Posts Tagged ‘Central Park’

  1. Short Races, Long Runs, and Divine Sandwiches

    September 18, 2011 by justgathering

    Yesterday was the Fitness Mind, Body, and Spirit 4 Miler, a race for which I signed up quite a long time ago.

    It was also 10 miles on my half marathon training plan. What to do? Run a 4 mile race in the middle of a 10 mile long run, of course.

    I left my apartment around an hour before the start of the race and charted a course that took me downtown and around Central Park on the roads. I wound up at the start of the race with 4.6 miles down. I chatted with friends who were running it, ate a handful of sport beans, and took off for the speedier part of the long run.

    This race was a little unorganized, but it was fun. I wasn’t taking it seriously at all, so I didn’t mind too much when a random lady tried to cross the road right in front of me as I sprinted toward the finish line. She probably minded when I body slammed her, but I’m pretty sure she was fine.

    Official time: 34:22, a PR. I grabbed an apple on the way through the finish and kept on running for the last 1.4 miles. Then, with 10 miles under my belt, I wandered through the little expo with my lovely friend Amy and ate my free food.

    Delicious apple.

    Yogurt, berries, and granola. Definitely a nice change of pace compared to the usual bagel.

    I actually really liked running a short race in the middle of a longer run. It broke up the long run into manageable chunks, and it was a good mental exercise to pick up the pace for a few miles in the middle. I might start doing this more often.

    Today was purely relaxing. Daniel and I joined Leslie at the Brooklyn Book Festival. We checked out all the book stalls, ogled some literary magazines and nonfiction anthologies, and successfully attended a ticketed reading (quite the feat, apparently).

    We also ate some amazing food. Sandwiches from Tazza, where we ate on Labor Day.

    Our experience there was just so good that we had to expose Leslie to the wonder that is Tazza. Daniel and I split two sandwiches again.

    Tomato, basil, and fresh mozzarella.

    And roasted eggplant, red peppers, and goat cheese on focaccia.

    Followed, of course, by ice cream. Blue Marble mint cookie, to be exact.

    Not a bad weekend at all.

    Category run., write. | Tags: ,,,,,,,, | 7 Comments

  2. NYRR Running Class: Week 17 & A Short Note to Central Park

    September 16, 2011 by justgathering

    This evening, I found myself walking home across Central Park, around the Reservoir, a path I rarely walk. I hit that loop on repeat most mornings, but slowing down afforded an entirely different point of view. As I was overtaken by runner after runner, two thoughts occurred to me. (1) Central Park belongs to runners. (2) I feel so much gratitude to be one of them.

    The park belongs to runners because we’re the ones who know it, not by the well-loved landmarks but by the distinct feeling of a foot striking the gravelly sand around the Reservoir.

    We know every winding path, feel them in our knees. We know just where to step to miss every rocky trap along the Bridle Path. We know the rhythmic surge of the crowd in the morning and again when work is done.

    We know the perfect combination of large and small loops to fashion 5 miles, 9 miles, 17. We know which hills to tackle when we’re up for a challenge–and which to avoid when we’re not.

    We’re there for the sunrise (and often after it sets).

    Since moving from Brooklyn to Manhattan earlier this year, I’ve come to know and love this park and its (sometimes brutal) hills.

    To Central Park: I won’t always live in Manhattan, but when I leave I’ll miss you most.

    This week’s running class was my first week at the basic competitive level. The workout was the same ladder that I first ran during my third week of class. 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, mile, 1/2 mile, 1/4 mile.

    My times on the 1/4: 1:44 and 1:46.

    On the 1/2: 3:42 and 3:44.

    On the mile: 7:50. That’s 40 seconds faster than 14 weeks ago. And 14 weeks ago, I felt like I was going die. This time, I felt amazing.

    Category run., write. | Tags: ,,,,, | 2 Comments

  3. NYRR Running Class: Week 14, cancelled races, & running to beat the storm

    August 27, 2011 by justgathering

    This week’s running class left me feeling awesome. Since I was tapering for the Bronx Half, I was pleased that the week’s workout was a 5 miler at a tough but doable pace, with a 400 meter hill sprint at the end. (This was supposed to simulate a race finish and going full force on tired legs. Worked.)

