It’s not a lot, but there’s a nice trail loop in Van Cortlandt. Not the XC course, which is too severe for a trail run. It’s a combination of two trails, the Old Croton Aqueduct and the Putnam Trailway, which I wrote about on Westchester Trails. A few years back, Westchester paved the portion of the Putnam Trailway in the County, and much of the paving was on a stretch that was in bad shape. There are a couple of breaks, but it not takes one all the way to Northern Westchester and is quite nice.

In the Bronx, it has remained unpaved. A former railroad bed, there are occasional ties. It is quite pleasant, running between parts of the Van Cortlandt golf course for a spell and ending just east of the parade grounds (the flats) of VCP. Parks wants to pave it. You can get info here.

The SaveThePutnamTrail.com folks have a petition going. I’ve decided to sign it. I was a bit ambivalent, but thought of it as a commented on LRC.

The Putnam Trail was part of the Putnam Railway, which is long gone. It continues north into Westchester. While the southern part in Westchester was unpaved, it was in bad shape and a few years back Westchester paved it to the City border. It then connects into northern Westchester (with a few breaks). The Bronx part is a nice trail, with the occasional railroad tie. It made a nice loop with the Old Croton Aqueduct trail, which is on the far eastern part of Van Cortlandt and continues also to Northern Westchester, also with a few breaks. It is completely independent of the Putnam Trail and in Yonkers turns west (in a non-trail stretch) and runs pretty close to the Hudson all the way up (and is the most popular way to get into the Rockies).

VCTC used to (it may still) do a loop up the OCA, through Tibbets Brook and south on the Putnam Trail back to VCP. (Parks money could be well used in repairing the (now closed) stairs up to the OCA by the Deegan.)

The only upside of paving is that road bikes could use it (while I see that some people think road bikes can handle a non-paved surface I wouldn’t) to get to Westchester. Trail bikes don’t need paving. Are roadies enough of a constituency to make it worth eliminating one of the few trails in the area (and I do not count the VCP XC course as a useful “trail” in this context because it is much more aggressive than what I think of as a trail)? Sadly this trail is now pretty short and while you can connect it with the OCA without hitting the paved Westchester stretch, that’s a bit of a hassle. But even with the paved Westchester stretch, it’s quite nice. So I’m signing.

As to the roadies, I would never ride my road bike on one of these paths. Too much stuff going on. Head up Broadway or Van Cortlandt South to VC East. 

I would think, though, that roadies are not the issue. It’s families using it as a gateway north. But there’s no reason why people can’t stroll up a trail. One would think that’s a good thing. The point being that it’s not just another paved-paradise.

Some history

Here’s one of several videos:

Here’s another great interview with Bob Babbit of Competitor Radio, this time with Paul Huddle as well. Good stuff:

Interview with Andy Hampsten

If you’re curious about the Giro Gavia stage in 1988, here’s a video:

Bonus credit: The Passo Gavia is almost exactly 41K, as the crow flies, from where my great great grandfather Guido grew up.

Ryan Hall, Jan. 17

by Mark Ulrich

Well, that was disappointing. For both races the only issue was which of the 4 or 5 favorites would drop back. For the men it was Ritz. For the women Amy Hastings and Deena Kastor. After tons of drama about how it could be seen live short of being in Houston — turns out it couldn’t — and a day spent in a virtual cave until the 3pm start of NBC’s coverage, once the men’s race started and Hall etc. took it out hard, that was that. The women’s race lasted a bit longer with a larger pack, but then that large pack was four, as was the men’s. (The photo is from Mark Ulrich, a Houstonian who is doing yeoman’s work on RunnersRoundTable.)

I watched at the Bronxville RC, on the tv normally used for checking strides on the treadmill. We had an antenna and were able to get a sometimes disrupted signal. I picked both of the first two in each race, although I had them backwards in both, but struck out on the third spot.

I enjoyed it though. NBC did a good job without a lot of touchy-feely stuff I was afraid we’d get, and even then it largely used a picture-in-a-picture so we could watch the race. Its big failure was not providing enough info, particular the gap between Abdi and Ritz in the final stages and not telling where the runners were.

I only knew (virtually) one person running, Jaymee Marty (whose qualifying in Chicago 2010 was inspiring). [Edited to add: Her Race Report.] She had major injury issues going in, with little training over recent weeks. Her goal was to finish and finish she did. While I’m sure she was disappointed with the particulars, I am again inspired.

As to the men, it was a bit much to have each of the top three in the post-race presser thank god for their success since they, a, don’t seem to wonder where god was in 2007 when only one of the three made the marathon team and, b, don’t seem to wonder why god abandoned Ritz this time around. Is distance running becoming the equivalent of American sprinting where god apparently cares how well, or poorly, batons are passed in the 4 X 100?

