Wollman Rink, Central Park
I am so glad I banged out my tempo workout yesterday. Unlike this morning, yesterday I actually had traction and the confidence that when I started I could stop without a face meet pavement experience. Yesterday was above freezing for most of the day, so the snow began to melt a bit leaving the roads wet, but still in great condition. Overnight, it was windy and the temps dipped below 32* and the result was black ice greeted early morning Central Park runners. Thankfully, I never bit it, but I certainly felt like I worked much harder than I should have on a recovery run.
One other thing … it must have been runners’ high or temporary insanity when I wrote yesterday that I planned to alternate between easy, MP and HMP pace today. Not sure where that lunacy came from, as my body was in no mood to attempt that type of workout. As the body revolted against anything below a mid 9s pace early on, I realized how silly the idea of following up a hard tempo + distance with even more distance and more tempo the next day. Again, I plead insanity on all counts. In fact, there must have been a guest blogger or hacker on here yesterday.
Aside from black ice, the weather was fine … 32* and very sunny. I went with shorts my new CPTC jacket and 3 layers of gloves. As I left the apartment, I thought the gloves might be overkill, but towards the end of the run I’m happy I layered up. I’d say the first 3 miles were slow, but the streets were safe. When I found myself on West Drive, I might as well have been on Wollman Rink. I literally ran in the middle of the road and still found myself skating around the sheets. It only got worse when I made it down to the southern loop for a couple of laps (no Harlem Hills today). I knew it might be bad when a stranger passing in the opposite direction screamed out “Watch the ice coming up.” That’s never happened before. Don’t get me wrong, people are very friendly here, but I’ve never received a warning like that before and it was warranted.
BTW – I’ve seen my 6th raccoon of the month too. I won’t lie. They freak me out. They look like medium-sized dogs and I am not Mr. Nature/Outdoors. I’m definitely a city boy and critters, varmints and the like give me the heebie-jeebies. Mr. Raccoon and I kept our distance and all was good. Also, there was another sighting of a coyote roaming Central Park last week. We’ve got it all in Gotham!
Anyway, I got my Christy Yamaguchi on for 11 miles this morning at a 9:22 pace (you can tell I have not watched the Winter Olympics in a long, long time … I couldn’t tell you a thing other than curling is all the rage at the office because it is so utterly ridiculous looking).