    I left class feeling totally ready for the race. My plan was to do a couple more easy, short runs before Sunday, and I’d be good to go.

    Then people started to sit up and pay attention to Irene. Bronx Half: cancelled.

    At first I thought this was overreaction, but apparently this is serious business. Hundreds of thousands of people evacuated, subways shut down, businesses shuttered. The Whole Foods in our neighborhood stayed open through the night last night and closed down for theweekend this morning. We stopped in to stock up on beer around 10 last night and this was the situation:

    I know, right? Never seen a Whole Foods looking so ransacked.

    Daniel and I decided to try to be normal and went out for Ethiopian at a wonderful place in the neighborhood called Awash.

    Vegetarian combo. Seriously good food. Ate way too much, but we had to reinforce our energy supplies before the storm, right?

    I had no plans for my run this morning, but I knew I wanted to get in some miles before bunkering down in the apartment for the rest of the weekend. Apparently, every runner in NY had the same idea because Central Park was totally packed. Toward the end of my loop of the park, I ran by Ali, who had a giant smile on her face. I’m guessing this means I encountered her before she vomited a Gu.

    I did 6 intensely humid miles. The sky was spitting a bit the whole time, so this run was mildly uncomfortable, but it felt good to be out there. There was a sense of urgency coming from the other runners and bikers, many of whom were probably trying to get their workouts in before evacuating. Despite the palpable determination, though, there was still a sort of eerie calm due to the fact that the park was pretty much devoid of pedestrians, children playing, tourists, and the like. It was an odd feeling, to say the least.

    I’m totally bummed about the Bronx Half, but I’m going to wait til Irene gets the heck out of NYC to start thinking about the next half marathon (Staten Island!). For now, waiting it out and hoping to emerge from our building on Monday morning to a wind-battered but otherwise unharmed New York City. Knocking on wood.

    Stay safe, East Coast friends.

    Category run., write. | Tags: ,,,,,,,, | 9 Comments

  4. On Mini Goals

    August 4, 2011 by justgathering

    I wasn’t going to run this morning, but I have a serious love for the smell of the air in the early morning after a rainstorm. So I kind of had to.

    And I’m glad I did, because this morning I came thismuchcloser to accomplishing one of my current mini goals.

    I’ve been working on some big goals lately — training for my next half marathon, trying to do my 9+1 to get entry into next year’s marathon — but it occurred to me a few weeks ago that I wasn’t pushing myself enough during my average, everyday runs. If I’m capable of running a 5k in just over 25 minutes, then why are my morning 3-milers clocking in over 27?

    If I don’t set an intention for my morning run, I roll out of bed and find myself plodding along before I even realize it. During mile 1, I’m usually still half-asleep and giving into my lead legs.

    To combat this, I created a few mini goals for myself. Number 1: to run 3 miles in the morning under 26 minutes. 3 miles under 26 minutes is no problem for me in the evening, when my legs are fully warmed up from moving around all day. But I wanted to bring some consciousness to my morning runs, to really work toward something.

    I’ve been running with with friends a lot in the mornings, so I haven’t been crazy about reaching my goal during those runs. But on the mornings when I run alone, I’ve been going for it. And this morning, I almost had it.

    3 miles in 26:02.

    Two seconds away. Now I know it’s just within my grasp. I’m giving it a week.

    My times:

    Mile 1 — 8:54

    Mile 2 — 8:40

    Mile 3 — 8:29

    I’m off to Chicago tomorrow for 2 weddings, but I’ve got a 10-miler scheduled for Sunday. I can’t wait to run those miles on my home turf and work toward others of my mini goals, including drinking lots of midwestern microbrews. (That’s an admirable goal, right?)

    What are the small goals you’re working toward on your way to the bigger milestones? Anyone else think these things are well worth celebrating?

    Category run., write. | Tags: ,,,, | 5 Comments

  5. NYRR Running Class: Week 11

    August 2, 2011 by justgathering

    And the fun continues.

    Getting pumped up with an air drum solo.

    Tonight was the first session in my second ten weeks of running class. I just can’t get enough.

    Plus, I’m actually getting faster. As long as it keeps working, I’ll stick with it.

