Sabbath/Shabbat

 Those of you that know me, know that I observe the Jewish Sabbath (Shabbat) from sundown on Friday through Sundown on Saturday. What do I do during this 25 hour time period? Shabbat is a time for me to put most weekday activities aside and spend some time in synagogue and with family and friends. I do not drive on Shabbat; I walk to synagogue. The computer is turned off, no e-mail, no Facebook, and no Twitter. It's a time when Mrs. Ansky and I have to talk and catch up after a busy week and when I can spend quality time with our daughter without her worrying about missing "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody" or "Hannah Montana." Every so often, we get together with friends and eat good food (prepared before Shabbat since cooking is forbidden), enjoy each others company, drink good wine and good scotch (single malt, of course). I also don't run on Shabbat, it's, in the most literal sense of the words, a day of  rest. I sleep late (wake up around 7:30 instead of 5:00) and I nap in the afternoon.

Most importantly, Shabbat grounds me, it slows me down, it keeps me honest. I helps me realize that running is not the only important thing in my life.

Shoes for Haiti: Something I Suggested To Mary Wittenberg

We are all saddened by the devastation in Haiti and our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected.

Mary Wittenberg, CEO of New York Road Runners Tweeted the following this morning "can hardly breathe thinking about Haiti. we r sending race tshirts & supplies. Will keep you posted on how we can help runners help."

I thought about this for a minute and suggested back in a Tweet that with the Manhattan Half Marathon coming up on January 24, a drop box should be set up at the race site where old running shoes, t-shirts, and other items can be collected and sent to Haiti. A bunch of fellow runner-Tweeters liked the idea as well. As of this writing, Ms. Wittenberg has not replied to back to me.

So my suggestion is this:
1) If you live in the New York City area, please send a Tweet to Ms. Wittenberg (@mary_witt) and to New York Road Runners (@nyrr_daily), post something on NYRR's Facebook page, and send an e-mail (webmaster@nyrr.org.) to NYRR. Maybe if enough people contact NYRR, our collective voices will be heard and we'll see a box where we can donate not only old shoes, but old race shirts, and other items that are taking up space in our closets can be dropped off and donated to the relief effort.

2) If you live outside of the New York City area, by all means, feel free to contact NYRR, especially if you've ever lived in NYC, ran in NYC, or ran the New York City Marathon. If you are running a race in the next few weeks, please reach out to the race director and suggest setting up a box where donations can be dropped off.

Lastly, help me spread the word by re-posting this on your blogs, Twitter, and Facebook.

Bridge Run

Last night I asked Mrs. Ansky what, on the surface would be a very innocent question, "Where should I run tomorrow?" She replied, "why don't you run to the Bridge?" I thought, hmmmm that's an interesting idea. I was getting tired of some of my usual local routes so this would definitely be something different. I did this run once before in August 2009 when I ran to Yankee Stadium.All I could think about was the one mile doozy of a hill that is Fort Lee Rd. between Broad and Fletcher. I haven't run that route since that Sunday in August. In fact, I asked myself a bunch of times if it's really necessary running a hill with such a steeep grade. Seriously, I know that hills have a place in marathon training but is it really necessary to incorporate a hill with a maximum grade of 9% into any of my training routes? The jury is still out on that, but who am I to back away from challenge?

It was another cold morning, albeit much less windy than last weekend. I layered up, 3 on top, 2 on bottom, double gloves, my trusty smortwool socks, and my Under Armour ColdGear Hood. The first 3.5 miles were uneventful. I ran at an easy pace so I could conserve energy for what was coming. As I'm going up the hill I got strange some strange looks from folks out walking their dogs and from people driving. They're looking at me thinking this guy must be out of his freaking mind! It's 15 degrees out and he's running up this hill for fun? Meshuga I tell you! Maybe I am, but I kept going, one foot in front of the other. I finally reached the top and after I few more rolling hills, I'm at the entrance to the George Washington Bridge. For a minute I thought about running over the bridge but I looked at my watch and realized I had to get back. I took the above picture, took a gel, and headed home.

As the old saying goes, what comes up must go down. In order to get home I had to run down the same hill. Easy schmeasy right? Wrong. Go down a hill that steep too fast and you'll fall right on your face doing some serious damage. I took it easy and made it to the bottom without incident. I purposely threw in one more hill towards the end of the run to get myself ready for the Manhattan Half Marathon on January 24. Chances are there will be some hills in the later miles and I wanted to get my body used to that feeling.

When all was said and done, I ran 11.88 miles in 1:42:41 for a 8:38/mi pace. My fastest mile was 8:15 and the slowest 9:57 (going up the hill). Here is the elevation chart to get a better idea what I was faced today.

Lastly, congratulations to everyone who ran down in Disney today. I know the weather was unusual, more typical for for the Northeast than for Florida.

Junk Miles vs. A Bad Run

I missed my morning run this morning. I'm not exactly sure why. The only thing that comes to mind was I didn't sleep particularly well and didn't feel like dragging my ass out of bed at 5:00 a.m. Instead, I tossed and turned in bed for a good part of the next hour when I started to get ready for work.

