Sleep-runner

When an overpowering urge to sleep collides with an overarching lethargy due to not running, which one prevails? So far, seems to be the former. Where is the inflection point? Research is needed.

Ran into Jet-Lagged Wall

Jet-lag can play havoc with one's running...When the body feels sluggish, it is difficult to get it to go out and pound the pavement..

A good run

Today I went to my College to meet with my freshman class. They had orientation this past week, and I had been away in India. The students gave me a warm welcome.They were very energetic.

I am looking forward to a good term.

out-run on my borthday

This was the first time in many years that i did not get to run on my birthday- usually that is the gift I give myself. However, this year, the students in India gave me a great treat and presents, my colleagues treated me well, and good friends called. Puts life in a retro-perspective.

A running reflection

Unfortunately I could not run on my last day here....I will miss the familiar faces, but will not miss the humidity.

One last time

tomorrow morning I will run for the last time here on this trip. Hopefully will be back when it is less humid. So much to run, and so much to see.

China run India off the running map

From Womens Marathon at Berlin World Championships 2009: Xue Bai wins

As results come in from the Womens marathon at the World Athletics Championships at Berlin, it looks like China has come out on tops overall with some great finishes to take up the team world cup, while Japan and Russia came second and third respectively.

It was Xue Bai who won the event, with a time of 2:25:15, and topped a strong performance from China, with as many as 4 Chinese in the top-13 results. It was quite a close finish, unlike the Mens marathon yesterday, with runner up Yoshimi Ozaki from Japan just 2:25:25 giving Xue a fight all the way.Aselefech Mergia from Ethiopia was third not too far behind in 2:25:32, and was infact leading T THE 40KM point of the race.

Interestingly, as many as 24 runners were bunched together at the half-way point, which was reached in 1:13:39, which included the other fancied runners Dire Tune and Bezunesh Bekele from Ethiopia. The much fancied Kara Goucher from the US was a dissapointing 10th placed in 2:27:48

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Where are the Indian women athletes hiding? Chinese women are competitive with the best of the world.

Not breaking a sweat over the humid weather...

The weather is becoming very humid here, and running even at 5:00AM is rather challenging. However, the weather is par for the course, and no sweat, no gain is the motto here.

Bolt'in Radcliffe

Paula Radcliffe won the NY Half Marathon last week- she is one impressive runner. Usain Bolt set world records in the 100 and 200 metres races in Berlin. He is awesome in the sprints. But marathon running is a completely different challenge.

Runner's itch

After weeks of running itsy bitsy short distances, one yearns for that long run....to cover a good distance, come back, get a drink and read the paper.

Sex and Running....

An interesting story making the rounds of newspapers today..

Gold Awarded Amid Dispute Over Runner’s Sex. NYT.

By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY and GINA KOLATA

***Extract from the article ***

BERLIN — As an 18-year-old runner from a village in South Africa received her gold medal in Olympic Stadium on Thursday night, activity away from the track had put her at the center of an international dispute: doctors here and in her home country were examining test results to determine whether she has too many male characteristics to compete as a woman.

The case of Caster Semenya, who has burst to prominence this season, touched off a debate over whether she should be allowed to keep her medal and, more broadly, how sports officials are supposed to discern the fuzzy biological line between male and female.

Medical experts said assigning sex was hardly as easy as sizing someone up visually. Even rigorous examinations can result in ambiguous findings. Some conditions that give women male characteristics can be discovered only through intrusive physical examinations, and others require genetic analysis.

“We can get quite philosophical here — what does it mean to be male or female?” said Dr. Richard Auchus, a specialist in disorders of sexual differentiation at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

“For 99 percent of the population it’s easy to determine,” he added. “But one percent of the population have conditions that make it not so straightforward.”

Some of Semenya’s competitors in the 800 meters considered the issue straightforward after Semenya romped to a commanding victory at the world championships Wednesday. “Just look at her,” said Mariya Savinova of Russia, who finished fifth. Elisa Cusma of Italy, who was sixth, told Italian journalists: “These kind of people should not run with us. For me, she’s not a woman. She’s a man.”

But the matter is anything but simple. The testing done on Semenya, at the behest of the International Association of Athletics Federations, track and field’s world governing body, takes weeks to complete. It requires a physical medical evaluation, and includes reports from a gynecologist, an endocrinologist, a psychologist, an internal medicine specialist and an expert on gender. The effort, coordinated by Dr. Harold Adams, a South African on the I.A.A.F. medical panel, is being conducted at hospitals in Berlin and South Africa.

