Today: 5 miles

Week: 30.5 miles

Workout: 5-mile loop of Central Park

I was running counter clockwise around the lower loop when a woman entered the park from 7th Avenue. She was a few yards ahead of me and looked like she was just beginning her run. I caught up to her and began to pass her. As I came up beside her, she quickened her pace. I could see from her swinging arms that she was struggling to keep up. Why do runners do that? She probably stayed with me for about 10 yards and then slowed down dramatically.

I've had strangers pull up alongside me and ask if they could run with me, and that's perfectly fine. But I don't like it when a completely stranger starts using me as a pacer without asking.

Today: 10 miles

Week: 25.5 miles

Workout: Niketown - Central Park's lower loop - W. Drive - 102nd - E. Drive - 2x upper loop - W. Drive - 1x lower loop.

I'm officially tired of snow.

Stairs

Top floor of my school

Workout: 10x the stairs of my school

This was my last workout specifically for the Empire State Building Run-Up. I'm still trying to imagine what will go through my mind when I get to the 30th or 40th floor of the Empire State Building and realize that I'm not even halfway to the top.

Cat Hill

Today: 4 miles

Week: 15.5 miles

Workout: 6x Cat Hill

Slippin' and slidin' made this workout TOUGH! Sleet/snow AND lightning. Weird! 1:45, 1:36, 1:35, 1:30, 1:28, 1:35.

Yesterday: 4 miles

Week: 11.5 miles

Workout: Niketown - Central Park's E. Drive - 72nd - W. Drive - 86th St & return

36 degrees, and it felt like 70 after the past couple of days of single digit weather.

Today: 7.5 miles

Week: 7.5 miles

Workout: Full loop of Central Park, plus lower loop.

The temperature was 19 degrees when I began my run and had warmed up to 21 by the time I finished. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Stairs

Cool down portion of today's workout.

The view from the top (9 flights)

The view from the bottom.

Empire State Building Run-Up Training.

I get the feeling that running up the

Empire State Building will be a little tougher.

Today: 1 mile

Week: 25 miles

Workout: 10x stairs, 1 mile cool down ("cool down" doesn't seem like an appropriate phrase when it's 23 degrees)

I took a smarter approach to the workout today. Last weekend I ran up these stairs 7x and paid for it the rest of the week with sore quads. Today I just walked up the stairs. Hopefully, I won't feel so sore tomorrow. I also made sure I did the workout during the "warm" part of the day, 23 degrees instead of 7 degrees this morning.

Queensboro Bridge

Today: 4 miles

Week: 24 miles

Workout: Niketown - across Queensboro Bridge and back.

14 degrees. My streak of not wearing tights this winter came to an end today.

Strawberry Fields

Today: 4 miles

Week: 20 miles

Workout: Niketown - around lower loop to Strawberry Fields. For 20 minutes, run hard up the hill, turn around and recover downhill. Cool down back to the store.

Lower Loops

Today: 5.5 miles

Week: 16 miles

Workout: 3xlower loop

Intervals

Today: 10.5 miles

Week: 10.5 miles

Workout: 1 mile warm up, 6 x 8:00 minutes hard, around the lower loop, 3:00 minutes recovery jog.

Quads and calf muscles were really sore from doing stairs yesterday. I was probably running at a 6:30/mile pace during the 8:00 minutes. The cold (26 degrees) made the workout tougher.

Today: 6 miles

Week: 21 miles

Workout: Niketown - west on lower loop - hop on bridle path to reservoir - 1 loop and return

Last night, I went up and down the stairs of my building a few times in preparation for the Empire State Building Run-Up. Two weeks isn't a whole lot of time to prepare.

The bridle path and reservoir were completely covered in snow. A couple of times I was swinging my arms to try to regain my balance and probably looked like Phoebe from "Friends" on that episode where she had that crazy running style.

Yesterday: 6 miles

Week: 15 miles

Workout: Niketown - E. Drive - 72nd - W. Drive - 105th St - return

It was in the low 20s. Maybe it's time to start thinking about wearing something other than shorts.

Run and a Movie

Today: 3.5 miles

Week: 9 miles

Workout: Union Square Regal Theater - 20 minutes to West Side Hwy and back.

After getting back to the theater, we watched "Hood to Coast," a documentary about the relay race of the same name. Good movie!

400m Repeats

Today: 5.5 miles

Week: 5.5 miles

Workout: Warm up from 63rd & W. Drive to 102nd St. Transverse, 6x400m across the Transverse (1 minute rest between each one) cool down back to Y

I was NOT ready for this workout. By the time I did the 4th repeat, my legs were ready to quit. I jogged the last repeat.

Saturday, Jan. 8th: 8 miles

Week: 23 miles

Workout: 6 mile loop in Central Park, and 1 lower loop

I never felt comfortable during the run but happy to get it done.

Thursday, Jan 6th: 5 miles

Week: 15 miles

Workout: C. Park @65th St. to 102nd St. Transverse and back (plus a little extra)

Wed. 5th: 5 miles

Week: 10 miles

Workout: 5 mile loop in Central Park

Strawberry Fields Loops

Today: 5 miles

Week: 5 miles

Workout: 11 loops of Strawberry Fields at tempo pace

After two weeks of no running and being sick, I felt like I was starting from scratch. Breathing was labored and legs were rubbery. In short, it was great to be running again. My splits on each loop were 2:58, 2:58, 2:58, 3:05, 2:51, 2:47, 2:48, 2:45, 2:48, 2:46, 2:43. (31:30 total).