Today’s run: 7.6 miles, 1:31:20. YT: 347.93 miles. Run mantra: Once you go forward, it’s hard to go back.

This run was intense. I left knowing I wasn’t in the best physical condition to set out for a 7-miler in the midday sun. But I decided I would anyway. I needed that cleanse of 90 minutes of  motion. And I needed the miles.

In the first 20 minutes of the run, I was almost hit by a car, a 2-person bike, and a kid on roller blades.

At the Manhattan bridge, I started to feel nauseated. Not so good while crossing a gigantic bridge over moving water, with subway trains hurtling by every three minutes.

Run highlight: Getting to the water fountain in East River park after 3 miles of dry mouth that had me staring longingly at the puddles along the water front.

A bird shat on me at mile 7.

And now I feel pretty thrilled with myself for sticking it out. Also a little dizzy.

Today’s run: 5.9 miles, 1:03 minutes. Followed training plan to a T – 2 miles easy, 4 x 2 min aerobic intervals, plus 2 miles easy. It felt really great to push myself on those intervals – which was excellent, because it doesn’t always! I wrote a video script that I needed to write for work in my head on this run. Excellent use of the time. I had lots of crazy thoughts that i wanted to turn into a good blog post, but alas I had to get straight to work and forgot them all. Hoowa!

Today’s Run: 7.2, 1:19:24 minutes. YT: 328.17. Today I saw NY’s version of LA’s Kooky Groovy Lady. She was overall less kooky and groovy, but she was doing a kind of Spanish dance as part of her walk gait. It involved a lot of arm movement.

I was really excited about today’s run, and it didn’t disappoint me. The route plan was hatched with Scott of 430 or Bust fame over DM messaging: My apartment to the East River, up East River to Caroline Slip, up the slip through Chinatown to Bowery, which would put me right on the pedestrian path of the Manhattan Bridge.

So, let’s get started…. First, approaching the Bridge from the East River:

Then, Chinatown… not a single white person in site, so I guess the tourists go elsewhere:

Now, some pics from the bridge approach, looking down into Chinatown…

Now, getting out onto the real bridge…

And finally, get ready for it —

The bridge you see there is the Brooklyn Bridge. Another view…and you can click these photos if you want to see them bigger.

In summary, great run! Barely felt the 7 miles, what with all this picture taking.  I didn’t go all the way across the bridge – I turned around at 3.5 miles, because I wanted a 7 mile round trip. I had three decent runs in a row this week; why push it?

Today’s run: 5.47 miles, 1 hour, 26 seconds. Training called for 4 miles easy plus 6x 90-sec aerobic intervals. I did them faithfully, although the last one was pretty slow because I was POOPED.

Tomorrow, thanks to a little help from Scott from DM, I’ve got a Manhattan Bridge run planned Saturday. Will it be 7 miles? 8? I can’t be sure! What important is that I run at least 5 miles both tomorrow and Saturday to keep above 20 for the week.

Today’s run: 1.8 miles, 20 minutes. A fun run with a destination in mind.

Falundala Day in Union Square Park

I’m still thinking in LA distances, not NY distances. Which is why I thought it would be about 4 miles from my LES apt to my friend’s Union Square apt. Nope. Not even 2. Anyway, I enjoyed running amongst the pedestrians: Rivington to Bowery, Bowery to 4th, all the way up to Union Square. At Union Square the Falun Gong was having an 11th celebration of something. Yay Falungong – which, btw, my old boss told me the CIA funds as a way to undermine the Chinese government. Just sayin’.

Today’s run: 5.85 miles, 1:05 minutes. The area under the Manhattan Bridge was full of people doing Tai Chi, and not in unison. A cool sight.

Overheard yesterday at the Children’s Magical Garden Fairy party:

“Ben, you’re needed to paint another face.”

“OK, but my repertoire is hearts, circles, and dots.”

Today’s run: 2.5 miles, 27:24 minutes. YT: 289.88. I got a late start, hence the short distance, because I was writing down the story of getting flashed on the 14th St. subway platform.Thankfully, no one flashed me on the run. Proud of myself for going on a short one instead of taking an all or nothing, “I’ll make up the miles later” attitude. I guess that’s the upside of being behind in my mileage.

Today’s run: 5.9 miles, 1:07 minutes. YT: 349.5. Three trendy hipster teens walking together over the bridge reminded me of Desperately Seeking Susan. One was in black floral lace stockings with short-shorts. And they all had the attitude.

Inspired by Pigtails Flying, who always writes about her wild routes across, through, under, and above every part of the city,  I decided it was finally time to figure out how to cross the Williamsburg Bridge. After 30 seconds of Googling, I discovered I’m 2 blocks from the entrance to the pedestrian walkway. Easy peasy, and, as is often the case, I felt like an idiot for having assumed something so easy would be complicated.

At the crest of the bridge, I was expecting a feeling of total exhilaration that comes from a high and expansive view. Unfortunately the pedestrian walkway is entirely caged in – disappointing – working against that feeling of freedom I was craving. Nevertheless, a fun new route, and I’m glad to have finally set foot in Brooklyn. Next time I want to map out a continuation of the route the Brooklyn side.