It is unclear what the exact threshold is, in the eyes of the I.A.A.F., for a female athlete being ineligible to compete as a woman......

*****
The power of the human mind to create more complications...

Fast coincidence

I had written yesterday that "Going flat out may result in being flattened...."

As luck would have it, the WSJ had an interesting piece on American runners and on Kara Goucher, America's greatest hope in the marathon.

According to the article, "....In a bold move aimed at catching the Africans who have owned this event, Ms. Goucher has taken all the tactics generated by U.S. running experts in the last 20 years—the charts, the mileage recommendations and high-tech motion-sensing computer readouts—and stuffed them in a dumpster.

"I want to be one of the best runners in the world," she says, "and winning an event like this means that's what you are."

The glory years of U.S. distance running started in 1969 with the arrival of Steve Prefontaine, the charismatic runner from the University of Oregon who won seven NCAA championships between 1970 and 1973 and was known for his all-out style and fearlessness on the track. "Pre" as he was known, would jump out to early leads, race as hard as possible and wear out opponents. Before he died in a car accident at 24, he set U.S. records in every event between 2,000 and 10,000 meters....

Meanwhile, African runners began winning everything in sight. Since 1983, runners from places like Kenya and Ethiopia have won 28 marathon medals in 18 major international events, while Americans have won four. Some went as far as to suggest the Africans weren't just more motivated—they might be genetically superior. A recent study by Swedish and South African scientists concluded that the biochemical phenotypes of many Africans' muscles are better suited for distance running than those of western Europeans.

Jim Estes, associate director of long-distance running programs for USA Track and Field, says many American runners of that era (himself included) hated the rigors of training—but the Africans never seemed to care. "Their threshold for pain just seemed much higher," he says.

Tom Ratcliffe, an agent for several Kenyan runners, says Africans "enjoy the battle" in endurance running while most Westerners "race with anxiety." He says his runners usually have no idea how many miles they run per week, or how fast. They just want to win.

Felix Limo, a Kenyan runner who has won the 2006 London and 2005 Chicago marathons, says U.S. runners rely too much on structure and scientific programs—the sorts of things described in those books in the 1970s. They fix their minds on certain speeds, he says, and aren't flexible enough.

"I don't need a mileage like the runners here," he says. "I can push myself."

One of the first Western runners to figure out the Africans was Great Britain's Paula Radcliffe, who has won eight major marathon events since 2000. She's got some structure to her training, but she's known more for her relentless attacking and competitiveness.

Ms. Radcliffe's emergence coincided with the 2001 founding of the Mammoth Track Club in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., whose mission is to advance the naturally aggressive "run first, ask questions later" style the Africans run with....

Going flat out may result in being flattened....

The urge to run fast out of the gate is the bane of many a good runner. The big fast spurt can really bog one down in the later stages of a race. Controlling the temptation, and intentionally slowing down initially often results in a better overall performance. This holds true in other aspects of life as well- going too fast even in matters of the heart can result in a disastrous crash. But controlling the pace is much more difficult in these matters...

A Run for the Ages

As I went out for a short run this morning, I saw some of the faces that have become familiar to me over the past few weeks. Quite a few ladies and gentlemen walk regularly, and there is some acknowledgement. The Indian family unit is transforming, and it is interesting to watch it evolve. Younger people are striking out on their own, and many live quite apart from their parents. On the one hand, I see the parents driving their kids one block so that the latter can catch the school bus, and I see the elderly out for serious walking.

A runinterrupted week

During my visit to Chennai and Nellore, I did not get a chance to run, though I went to the beach a couple of times- a rarity for me. However, I did get to walk quite a bit, especially at IIT-M- a wonderful campus for outdoor enthusiasts. The amount of pollution in the city area is quite injurious- far more deadly than the swine flu virus. Yet people drive merrily and contribute more pollution while wearing ridiculous masks thinking that it is a good protection against the H1N1. Funny aspect of this swine flu reaction is that the flight attendants, who deal with people in close quarters on a daily basis, are not wearing these "protections."

It pays to pay attention...

