It's getting colder already

Words:  181

            I ran pretty fast these two days, especially today.  My post-marathon stiffness/soreness has disappeared. I had a great weekend, on Friday evening, I cleaned out by billfold buying a present for the boys. On Sunday night, my billfold contained a bunch of money.

one of a kind shirt

 

Words: 470; one picture

            The run yesterday, on the 27^th, was great.  I felt eager to be running and my legs and body were not complaining.  Possibly could have been the influence of the sunny weather!!!!  For the first time in ages, the sun made a 6-hour appearance.  The problem is that I haven’t yet found a good place to run.  I go up and down streets and come up against gates to factories, or railroad tracks. 

I forgot!!!

Words: 218; pics and video

            I forgot to run yesterday!  I guess the marathon did a number on me.  Actually, I didn’t forget completely.  I remembered about 10 minutes before I had to leave the apartment for a lesson.  After the class, I had a trial lesson at the Native Speakers Club office.  Right outside, they had the streets closed in honor of a “Day Without Cars”.  A great idea.

Exercise...it cures all ills

Words: 156

            Both of these days, I ran around my new neighborhood and I finished at a local grocery store to get supplies.  Muscles are still somewhat sore, but it is nice to run so short. 

            One day, I heard a podcast from Slate about the craze for ‘Insane Fitness’ that is apparently running amok in the USA these days. 

Marathon 4:43:32

Words  2288; pictures

                       

            This is my outfit.  I thought I was going to be unique in the fact that I was wearing a rainbow t-shirt and a rainbow bandanna.  I wanted to show solidarity with gays, who may be feeling some discrimination in this country.  It was a great big no comment.  My get up wasn’t anything to shout about either, because there was one other guy who had a full rainbow body suit.  It was as if he were a walking dead man in a tie-died body bag.  Every bit of him was covered.  As he ran by me during the first mile, he put his arm around me and said, “My brother,” then he ran on. 

Over the hump

Words 304 and pic of route

            A break thru.  Last night, I slept for 7 hours with only one interruption—and I DIDN’T have to go into the kitchen and drink tea.  I coughed a bit, but fell back into a peaceful slumber without trouble.  As you can see below, I ran the 5 miles in my former style of running faster throughout and finishing with the quickest mile.

slow, peaked early

Words: 155

Probably my slowest, most uncomfortable run. During this run I did the prescribed “pace work”.  I ran  one-minute sprints, quickly, with 2-minute slower jogs in between.  I was quite winded when I finished. So such work must make me work a little bit. 

hacking my way through Sunday

Words 402; 1 picture

            The timing of this cough could not be worse.  I didn’t run on Thur, Fri, or Saturday.  The first time is have NOT run for three days in a row for several years.  I ran from my new room to BDNX, the All-Russia Exhibition Center.  It’s a holdover from the Soviet Union that has taken a capitalistic dose of commercialism—the grounds are beautiful, though. 

running by the belching cars

Words 389

            Last night, I had a lesson with a young man who is starting college in England next week.  He wants to see me every day to brush up on his English.  My director said he is from “one of the three most influential families in Moscow.”  Even though I was eagerly waiting for calls from realtors about apartments, I left my phone at the reception area so it wouldn’t interrupt us.  I’m sure you can predict what happened.  I forgot the phone when I left. 

running sick

Words 147

            Since my return to Moscow on Saturday, I have been sleeping, drinking tea with lemon, and coughing. I wear a sweater for awhile, then add a sweatshirt, after 10 minutes, I'd strip all that off down to a t-shirt.  I went to bed last night hoping I would wake up healthy.