a different playground

With one and a half weeks to go til the taper, I'm just using speedwork as an excuse to make things interesting...break up the monotony of miles and miles and loop after loop. Yep-I'm at *that* point in my training. Where I actually look forward to the long runs, and the greater challenge is fitting in the weekday mileage (especially with the jewish holidays throwing a wrench in the works!) Anyway, getting off the subject...

so yeah, speedwork. the workout was intended to have MP work in there, which was honestly perfect for me. I did a few miles beforehand to frontload (as I had 8 on the schedule)...then the workout location was changed from the rez, due to the rain possibly turning a reservoir workout into a game of "dodge the puddles." So to Riverside Park we went, and found a nice flat stretch to do repeats on. I am always glad to discover any new running venue (or "playground"...hehe), especially on the UWS, especially one that is flat!! Anyway, here is how the workout went for me...



A little bit all over the place, but still felt good, didn't feel like I was pushing hard at all. Which was encouraging, considering that I had almost 5 miles on my legs before starting the hard stuff, and especially since 2 days earlier, I could barely force my legs to do anything faster than 10 minute miles. Looking forward to seeing what the taper will do :)

Long run this weekend? Grete's Great Gallop, with 2 warm-up miles beforehand to make a cool 15. Not racing it-just using it as a training run...will have the iPod with me and everything :-p Now the real question-will the weather cooperate? If you remember, 2 years ago was a washout, last year was ridiculously hot...was the same weekend as Chicago (I didn't run Grete's last year, but I heard stories from those who did run who said the conditions were ridiculous-some even called it a day after the first loop!) So far the weather report looks good...

And this just in-the wave assignments for NYC are up...I'm in wave 2. I figured I'd either be at the back of wave 1 or the front of wave 2. Definitely pros (cleaner start) and cons (might go out too fast) to that...