I should back up a bit, huh? Yes, we're in New York City for a photo shoot for Weight Watchers online Success Stories. We arrived Thursday afternoon, and when we got here I got on the elliptical at the gym first thing. Then we went to Bobby Flay's restaurant, Bar Americain, where we enjoyed a wonderful dinner 4 years ago when I was here for the Today Show segment I did. The restaurant was every bit as good as the first time. Good thing I like to racewalk, because I ate a very large piece of German chocolate cake (my favorite!).
Today I slept in a bit and then made my way over to Central Park for a good hard 12K fartlek workout. I racewalked/walked over there, stopping as needed for pedestrians and traffic lights. It was about 1.7km, and I got in a few bursts of speed and felt warmed up by the time I arrived at the park. The weather was pretty darn nice - 41F (4C) and sunny, though with a pretty strong breeze.
Central Park was lovely this morning - gorgeous flowers on many of the trees, and new bright green spring leaves as well. Lots of runners, fast and slow; some passed me, and some I passed. However, Central Park was not ideal for a hard workout. It's not even close to being flat! It was much hillier than I remembered. OK, none of the hills are really bit, but it is gently rolling hills all the way around. What this means is that my splits were a bit crazy! Sometimes my medium effort 500s were faster than my hard effort 500s, because I was going downhill on the medium and uphill on the fast. My first 1km was pretty slow (about 5:50) because of the hill I had to go up. It did make things interesting - I had to really go by effort and not by pace, that was for sure. But I did feel strong and fast today! I was worried after last night's German chocolate cake that I might pay with GI issues, but thankfully I had no trouble whatsoever. I just felt good, and it was so fun to be out there, even though I was doing a hard workout. New scenery is a wonderful thing!
I got to 5K in 29:01, which was pretty fast for all the hills, I thought. Then I stayed strong and made it to 10K in 58:17, and to 12K in 1:09:55, with an average HR of 160.1. Nice! My previous PR was on a day at the track when I didn't feel so great, and I did a 1:10:50, so this was quite a bit faster.
It felt good to get this one done...next week is my easy week, and I'm glad for the rest to come.
Lots of park photos here.
Garmin data here.
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After the workout, I walked back to the hotel via a bit of a circuitous route and took pictures at Columbus Circle and Times Square. I showered and dressed and it was time to go to the photo shoot! That was great fun - nothing like getting all made up and fussed over and having one's picture taken! Then after dinner and some souvenir shopping, we took in a Broadway play ("Other Desert Cities" - fantastic!) and dessert. What a great day :).
Photo shoot pictures here - just quickie photos w/my lousy camera. The real ones will be on the WW website later this year.
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