New York City Triathlete - Thoughts and Conversations: Hell or High Water

I was out for 4 hard loops of the Central Park Reservoir today. It was cold, wet, windy and positively glorious. The water on the reservoir was very choppy and a brown froth was pushed to the south side of it. I am hoping that this froth was decaying plant matter and not raw sewage. I only passed a handful of other runners. It was nice to have the loop almost to myself. I expect that the early hour and not the weather was the primary reason for that. When I did see runners ahead of me, I used them spur me on. I would run extra hard until I caught them.

For each loop I did an 1800 yard sprint followed by a .5 mile cool down back to the start. The sprints were a tad difficult. My legs are starting to feel the accumulated stress from several days of hard workouts. However, I was very happy to see that I could hold the fast efforts for the entire distance. The cool downs were pathetically slow.

Counting the distance from round trip from where I parked (91st St. and 1st Ave.), I ran a total distance of 7.78 miles. It was then off to the pool for a 4000 yard swim. My swim consisted of 400 yards warm-up, 20 x 50 yards with 10 seconds recovery @ fast effort, 20 x 100 yards with 15 seconds recovery @ fast effort, 10 x 50 yards @ fast effort with 10 seconds recovery, 100 yards cool-down. I was supposed to have a 300 yard cool-down, but after 100 yards, I was cold.

When I first jumped in the pool water, I felt warmed up and cold at the same time. My arms, hands and feet were cold from the rain and wind, but my core was still warm. It was a very odd sensation. My split times were pretty good despite my fatigue. I chalk that up to a video analysis of swimming technique, helping me to eliminate some flaws in my stroke.

I also had a nice break today with regards to parking. I found a place on Wednesday’s where I can park without hassles until 9am. This afforded me the luxury of showering and shaving before I left Asphalt Green. What a pleasure!