Spring is in the air!

And I've fallen in love with New York City all over again. Something about hyacinths and outdoor runs in shorts and a tank top restores my faith in humanity.

On Friday, I took the day off from work (!!!) to take care of some long overdue errands / get my life in a semblance of working order. Mission moderately accomplished; however, the 70 degree weather distracted me from getting a new passport. After two hours in the DMV line, the prospect of another encounter with bureaucracy at its worst was unimaginable. Instead, I was lured over to the East River Park to do some of serious speed work. Did two miles warm-up at half-marathon pace (9:20) then did 6 x 400m at 5k pace (8:45) with 200m recovery. Followed that up with a one mile cool down along the East River.

All in all, didn't feel horrible, which isn't saying much considering I haven't done any serious intervals for a few weeks. Last week, I limited my runs to a few short, slow 4-5 milers. Not very fun, but practical considering the state of my knees. However, with this weekend's 15K rapidly approaching I wanted to gauge where my pace was at and also decide if I needed to sit this race out. As much as I've been looking forward to running a race that ISN'T during a snowpocalypse, can't justify blowing out my knee due to stubbornly ignoring my pain. My (overly?) ambitious goals of running my first marathon this fall and the Comrades in 2011 are just slightly dependent on having functioning joints.

What are your running/exercise goals for 2010?

Running was the last thing on my mind Saturday as I nursed the hangover from hell, but by Sunday I was hydrated, rested, and ready to go! Set out in the afternoon over to the East River and ran up past Stuytown and Peter Cooper to tack on an extra mile then turned around to head down to the Battery. I think all of NYC was out for a run/walk/bike/etc yesterday afternoon, including 5 million tourists who would NOT GET OUT OF MY WAY. Angstangst. Headed uptown along the Westside Highway for a few miles than cut across town on Houston St. to head back to my apartment. Used the stop and go of running city blocks as a chance to throw in some intervals. Ran at 5K pace until I hit a stop light - definitely took some effort since my legs were pretty tired by that point. Ended up running a skotch over 10 miles at ~9:50. Nothing spectacular in terms of time, which was fine since it was supposed to be a long slow run. Major victory that my knees didn't hurt too badly the next day thanks to icing and dosing with Mortin like a semi-responsible person.

After yesterday's long run, I'm feeling pretty solid that I'll be able to finish the 15K without screwing up my knees further (knock on wood). However, I'm going to have to wave goodbye to my goal of running the race at a ~8:50 pace. Sadly that will have to be left for another day, perhaps the Brooklyn Half Marathon in May!