What Happened to Winter?

I'm not complaining, but it almost seems like winter forgot New York this year. Sure we've had a handful of cold days, but we've had almost no snow and plenty of above average temps. Last year it seemed like we had the winter that would never end. I remember being forced into quite a few treadmill runs simply because the road was too icy. This entire week, however, it's been near 40 when I've hit the pavement.

This lack of snow and ice has removed one of the biggest downsides to winter running and the other, perpetual darkness, is on it's way out. It's finally starting to get light early enough that at least part of every run has some sunlight. That's a big improvement over earlier in the winter where I could do my entire run in darkness and only see the sun between my apartment and the subway--it was gone by the time I finished work.

The good thing about this mild winter is that I'm not spending every moment complaining about the cold and wishing for summer. The bad thing? It has me worried I might be pushing my luck. I've run Boston the past two years and have been extremely fortunate with the weather both times. However, Old Man Winter still has plenty of time to rear his ugly head. I just hope he doesn't decide to come back from vacation just in time for Patriot's Day!

What do you think? Do we still have a dose of winter on the way?

Running with [New] Friends

I've been thinking about joining a team for a long time. There are literally dozens on running teams in the New York running scene and they definitely make up a large portion of folks at any given NYRR race. It was really difficult when I was in school to commit to any sort of team schedule since my hours tend to be all over the place, but now my schedule tends to be a little more regular.

On Saturday I tried my first run with a team, the Dashing Whippets.They're a relatively new club but I've heard some really positive things about them so I figured I would try joining them for their Saturday morning long run. By running to the meeting point (72nd St and Central Park West) I was able to get in the couple extra miles I needed since they were going to be doing 15 and I had 17 scheduled.

If there was ever a perfect day to run with a group, Saturday was it! It was cold, snowing and gray and not the kind of day where you want to do a 2+ hour run outside. When I showed up, though, there was a pretty good turnout of other runners. With folks running several different paces, I was able to find a couple of guys looking for more of a 7:30 pace.

During the run, along course specially designed to celebrate the birthday of one of the team members, I chatted with two other runners and learned more about the team. They seem like really great folks and I'm pretty sure I want to sign up to run with them. Perhaps the biggest upside to all this talking, however, was how it distracted me from how fast I was running. During our final lap of Central Park we had some sub-7 miles and at the end I even tacked on an extra lower loop with one of the guys (bringing my total mileage to over 19 for the day). My average pace was just over 7 minutes, much faster than if I had gone it along, and much more pleasant too.

How about you? Do you run with a team? What are some of the benefits you see?