A second straight somewhat soggy speed session in Central Park occurred this past Thursday, as wet and rainy conditions have been a common occurrence this month. With Coach Tony up in Boston, Stuart Calderwood had the honor of leading the workout. For unknown reasons, this workout reporter arrived to the workout ten minutes late, right when the first group started to head off for our patented Harlem Hill workout. Of course, I was outdone by Tom McCarney, who arrived literally two seconds before his group set out. Tom even jokingly trash talked to us when he arrived, saying ‘What are you still doing here’ to all of us as he strolled in with seconds to spare.

Once we started running, everyone put their game faces on. And after the cancellation of last week’s 8K race, well, it’s easy to see why all 45 runners in attendance had an itch to run fast. Fortunately, the roads weren’t that slippery, which allowed for near ideal workout conditions. Not only did we start the run in daylight (thank you early daylight savings time), but we also had the park to ourselves because of the overcast skies. It truly was a great day to run a fast workout simulating the Newton Hills! After having the park to ourselves for the past five months or so, it will be a tough adjustment to go back to dealing with the Thursday night fair-weather crowds. Hopefully none of us will do anything crazy once the large herds of pedestrians arrive……

After the 2.4 mile Harlem Hills interval (which Stuart later said was longer than 2.4 miles), we did the always unpredictable three lamppost pickups back to the statue. It’s unpredictable as you truly have no idea how long each stride and recovery will be. We lucked out this time around, as we had what Brad Weiss called ‘the longest three lamppost recovery in existence’.

After the workout, everyone scattered earlier than usual. Without Tony around to mingle, no one really felt compelled to stick around longer than necessary.