I am telling you, I know exactly what most professional athletes feel like the night before the big event.  The anticipation, the buildup, mental adjustments and razor-sharp focus – all fuse together creating the calm before the storm, something quite eerie and uncanny.  No, I don’t have any big events […]

How incredible is this – I hate winters, but I truly LOVE running in the winter! Every year, I dreadfully await the arrival of November and then December, knowing full well that these are my least favorite months, generally speaking.  I don’t know what it is – I just don’t […]

What could possibly stop me from running at 5 AM on January 1st?  Well, let me see: * I have been sick as a dog for the last few days * A huge bottle of Grey Goose was taken care of to end 2011, as a result of which: * […]

One advantage of being a lonely Jewish boy out on the streets at 5 o’clock on Christmas morning – not a single car around, I mean not even one!  Exception being a swarm of about 20 police cars flying by me at one point, disturbing the quiet perfection.  Again, I […]

Your average middle-class working man in Russia was not even thinking about lunch yet when I was out of the house this morning, looking to get some action…. I mean, cardio exercise!  I will admit, it hasn’t been easy; last night I hit the pillow precisely at midnight, leaving me […]

“But how could you live and have no story to tell?”― Fyodor Dostoyevsky ____________________________ Well, no, drinking coffee is not the main reason we wake up in the morning, despite what Folgers may suggest in their TV commercials. “The best part of waking up” for me, at least this morning, was actually […]

As the famous song goes, we all fall down sometimes!  And that’s all it was – a simple fall.  Blood spilled, scars acquired, and guess what – life goes on.  But I do appreciate all the sincere wishes and sympathy notes, I’ve received quite a few and, for the first […]

“I believe that one defines oneself by reinvention.  To not be like your parents.  To not be like your friends.  To be yourself.  To cut yourself out of stone.”  –  Henry Rollins. Some people will say that exercising and staying in shape is, to some degree, about mindset.  Well, I […]

I often get asked if all the stories are real and true, or if I am simply making stuff up as I go along… From what I can tell, I have a pretty weird imagination and could probably come up with some fairly entertaining material, if I actually needed to […]

I was preparing to write a bit more on the previous topic of acceptable breakfast foods, when something briefly caught my attention and reminded me of yet another fantastic topic well worth exploring.  I was actually driving around in search of inspiration (as well as money, since I was on […]

Happy Thanksgiving to all, I wish everyone a great time at the feast today / tonight and I only hope that each and every one of us will get a chance to completely unplug and enjoy themselves, to completely relax, have a drink or two (or three) and forget about the […]

Each given morning we awaken to brand new opportunities, brand new chances to live our lives anew, to finish the things we failed to complete yesterday.  We are given a fresh start and no matter how complex or entirely unsolvable our problems appeared the night before, in the morning all […]

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this in the past, but running is a lonely man’s game, at least it has been for me.  For some odd reason, I have never been able to run with a training partner… could it be due to my somewhat unusual hours of operations?  […]

Believe me, even after all this time it’s still not easy, not ever!  But I guess that’s the whole point, isn’t it. You hear stories of runners, and athletes in general, being able to run for hours without getting tired… I have now been a runner for over 5 years, […]

The early snow this year seems to have caught a lot of people off-guard – and I absolutely love it!  I actually wait all year long for this and I have no idea why!  Oh, wait, that’s not true – I do know why.  Somehow being able to run in […]