The Cycle

Still not feeling overly inspired to write, but I liken it to running. If I only ran when I felt truly inspired, I'd be pretty out of shape.

I'll first backtrack to yesterday evening. I did get in five, doing the lower loop of the Tinicum trail and a little extra around Prospect Park. 44:51 was the time, which should give me more than five but by the pace I was running not much more. Part of the run was through a trail that Reba calls the "carwash" due to the excessive bushwhacking one must endure. I can only run this when I'm in a certain mood, that is when I'm not focused on performance or else I really get frustrated by the impossibility of keeping a good rhythm. Instead I just took it easy and was rewarded by the blooming honeysuckles, which lined almost the whole carwash portion and provided sweet-scented air for me to suck in almost non-stop.

This morning it was hard to get up, and when I got out the door I felt that now familiar creakiness. The exaggerated nature of this feeling is something new, as is the pattern to where as I get into the run it slowly dissipates and by the end I'm feeling really strong. So I must have started today's run at about a 9 1/2 pace and got it down to about 7 flat. Being able to anticipate this and know that I will feel better as the run progresses is now an important tool in my self talk.

It will be hot today, but at 6 this is bearable. The biggest part of my run was that I "hit the cycle". This is a baseball expression for when a batter hits a homerun, a triple, a double and a single in one game. I obviously didn't do that, but I did do an equivalent of sorts with the animal kingdom. I saw mammals, birds, insects (way too many), reptiles, and, for the first time, an amphibian. The last two bear mentioning. I thought I was hot stuff having seen a turtle last week, but as Reba shows this is hardly unusual (though still way cool). I saw a grand total of five turtles this morning, unfortunately two very large ones were post-mortem, i.e., road kill. But the highlight of my run was seeing a frog sitting still on the ground, very green and very lean and about 3 or 4 inches tall. Looked to be right out the frog exhibit that was featured at the Museum of Natural History which me and the kids checked out when we were in NYC over the weekend.

The thistles were also blooming and in abundance, especially in what Reba likes to call the "boring" part of the Tinicum figure 8, where the trail runs parallel to I-95. These thistles attract goldfinches, whose diet consists mainly of these seeds. My mom gets goldfinches at her feeder by putting out thistle seeds, and when I was there last weekend they were still growing into their beautiful golden summer plumage. Not so these guys, who were already in all their glory, sitting on the purple flowers and going from thistle plant to thistle plant with their loopy flight.

Frogs and goldfinches give me plenty of material with which to be oppositional. This stretch of trail is hardly a boring part. Also gave me a high that outdid any psychotropic effect I may have gotten from just the running in and of itself.

Ran Gov. Printz Blvd. out to the airport and Bartram Ave/84th St. to the north end of Tinicum, and then through the refuge. 10.5 miles in 88:17.

644

Signing in to this account this morning shows that this will be my 644th entry to this blog. If I had coordinated all of this writing a little bit more I could have by now written the novel I say that I dream of writing.

Instead I've got a ton of archives and not a whole lot of ideas for this morning's post. Again it was sunny and cool this morning. Again I started out creaky and tired and got some momentum going as I got going. Did a Sweetbriar loop this morning up to 48th Street.

Don't know what more there is to say. Yeah, I could just let the run lead to deeper and more insightful stuff, but mentally I'm not there this morning. So it'll be an easy blog on an easy run.

Nuff said.

8 in 64:22. See if I can get a few more miles in this afternoon.

Dress Rehearsal

Didn’t get to blog this weekend. So I'll start here by giving a quick recap.

On Saturday I went out mid morning and ran the Strawberry Mansion Bridge loop. In contrast to how I felt after Friday’s run, I ran surprisingly strong. Still warm and muggy; 11 in 87:37. Sunday was a DNR, as I traveled to my mom’s in New York and the urge to run did not overpower the logistical barriers to doing so. Yesterday I ran about 6.5 miles (53:35) up at my mom’s, doing a loop up around North Rockland High School on some very old running routes. Had about an hour to squeeze in between getting up and then getting ready to go to NYC for the day.

This morning I got up a few minutes earlier so that I could run the BN loop. I wanted to run it in under 100 minutes and get back before 7:30. My apartment was warmer than it was outside, where it was pleasantly cool at 5:45 am. Going down toward Center City, familiar faces passed the other way. When I got to MLK I decided to set some very modest time goals, mainly as a dress rehearsal for the upcoming tempo runs. Hit the four MLK miles in 27:51 (goal 28 min), then proceeded to make it to the BN summit in 10:04 en route to Belmont Plateau in 20:04. I’ll take it, as the idea was to push myself a bit mentally. Its still too early to beat myself up physically. It was really difficult to get started, the first mile was very creaky. I think part of it is I gotta get more sleep on the nights before I do these runs.

