Wednesday run

A really good Central Park loop with C. and Triathlete L. I was a little worried - my legs were dead yesterday, I was afraid I would have to go slowly today! But mysteriously I felt very strong and powerful - I was running smoothly and fairly hard - we were quite a bit faster than last week, too.

Some stomach trouble in the last couple miles - I must figure out what I can do about this, it clearly happens as a result of tipping up over my lactate threshold (i.e. Harlem Hill). We slowed down a hair and I was OK making it to the end of the run, but in a long-distance race situation where I still had a lot more miles to run I would have had to have a couple of toilet stops - not good. On the other hand, in a non-hilly non-hot marathon there is no way my heartrate should get nearly that high until the last few miles of the race. Something to ponder...

6.1 miles, 51:38, 8:28 pace (avg HR 161, max HR 176)

Training is having an effect?!?

On the subway home, I saw something that totally made my day. It was utterly magical! An elderly black man, in a Kangol cap and a rather Dickensian overcoat (it's still nearly 70 degrees here!), was sketching commuters. He had that darting gaze that is the true sign of the high-speed portraitist, and he was most extraordinarily talented - you often see artists in the park and such-like (or at shopping malls!) doing a pretty awful job (generic flattering non-differentiated scrawls), but this was the real thing. It was utterly captivating watching the likeness emerge on the page, with his darting glance jumping up for a split-second assessment of the subject's features and then back down to the sketch with pencil or soft rubbing tool or eraser. Pure magic!