A run on the road and hike at Caumsett

Take a hike!

Today's run (street): 3.9 miles

Yesterday was a tough one. Bad coughs can be exhausting, and I never got to the point on Friday where I felt strong enough to do a workout. I was determined to run today, but not if it would compromise my recovery. The weather was near perfect and, while I was still coughing, I decided to head outside.

I would have liked to do a tempo run but I settled for a more moderate pace. I'd coughed all throughout the night and morning, but not once on the run. It seemed as though every landscaper in the area had come to my neighborhood to work, so I needed to be wary of workers and equipment as I made my way past all the trucks. I used the sidewalks when things got too tight.

Even though it was a fairly short run, I felt very tired by the finish. Despite that fatigue, I was glad to return to the road. Since my bout with pneumonia in early 2010, I get concerned whenever I develop a cough like this one. In this case I'm confident that it's nothing but a cold. Extremely annoying, but nothing particularly severe.

Entrance to the Caumsett grounds

After lunch we headed to Caumsett State Park for a hike on the paved trails. It's a great park with beautiful grounds, including views of Long Island Sound. We finished our walk and spent some time in the "Walled Garden" where the kids played a scavenger hunt game using pictures taken on their cell phones. I want to return there for a run sometime, although I'll need to be prepared for a lot of steep hills.

Scavenger hunting in the Walled Garden

Workout sidelined

My chest cold now includes a deep cough among its symptoms. This cough, along with a full morning of conference calls, prompted me to postpone my workout. I was optimistic about running later, but I think I'll call it a rest day and move on. I'm hoping that skipping today's run will help my recovery. My favorite workouts are typically the longer base runs I do on weekends, so I'm counting on getting outside tomorrow.

Run turned back at the driveway

Today's run (treadmill): 3.2 miles

I watched the garage door rise to reveal a rain covered driveway this morning. It had looked dry from the window, but that was obviously an illusion. I wasn't interested in running in rain-soaked conditions that would obscure my vision and saturate my shoes and socks. I turned around and headed upstairs to wait for my wife to complete her treadmill workout.

Today's schedule was tight and I wanted to get in my run before I got caught up in business calls. I've been fighting a mild chest cold and could have used that as an excuse to skip my workout. I figured that I should at least try a run and see how it felt. I wasn't looking to push myself too hard after a couple of hard runs on Tuesday and Wednesday. I did pretty well, but I skipped the progressive speed increases.

I'm getting closer to my next race and I know I should begin tuning my runs towards speed. I'm not sure which approach to take: intervals or tempos. I can't really do speed work at the track during the week because school is still in session. If the weather is clear over the weekend, I may head to the high school. I think all the hill running I've been doing is helping to build my fitness, but I don't know if it's also helping my speed.

The hard running continues, although that wasn't the plan

Today's run (treadmill): 3 miles

Yesterday's run was fun, but it was also tough. I felt worn out afterwards and wondered how I'd feel this morning. There was no question that I'd do a workout but I didn't think two tough runs in a row would be a good idea. I needed to get into the city, so time was short. Although the weather was spring-perfect, I opted to run on the treadmill to save time.

I ran fairly slow yesterday, so I set the pace a little faster today. I had little trouble maintaining my speed, but I felt like this might end up being a tedious run. I was surprised when I saw that I'd passed the ten minute mark and, before I knew it, I had done ten more. I was in danger of missing my targeted my finish time, so I increased my speed by 2/10ths of a mile every minute until I finished.

That ended up being a very hard run and I was concerned that I'd pushed myself too much. I needed to be alert for the business conversations that lay ahead. I ended up rebounding well and had a great lunch with some industry friends, one of whom will be running the Marcie Mazzola 5K with me, along with the Dirty Sock and Cow Harbor 10K's. After ten challenging miles over two days, I think I may go for an easier workout on Thursday.

A running first: Bethpage Park to home

Before the run and all the hills

Today's run (Greenbelt Trail): 6.6 miles

Ever since my first run on the Bethpage bike trail five years ago, I've always envied those who lived near the path. How great would it be to run across the street or through your backyard onto a protected trail that runs from Bethpage State Park to the start of the Massepequa Preserve? Pretty great I thought. I knew of the Greenbelt trail north of Bethpage that runs in various forms all the way to Cold Spring Harbor. But up until recently, that was mostly dirt paths with separations between sections.

Now that the Greenbelt has been paved all the way to Woodbury Road, I've been running parts of it from the north and other parts from the south, starting at Bethpage State Park. My dream of running from my house to Bethpage was getting closer to reality, but I had never run the full distance. That is, until today.

My friend KWL is a great runner and triathlete who finishes half marathons in 100 minutes and rides Gran Fondos, sometimes within days of each other. He and I have done many runs together, and once we mountain biked at Stillwell and followed that with a long trail run. KWL loves hills, and though I don't, I couldn't help suggesting that we run the full length of the northern Greenbelt from Bethpage to my house.

This morning we drove to Bethpage and parked my car in the lot before getting on the bike trail north. We kept a moderate pace, because it was hot, humid and we knew there would be hills. To his credit, KWL never complained about running so easy. I tried to make a case for the benefits of LSD and he accepted it. KWL is participating in a Ragner Relay at the end of the week. This race is the first Ragner staged in Canada and it goes from Cobourg to Niagara Ontario, A total of 192 miles. Each team has 12 runners who run three legs each.

A few years ago, Adventure Girl captained a Ragner team that ran the Woodstock to Bronx course and I remember the details, logistics and team management that went into that. Not to mention the fact that everyone ran about 20 miles, throughout the day and night. KWL won't need to worry about all of that, but he'll be doing all that running.

Our run today took us past the spot where I'd previously turned back toward Bethpage. There was almost another mile of running before we would reach my southern turnaround point from last Saturday. I was excited to have traveled every foot of the paved Greenbelt, but I also knew we were now at the foot of the first of three sizable hills.

With nothing to do but face the challenge, we made our way either uphill or down for the next three miles. By this time the heat and the hills were starting to get to me, but I wasn't looking for an excuse to stop. Once we'd passed the third hill I knew it was mostly down or flat the rest of the way. We reached Woodbury Road, the end of the line. Not for our run, but it was the end of the paved bike trail.

We proceeded to cross the street and run through the local neighborhood before exiting at the middle school and making our way to my driveway.  According to Garmin, we'd covered 6.6 miles with a total elevation gain of 440 feet. It sure felt higher than that. We cooled off and drove back to Bethpage to get my car. Along the way, we noted the ground we were covering and the fact that we'd just ran that entire distance.

I'm looking forward a shorter and (hopefully) easier run tomorrow. I finally got the chance to run all the way home from Bethpage, and I was fortunate to do it with great company.