Central Park running & gluttony

Once again another hiatus, it's been a very busy month. I actually wrote this post weeks ago but have had some problems copying / pasting my Garmin splits - so finally just going to send and hopefully update later!

Anyway, I've been meaning to write about this... Central Park running on my mind today.

Ok - YES, Central Park is amazing. That such beautiful natural space exists right in the middle of crazy, hectic, overcrowded living-on-top-of-each-other Manhattan is truly probably the best example of foresight, smart city planning - or whatever. It's also a Manhattanite runner's dream. We don't have many options for running non-stop without dodging pedestrians, stopping at traffic lights etc. Plus, the trees and grass make you at least feel like you're inhaling fresh air, which is always nice when you are doing something that makes you conscious of your breathing - like, for me, gasping for air while on a run.

I get it. Many runners love Central Park. It's great.

However.... I am one runner who doesn't particularly  love running in Central Park. And wondering if some of you regular Central Park runners can tune me into some tips on where to go in the Park or maybe something else I'm missing..

First - it's not geographically convenient for me (I live downtown) - so getting to it requires either Subway or running up to it - which, fine - I can run the Westside highway to 55th Street - but then cutting over is a mix of dodging pedestrians and stopping at traffic lights. I prefer my 'long runs' to be as non-stop as possible. The dodging and traffic light stopping gets me in a bad mood.

Nonetheless, having gotten very used to My Loop, I decided to try out a new trail about a month ago and ran up and into Central Park. I was excited, expecting that I was going to love it as much as runners who regularly run there do. And I didn't.

This was the Saturday of gorgeous nearly 80 degree weather about a month ago. At like 11:30 AM. So, yeah, I was not the only one with the idea to 'go on a run in Central Park'. I think anyone who owned a pair of running shoes was out there that day. And others - families, kids, skate boarders, horse carriage riders were also out in full force.

This is what it felt like on my Central Park run - traffic jam!

So first, I entered the park with an excited smile to a blasting stench of horse shit and nearly stepped in a HUGE pile of it, while trying to dodge a horse carriage, a skate boarder and small child at the same time. I got a little less excited about Central Park just then. It was not relaxing, it was not nice smelling, it was super crowded.

Once on the CP loop, at least the horse shit and wild children were no longer an issue - but skate boarders, roller skaters, bikes and sooooo many runners were. It felt claustrophobic.

And the hills. I know that should be a good thing as hills = good practice and good training. Yeah, fine. The hills were  hard and made me kind of grumpy.

And worst of all, I was banking on the fact that the water fountains were supposed to be turned on - first I BARELY could find a freaking fountain and when I finally did it was not on?! I was dying.

The whole thing just wasn't great. I ran up to the reservoir, which I think I'd like to run around because I DO like running near water,  but I didn't bother running around it because it looked PACKED. Is it claustrophobic up there??

HOWEVER.... I will say I subsequently did another Jack Rabbit free group run and we ran up there at night, on a cool night, and it was pretty awesome. More or less empty.  I wouldn't feel comfortable running at night there alone though - so the group run was key. I did enjoy the park on that run though. Maybe I just picked a bad day the Saturday a month ago - too crowded, hot and I wasn't well hydrated etc.

Since then I have had two successful 10 milers on my Loop. The first was 2 weeks ago. Here are my splits.

[Hmmm... I have tried and tried to copy and paste them in here, with no success!! how do people do that? Will try to update shortly but the overall time was 1:22:something for the 10 miles]


My stomach did protest a tiny bit afterwards but nothing like when I learned my lesson. However the last mile was HARD. I had to really push myself. I could not have done another mile. How do people increase mileage by a few miles a week when marathon training?? I've done 10 miles now 4 times - the first was disastrous to my stomach the other three were fine - but I couldn't go any further. I guess I need to slow my pace or stick to 10 for a while and eventually will get used to it.

The other one was this past Saturday. I was going to only do 9 miles (for some reason the 10th mile seems to put me over the edge and I usually get really tired in the afternoon, and as I had a big day / night ahead of me this Sat I thought it wise to stick to just 9) but I felt good at the end of 9 miles so I jogged one more mile home. I was shocked to see my splits on this run, I felt like I was going fast in mile 5-6 and slow at mile 8-9. Hmph.

[Will try to post these splits too! But essentially same overall time as above although I jogged the last mile]

Anyway - I guess for now I'll stick to my Loop - at some point I'll try the Park again, but maybe need to look into doing a different trail once I'm in there.

Any thoughts from the Central Park runner experts??

This is a picture I stole from the internet about
how to pour Txakoli - you are supposed to
pour it way up high with a special nozzle to
increase the fizziness. Isn't it a pretty pink??

At any rate, I'm glad I got a 10 miler in this weekend as I spent the rest of the weekend in pure glottony. It was fabulous but naughty. Fried chicken and waffles washed down by a few bourbon drinks at a Derby pary Saturday. Delicious tapas, sangria and wine at Boqueria Saturday night, followed by more beverages afterwards until 3 AM.

Then, the icing on the cake of the weekend - Txikifest - http://www.timeout.com/newyork/food-drink/txikifest-txikito-may-6-2012 - on Sunday. Six  hrs of eating delicious morsels and drinking lots of sparkly crisp Txakoli in the sun. I highly recommend checking out this fest next year if you like to eat (and drink). It was really good and I had a blast with my friends. As my friend explained to me, Txakoli is 'shitty sparkling wine' produced in the Basque region. But we love it. The rose is a beautiful pale pink color - which I'm partial to in a rose. No dark magenta hues for me, thank you. Plus it's low alcohol content (great for day drinking in the sun) and cheap!

And the FOOD at this festival - deviled eggs with a fried oyster on top, chorizo corn dog in amazing mustard sauce. Tacos with homemade orange hot sauce. Co. pizza. I had a dream about Co. pizza last night.

So yeah - I'm glad I got in a good run and will need to have a couple more to burn off the damage and detox myself some after this weekend! But it was worth it.

More to come soon, I promise...