    With the warm up, the intervals, and the cool down, I covered 3.5 very sweaty miles tonight. The workout was identical to that of Week 1: 4 x 800 in a part of the park that’s pretty hilly — 92nd on the East Side up to the 102nd Street transverse and over to the west. I did okay:

    3:44

    3:44

    3:44

    3:48

    About a 7:30 mile. I only beat my times from 10 weeks ago by about 10 seconds, but the big difference was that I didn’t feel like I was dying the whole time. Or want to cry. Or nearly throw up. I just did it, happily and without breathing too hard. This is a very good sign.

    Also, I have decided that wearing spandex makes me run faster and makes life more enjoyable.

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  6. Weekly Training Retrospect: Taking it Easy

    July 31, 2011 by justgathering

    The theme of my weekend has definitely been taking it easy.

    I did a bootcamp on Thursday night, which left me (immediately) dirty and (longterm) sore.

    I now know that I am incapable of scaling up the walls of rock in Central Park, no matter how many times I hurl my body at them. And that girly pushups are not okay in a bootcamp setting.

    I followed up this little adventure by volunteering at the Queens Half Marathon on Saturday, a feat that required getting up at 3:45 in the morning to trek to Flushing Meadows. Making the underground transfer at 42nd Street, I finally identified with whoever put these signs on the ceiling beams.

    Volunteering was a fantastic experience though. Yes, it was an early morning and a hot day, but it was incredibly inspiring to watch hundreds upon hundreds of people cross the finish line. And to give them a bagel and say congratulations. Bravo to all who ran it. You guys rock.

    I was pretty much a zombie for the rest of the day yesterday and spent a lot of time lounging on a picnic blanket in Central Park, but after 10 hours of sleep last night I was ready to rock a run this morning. My training plan called for 6 miles, although I felt I could do more. But in the spirit of taking it easy for the weekend, I stuck to the plan.

    Mile 1 — 8:49

    Mile 2 — 8:34

    Mile 3 — 8:50

    Mile 4 — 9:08

    Mile 5 — 8:41

    Mile 6 — 8:37

    All 6 in 52:39, an average 8:46 mile. Not bad! I think the two rest days and extra sleep really helped.

    Post-run, Daniel and I met our friends John and Tasha at the Brooklyn Flea, where I could not pass up a chocolate-dipped frozen banana with crushed almonds and sea salt. Yes, it tasted as good as it sounds.

       

    A few hours meandering around the market in the hot sun and I am beat. Good thing we have movie tickets for tonight. And a thermos full of beer. Mwah ha ha.

    So how’d my half marathon training go for this week?

    3 miles + Strength 4 miles speed Strength XT 4 miles tempo 6 miles Rest/Yoga 17 miles
    Rest day 3 miles speed workout 3 miles – 26:40 3 miles – 27:08 + Bootcamp Rest Rest 6 miles – 52:39 15 miles

    I didn’t pack in quite as many miles as I’d hoped, and I definitely should have done a better job of spacing out my rest days. I took Monday off because we’d just returned from Philly and I needed sleep, and I ran Thursday instead of Friday because my friends from my building were running that day and I wanted to join in. I had grand plans to run after volunteering yesterday, but my body and mind were so tired that there was no way I could run on 4 hours of sleep. So it is what it is. I’m not too concerned about it. They were all good runs, and sleep, friends, and frozen bananas are way more important than being rigid about a table I made in Microsoft Word.

    Word.

    Off to continue taking it easy in an air conditioned movie theater. Happy end of the weekend, friends.

    Category run., write. | Tags: ,,,,,,,,, | 1 Comment

  7. NYRR Running Class: Week 10

    July 26, 2011 by justgathering

    I went into tonight, the final week of my running class, with a tiny bit of sadness.

    It disappeared when we started running. Running’s good for that.

    Untouched iPhone picture. Look at that sky. We couldn’t have asked for better weather, especially after the recent heatwave. It was cool and breezy.

    After a mile or so warming up, we did 6 x 200 meters up a very winding hill. The point: to run the tangent. We were warned not to take it too fast but to just focus on not adding any unnecessary distance onto our 200 meters.

    I had never really thought about this before and I’m a notorious weaver, so it took me awhile to catch on. I got it eventually, and I also noted that a side effect of focusing on something like running the tangents is that you don’t think about the fact that you’re sprinting uphill. I might try this technique more often…

    Happy, sweaty, blurry me, post-workout. Two thumbs up.

