Enhanced Performance
I was thinking more about ozone issues this morning and figured I'd fish around the internet to see what the air quality actually was. I didn't have to fish far, as Weather Underground has an "air quality forecast" as part of its local weather forecasts. Turns out the air hasn't been that unhealthy lately - it was moderate to good today and "only" rated "unhealthy for sensitive groups" yesterday.
But then, where Lombard turns into South St., I snapped to a new health hazard as a woman makes a right turn just in front of me as I'm in the middle of the crosswalk and, amazingly, the guy behind her follows her, only stopping just short of knocking into me (he probably didn't want to get his grill all bloody). The only defense I have in situations like that is a primal yell, laced with expletives and thereby throwing as much energy as I can at their steel and glass sarcophogi, but, in classic Philadelphia style, they merely repel this with a vacuous look-straight-ahead-as-if-nothing-is-going-on stare.
That (and unleashed dogs) always gets my adrenaline going. I wanted to bottle it up until I hit the Art Museum and started my tempo run, but still warm temps and a headwind conspired against me. The first river mile was in 6:02, way too slow for this workout. The second one was a bit faster in 5:55, and then the momentum hit - mile 3 in 5:49 and mile 4 in 5:44. Negative split each successive mile to get the average pace for all 4 (23:28) good enough to hit the slow side of my tempo run range. It's the fastest I've taken these river miles since Paris. The follow up stretch to this, from Falls Bridge to the Belmont Plateau end of Chamounix also went by at the fastest pace to date - 16:46, and I hit the BN summit during this stretch in 9:06. This probably don't mean much to whoever is reading this, but its how I'm gauging my progress in what amounts to my hardest workout of the week, and this is the best I've taken it. And given the residual warm temps and the headwind, this bodes well for future efforts.
So I'm saying that I'm satisfied with today's workout, something I don't say often. Especially how I took a crappy start to the river miles and turned it around.
Instead of running home I ran to the swim club and cooled down doing laps. 13.5 miles total in 1:42:09.
I had lunch at Marathon Grill with buddy and mentor Mike M. on Tuesday, something we don't do often enough. He sent me a follow up email yesterday saying that Marion Jones was at the restaurant not 24 hours after we were. Maybe the tuna steak I had was meant for her, accounting for my faster workout today.
But then, where Lombard turns into South St., I snapped to a new health hazard as a woman makes a right turn just in front of me as I'm in the middle of the crosswalk and, amazingly, the guy behind her follows her, only stopping just short of knocking into me (he probably didn't want to get his grill all bloody). The only defense I have in situations like that is a primal yell, laced with expletives and thereby throwing as much energy as I can at their steel and glass sarcophogi, but, in classic Philadelphia style, they merely repel this with a vacuous look-straight-ahead-as-if-nothing-is-going-on stare.
That (and unleashed dogs) always gets my adrenaline going. I wanted to bottle it up until I hit the Art Museum and started my tempo run, but still warm temps and a headwind conspired against me. The first river mile was in 6:02, way too slow for this workout. The second one was a bit faster in 5:55, and then the momentum hit - mile 3 in 5:49 and mile 4 in 5:44. Negative split each successive mile to get the average pace for all 4 (23:28) good enough to hit the slow side of my tempo run range. It's the fastest I've taken these river miles since Paris. The follow up stretch to this, from Falls Bridge to the Belmont Plateau end of Chamounix also went by at the fastest pace to date - 16:46, and I hit the BN summit during this stretch in 9:06. This probably don't mean much to whoever is reading this, but its how I'm gauging my progress in what amounts to my hardest workout of the week, and this is the best I've taken it. And given the residual warm temps and the headwind, this bodes well for future efforts.
So I'm saying that I'm satisfied with today's workout, something I don't say often. Especially how I took a crappy start to the river miles and turned it around.
Instead of running home I ran to the swim club and cooled down doing laps. 13.5 miles total in 1:42:09.
I had lunch at Marathon Grill with buddy and mentor Mike M. on Tuesday, something we don't do often enough. He sent me a follow up email yesterday saying that Marion Jones was at the restaurant not 24 hours after we were. Maybe the tuna steak I had was meant for her, accounting for my faster workout today.
posted by seebo | 12:49 PM
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