It has long struck me that Hall’s faith is more subtle, that he views god as giving him a gift and that the best way for him to praise god is to make the most of that gift. But for Meb to say that god gave him a push toward the end was a bit much.

A recent non-running event makes the point that if there is an active god, one who cares about who wins road races (or football games), he is, as I believe the late Christopher Hitchens put it, cruel and capricious.

I’ve noticed it before, but I’ve no answer. Perhaps it’s my yapping that’s a drain, although with Paul and Bobby listening is more the order of the day.

As winter deepens, there comes a time when the Rockies becomes unrunnable (and someone noted that it was unrunnable at this point in 2011) so we wanted to take advantage of our nice weather. It was not as warm as yesterday. Warm enough for compression shorts and one long-sleeve shirt and gloves, with the latter being taken off about half-way through. 1:36, over 12 miles.

I found a new map by the Friends of the Rockefeller, and Paul and Bobby had us go onto trails I’ve run on only once. I’ve learned that with these guys the best strategy is to get ahead as we approach a hill, which allows me to control (i.e., keep reasonable) the pace since they could easily leave me in the dust and if I fell off the back there’d be no catching back up (although I know they’d wait for me, even if I don’t want them to).

One topic: drugs. It started on the subject of the extent to which we think elites use them, and for many the idea that they don’t is, like a second marriage, the triumph of hope over experience. More to the point, I wondered about Masters. I’ve seen articles and LetsRun threads on the prevalence of drug use among Masters runners, particularly following USATF’s announcement that it will be drug-testing at Masters Championships.

I can only speak for me and the people I (think I) know, and it seems to me that the “elite” of the 50+ men’s crowd in the NYC-area aren’t. Why? Two reasons. First, we all seem to be aging (and slowing) together. It’s not as though someone who ran a 34-flat 10K at 45 is running a 34-flat 10K at 52. And no one is suddenly blowing the rest of us away.

Second, seriously as we all take it, in the immediate post-race conversations no one seems particularly upset about a sub-par performance or overly ecstatic about an above-par one. I would think that a cheat would be animated about a bad showing and obnoxious about a good one. Or at least more animated/obnoxious than normal.

The other thing I find strange is something that was said in a LetsRun thread. Men over 50 have to take certain stuff just to be functional so barring them from taking PEDs means that they can’t function properly. I have no idea where this idea arose since I have no idea why a male over 50 has to take, say, human-growth hormones. We get old and maybe I’m lucky, but I don’t see it.

It happened that as we neared the finish we were passed by three guys I know from Westchester Track Club (and we went to the Horseman’s Diner with two), including perhaps the top 50+ in the area. The consensus was that it’s, well, cheating and what’s the point. He pointed out that USATF has a link to a site where you plug in a drug and learn whether it’s on the banned list. Athletes are responsible for confirming the legality of what they take, but he pointed out that he always checks the active ingredients of stuff he takes. “How would you feel if you medaled in the 1500 and were DQed because of an ingredient in a prescription”.

My guess is that if any Masters are taking stuff, it is a sub-elite, guys trying not to slow down.

Anyway, my Friday night tempo-run experiment continues. This past Friday saw me doing 10 laps — I’m increasing it one lap a week. The running is otherwise going pretty well, and I am enjoying it, without particular concern about time. Steve Lastoe is putting on a 5K (there’s a 10K too) in Riverside Park on February 4, so I think that’ll be my next race.

Getting up late meant delaying heading, as I was determined to do, up to the Rockies. So I arrived at SHHS at about 1. Only a few cars in the lot. Shorts, t-shirt, arm-warmers, gloves. I dusted off my Garmin, not having worn it for over a month, and strapped that on. And off I went.

Entering the Rockies from SHHS means not running in the Rockies for a bit. Instead, one starts on the Old Croton Aqueduct. It is a surface quite unlike the carriage trails of the Rockies themselves. Dirt. Hard dirt. It’s where everyone gets their legs loosened up. I came upon a few groups of walkers heading out. After about 3/4 of a mile one sees the Rockies to the right. You can stay on the OCA for an extended period, generally leaving it only for a sojourn to a field along the Hudson itself (as we did a few weeks back (the picture there gives a good idea of what the Rockies’ surface is like)).

That route, though, is a bit pedestrian. I wanted to head into the Rockies. This means taking a sharp right-turn through a small hole in a low stone wall. I was in, and starting the first climb. Not that long, not that steep, and followed immediately by a gradual, curving downhill. I elected to build the run around 13-bridges trail. There are, indeed, 13 small bridges crossing a stream along this trail. But the bridges are not its signature feature. That is the hill at the end. You know the hill is coming but you don’t seem to be getting closer.