I also got that feeling of relentlessness this morning. This describes, when I am building up mileage, that feeling where what you did yesterday don’t mean shit because you once again have boocoo miles staring you in the face. Day in and day out.

Its starting to feel like I’m training for a marathon. 13.5 miles in 1:42:03. Got back at 7:34.

First Day of Summer

I planned to drop my car off early this morning, unfortunately Ernie must have decided to get a head start on the long weekend. Mechanics aren't supposed to do that. I had the day off today, and felt cheated at the opportunity for a leisurely morning.

So I got home with nothing to show and started doing stuff around the house, not feeling like running and productively procrastinating. It was around noon before I finally got out, and I realized it was hot. Beating sun, and a stiff breeze.

I noted it and kept running. I decided since I've got this time today to go long. Part of me also wanted to go in the heat. Use the day to get acclimated. I always pride myself as a warm weather runner, but have come to realize that (like most people) my performance lags as the temps climb. But I still have trouble admitting this to myself. By the time I got down to MLK I was aware of the beating sun. There are fountains along the Drive and I stopped there and drank. I took my shirt off and worked on my tan, I had to use it to mop my brow. I thought this must, in some twisted minds, be part of the challenge of Badwater, not to run or race but just to make it a long distance through the intense heat. Of course my little situation was alot shorter and a bit cooler, but it was enough for me.

I get up to Manayunk and I notice my legs starting to ache. Ache as though they are weary. I've complained about this since Broad Street, and today it was more noticeable and somewhat disturbing, as this was at about 9 miles and I was doing roughly an 8 minute pace. I should be able to handle this better.

Crossing the Schuylkill in Manayunk puts me at the ass-end of Belmont Ave. Taking Belmont back into the city necessitates taking on three challenging hills. This didn't help my legs any. Did I say it was hot.

Back into Philly and still going down Belmont. Plodding now. It was a mental game now, to push myself to keep going. This is as good a workout as any. Slowly I started getting the last miles down. My legs were really beaten up, my throat was dry, and I was really sweating. I wasn't worried, I was more interested in seeing how far I could take this. And I knew home wasn't far now.

It was only when I got home that I realized how draining the workout was. I texted Reba that it was the stupidest/insanest (you pick) thing I've done in a while. I downed four tall glasses of Accelerade, a sports drink that dissolves in water so poorly and tastes so gross that I figure it must have lots electrolytes and potassium and the other crap your body supposed loses on a run. My body did crave it and after denying it for two hours I obliged.

I was out for just about 2 hours. Judging my pace to be in the 8's I figured it was about 14 or 15. I had hoped it would be more, both to get the mileage up and to feel better about how drained I was. I wanna nap real bad and my legs feel like they've raced. They shouldn't be feeling this bad after this workout. I'm not whining, I'm just noting it for the record.

I gmapped the course and it was 14.7 miles. Total time was 2:01:12. First dog day of the year, happy summer.

Run on Gilded Splinters

Yet another beautiful morning. Went to do a loop incorporating Tinicum, to do so today I headed northwest instead of southeast and moseyed my way through the backroads of Norwood, Folcroft (didn't know a place named that existed until today) and Darby before coming up to Hook Rd., an ugly suburban thoroughfare with no shoulder/sidewalks. Instead there was an improvised dirt path on the exceedingly narrow space by the side of the road that was almost paved in embedded glass shards which sparkled like gilded splinters in the morning sun.

This took me to the far end of Tinicum. Tinicum was as alive as I've ever seen it. Its most definitely wabbit season in there, and it is also gosling season, meaning the Canada geese are particularly nasty nowadays. I had a standoff with a gaggle of them, complete with some cute goslings (soon to be nasty adults themselves), whose parents were hissing and bobbing their necks at me as I tried to be as big and bad as I could so they wouldn't have a go at me. I did survive, but must say that, in all my years running in the depths of SW Philly, I've never felt my safety near as threatened as I did here this morning. As a reward for having negotiated that, I ran into, from what best I could tell, was an Eastern Mud Turtle laying her eggs in the loose dirt. She was easily 8 inches from head to tail.

