Wet more than sweet 1600 for me today 
I might be back in better conditions to chase a better time but I have to say it was quite fun to run under the thunderstorm! FYI the Kane outdoor track at Cornell is available daily from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., if people still need to complete this course.
I’m afraid this challenge is turning sweet rule-abiding me into a bit of a miscreant. First crossing a river in a clearly forbidden fashion and now squeezing through a padlocked gate to run on a coveted track. What’s next? I circled the Cornell track twice trying to find the way in. I knew there was a way as there were two other people inside. But all the gates were locked. I remembered reading other people’s accounts so decided the only way in was to squeeze. I worried I might damage my glasses in the attempt but apparently my brain is not as big as I might hope and the pass through was easy enough.
The run, on the other had was anything but easy. I clearly miss the slight down hill of the East Hill Rec Way from last year’s challenge which clearly gave me a false impression of my speediness. I gave it my all but could only muster a 6:40. Maybe the mile and a half run over to the track wasn’t enough warm-up? Maybe I’m still not recovered from Lick Brook? Maybe this is just my limit.
I couldn’t muster another go so instead decided to run back to the Beebe course for a soothing consolation jog on my home turf.
Ran 2 miles on the Cornell Track today trying to work on my Cadence (insert big sigh).
The gates were open at Noon by the scoreboard for those looking for a way in.
I got to run one of the tracks at Syracuse University this evening while my daughter was at hockey practice. Nice way to get some miles in instead of sitting in a cold rink.
We picked up some sandwiches from Collegetown Bagels before we made the drive up to Syracuse. My daughter enjoyed hers before practice and I had a nice quiet dinner after my run.
Ran down to Cornell as part of my 7 miler this morning – wanted to get my run in early, since it’s gonna be another scorcher…I was aiming for 6:40, ended up with a 6:46 (1:38, 1:46, 1:46, 1:36), so nothing to complain about, but 3 miles to the track was too long of a “warmup” for an attempt at a quick-ish mile, so I think next time I’ll drive to a track and warmup/cooldown there.
I decided to knock another course off my list and hit the track at Cornell this morning. Track running isn’t my favorite, but I got it done. I then headed to the Beebe Lake Course for a few more miles. It’s nice to have THREE courses near my office, and this year one is NOT a half marathon!! 
Stopped in at the Dryden High School track for one mile, but my watch put me somewhere in Virgil and gave me 2.5 miles.
Went to Clark’s for some groceries.
Vancouver BC has lots of tracks, so what better way to structure our vacation than to check out some of them? Today we walked around Vancouver’s Stanley Park and enjoyed watching seaplanes land on the harbor until we felt that we’d digested breakfast. Then for the highlight of the morning, which was a run on the Brockton Oval track. The track was in poor condition for a seriously fast mile, but the soft dirt surface was pleasing to run on and with temperatures in the low 50s and a trace of mist, the weather was comfortable. It wasn’t my fastest mile ever by far, but it WAS my fastest mile since 2019! Adam ran with me for his warm-up mile.
We stopped at a nearby concession stand for fish and chips, and Adam got a fancy kombucha.
First international Sweet 1600 on the Brockton Oval in Vancouver’s Stanley Park with @tonya-engst! I think we may have also claimed the Farthest From Ithaca crown from @sryan004 after his effort in Seattle. @CharlieF might take that one away if he can find some tracks in France, Germany, and Switzerland.
After pacing Tonya to a 9:26, I decided to see what my legs were up to. It was a cinder track like I’d run on at Newark Valley in high school, but with a bit more grass in the inside lane. I knew an all-out effort would be a stupid idea, but after I ran an 87-second first lap and came through the 800 in 2:57 (90-second second lap), I thought I could break 6:00. My third lap was tough, as always—that’s no man’s land—and my 1200 split was 4:30 (93-second lap), but I was able to pick it up a bit to close with an 86-second last lap to finish in 5:56. Still 31 seconds slower than last year’s downhill East Hill Rec Way mile, but lots of room to improve with training.
After those track miles, I ran another 3 miles on the Stanley Park sea wall trails—gorgeous views.
Not much time to run today, so I took another shot at the 1600 at Cornell. It was mostly empty for my warmup, but by the time I hit my 2nd lap of racing, the lacrosse team started filing in, and at the end of lap 3, the coach told me that the track was closing for their practice, which starts at noon. I asked if I could do one last lap (as I was still running along, trying not to slow down) and he kindly said yes, so off I went for my final lap. The headwind was rough for the last 100 meters of every lap, and I ended up one second slower than my previous effort. I’d like to hit 6:15 before the end of this challenge. I’ll keep trying!
Our tour of Vancouver tracks continued today with a visit to the track at Confederation Park. Alas, we forgot to take pictures (maybe we’ll be close enough driving by later to backfill some) but it was an odd track. 400m, for sure, but it was an odd track with short straightaways and long, shallow turns. It was also on a slight hill, so you really flew down one straightaway and had to work up the other.
