Uneven Ground

This morning I actually woke up and got up to do a workout before going to work. If this was yesterday, it almost could have been an April Fool's joke. But it's the truth! I probably should have gone biking, but I just felt like running, so that's what I did. I checked out the course map for tomorrow's 10K and I'm pretty excited about it, but I decided that I didn't want to do the same run two days in a row.

So, when I got to the Park, I decided to run the bridle path instead of the regular road. What a nice change! There was mud, ruts, sand, loose dirt, hard compacted dirt, puddles, rocks, and all sorts of other things to watch out for. I was thinking that because of the uneven ground, it was probably good practice for the portion of the run at Alcatraz that is on the beach.

It was 49 when I left the apartment and I wore shorts (!), a short-sleeved shirt and a long-sleeved shirt. I decided to walk to the Park. I had just crammed a Luna Protein bar down along with a glass of water and I wasn't quite ready for running when I left the house. I needed that 10 minute walking buffer before I started running. I was a little chilly walking to the Park, but was completely fine once I started running.

I don't often take the bridle path route in the Park because it's impossible to figure out how far you've gone. I have searched the internet for answers and I try to Gmap Pedometer the route myself, but the map of Central Park is just so covered with trees that it's impossible to tell exactly where I'm running on the map. I did Gmap Pedometer today's route twice. Once I got 4.8 miles and the second time I got 5.2. I'm going to split the difference and call it 5 miles.

Today after work I'm going to pick up my race number and T-shirt for Saturday's 10K race. I'm going to see how I feel after the race and how the weekend pans out, but I'm hoping to get in at least one long bike ride to New Jersey to tackle some hills. I only have 3 weekends left with my bike before it has to be shipped off to California!

Running
Time: 48:29
Distance: 5.00 miles
Pace: 9:41/mile
Calories: 516
Maximum HR: 181
Average HR: 165