Great morning to be out running. The loop as measured was 9.5 miles, it was easily ten this morning due to a couple of wrong turns. So I'll call it ten in 84:41.

Improv Run

Made it up as we went along this morning. Met up with Deirdre at 40th and Spruce, and she had to be done by 7:10. So we ran north up to Fairmount Park and when we got to Belmont and Montgomery decided it was time to head back. So it was down to MLK and Center City. At 7:08 she was 2 minutes from home and I turned down Grey's Ferry Ave.

Here I got to really see, for the first time, all the work they've done on the property of the old Naval home. It looks really good, though its a bit too encapsulated by walls and geography from the rest of the city for my taste. But the site, even when it was abandoned, always had that isolated feel to it and there are plenty of folks with enough security issues so that that is a plus for them. But it defeats the purpose of living in a city.

The rest of the run was drudgery, going up Grey's Ferry Ave against morning rush hour, past 76 and the recycling processing plant and the like. But that is life, alot of slogging and some all to brief highlights.

Made it home in 80:10, guessed it was 10 miles but gmapped it to make sure. I needent have bothered, but did reaffirm that I have a good sense for judging distance. I got back at 7:28, 2 minutes ahead of my target time for having the time to get me and the kids ready.

Reconstitution

A reconstituted Club West Philly? Too early to tell, but I met up with Deirdre this morning who brought Meko (sp?), a Penn grad student whom she recently ran into. He meets both qualifications for CWP membership – he is fast and he is overeducated. The question is more whether he would want to continue to associate with the likes of us.

We took him on an old chestnut – the Acme loop. As we were heading up 34^th Street towards the Zoo, Deirdre and I tried to figure out who came up with this loop. We came to the conclusion that no one came up with it so much as it evolved. The largest pieces were from me and Erin, but it was part Deirdre, part KJ, and also part Paul, the chair of CWP’s London subsidiary.

Weather continues to be beautiful and I felt strong this morning. Knocked out the 9.5 mile loop, including the Lebanon hill, in 77:12.

PS - Emily, I see you commented. Good to hear from you and that you're on this side of the Schuylkill now. I don't have an email or any other way to contact you, so email me (s_metraux@hotmail.com) and I'll send you some routes or, better yet, meet up with us one of these mornings and we'll show them to you.

Running with Scissors

Saw that movie on dvd last night. It has absolutely nothing to do with running, but thought I'd throw the metaphor out there.

Yet one more cool breezy sunny morning. I can get used to this. I was up late last night and woke up too tired to get up, yet too up to get back to sleep. Finally took my own advice and told myself to get out there - I'd be glad I did later.

Well its later now and I'm glad I did. Easy morning, did the Locust St - Cedar Ave variation of the Cobbs Creek loop and did a short add-on down to Melville to make it 4.5 miles. I left my iPod at home and processed some of the stuff going on in my head. I think I benefitted more from that than from any physical conditioning I may have gotten. But most of all, I benefitted just by being outside on a morning like this one.

4.5 in 38:11.

Modest Goals

Sycamore Loop once again. Made a point to pick it up a little to see if I can break 80 minutes. Modest goal.

Running this loop would put me at 62 miles for the week. This would be the most miles I’ve logged in a week since February. Again, modest goal.

Neutral Milk Hotel and Blue Rodeo on the iPod. Quiet Sunday morning, nothing much going on in West Philly or East Delco. Weather was warm, but I kept my shirt on. A goal in modesty? Bad joke.

10 miles in 79:14.

Unplanned

Some days plans just don't work.

Saturday morning. Kids have ruined them for life. Or is it the morning workouts that have done it. 5:45 I was up. I managed to force myself back to sleep but by 7:30 it was all the sleep I was going to get. So I laced up my shoes.

I was looking for a way to squeeze 12 miles out of my 11-mile SMB loop when Kevin came downstairs headed out to do his recovery run. (If you want to check out an insane workout he recently did, check out his May 17 entry here.) So I tagged along with him doing a few laps around Clark Park and headed off on my own. Got down to the Schuylkill bike path and ran into Deirdre, who was headed over to the Art Museum to meet up with Philly Runners. So I went over there with her. There were maybe 25 people there, I don't think I knew more than five. When everyone broke to leave it was me, Deirdre, and Kevin G running together. At Montgomery Ave me and D broke off to run the Belmont Plateau fire trail and KG continued up MLK. I haven't seen D for weeks, so we spent the rest of the run catching up. Lots to talk about.

