The herd thinned out a little due to the Daylight Savings (everybody slept an hour less). We were excited to have two first timers there – Nachiketa and his younger daughter Remi!!

Like last week, tried keeping up with Pooja for the first mile. Initially she ran at 7:30 min/mile pace. And then for the last quarter mile she decided that we should sprint – we peaked at 6:15 min/mile!!! I raced to win and then when I realized that I won’t, I raced to make her break the record 😉

After that was a leisurely couple of miles more!!!

… by my standards. At Chalupa run today, decided to give company to Pooja. I don’t think I had thought this one thru. 15 year old Pooja paced me the first mile at 7 min 20 sec!! Then she took pity on me and slowed down to 8ish. Finally finished up 5K run in 24 min 25 secs!!!
Can you find me in the Chalupa picture?

One of the longer runs in barefoot shoes – 13K (8.1M). Took 1 hour and 19 minutes. Tomorrow I have to switch to the support shoes – I think the muscles are going to be very stiff by tonite.

Remember the skeleton like silhouette against the bluish pink eastern sky I talked about yesterday? Captured one of them during today’s run.

I thought I was the only one in bright neon clothes this morning. Ran into a running group with equally bright colors. It is difficult to recognize people what with all the head gear and all but I think the lady who said Hi to me was Lia. If so, I need to ask her whether I caught her on her 20th mile or 40th mile 🙂

There is only one way to do full justice when you describe the sheer exhilarating feeling after running a few miles in sharp biting cold weather (mid twenties) with sharper winds slashing in your face amid the alluring natural beauty of pristine hills with dry barren trees giving a skeleton-like silhouette against a blue-pink eastern sky.
And that is – “God! I am so freaking glad I got it over with!” 🙂

The wind was making it real cold. Managed to avoid the rain though. We need to get spring here quickly.
One full week of back to minimalist shoes. Left knee still under observation. Strangely the pain is far less if I increase my speed – not decrease. All that is fine and dandy – but that merely shifts the problem from my knees to the heart and lungs 🙂

It is starting to warm up. Had a good run with the Bengali group. Our youngest member Eleena showed up again today!! Manas showed up with some delicious “kalo jaam” (an outstanding Bengali sweet). We think he is starting to worry we are dropping too many calories during our run 🙂 The sweets were very popular during our coffee break.
Speaking of coffee, when I went to order my coffee and Niki and Tasha’s drink, as you can see, they remembered my name 🙂

Switched up to my barefoot shoes that has no support at all and went for a 10K (6.2M) run to see if I can shake off my left leg issues. It was a beautiful morning – somewhat cool under a cloud cover and virtually no one on the roads…

Yesterday, I put a 7K run in Georgia Tech area. It was easy to spot me . Among all those college folks in shorts and half shirt in 38 degrees, I was the one with three layers and an unseemly cap on my head.
So, today I dropped a layer or two for my 5K morning run in Milton. And paid for it. It was cold. Really cold.
Speak of the horns of dilemma. I could run faster to make it a quicker run but that would mean the wind would bite me even more. Or I could slow down and make the wind bearable but expose myself longer. Eventually just ran faster and got it over with. Starting to get back senses in my finger tips…

Half of it with the Chalupa group. Half by myself.
Here are the runner friends post run and then the coffee…