    My sadness over the last class didn’t make a comeback because guess what? I signed up for another session. I’ve made some awesome, really encouraging friends through class, and none of us wanted it to end. So we decided to do it all over again.

    Julie, Lindsey, and me. [When, by the way, will I start looking not awkward in pictures? I thought that was supposed to kick in sometime in your 20s? No? Okay.]

    So the running class posts + sweaty phone pics do not end here. There will be lots more of me being excited about what for many high schoolers is just track practice. But I didn’t do track in high school, so thanks for granting me my moments of excitement and discovery.

    Care to read about weeks 1-9 of my running class? Find them here:

    Week 1

    Week 2

    Week 3

    Week 4

    Week 6

    Week 7

    Week 8

    Week 9

    Category run., write. | Tags: ,, | 10 Comments

  8. I’m a Runner…

    July 21, 2011 by justgathering

    Happy Thursday, folks!

    Just popping in to say that I answered 20 questions about running as part of the beautiful Kelly’s I am a Runner series on her blog Foodie Fresh. Head on over and check it out, and don’t be afraid to leave Kelly a comment to say hi. I’m really looking forward to reading the other posts in this series and connecting with some other runners out there.

    Speaking of running…

    This morning’s run: 3 miles in (hazy and humid) Central Park in 26:20. I ran into a friend at the end and cooled down with her. Quite a pleasant way to start a Thursday morning.

    Hope it’s a great one for you, friends.

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  9. NYRR Running Class: Week 9

    July 19, 2011 by justgathering

    In addition to guzzling 12 or so cups of water, I fueled for tonight’s run class with a mid-afternoon trip to the Whole Foods gelato bar.

    Vegan chocolate hazelnut gelato made with almond milk. My new favorite workday treat.

    It paid off. The workout tonight: a 1.4-ish mile warmup followed by a pretty speedy 5k around the north side of Central Park — including the hills around 110th Street.

    I have gotten in the habit of totally psyching myself up for my Tuesday night runs, so I was pumped and ready to tackle the hills. While we were running, I kept thinking things like, “I eat hills for breakfast.” I also repeatedly told myself, “This is your specialty,” because I’m much better at running uphill than running downhill, for whatever reason. My little mantras powered me through the hills, and I made sure to stay right behind Coach for the entire run. If I let myself fall back a little, I find I fall back a lot, so I pushed myself to keep her pace.

    At the end I used another old trick for tough runs: I repeatedly told myself to just do another minute. I can do pretty much anything for a minute, so focusing only on the next minute helps.

    How’d I do? I managed a 5k in 25:29, an 8:13 average mile and definitely a personal record for me. We ran the last mile in 7:50. What? I know. Crazy fast. I was pretty happy about that one.

    I jogged to cool down for a bit until my Garmin made it to a nice even 4.5 miles. Including the warmup and cooldown, we ran those 4.5 in 38 minutes, under an 8:30 pace. Pretty swell for a Tuesday night.

    Next week is the last week of my running class. I’m debating signing up for another one because it’s been such a success… Anyone care to join me?

    Read about the other classes here: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 6, Week 7, and Week 8.

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  10. NYRR Running Class: Week 8

    July 12, 2011 by justgathering

    It was hot in the city today. With the heat index over 100 degrees and people tweeting all day about how insane it was outside, I made a concerted effort to spend my work day prepping for the evening’s speedwork:
    I managed to make it to 64 ounces by 4 pm, so I felt ready to take on the heat.
    We started out with a slow 1.5 miles to the north side of Central Park. We stopped around 110th Street to begin our speedwork: half a mile, part of which was straight up a very long hill.
    The view from the middle, looking up at part of the hill.
    Looking down from the middle of the hill. Yes, those are stairs. Steep stairs. Blurry stairs, because I was running down them.
    We tackled this hill twice, and then did a cool down mile, so the run ended up being 4.5 miles in all. It was tough. My lungs were feeling it, and my legs are feeling it now. But it also felt good. It was awesome to see a whole group of people take on a crazy hill and not give up. People are amazing.
    Yesterday’s run was relaxing by comparison.
    3 early morning miles around the park in 26:32. Not a bad way to start the week.
    And the last mile was 8:32. Getting faster, little by little…

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