Beautiful day to just run wherever the wind blew me today. The course is impossible to measure, total running time was 1:52:24. Given an 8 minute pace, conservative given the folks I was running with, I'll call it 14 miles.

Backstreets

Easy run this morning. Headed out to Interboro HS track not to do any track work but just as a destination. Futzed through the back streets of Prospect Park, Norwood and Glenolden to avoid having to run on the Chester Pike, and along the way got to see these little blue collar towns up close and personal - the US, Marine Corps, & Dale Earnhardt flags on the front lawn; Confederate license plates; and a shiny silver-aluminum lunch trailer oxymoronically titled "American Frites Crepes".

Looked to go 45 minutes, which at my pace I figured would easily give me five miles. Ran the 2 miles out to the Interboro track, ran an easy 2000 (5 laps) in the company of some elderly walkers, and then back on a variation of the route I came in on.

There are labyrinths of these backstreets. Unlike their more updated counterparts, these streets actually connect and go places so that, should I get to know them well enough, they would allow me to bypass the major, traffic congested roads and strip shopping centers that are the bane of suburban running. If nothing else, it gives me some exploring to do. 'Cause I've the feeling I'll be getting the time to get to know these streets.

5+ miles in 46:26.

To Live Is to Fly

Did some living but not much flying on my run this morning.

A destination run to home, through Tinicum and SW Philly. My spirits were up and the weather was beautiful after last night's rainstorms. I've found that each run through Tinicum usually spotlights one particular facet of the wildlife. Today it was rabbits. I must have seen at least 20 of them. I also happened to have my cell phone with me, so I stopped frequently to take photos. On one of those stops, I was about to go again when I heard the bass throb of a bullfrog. It was the richest, most resonant, beautiful sound I've heard in a long time. I stuck around and the frog obliged me with several more utterances.

I'm pasting some pics here that hopefully give some impression of what a beautiful place Tinicum is to run and to just be. No pics of SW Philly, however. When I got there I figured I better get a move on if I want to get under a 10 minute pace.

9.5 miles in 86:37. Almost 14 minutes slower than the last time I ran this course. Life is good.

Run, Then Write Like an Egyptian

I don't have much time to write today. So I'll do it newspaper style, in a pyramid with the most important information first.

I ran down to Lansdowne again to pay my respects to the tree this morning. Back via Kingsessing on the same route I took on Saturday. 10+ miles in 83:56, a little slower than Saturday.

I think this pyramid will not be fit for a pharoah. Not much more to say about the run. Warmer and more humid this morning. Calves still feel surprisingly sore. I'm tempted to switch out shoes to see if that makes a difference. I'm glad that I've been running strong for a five day stretch now.

Lots of other drivel I can go on with, but like I said I don't have much time today. Some days the best run is a done run, I feel the same about this blog entry. And, while this is not least important, I will end by bookending Reba's blog entry to say that I am also looking forward to an evening workout, of the culinary variety, although clouds are gathering up and may necessitate Plan B.

Rave Run

Ran with Ian this morning. Met at 6am and did a BN loop. He wanted to go 2 hours, but the 90-100 minutes it typically takes to run this loop is about all I'm able to muster these days.

Sun was already up on a cool, Spring-crisp morning with a lazy breeze. Flowers were still going strong and the geese now had goslings. Fair weather runners abounded. Ian and I run together rarely enough so that when we do it invariably is a catching up process - meandering from things running to things personal to things political to the weird and silly. All at about a 7:20/7:30 pace.

What Ian didn't know is that from about when we turned on to Belmont for the last three or so miles I was dragging. I know its all relative, and I know I'm risking admonishments from my two favorite female readers, but this spring has not left me in great shape.

And maybe Ian did know that, and just tossed me a big easy softball going so slow that it was a wonder it stayed in the air. Get the run in stereo by reading his version of it here.

13.5 in 1:40:23.

Confessions of a Mileage Junkie

I updated my running log earlier today. Its a simple Excel Spreadsheet that lets me keep tabs on my daily, weekly, monthly and annual mileage. For the first time in the five years I've been keeping this, I got over a month behind in filling it out. I did this knowing that I could catch up merely by referring back to the blog, but it is telling.

