Another great running class this week. Workout was .25 mile repeats up Cat Hill in Central Park. Cat Hill is a quarter mile hill, bordered by a sheer rock face with a statue of a black panther, or cat, on the top. As most Central Park races finish on the upper east side portion of the park, this hill is usually part of the last 2 miles of any race. The workout can be grueling depending on how hard you push. The twist this time was that after the main workout, (5 of these repeats), we were to run a 1 mile time trial from 72nd St up to 90th St. This is to simulate the last mile of a race when your legs are tired, and it includes the Cat Hill incline.
I ran with the 8:20-8:40 pace group again. The 1st repeat was kind of on the slow side as a warm up. Got much faster from there. For the most part, I just hung around the back of the group. I prefer to be right up front or in the back. Running hard in a group of people in close proximity makes me nervous. I’m on the tall side and my stride is a bit longer than others. My fear while running in a group is that it is too easy to get tangled up with someone else – definitely don’t want that, so back or front of the pack it is. For the most part, the pace was consistent throughout, and I was quite happy to hang in the back – finished in the 1:59-2:04 range for each.
After the main workout, we lined up for the 1 mile time trial. My detailed running log goes back to 1999, and since then, I’ve done this Cat Hill workout in class 15 times. I’ve never seen this 1 mile run at the end, so it came as a big suprise. We kept the pace on the slow side up the hill, and then really pushed hard the last half mile. I managed to finish the mile in 7:42 – an amazing time for me! Gives me hope that I can run the fitness Mind Body, Spirit Games 4 miler at 8 minute pace per mile next weekend…
