After a couple week hiatus, the workout report is back! With the weather starting to warm up, you begin to notice a few things. First, a few people start to arrive at workouts a few minutes early, something you never see happen in December. Second, people hang out a little longer after the workout is completed. And third, Coach Tony seems to start the workout a few minutes later than usual. Of course, there are always a few people who wish we weren’t on the ‘summer schedule’. As we gathered by the statue, Jackie Baumgartner asked me what time do you expect the workout to be over. After I gave my best finish time estimate, as if on cue Tony started the announcements at 7:12PM. The announcements were less announcements than they were recapping the great performances over the past few days. And with our club having good showings at the 4 Mile Central Park Team Scoring Race and the Penn Relays, numerous quality performances got mentioned. Tony called the Penn Relays the most fan friendly track event in the country. I’ve personally never been, but it does sound like a lot went on in Philadelphia. If someone who attended or participated in the meet wants to write up a website report, please let me or the webmaster know.
Amongst all the congratulatory talk it was easy to forget the business at hand. A tough workout welcomed the 47 runners in attendance. The workout was more mental than physical, as we had three 1.5 mile intervals planned, with the third interval slightly faster than the first two. And with each interval finishing on an uphill, strategy and pacing would clearly come into play.
By 7:22, the first group set off on their warmup. The intervals themselves were relatively uneventful, which to be honest isn’t a bad thing. Everyone seemed to run smoothly, there weren’t any crash and burn performances as there were in the infamous 5 reservoir loop workout, people running the Broad Street 10 Miler this weekend (Corey Henry and Stuart Calderwood) were smart in only completing the first interval, and heck, the workout even finished in the daylight!
After the workout, a bunch of people talked about how New York Runner magazine has really improved in quality over the past few editions, with a lot of focus (both intentional and unintentional) on the Central Park Track Club. It was also after the workout that Tony informed Harry Lichtenstein that he was part of the 3rd place 50 and over team at the scoring race last weekend. Fair to say, Harry was extremely happy at the news. Finally, by 8:45, everyone started to head back home, presumably to watch the first Republican Presidential Debate and see which candidates do not believe in evolution.