It wasn't fun doing it. I really didn't feel good about my training. I think the turning point was when Adrenaline 5k got snowed out. I was primed to race, and afterwards never felt in a training rhythm since. There are several reasons for it, and I can't help but think that my not having reached my goal of breaking 16 minutes for a 5k has retroactively cast a pall on my Spring training. Whatever it was, in filling in the log I saw that it was a very on-again, off-again time. And even in the on streaks, the most weekly miles I logged was in the mid-50s. And although I knew that going into this training my mileage would drop, putting in the miles, I've learned, is the central homeostatic measure of my running.

Whatever, its back to miles and marathons. I'm back to "coaching" myself and, for the near future, looking to put miles in my logbook. I set off in that spirit this weekend. Yesterday I visited an old friend, the Lansdowne Sycamore, who is now bedecked with green again in a ten mile loop run in 80:49. Today was a longer Tinicum loop that took me through Essington and Cargo City (the bowels of Phila Int'l Airport) before taking me to the far end of Tinicum and through the refuge. That was 12.5 miles in 1:44 flat. Interestingly, I had set some points in Tinicum that I thought were mile intervals. They went by very regularly today and when I gmapped them they came with a few hundreths of being exactly a mile. All four of them!

So not insane crazy mileage, but starting to build. If I get into the sixties this week I'll be satisfied.

Primal Urge

I should have taken the day off. Not that it was a terrible run, but when I headed west on Locust this morning I realized that I had run harder than I thought last night. This was supposed to be a week where I take it easy.

Still, I would consider this an easy week. Five and a half yesterday, ran about four this morning (out to Cobbs Creek and back down Cedar) - not going to break any mileage records. Half-fast. But I'm not doing it for the physical conditioning. There's a primal part of me that is feeling the need to run. Its not an optimal week to fit this in my schedule, but when I wake up in the morning with the first thing on my mind being how I'm going to get my run in (as opposed to thinking up an excuse not to run), then I find time.

That's where my head is at. 100% humidity this morning, so that there was a drizzle at times that didn't appear to be coming down, just hanging in the air. I guess that would be called a mist.

Realized when I got out that I forgot my watch. No point in going back in to get it. Just ran four... in a timeless manner.

Good Sweat

Had that familiar feeling, some energy that I needed burn off.

I had sworn off running for the day. That lasted until about 7pm. Life just got a bit too complicated and the weather was just a bit too nice. I got tired of working and headed west to blow off steam.

It was warmer and more humid than I realized, and I quickly worked up a good sweat. Downloaded some indie stuff and had it on the iPod. Neutral Milk Hotel. The band was recommended to me by Andy, a high school friend, and the email in which he did so still sits at the way bottom of my email inbox, waiting for the reply I've been meaning to craft. Anyway, its good running music. Driving scrubbed guitars giving a beat that I saw my stride just gliding over. Hard to explain, but I know what I mean.

Anyway, Cobbs Creek loop with a return on Warrington. Good for 5.5 miles, mas o menos, in 41:05.

Leg Stretcher

Against my better judgment, I went out to run this morning. Just looking to go out 15 minutes worth into Tinicum and return.

My legs again felt incredibly stiff/sore (can't really distinguish). I realized when I was running that it wasn't the legs, it was only the calves that were feeling this way. Same as last week, and same as they feel after a marathon.

I watched other finishers at Broad Street - fast and half-fast alike - and they seemed to have no problem getting around where I was struggling to walk as soon as the race finished. When people asked, I jokingly attributed it to old age, which is I suppose one explanation. Rebecca says its my lack of stretching. It could be my lack of high mileage in building up for my last two races. Or maybe its the Moon in the Seventh House. I don't know.

But I did stretch this morning. Just the calves. That made Rebecca happy.

Beautiful morning. 15 minutes only took me far enough into Tinicum to get a tease of how beautiful it is in there on a day like today. It only took me 13 minutes to get back. I'll call it 3 miles total in 28 flat, and if that is conservative it is not by much.

Broad Street Run

Overheard: "It's once every ten years you get conditions like this." Sunny day, chill temps, and most notably a strong wind blowing down Broad Street towards City Hall. BSR is already considered an "aided" course due to its net downhill so the way I saw it, the more aid the better. Rebecca had texted me with a warning that it was cool and in response I brought a hoodie along. Glad I did.

This is, by my best count, BSR #7. This means I am very familiar with, indeed have grown to love the drill that goes along with this race. The subway ride to the start way up in North Philly, hanging out on the grassy knoll across the street from the gear buses, warming up by running a few blocks to a wooded area to do what runners do in a wooded area, and the like. Seems like anybody that does any running in Philadelphia has BSR on their calendar, and gives me the (perhaps biased) impression that it is not so much a destination race as it is a magnet for local runners - 15000+ of us.

