as running goes, it is generally in an unhappy state. I have not been doing my three weekly runs regularly. Weather has been bad and the hamstring/glute area is a bit sore after the long runs. I am hoping that the cut down in runs would at least help the soreness. Anyway, I've been trying to pick up a few miles here and a few miles there.. Sundays long runs are cut down to 10 miles. I could only do two runs last week, and the Sunday was a wash out due to the snow. Surprisingly, I still come across a couple of runners and cyclists especially on Sundays.

I had signed up for the Fred Lebow Half Marathon on Sunday which was cancelled due to the snow storm. I was also not too sure of myself as I hadn't run that distance since end November.  If the race was on I would probably have run it in any case, just to test my fitness, if nothing else.  On the other hand, I have been focusing on building some strength, especially the lower legs, hips and core.  I'm also working on balance and stability.  The good thing about these workouts is that I don't have to go outdoors, but I do miss the running and am feeling somewhat guilty about it.  I am enjoying the workouts though. Some are fairly high intensity and keep my breathing and heart rate high - it should help push out my lactate threshold (the effort level at which fatigue sets in) and build strength that should help in running. Oh, I did a 10K race at Central Park a couple of weeks ago - Joe Kleinerman 10K. That was my very first 10K in NYC last year. What a contrast - last year it was 17 F with windchill down to low single digits; this year it was 43 F!

On other New York news, the registration for New York Marathon opened a couple of days ago.  Although the race is on November 6, the registration is only open for one month from Jan 21 to Feb 21. I was planning to sign up, but I just wanted to see for how long I can resist the temptation:-) Every time I logged in to their web site they kept flashing the message "Accept your guaranteed entry".  My will power lasted about 48 hours :-)  Now the goal is set - run, walk or crawl across the finish line on Sunday, Nov 6!

Way to go Sunitha, Bala and Maidhily!

The Dubai Marathon was last week. Dubai bills themselves as the world's richest marathon. It boasts of a very fast course, and the top finishers in each gender win a purse of $200,000 with an additional $100,000 award money for setting a world record! I did not see even a single top contender from last year's NYC marathon in the line up of Dubai. Understandably so, as there is not enough recovery and training time between the November NYC race and the January Dubai race.

My cousin Bala, his wife Maidhily and another cousin's wife Sunitha all ran the 10k at the Dubai Marathon.   This was their first 10k - actually their very first race of any distance. It is so great to see their pictures at the finish line. I am hearing that this is inspiring a lot of people in the family and friends circle to sign up for the race next year. It seems, looking at Bala his friends are going, "If he can, we can." Running is contagious!!

Happy running.

If I can run, u can run