I was walking around the apartment complex this evening trying to get some outside air when an elderly gentleman said hello and asked if I was a marathon runner. We started talking and I found out that he was a retired Services officer, and he was a sprinter in his youth. He talked about the training, the running form, and so on. These little vignettes of life- people appear and disappear from one's life, but create little episodes that stay on. When the episodes are pleasant, as in this case, they are cherished for ever.

Marathon of Agony

The weather in this part of India has been brutal, and has been getting worse. Nevertheless, while running yesterday I met a young couple who were jogging along. Having seen each other over a few days, the lady stopped and said hello and we chatted. Found out that they are training for a December Marathon. Truly respect that effort.

Top Marathon Runners...A Nostalgic Look

I came across a ranking of top marathon runners and could not help reminiscing about erstwhile legends like Ingrid Kristiansen, Grete Waitz, and Rosa Mota, who was a phenomenal runner from Portugal. On the men's side, Carlos Lopes, DeCosta, Steve Jones, Ibrahim Hussien, and others also bring back fond memories.

No harmony without e...

E-Commerce is now mainstream in matchmaking- eharmony keeps sending me email...

Bur romance took a hit this past two days as Twitter was bought down by DDOS attack. The 140 character love note has many limitations...

WIthdrawal Symptoms

When a runner stops running, even for a short while, he or she experiences a loss- commonly referred to as withdrawal symptoms. Same is true in romance- when one suddenly stops, there are severe withdrawal symptoms, and as in running, sometimes time is the great healer.

Taking Risks..

A good runner learns to take risks- like running when feeling under the weather, or pushing oneself when the body refuses. Unfortunately, this does not translate to romance. One is afraid of things going wrong and the resulting fall-out, with the result that even prudent risk-taking sometimes goes out the window.

Running as a Motivatational Example

This morning, I went out running on my usual route through the gated community, and after running three laps took a break to do some stretching. A gentleman, Mr. Sahni, who I have seen walking on many days came by and said hello. After exchanging greetings, he said that he saw me running every day and this motivated and inspired him to walk regularly. We had a brief chat afterwards, during which I came to know he was 61 years old and retired as a mining engineer. it is nice to serve as an inspiration, both to the very young and the very wise.

Slowing down..

Folks here speak English at a rapid pace, so I find myself asking people to slow down....odd because I am a quick mover myself.

Getting enough Oxygen...

As a runner, getting enough oxygen is critical for a good run. There was a very interesting article in the NYT's Science section -

How Geese Get Enough Oxygen Flying Over Himalayas

By HENRY FOUNTAIN

For the bar-headed goose, migration is a high-altitude adventure. Spring and fall it flies between Central Asia and India, a route that takes it over the highest mountains in the world, the Himalayas. The bird has been known to reach altitudes of 30,000 feet.

At such heights, the air is so thin that there’s only about a quarter of the oxygen available at sea level. Yet the goose is able to sustain the level of O2 consumption — 10 to 20 times normal — needed for flapping flight.

How does it do this? In a paper in The Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Graham R. Scott, a doctoral student at the University of British Columbia, and colleagues show that it has a lot to do with the bird’s muscles.

Mr. Scott and his colleagues examined pectoral muscles from bar-headed geese and compared them to those from related species, like barnacle geese, that don’t fly at extreme altitudes. They found little difference among the birds in the amount and types of muscle fibers. But the bar-headed geese had more capillaries around the individual muscle cells, and within cells, more of the mitochondria — which use oxygen to supply energy to the cell — were nearer the cell membrane.“ The oxygen doesn’t have to diffuse as far,” Mr. Scott said.

He said the changes in the muscle cells probably evolved over a long period of time, perhaps as the Himalayas, one of the Earth’s youngest mountain chains, grew and the birds would have had to fly higher and higher.

Yet another humid one

There are times when a runner looks at heaven and asks for a break...on a really cold day, it might be a minute hope that there is no wind chill. Today it was praying to the heavens to reduce the humidity. Water is sorely needed, but on the ground...

A great run....

A student of mine who plays for one of our College teams told me that she was leaving the team to concentrate on academics. It is very difficult for a young person to spend many hours practising a sport and then study hard as well. Reminds me of one of my best students ever, Nicole C., who was a superb volleyball player and led our team to many wins and championships. She also graduated with a near perfect record, marred by just one B. To my credit, I paired her with Marcin W. for a project in my course- Marcin being the best student I have ever seen at EC. Two top students got to work together- hopefully something they would appreciate in the years ahead.