My strategy is tried and true. Go out fast on the initial (slight) downhill and try to hang on for as long as I can on the subsequent (slight) downhill. Last week in Allentown I was able to hang on for five miles or so, I hoped to at least extend that for a bit. Last year I ran a 55:09, despite the conditions I would be surprised if I could match that. First miles went out a bit more conservative than I have in the last few years, with the first 3 miles clocking in at 16:36 (5:32 pace). Exactly where I wanted to be, not sure if I could hold it. I got some homies - in the form of Andy Cherry and Ian - flanking me at this point and we are working together screaming towards City Hall. Going past Temple (mile 4 in 5:34) and Ian's cheering section by I-676 (mile 5 in 5:32) and things are still going well. We round City Hall and I'm now counting down. I miss the mile 6 marker and passing mile 7 gives me 2 miles in 11:07). Still on target pace and still with Andy and Ian, but now Ian starts to pull ahead and Andy starts to fall back. I don't have it to answer Ian and start feeling the fork. Mile 8 passes in 5:46, indicating the damage to be fairly minimal, and only two miles to go. A good 6-8 people pass me in the final stretch, including Andy who has gotten a good second wind, with my final splits soming in at 5:47 and 5:41. For the umpteenth year I missed the battleships that are mothballed in the water just before the finish and make it across the line in 56:10. 89th place overall and #9 masters finisher.

About what I figured I had in me, maybe a little faster than I should have been thanks to the wind, which was mostly tailwind but did swirl all over the place in stretches. No lessons learned or things to do otherwise here, just a good time.

The great thing about BSR is that almost everybody runs well so everyone is in great spirits at the end. From the finish to the post race food is a little walk, and the for the front people you can hang in this corridor for awhile and get to see friends and rivals and hear instantly how they did. Several local heroes of mine - Freddy Kleven, Bob Schwelm, John Carroll and John Kelly - all older than me, ran really fast times (i.e., better than me) and give me the realization that I still have several years in which to get my times in their range (at which point they'll probably still be beating me). Ian ran sub 55, which I'm happy for him about, John W and Chem Steve both broke 60, Mike ran a 62, Matt ran a 56 and those are just the folks I'm thinking of off the top of my head (i.e., lot of others who I hope will excuse me). PACTC scored really well, esp since we're all old farts, with Jeff Hayes leading us in age graded scoring. Rebecca and her friend Amy also finished strong and happy, but you'll have to look up their times yourself.

Post race had us telling war stories and eating burgers and hot dogs at a most excellent bash at Matt's house, which he bought for the sole reason that it was off Pattison real close to the finish. A celebration to end this day of celebration of all things running in Philadelphia.

This week I will again take it easy and then I'm looking forward to, in the words of The Who, miles and miles and miles and miles and miles in prep for TCM in October. One thing I've learned this spring is how much of a comfort zone, a happy place if you will, that is for me.

One Foot in Front of the Other, Quickly

I googled "running" and these are the directions that were provided. Its been so long since I've run that I needed a refresher on how to do it.

I am also reminded why afternoon running doesn't work for me. I took Monday and Tuesday off. I was old-man walking as bad as I have after any marathon. Is it age or did I give it more effort than I thought on Sunday? Anyway, on Wednesday I was ready to head out in the afternoon but late work and some phone calls tied me up until it was dark. Yesterday I was set to head out with Chem Steve, Ian, John Dubs and the boyz until I got hung up at the car mechanic. Instead of a vigorous jaunt through Fairmount I had to settle for 32 easy (read creaky) minutes (say 4 miles) - wanted to go Tinicum but got barred from going in by construction work that was going on, so I ended up running through the backstreets of Prospect Park.

I ran a full Tinicum figure 8 this morning. Glorious morning to do so. A very sensuous run, with vivid spring colors, scents of flowers, and a background chorus of birds. This was the type of run I longed after on those cold winter months when I was sliding on crusty snow amidst a world of grays. Couldn't help but feel joy in this mornings run, and my pace reflected it as I gained speed as I went along. I beat the construction guys out there when I went out, and blew by them cranking up their heavy equipment (they are laying pipe) on the way back.

The smell of lilacs sure beats the smell of dead possum roadkill on the side of the road.

9.5 miles this morning, 78:17.