Central Park

The hardest part of running a fast marathon is training hard. The temptation is always there to take it easy some days. Central Park can cure that. Maybe it's because there are always people ahead of me that I want to reel in, but I end up running harder there. Not too fast, but at a good pace. I went back there tonight during a 5-mile run at 7:04 pace. Not bad. My near-term goal is to start adding in a long run, with the idea of doing the Manhattan Half Marathon on Jan. 27. Goal: sub-1:30.

5.2 miles, 36:49

Not So Slow

I dig my regular Riverside Park running route, but it's bad for telling how fast I'm running. The lights throw me off, and I'm not even sure of the exact distance. Central Park is a great way to tell pace because it has set mileage. My post-marathon plan has been relatively short runs (5 miles) at a pretty good pace. Tonight, I went to Central Park to see how fast I'm going. Because I have to run to the park, I only got an accurate read during the four-mile loop: 28:24, about 7:06 per mile. Not so bad. Of course, to run a 2:59 marathon, I'd need to run over 15 seconds faster per mile for 22 extra miles. Whatever. It's early.

5.25, 36:50