Disturbia

People talk about the zen of running, and getting to their happy place on runs. That's all well
and good, but sometimes you just aren't feeling all that existential when you head out the door for a workout.
Occasionally you are in a foul mood, and the impending run only throws more fuel on the fire. On those days, I find
it much more productive to run hard from the start, letting anger push me along. Yesterday was one of those days. I was out for 13 miles
at Forbidden Drive, and was out the door at 6:30 pace. I got about 3.5 miles in the run, and was dropping the pace steadily with the main goal getting the run finished quickly. I noticed this tall guy walking by that was kind of grinning at me, probably
amused by the scowl on my face and the fact that I was running pretty hard. Immediately I recognized him, it was the bad guy from
Disturbia, the tough ass cop from Green Mile, and the dad from Contact... David Morse. He must have realized I recognized him, because
he looked away quickly. I just had to laugh because in the middle of angry running, I see one of the most badass actors out there. I can just tell myself that he was acknowledging a fellow disgruntled individual.:...or something like that.

I finished the run off at low 6 min pace, and ran the 13 in 81:50 which is around 6:18 a mile. On Wednesday, I ran the middle 5 miles of 10.5 miles at a steady 5:55 pace through hills. Other than making the unwise choice of Greek food 3 hours prior to the run, the effort was very controlled. Since I am still a couple weeks from any formal track workouts, I've decided to push the pace on a couple runs a week to make sure I don't get too comfortable at a slower pace. If you always train slow, you invariably will race slow... At least that is what some profess and that I buy into.

I did forget to mention in my previous entry that last week I had run up in Central Park with my friend Josh. The New York Road Runners office on 89th st. just off the Park on the West Side is gracious enough to open their doors for runners to change, use their bathrooms, and even provide lockers. It is a great resource, and is literally just a block from the Reservoir and the Bridle Path. Definitely another reason why the NYRR has such a great reputation. Another thing I forgot to mention is one of the motivating factors for me to not miss a day of running was the ongoing 8.5 year streak that two of the Cornell coaches have going. Lou Duesing and Artie Smith have a gentlemen's bet that both have kept going through most of the past decade. They have run at least 25 minutes a day since 2002(think I have the year right). Not a bad streak. They have even had to factor in major time zone changes on flights to the other
side of the World to make sure the streak had not been compromised. I don't want to venture a guess who is going to win the bet, but Artie does have youth on his side... but Lou seems to be committed to at least another decade. Either way, pretty impressive.