A Lab Notebook

 
Running only post
Yesterday Elizabeth and I decided to be adventurous and run in van Cortlandt park in the Bronx. This park has a famous x-country series and is where Columbia holds their x-country meets, so I wanted to see what it was like. We took the 4 train (the subway train nearest Elizabeth's house) line to its terminus. All in all, the park has pretty variable terrain with some decent hills that I could see becoming a nightmare in a 5km. We pretty much had the park to ourselves and did a loop that took 1.5 hours. We probably held a 9:30 pace for most of the run, with some mild fartlekking during minutes 45-80. Elizabeth had to fight some running demons about half way through but started kicking ass during the fartlek session.
With Elizabeth off to work, I woke up this morning and decided to go for a long run. I actually wanted to go tomorrow, but a snow storm is expected overnight and for tomorrow, so I had to jump on today's prime weather (mostly sunny with highs approaching 60 by midday). However, I had to run with a pack containing clothing in case the storm or its associated cold front arrived early, plus I had to carry all of my own water and energy bars. Total weight of the pack was probably near 10 pounds at the start of the run, but lost weight due to food and water consumption. I have had this certain run in mind for the past few years and wonder how many folks have done it. I ran from Elizabeth's apartment on E. 96th, over the George Washington Bridge to NJ, and ran in the Palisades Interstate Park (along the Hudson). I wanted to run to the NJ/NY border, but was getting low on bars and water so I turned around at a spot Elizabeth and I normally use as turnaround for our normal 10km run in the park (@ the women's monument about 1.25 miles shy of the border). Total distance = 34.7 miles. Total time = 5:20. Pace = 9:13/mile. The route with distances and terrain: Zib's apartment to RIverside Park (streets and Central Park grass) 1 mile, Riverside Park/West Side Drive to George Washington Bridge (mostly wethered blacktop with some grass) 4.25 miles. GWB to Palisades Park entrance (concrete) 1.55 miles. Park entrance to the Women's Monument along the "Shore Trail" with a 500 foot climb from river bank to the monument (500 foot descent to the river where the terrain is mixed between 30 foot rolling embankments and flat sections of rocks and sand) 10.55 miles. Women's Monument to GWB (gorgeous winding single track through a forest atop a 500 foot cliff overlooking the Hudson River with some pretty significantly steep gullys) 10.55 miles. I ran the rest of the run on the same outgoing route but in the reverse direction.
Coolest part of the run was about 2 blocks from Elizabeth's apartment when an employee from a bakery was outside on a smoking break and yelled, "Yo, you been runing since I saw you go by at 11 this morning?" My stunned reply, "Yeah, it was a nice day, so I figured I would spend some time outdoors." To which he took a drag on his cigarette and said, "Cool, you should come by and get some doughnuts tomorrow." All I could say was "Thanks."
- posted by alex @ 17:31