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Home from NYC…

and ready to hit the trails!

I had a nice week in the City – I got a fair amount of work done, saw some close friends, managed three good runs and didn’t melt in the suffocating heat and humidity. I’ll be the first to admit that living in LA has made me soft, but I just don’t understand (or remember) how people do it on the East Coast.

I went out with Jason and Chad on Wednesday night and walking to dinner in the West Village, it felt a little like we were walking through hazy soup. The heat and humidity in the air, plus the heat radiating off the street s-l-o-w-e-d everything down a beat or two. I didn’t want to move very much. Thankfully, we found a nice air conditioned restaurant to have dinner and catch up. The scary thing is that Wednesday was relatively mild compared to the temps (well over 100 degrees) and humidity they’ve been facing.

Central Park Reservoir

I got up early Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to get in a run before work. There was a billboard with a digital thermometer that I could see from my hotel window. I was up each morning between 5:15 and 5:45 and it was never cooler than 76 degrees at that hour. On Thursday, at 5:15 it was already 80. And humid. Tuesday and Thursday I ran from my hotel to Central Park to meet my friend John. Both days we ran fast, varied laps within the Park, hitting a combination of the main road, the dirt path, and the Reservoir track. No matter what else I say about NYC, I love running in the Park (and the bridges, too, which I didn’t get to this trip).  Both mornings, there were tons of runners and cyclists out there, including some really fast men and women. John’s a fast guy and he got me to push the pace both days, which felt great. On Thursday, we ran a little bit with a slightly older guy who was just flying around the Park until he slowed to talk to us for a few minutes. There are places in LA where you can always find a lot of runners – Griffith Park, San Vicente, Ocean Ave, the Strand – but none of them compare to the volume and quality you can find during the morning in Central Park.

One thing about running in NYC though is that it’s flat as a board. I definitely have a different perspective of the “hills” in Central Park after the last 18 months in LA. On that note, I’m excited to get out this weekend for some mountain running, trails, dirt, long climbs. Four weeks (tomorrow) until AC and I’ve got some work to do!!  Have a great weekend!