A slight uphill followed by a flat. Then you hit it. After a bit you turn nearly 180 degrees to the right and a look to the right shows the trail you’ve just been on well below you, but you haven’t long to look because there’s a sharp left and a right and a left into a long final stretch. On an earlier visit Charlotte said there’s a statue of Buddha at the top, but I’ve yet to see it. Apparently its placed in a crevice in a rock. When one passes, though, one hardly has the energy to look for it other than with the slightest glance. I’ve yet to see it. (I ran into, almost literally, Charlotte’s husband Peter, my orthopedist, on Saturday, which was nice. Two of their girls ran for Bronxville’s XC varsity this year.)

Again, though, this long hill is followed by a nice down. In one of the prettiest stretches, the trail, angling down, has a hill to the right and a drop to the left with a slight, defining wall along the left side. By this stage I was warm. Off went the gloves. I had the Garmin on the outside of the arm warmers so had to undo it, pull off the left warmer, and put it back while heading merrily along. It worked.

All this time I had seen a number of walkers, but only a few runners. It really was quiet for long stretches.

I was feeling quite good, not the least because I was cruising along down. My goal was an hour. I could add on distance by heading up to the Visitor’s Center. That would put into play perhaps the toughest hill in the place (which, thankfully, is its steepest early) and I was not up to that. Plan B: do a nice loop near the southern tip of the Park. Which is what I did, running up the hill I used months ago for downhill intervals to work on my quads, following Pete Magill’s advice from Running Times, which, I should add, appears to have worked. My pace was pretty solid (the Garmin had me in the low 6:50s, 7-flat for the climb), but the climb was still pushing me to the edge. Alas when I turned right to loop around the path continued up. Not much, but enough. I was eyeing trees as landmarks, and then I was to the top and had a rip-roaring journey down again.

Under a stone bridge over which Bedford Road passes, then up that curving hill I took earlier, just enough to keep me honest but not too much to kill me, and back to the OCA, heading for home. Now I was determined to keep a solid pace to the end. And I did. All-in-all, a good run.

And I took a video at the end. (It took me a bit to turn it off. And it was noisy.)

“So much the poorer you; so much the richer I! Look, mistress, this is the key of my wine-cellar. It is a large key, but the keys of prisons are larger. In this city there are houses of correction (where the treadmills are, for women), the gates of which are very strong and heavy, and no doubt the keys too. I am afraid a lady of your spirit and activity would find it an inconvenience to have one of those keys turned upon her for any length of time. What do you think?”

Treadmills? A bit of googling, and I found this:

treadmill - kind of like today’s StairMaster. Prisoners climbed steps along a rotating cylinder designed to keep them mindlessly occupied and wear them out physically. Outlawed in 1898.

Ouch. Indeed, there are those who would have them outlawed again. Alas, though, they are a necessary evil. And, indeed, they do sound more like StairMasters than treadmills.

The book, all 800+ pages, is a schlog, but worth it. One can, however, enjoy the BBC version (although it does take some liberties, particularly in the final stages):

A slight follow-up on my Clock post. NYRR told me, “Our Events team go through every course and make sure it complies with the official race standards” to which I responded, “It seems, though, that you are channeling Chico Marx, who famously said ‘Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?’ Of course if the ‘official race standards’ are ‘put the cones wherever you feel like it’, then I guess you have your compliance.” My correspondent is just the messenger, and I enjoy our back-and-forth.

Couple of things. After my run on Friday, I stopped by the Bronxville Running Company, as is my wont, and chatted with Josh Hibbs (holder of the record for the Bronxville 2.5 mile course). He’s debating whether to focus on an HM in the spring or on track, 3000s and 5000s. As I think of it (and I’ve never been anywhere near as fast as he is), I’ve been going through something of the same debate and, as I think about it, a man who is tired of track-racing is tired of life. By which I mean that there’s something exhilarating about running fast. Of course speed is relative, person-to-person and distance-to-distance. As Brenn pointed out in our last New York Running Show episode, while a cross 15K can be tough — we were speaking of the Pete McArdle 15K at Van Cortlandt — a hard 5K is pretty much as tough as things get. In terms of intensity, this is probably true, although I think that a 10K is tougher because while you’re not as red-lined you’re at for longer.  (Speaking of which, Julie has a nice report of the second in her 5K-race series.)

And doing stuff on a track just feels more intense. I say this as if I know what I’m talking about. But I’ve raced only one 5000, in which Greg Diamond blew me away in the final 400. I do hope, however, to give it another shot in 2012. They are, however, rare. I think the people behind the new USATF NYC affiliate are thinking of improving the quality of meets. This, though, is in the back of my mind. A hard 5000 in the spring? Something to shoot for.

What does this mean in the real world? It means that my mindset now a week before Christmas fueled by a couple of glasses of Johnnie Walker Black and fondly remembering those recent track work-outs I did (and listening to a podcast from Hawaii where the temperature is 76) is to race fast. Fast, as I say, being relative.

