Chanukah Special: 8 Things I Love About Running

In honor of Chanukah, I will be blogging for the next 8 days about 8 things I love about running. I have to give props to my daughter who gave me the idea. These are in no particular order, just as they came to mind.

So without further adieu, I give you the first thing I love about running: Solitude

I do many of my morning and weekend runs alone. I often tell people that when I'm out on run it's truly the only the time I have to myself. No family obligations, no work deadlines, no "honey do" lists, it's nothing but me, the road, and my thoughts. Some people look forward to a quiet Sunday morning with a cup of coffee and a newspaper before the family wakes up, that is what running is for me. During the week, it is a time when I release stress from a hard day of work the day before and prepare for myself for what that day has to bring.

Happy Chanukah!

Disclaimer: Judaism holds by a lunar calendar which means that this post should have been posted last night which was the first night of Chanukah. Since tonight is the 2nd night of Chanukah, I will be writing another post a little bit later tonight.

Happy Chanukah!

Happy Chanukah to everyone celebrating. In honor of the holiday I will attempt to blog for the next 8 days. I'm not sure what about yet, I'm open to suggestions. Please leave a comment. Chag Urim Sameach!

And My Spring Marathon is.....(drumroll please)

 The Pocono Mountains Run for the Red Marathon.

May 16, 2010

There are a few reasons why I chose this marathon:

1) It's cheap - $65 + $5.64 (Active.com processing fee). The $70.64 is cheaper than the New York City Half Marathon ($79 + $5 processing fee) and the Rutgers Half Marathon. Why anyone would pay more for a half marathon than a marathon is beyond me. 

2) It's close to home - The Poconos are less than 2 hours from my house in NJ.

3) I have an offer for weekend hospitality from a friend who will remain nameless.  

4) I can cross Pennsylvania off from the list of states I've run marathons in. 

5) Proceeds from the race benefit the Monroe County Chapter of the American red Cross and will go directly to help the disaster relief program.

This is going to be a much different marathon experience. Last year's race had 411 finishers. My previous 3 marathons were much larger (NYC 2007, Marine Corps 2008, NJ 2009). Chances are I will be running large chunks of the Pocono Marathon alone. I'm not too concerned since I do most of my training alone. However, the energy that comes along with larger races will be missed. 

Lastly, the Pocono Marathon has a reputation of being a "downhill" race. As indicated by the elevation profile, there is a net decline in elevation

  but, based on what I've heard from people who have run the race and from the reviews on Marathonguide, there are rolling hills in the second half of the race that can beat you up if your are not prepared for them.

So there you have it. Training officially begins on January 24, which happens to be the day I will be running the Manhattan Half Marathon. What better way to kick off my training than than with a winter half marathon in the hills Central Park.

Stay Tuned.....

My Kind of Weather

The weather gods teased the Northeast with some snow on Saturday. No major accumulation just enough to cover my lawn and to get everyone complaining about how much they hate winter. Truth be told, I have a love-hate relationship with old man winter. I can certainly do without the shoveling, scraping ice off the car, and juggling work schedules becuase daughter has a snow day.

When it comes to running, the cold weather is my friend. Safety always comes first, so if the roads are not safe because of ice or snow I won't chance it. This morning however, I was chomping at the bit to get out there. I put on my tights, compression base layer, half-zip pullover, fleece hat, and warm gloves and headed out around 5:45. There were some icy spots on the road but nothing dangerous that forced me to turn around and go home. I haven't run more than 10k since coming back from my injury so I was hoping for 7 or 8 miles today. I love running around my neighborhood in the early morning. I get to see the town wake up. Papers are getting delivered, people getting making their morning bagel and coffee runs (no pun intended), dogs getting walked, you get the picture. I ran 7.74mi in 1:05:26 (8:27 pace).

The cold air felt invigorating. I find that the cold air is better for my asthma than warmer air. During Tuesday night's Tweet-up run, EG mentioned how she's never trained thorugh the winter for a spirng marathon (she will be running Boston in April). I told her that I prefer to train in the winter. As long as you dress right, the cold should not be a problem. There is nothing you can do to make yourself feel cooler when it's 90 degrees and 100% humidity. So I'll leave you with this, don't be afraid of cold weather. Get yourself some quality cold weather running gear, get out there, and enjoy it.

From the Archives: "What's Ansky?"

Many of you have asked me recently the origin of "Ansky." I wrote about this in my 2nd ever blog post in 2008. Since this blog was not very popular back then, I'm reposting that post for your enjoyment.
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So You're Probably All Wondering..... 

what the hell is ANSKY? Well, if you remember this Addidas commercial from the late 90s:


without giving out too much personal information....since my first name starts with "A" and my last name ends in "NSKY" and I am a rabid Yankees fan, my friends deemed me "Ansky."

Any Questions?

Enjoying the Concrete Jungle

The last time I ran in NYC I broke a rib and couldn't run for 5 weeks.Since I started running again in October, I've been doing early morning runs around my neighborhood in NJ. So you can imagine my excitement when the makings of a NYC Tweet-up run in Central Park started to take shape. For those of you not on Twitter, a Tweet-up is a get together of people you follow on Twitter. I'll digress for a minute by saying that if you have a hobby/passion/obsession etc... you should definitely check out Twitter. Whether you are a runner, knitter, chef, scotch drinker, etc.. there are plenty of like- minded Tweeters to share ideas with and get advice from.

We agreed that we would meet last Tuesday, Dec. 1 at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park. Before heading over to the park I met up with some fellow Tweeters at the New York Sports Club on 73rd between Central Park West and Columbus to stash my stuff. nycbklyngirl, NYCe, bklynrunner, lady_southpaw, and myself headed over to Central Park to meet up with the others. Waiting for us were: pigtailsflying, agaliza, sclevine, speedysasquatch, mikejoconnor (who was in from MA on business). It was a clear and chilly night in the city. The city looked great, all decked out for the holidays. Running in Central Park is always a treat. It's a runners haven in the middle of the concrete jungle that is New York City. Since I don't live in the City, I forgot how tough CP is. Yes, there is Cat Hill on the East Side and Harlem Hill at the north end of the park, but I forgot about the rolling hills on the west side of the Park. For some strange reason these felt the toughest. I paid no attention to my Garmin, the point of the run was to meet new friends. During the run, we started talking about how much fun we were having and we need to do this more often.

Well, fast foward to Thursday morning. TK, AKA, pigtailsflying, and I met up at 48th and the West Side Highway for a morning run. While I was waiting, I took this picture of the Intrepid decked out in holiday lights.

It was an unusually warm December morning. So warm in fact that I was able to wear short sleeves abd shorts. The forecast was for rain and wind gusts of up to 40mph. I wore my rain jacket over my shirt. The rain never showed up but the wind certainly did. We were running south right into the wind which made the run feel harder than the actual pace. It was a fun run with good company and conversation. I dropped TK off at the subway station on Canal and Broadway and I ran down Broadway to my office in the Financial Distrcit. The West Side Greenway/Hudson River Park is another great place to run in the City. Running downtown towards my office is always a treat as there are great views of Lady Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge.

These 2 runs in the City made me realized how much I miss running in the City. With winter on the way, I have a feeling I'll be running in Central Park a lot more as it is usually clear of snow and ice. There aren't many safe place to run during the winter in my Neighborhood. Until the bad weather, I need to make an effort to run in the city more often.

Totals for November

Total number of Runs: 11
Total Time: 6:44:55
Total Distance: 49mi

Avg. Time: 36:48
Avg. Pace/mi: 8:15
Avg. Distance: 4.5mi

Are you effing kidding me? Only 49 miles for the month? WTF?????