Friday, September 18, 2015

Kenyans are faster than my commute

These cars were new when I started my commute
Today's run (street): 3.4 miles

If you took every car on Long Island and laid them end to end, it would stretch all the way to my exit off the Long Island Expressway. That is the reality of my daily commute home. 35 miles in 150 minutes is an average of 14 MPH. An elite runner could run home faster. This is the reason I like Fridays, because working from home saves me one day of all that aggravation.

Last night it took 2 1/2 hours to get from my office to my house. I had every intention of doing a post-work elliptical session, but my night was getting short and I decided to forgo it. Today I had no excuses. I was pleased to see the below 70° temperature and feel the cool dry air when I stepped outside this morning. I felt good from the start and that continued throughout the run.

It's getting close to fall, my favorite running season, and I'm wondering if I'm finally turning the corner on my lethargic performance. Little by little, I've increased my effort on my runs and have started to see incremental improvements to my pace. Today I focused on increasing cadence and a more dynamic leg motion.

The end result was a substantial improvement in my pace compared to a few weeks ago. As impressive as that sounds, I'm still over a minute per mile slower than I was last year. On the other hand, today's pace was half a minute faster than last Sunday. This type of progress is very encouraging. If it continues, I might get fast enough to out run the Expressway traffic.

2 comments:

  1. I am with you.....fall is absolutely the BEST time to run!!!!!

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    Replies
    1. I only wish it lasted longer! There's a run I do near my house with path that gets covered by crunchy leaves. Doing that run in high 30° October morning weather with the strong smell of maple is my pinnacle experience of the season.

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