Run To Work Day

Friday was run to work day. See I had missed my speed workout on Tuesday due to a bad sinus headache. I did a recovery run on the treadmill because of icy roads. That left me with Thursday and Friday to try and fit in one strength workout, my speed workout, and Friday's regularly scheduled run (10 minute warm-up, 5 minutes in zone 3, followed by 30 minutes in zone 4). Since I don't roll on Shabbat, I asked Coach Jeff if I should skip the strength training and do both runs or do the strength and skip one of the runs. He replied back  and suggested a 10 mile run with miles 1-3 in zone 2, 4-6 in zone 3, miles 7-9 in zone 4, and 1 mile cooldown.

Initially I thought to myself, how the heck am I going to get in 10 miles before work? Then it came to me, I would run to work Friday morning. I packed a bag with clean clothes and left it in the office on Thursday. I caught an early bus to George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal in Washington Heights. I had a choice to make, to pick up the West Side Greenway this far north or to stay on Riverside Drive and pick up the Greenway at 96th. I decided for Riverside  primarily for saftey reason. The northern part of the Greenway is quite isolated and for reason I didn't feel safe running there so early in the morning. It was also a wickedly windy morning so being away from the water, where the wind always whips around in every direction, seemed liked a good idea.

The run itself went well. Before I knew it, it was time for my fast 3 miles. I increased my pace until my Garmin confirmed that my heart rate was in zone 4. My average pace dropped from around 8:40 to around 8:27 thanks to splits of 8:06 (mile 7), 7:50 (mile 8) and 7:42 (mile 9). I was quite pleased that I was able to crank out some faster miles deep into a longer run. I stopped the run around the World Financial Center and walked the rest of the way to my office. I was on a runner's high for the rest of the day.

With the possibility of significant NJ Transit rate hikes on the horizon, it's not out of the realm of possibility that I'll be running to work more often. It's a great way to start the day.