Speed workout tonight in Central Park was a 4 mile tempo run of the middle 4 miles of Central Park. While this is the least interesting of the various workouts we can do, it is always a great chance to race the distance on a familiar course and with lots of hills.
It is the middle 4 miles in Central Park, but clockwise, opposite the direction of most races and the direction that most people run. What makes this hard is the the first mile includes Cat Hill on the downhill. That mile is always too fast and then the rest is tough. Mile 2 is mostly uphill, and there is a fair amount of uphill in the last mile.
Kept a nice, hard steady pace. Took the first mile too fast, something like 7:40. On the fast downhill, I could feel my right shin acting up. For me, it always gets worse on the downhills and better on the uphills. In the 2nd mile, with a lot of uphill on the West Side, the shin loosened up. After that, I pushed hard on the uphills and coasted a bit to recover on the downhills. Finished the 4 mile course in 32:13, soooooo close to 32 min and an 8 min per mile pace. In the 11 times I’ve done this workout, this was the fastest time ever. My previous fastest of 32:29 was way back in Dec 2001.
Very happy with how that went! It felt so much easier to run without the extra layers I had added for the Manhattan Half Marathon this past weekend. Also, my toe pain did not act up at all. It seems to hurt a bit when walking, but no pain at all when running. That works for me!
For next weekend, I need to get a 20-21 mile long run in for my Austin Marathon training. Forecast is currently calling for a warmer day on Sunday, so I’ll plan my run for then.