Tonya and I ran separately today, so I did a warmup 1600m in 7:37. I’d been grumbling about not wanting to run hard again—it wasn’t that long after lunch, and it was cool and a little drizzly—but once I got moving, I felt decent. I’d forgotten my Garmin and had to use the Strava app in the Apple Watch, which makes it hard to get splits, but I was on roughly 6:30 pace, and indeed held it smoothly to a 6:29. Two miles didn’t seem like enough for the day, so I ran another cooldown 1600m in the opposite direction in 7:23. Then we walked around the rest of the park to get our tourist points before heading back to our Airbnb.
And @MWoods, just wait until our track meets—I’m sure you’ll hit 6:15 or faster there, and worst case, we can have a group run with pacers for specific paces.
Today’s track in Vancouver was in Confederation Park, which I believe has to do with the Canadian provinces and not with the American Civil War. Yesterday I didn’t warm up at all and thus ran my first quarter much slower than the other three. Today, I did a warmup lap and then tried to run evenly on the fun edge of fast. I was very satisfied to improve my time from yesterday by 10 seconds. The track was in the middle of a huge park with something for everyone - skateboard area, lacrosse, tennis, bocce ball etc and even a library.
I was originally a bit dubious about the whole track thing. I couldn’t imagine endlessly running around in circles without roots to trip over, cars to duck, hills to climb, etc. I have found myself warming up to it as time goes by. I’ve been using it to experiment with different strides, cadences, arm swings, etc. It has allowed me to really determine what my flat ground paces are in the different heart rate zones. It’s allowed me to practice some speed work on a soft surface that’s easier on my aging joints. Since it seems to remove most other distractions and variables, it allows you to focus your attention inward on whatever you need to work on (form, breathing, economy…).
Full disclosure, I have been trying to run half the mileage CW to balance out all the CCW motion. I noticed a few weeks ago doing some speed work that my right hip was giving me trouble. I may be misattributing it, but it seemed to me that it was from the constant left turns. Since adding the bi-directional miles, the hip issue has finally resolved.
My biggest struggle has been avoiding the urge to run faster than I need to. Tonight was meant to be an easy night, so I employed a trick I have used over the past 9 months to force myself to ratchet it down. Eat and drink just prior to going out. Tonight, after about a pound and a half of spicy Thai food, it really helped attenuate the pace without exercising much will power.
It’s also been nice having something that I can do towards the challenge that doesn’t involve an hours drive.
Just having been in quarantine, it was also the only other good option I had to running the roads. It is fairly easy to keep a comfortable distance from everyone out on the country roads, but would have been difficult to guarantee the same on the trails and pathways. The local track is always empty after hours and I could have it all to myself. Had anyone else actually showed up, It would have been easy to evacuate without having to get near anyone. I helped make quarantine a little less miserable.
I do still definitely enjoy my trail miles more, but I also have to admit I have enjoyed the time on the track as well.
Today’s Vancouver track excursion was to the collegiate track at Simon Fraser University, where our son is a PhD student. He wouldn’t be caught awake at 8 AM, but since the forecast was predicting rain all day despite early morning sun, we decided to pop up the mountain (Simon Fraser is on the top of Burnaby Mountain) and run a quick 1600m. @tonya-engst was going to run down the mountain afterward, but I only had 30 minutes of parking, so we walked over the track, checked it out, ran our 1600s, and then skedaddled. Nothing faster or longer today since tomorrow is a 5K parkrun, so I held it to 7:25.
Wide-angle view of the entire track with gorgeous clouds above.
ObSelfie
Exactly the sort of sign you want to see—a full access track!
Today’s track was the one up on Burnaby Mountain, at Simon Fraser University. This was extra exciting for me because it is part of the school that Tristan is attending. Unlike the previous two Vancouver-area tracks, which were very wide, encircling a general grassy area - possibly for rugby - this one had an oval shape and went around a US-style football field. About half-way through my warm-up lap, it was obvious that it would take another mile or two to warm up enough to run a quick mile, so I opted to use my warm-up lap as part of my mile effort. I took my time, enjoying the early morning sun, blue sky, very green trees, and poofy clouds. Adam snapped this photo of me as I was finishing.
This cracked me up!!! I would likely be in the bathroom if I tried to exert myself after Thai food.
Traveling in Europe with the family. Today we were in Lausanne, Switzerland. At the end of a long day of walking, we came across a beautiful bright blue track near the waterfront. I wasn’t dressed for running, my calves were crazy sore from multiple days of walking, and I had recently had a decent-sized beer, but how could I pass up an opportunity to get another challenge run? It actually ended up feeling quite good to run a bit, and we all had a good laugh.
I had grand intentions for the day, but the lazy Saturday of a long weekend took over and I decided on just doing a mile on the Dryden track to keep my streak alive. Today is #1609.
Stopped at the liquor store in town to get supplies for my race next weekend, where I discovered at least 4 mini bottles of Fireball can fit in the side pocket on my leggings.
Today’s Sweet 1600 was on the Centennial Oval, a community track that, like the Confederation Park track from two days ago, was located next to a local library—a good combination, libraries and tracks! Once again, no issues with the public using the track, although this particular track really needed resurfacing, something a friendly guy we chatted with said was likely to happen soon.
I ran this as an easy effort after a fairly hard 5K at the Mundy parkrun, something that I’ll have to post more about separately, since it was an interesting thing.
Afterward, @tonya-engst and I went out to brunch, where I tried the beef bulgogi breakfast burrito, in a Korean/Mexican fusion. Quite tasty!