I brought my running stuff with me to work so I could run some tempo miles on treadmills in my office's fitness center. I set the TM to my usual tempo pace (around 7:50/mi) and hoped for the best. Everything about the run was wrong. I had a hard time focusing, my running podcasts were not enough to distract me. I felt like I had to rush so I can get back to my desk on time. The miles I ran today are not going in my log. I'm considering them junk miles and ignoring them.

I tweeted about it later and received a bunch of replies saying "Well at least you did something, which more than most of America is doing."

Which brings me to my question: Is there a difference between a bad run and "junk" miles? Are junk miles ran better than no miles ran? 

Please comment.

Salina Kosgei on APM's "Marketplace"

I am a regular listener of American Public Media's "Marketplace" podcast. It is a recap of the day's financial activity plus a few special interest stories. Every so often, they run a segment called "Working" where "Marketplace" brings the listener into the life of worker in the global economy. This month's segment featured 2009 Boston Marathon Champion Salina Kosgei. "Marketplace" correspondent Jon Miller traveled to Kenya to catch up with Salina shortly after her win in Boston. The link below has Jon's reporter's notebook as well as the audio segment from the podcast. Enjoy!

Marketplace from American Public Media | Marketplace and Homelands Productions | Working

Gearing up

I woke up this morning to howling winds and very cold temperatures. It was 19f with a real feel between 1-4 (depending on which weather site, TV weatherman you listened to). I had some serious concerns about going out in such brutally cold weather, but I drew inspiration from Stubborn Triathlete's video of her 16 miler in Fargo, ND where it was -18f. She didn't give a shit if her eyebrows frosted over, all she cared about was getting her miles in.I thought, if she can run 16 miles when it's -18f outside, surely, I can run 8 or 9 miles in temperatures right around zero. So with that, I geared up and prepared for battle.

Most of you that run in cold temperatures know that the key to survival is wearing layers. The body does generate heat when you run so you want to feel slightly cold before you start running. I decided to go with 4 layers on top:

Layer 1: Under Armour Coldgear Compression Mock 

Layer 2: A basic Long sleeve tech-shirt

 
Layer 3: My Trusty Road Runner Sports Velocity Thermo 1/2 Zip

Layer 4: My Nike Fleece 1/2 Zip

I like wearing some layers with zippers. This way, if you warm up, you can lower the zipper to cool off. When you start feeling cold, just zip up the zipper. 

On bottom I wore 2 layers of running tights. First my Under Armour ColdGear Legging

Then my Adidas Adistar Long Tights

To keep the hands warm, I wore 2 layers of gloves. The Craft (on the left) are thin, and the Swix, (on the right are thicker)

On my head, I wore my Under Armour ColdGear Hood

.I love this piece of headwear. You see a lot of NFL players wear these when playing in cold weather. This hood is a technical balaclava/neck gaiter. It's very thin but it keeps all parts of the head and neck warm and dry.
Last but not least, the feet got my Smartwool PHD Running Socks

I can't say enough about these socks. Wool is not a material associated with running gear. But these bad boys kept my feet and toes warm and dry. If you do not have a pair of Smartwool socks, I suggest you get some.

I had a surprisingly good run. There is no such thing a flat run where I live. At some point I will have to tackle a few hills. My slowest mile split was 9:08. This came on one of the later miles which was uphill into the wind. Not fun. I did 9.33 miles in 1:20:10 (8:35/mi). When I got home, I stripped everything off and put on some dry and warm clothes. I made myself a cup of hot tea (I'm not a coffee drinker) and started my recovery.

Call me crazy, insane, meshuga, whatever but there is something invigorating about completing a run in such harsh conditions. I don't know what the rest of winter will bring, but if this is the worst Mother Nature has to dish out, I think I can take it.

Race Report: Fair Lawn Sunrise Rotary 1st Day 5K

When I ran this race last year, I set a new 5k PR (22:46, 7:20/mi). Well guess what? Exactly one year later I set a new PR on the same course (you'll have to keep reading to find out my time). I didn't expect to set a PR today. I've had some good runs recently but I didn't feel like I had a PR in me today.

The 11:00am start allowed me to sleep in a bit (woke up at 7:30 instead of 5:00) and enjoy a leisurely morning with my daughter. After some pre-race logistics, we were off. I usually have a hard time racing the 5k. I either go out too fast and can't hold the pace or I go out too slow and have to speed up at the end. At the first mile marker, someone was calling out splits. As I came through, the marshal called out 6:53. I thought to myself, here we go again. I run a sub-7 first mile and have to slow down. I came through mile 2 just as the marshal called out 14:00. I slowed a little but nothing to worry about. As I'm approaching the finish line, I see the clock reading 21:47, 21:48, 21:49..I started an all out sprint desperate to achieve my sub-22:00 5k that alluded me last year. I looked down at my Garmin and I saw 21:55 and a 6:57/mi pace. I had finally done it!

I stuck around until the results were posted thinking I might have a shot at an age group award. There were maybe 200 runners and based solely on appearances, it didn't look like there were too many in the 36-40 group. I ended up finishing 4th in my AG, missing 3rd by 10 seconds. I was briefly disappointed but got over it. I had finally raced a 5k well and set a PR at my first race of the new year. Hopefully it's a sign of good things to come.

Happy New Year!