Speaking of fast, my friend Mark Thompson was among my clubmates at SSRMC and he and I differed on the frequency of racing. I was against it; he lived for it. Shows what I know. He is on a tear, hitting PR after PR, including in today’s Ted Corbitt 15K. Congrats to Mark who is a runner’s runner.

The guys at LetsRun have a link to an interview with Terrence Mahon about the men’s and women’s OTs. Good stuff. Note especially what he says about a shortened marathon-specific training approach, although that assumes one comes into it with a solid base. And here’s a status report from Jaymee, who’s heading to Houston for the trials. Yikes!

Speaking of running, I’ve thought it might be worthwhile to throw in some tempo-work on my Friday track runs. A little rusty, I risked it this past Friday, 7 laps at about 6:14 pace and my legs didn’t fall off. I figure a bit of speed regularly can’t hurt. I’m just glad to get it done outside before snow closes the track.

Apropos of nothing, here’s a cool 2011 movie compilation. I don’t go to movies much. But here’s a cool compilation:

And here’s fire:

Ryan Hall Interview

An addendum: I never got around to a comment made by cg a bit ago on my Wasteland post of last year (which itself was prescient because I have again left Facebook and Twitter largely for the reasons identified there) in which some uncomplimentary things were said of me. Whatever. She’s probably right.

I mention this for two reasons. cg wrote,

here’s a non-running-related one that may help…so, someone like me likely can’t lift 100 lbs (arms). but for an nfl linebacker, that’s nothing at all. the point being that some exercises for some people are ‘easier’ than others.

you’ve oft stated that you think all runners should be able to run the same workouts. i would challenge you to run the ones ryan hall suggests for your pace, then. and that’s w/no other health issues.

First, in the Hall interview, he mentions doing two sets of 6 push-ups and that he barely made it (although he notes that he could still beat the Kenyans at that) and I know I barely could. Upper-body strength: It’s relative.

Second, it is true. I’ve often said, and believe, that “all runners should be able to run the same workouts”. That’s hardly novel. It is the cornerstone of Daniels, and what I did when I coached SSRMC, including cg. The key is that the pace is different and the distance-covered is different. Should everyone be running 100+ weeks? Who has the time (and I know I don’t have the mentality). But the essence of training doesn’t seem to matter to me whether one is running a sub-5 or a sub-8 pace. It is interesting, as I’ve noted, that Hall only runs six times a week.

Someone got around to saying “let’s run” and off we went. Not unlike a cycling peleton, maybe 30 of us hit the OCA in a long double- and triple-file line, mostly in tights and long, colorful tops and gloves and hats making it tricky to recognize those people I knew. “Where are we going?” was answered “Where those guys at the front”, a group seemingly being driven by Paul Thompson, “are going is where we are”. Staying on the OCA, and thus keeping the Rockies itself to our right, we headed out to Rockwood Hall with its beautiful views of the Hudson.

The group had fractured well before this. It had gone out a bit briskly and when a gap appeared a bit past the mile with the studs towards the front I was content to stick in the second group. A glance behind showed that the third group had long ago let us go.

Not a cloud in the sky, and the temperature rising from about 30 to the uppers 30s, enough for me to take the hat off but not enough for the gloves to be shed. Our little group was five or seven (it varied) with people from Bronxville among us. Sadly, Paul kept turning his group around to get the band back together just as we were content to keep the conversational-pace our group had found. They would quickly go off the front again and then would come back until finally they gave up on 13 Bridges and were gone for good.

My hamstring behaved itself, even with the somewhat steep downhills (on which I treaded gingerly) and since everyone in the group planned on going longer than I had planned, I decided to have a go at the Rockies themselves, meaning the climb up the switchbacks at the end of 13 Bridges. Piece of cake. For the route we were taking, once you crest that you have a nice, not-too-steep down that brings you to a stream and then but one hill before reaching home.

Some further splintering so in the end I finished with four others. By then several of those who fell back early on, and who were going for less than an hour, were gone. Still a large group in the parking lot, joined by some who threw in a couple of extra miles.

The photo, which I hasten to add was not taken today (which I mention because I don’t want people to think I (a) carry a camera on runs and (b) would stop to take a photo during a run), gives a good idea of what the Rockies looks like after the leaves fall.

To the Horseman’s Diner with a couple from Greenwich and three from Bronxville. Hungry Boy breakfast (2 pancakes, two eggs (over easy), two sausages, two strips of bacon, toast (wheat), and homefries). Talking about the running-store business — do SuperFeet have a purpose? — and home.

Bit of a pain in my upper right leg, front and right at the waist, when climbing toward the end but nothing serious with the hamstring. 1:19. A good run.