One Weekend -- Two Great Runs

Those of you on the East Coast know we had one more taste of winter on Friday when NYC and the rest of the Northeast were hit with several inches of snow. This necessitated a quick re-think of the route I'd planned for Saturday's long run since I knew part of the route would covered in slush. The easy thing to have done would have been to have headed to Central Park or the West Side Highway, either of which would have been cleared, but after weeks of being confined to the same stretches of pavement because because of the weather, I wanted something different.

Saturday's route

Before heading out the door Saturday to meet the two teammates I had talked into a 7a.m. long run, I checked my favorite winter resource: PlowNYC. This site shows how recently each street in the city has been plowed. Since I knew we'd be doing most of our run on city streets, I wanted to make sure they'd been serviced in the last several hours.


Thankfully, it didn't end up being that bad out and we got in a great 18 mile run. We started at the Manhattan Side of the Queensboro Bridge, ran across it and then north to Astoria Park, before heading south through Woodside, Maspeth, and Blissville. Then it was over the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge into Brooklyn, where we ran through Greenpoint and Williamsburg before taking the Williamsburg Bridge back to Manhattan.


By the end of the run my legs felt pretty shot, but it was great to get out and see some different areas of the city. I also managed to get my weekly Trader Joe's shopping trip out of the way early which was great since it saved me from having to battle the epic Saturday afternoon lines. I spent the rest of the day doing chores around the house and running errands in the neighborhood so I was happy that I'd covered some different territory during the long run.


On Sunday I joined my wife on her long run. She's training for Ironman Lake Placid in July so her long runs aren't in the double digits yet which meant I could still tag along with her the day after my 18 miler. We ran west along 59th Street and took the West Side Highway down to Chambers Street, right at the top of Battery Park City, before heading inland.


I loved the second part of our run, taking various city streets up through TriBeCa and the Village, scoping out new or unfamiliar restaurants and bars to try now that it's actually warm enough to go outside. We ended the run at a gym on 14th Street so we could shower and change rather than head all the way home since we had errands to run around Union Square. These are the best kinds of runs, the ones where you get to kill two birds with one stone. Hopefully spring will stick around so we can do more of these runs in the coming weeks!

Long Weekend? Long Run!

Early this week one of my favorite running bloggers, Megan over at Runners Kitchen, blogged about long run anxiety. I don't know if anxiety is the right word for me, but I definitely get where she's coming from. Long runs don't seem like such a big deal anymore--what's 20 miles when you've ran 15 a couple days ago? But, they take a lot of time and it's easy to talk yourself into post-poning it.


Oh, maybe I'll just read a little bit more of today's Times, or I really need to catch up 30 Rock...


The longer you wait to get started, the harder it is to get out the door. The first way I try to deal with this is by doing my long runs on Saturday, not Sunday. That way I get them out of the way early in the weekend. Back during school I often did them Friday mornings (although, let's be honest, that was partly so I could go out Friday night...).

It's still easy for me to push them off. Thankfully, this weekend for the second time I ran with members of the Dashing Whippets. That meant I had to be out of my house and on the subway by 8:30 to meet them at Union Square. This was great motivation. It wasn't too early so I felt rested but it kept me from post-poning my run.

I have to say, though, the route today was tough!!! I've posted it after the jump. It involved a relatively flat first 10 miles, but then we hit Central Park and had 4 loops of the Harlem Hills! It doesn't help that my apartment is just a couple of blocks north of the park. Every loop I thought

You could just run off right now. You don't have to do another loop.


Thankfully I was able to stick with it. This kind of mental training will really help me come April. The hills in the final miles of Boston require stamina that is as much mental and physical so it's important to be ready.

With 20+ miles under my belt, it's time to relax and enjoy a 3 day weekend!