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!

The Two Legged Commute

Today my schedule called for a 14 miler which meant getting up really early and struggling to stay awake at work--at least, that's what it usually would have meant. For the first time since this summer, I decided to make my run my commute. We have showers and a locker room at work which turns out to be a huge plus. Yesterday, I brought an extra set of work clothes and a towel with me and left it at the office overnight. That meant this morning all I really had to carry was my ID badge. The best part of this strategy is that it let me sleep in a full 45 minutes later! I felt almost guilty when my alarm finally went off: Am I cheating the system?

Photo Credit: Jessica Krause Smith

If I were to run the most direct route to my work it would only be about 9 miles so I had to be creative. to get those extra miles. I ran through Central Park (have you notice a lot of my runs involve Olmsted and Vaux?) and over 60th to the Queensboro Bridge and into Queens. By the time I got to the bridge, I could see the sun rising over Long Island City. I made my way to Vernon Blvd which runs along the East River and was amazed at how many people were out and about. There's a ConEd plant here and many taxi garages so it makes sense there was so much activity, but on weekends when I usually here this stretch is often deserted.

I crossed into Brooklyn over the Pulaski Bridge (the halfway point in the New York City Marathon) and turned onto Eagle and then Franklin. I don't usually run on Franklin so it was a nice change of scenery to pass all the cafes and shops that line the rapidly changing street. I continued onto Kent, this whole time running along the East River, watching the Williamsburg Bridge get closer and closer, passing new condo after new condo. By now it was actually light outside! Who knew you could run in the sunlight on a weekday? When I made the turn onto the Williamsburg Bridge pedestrian path I could feel the 9+ miles I'd already run in my legs. Still, seeing lower Manhattan in the early morning sun was more than enough to make up for any minor soreness.

The rest of my run took me along the East River and underneath the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges before turning into the Financial District and ending at work. It was a perfect day for a run and I plan on doing the whole commute-on-foot thing again soon!

Do any of you ever run to or from work? Let me know in the comments.

Below the jump there's a map of my route.