430orbust header image

Downtown loop again

– Posted in: Uncategorized

I finally have a name for the loop that I run down 4th ave and chuch and up the east side – the downtown loop.  See it here.  Ran this again last night around 9pm.  Same run I did last Thursday night.  Boy was it tougher today for some reason. 

Well, I know the reasons.  For one, it was about 5 degrees warmer than last time and a bit more humid.  The heat got to me.  Made a 7-Eleven stop on Church Ave for Gatorade and then 2 more stops along the way to drink.  The second reason was that I started out too fast.  I know the timing of the lights on 14th St to get all the way to 4th Ave without having to stop.  Ave A to 2nd is pretty leisurely, but to get through 3rd Ave, I need to sprint the block.  Need to then keep the quick pace to get across 4th Ave on a green light where I turn to head south in the bike lane.  I also realized that if I don’t keep a fast enough pace, then I will get stuck waiting for the green at Houston St, so I picked up the pace all the way down to Houston and made it through the green light.  The quick early pace definitely tired me out.  Anyway, the result of the early quick pace and the hotter weather and the time to stop for the Gatorade translated to a 1:02:58 time, exactly 2 minutes slower than the same course from a few days ago.  This one defintely was intense.  Can’t wait for tonights speed workout in Central Park…

Observation of the run: say what you will about the New York City Waterfalls public art exhibit, (kills nearby trees with saltwater, looks really bad on windy days, etc), but on a night like last night when there was little wind, and the waterfalls were lit up, it really did look nice and inspiring.  Normally when I pass by at nighttime, the Falls and lights are off, so don’t know what was different about last night…

Quick shout out to the guy at the 7-Eleven who gave me 2 quarters in change, rather than the 49 cents I should have gotten.  Nothing worse than having to run around with all that useless change in your pocket! 

Quick raspberry to the family of 4 that walked side by side on the little sidewalk space sandwiched between the FDR on-ramp on one side and the East River on the other side, just north of the ferry terminals, allowing exactly NO space for a runner to get through. Cmon – we were facing the opposite direction and you had plenty of time to see me coming!

Comments on this entry are closed.

Related Posts

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Laura September 2, 2008, 7:01 pm

    In that situation, you yell “on your left” and then push past. If they don’t move, hey, it’s not your fault your sweat got all over them 🙂