Sweet 1600 Star Posts (2022)

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I slept terribly due to the storm, so changed my running plan for this morning last minute to 3 miles on the track: warmup, hard one, cooldown.

Parked at the wildflower preserve because I’m cheap and refuse to pay for parking. I think I saw @mclark leaving just as I was getting there, so maybe had the same idea?

I was aiming for 6:00 flat, but between lack of sleep and the ridiculous wind on the home stretch, I was wrecked. Still, 6:23 is 24 seconds off my previous best this year, so nothing to scoff at.

I’m thinking the heavy increase in training is starting to catch up with me, so it may be time to dial it back a bit…

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Stopped by the mall on my way home to pick up teacher gifts

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Story

Yep - that was me. Did a warmup then a Sweet 16 on the Cornell track. I think you could almost lap me twice with your speeds if we started at the same time. My time today was 8:50 - my fast days are many years in the past. Nice job!

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Story

I ran a mile at today’s track meet in Lansing. I was pretty exhausted after a day of packing and moving boxes, but I still improved my time. My last Sweet 1600 effort on the Ottawa track was 7:14, and today I ran 7:09 (if I heard correctly :rofl:). Next fitness goal: getting back to running a mile under 7 minutes! But most importantly… what a fun meet!!
The highlights were:

  1. seeing so many parents run with their children! So many adorable little scenes, including @Margaret_Frank’s daughter chasing her at the mile race start :heart:;
  2. running the 4x200m relay with @Katie_Gannon, @amalia and Laura (a friend visiting from the Netherlands). I had never run a relay before and it is great! @adamengst I told @tonya-engst that you should consider including a relay in next year’s challenge :wink:
  3. obviously, witnessing the 4 Adams running the 4x200m relay… what a showdown! Gotta practice those baton handoffs though :rofl:
    Thank you so much to the volunteers for putting together such a great event! I am looking forward to seeing the official pics taken by the photographer…


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For dinner we got takeout from New Delhi Diamond’s… greatly recommended!

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Story

Thanks @adamengst and all the volunteers who organized tonight’s track meet! What a great event! So welcoming to all ages, whether you’re one of the littlest kids carrying along your bunny stuffed animal in the 100m, or one of the superstar runners in their 70s, or somewhere in between.

It was my 6-year old’s first meet, and I took him to the track this morning for fun, to practice running the 400m. A bonus this morning was that the water sprinklers were on in the field, so he got to run through those too.

He loves to run, but it was tough to stay focused on the practice lap… he was busy watching sprinklers and the rainbows they make, asking why some arrows on the track point the wrong way, asking if you get to take a break when you get to where it says “BREAK LINE”, etc. He enjoyed running in the meet and hearing his name booming over the loudspeaker as he neared the finish.

For me, it wasn’t my best 1600 tonight but it was fun! And even more fun was the 4x200 relay that @lizhartman (who ran an awesome 1600!) kindly invited me to join. I never run sprints like that, and I gave it all I had!

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Story

Happy 4th of July, everyone! :us:

We are in Ottawa again, visiting my partner’s family. The weather is beautiful! Yesterday I went out on a long run. Today I was in the mood for something shorter, so I took advantage again of the track at the Immaculata High School.

The running gods were on my side, because I was finally able to run a sub-7 min. Sweet 1600, in 6:46!

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We are heading to the Five Lakes Club in Gatineau for a swim and a barbecue, so we went to Whole Foods Market for some grocery shopping. I’m pissing off all the Canadians with my outfit… :rofl:

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Story

On the way home from the gym today I stopped at Ithaca College to do an easy mile. This is a momentous occasion for me because it’s the first time I’ve run since breaking my big toe at Lick Brook. Here’s my report about my toe-breaking run, written before I realized I was injured.

One mile isn’t much, but it’s a huge step forward for me. I’m very happy to be back. Let the (gradual) return to training begin.

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Story


went up to the Lansing track, where Anne and I each ran a couple miles. It was already to hot for ideal speed but that’s ok, beautiful track and beautiful setting

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after running, we fit in a relaxed exploratory canoe paddle along the east shore in Ithaca, then went on down to the On The Street food truck for a yummy lunch. Their truck is opposite Island Health and along the water. While we ate we watched this quite large boat turn itself around in a very small space

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Story

Hello from Peterborough, Ontario! We came here to see “The Great Shadow” at 4th Line Theater: https://www.4thlinetheatre.on.ca
My partner’s sister is acting in the play. Her name is Sochi Fried and she is fabulous. The play is a lot of fun, and the location is actually a farm turned into a theater surrounded by beautiful countryside. Greatly recommended, if you ever come here!


So, this morning I went out for a run. I initially did not think I was going to do a Sweet 1600 effort, so I went to the nearby park, Jackson Park, for a morning jog. It’s quite beautiful.










Then I wanted to buy some milk at a convenience store, but the store was not opened yet, so I simply continued running and… I found a track! It belongs to the St. Peter Catholic Secondary School, and it was completely empty. So… here I go with another little Sweet 1600 :laughing:



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After I was done with the mile, the store opened, so I bought my milk and headed back to the AirBnb. Definitely a fun little morning adventure!

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Story

Well, @amy-dawson and I did something epic today: 18 miles of total work in NYC, 6 of which was on tracks. We collaborated on our post, so I’ll refer to her post instead of making you look at pictures 2x. Nice, right? I’d be remiss if I didn’t share this outtake from our last mile today. We were whipped!

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Oh, we shopped local, for sure. Juice, salad, Gatorade … all in the spirit of nutrition and hydration!

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Story

Wow, that was an epic day! We call this our “track crawl” day, or “trackapalooza”. We looked up all the public tracks in Manhattan and found four that we could reasonably do in a day (we just dropped our son off at summer camp at NYU). With the track workouts, plus all the walking between them, we logged 18 miles today. Here’s what we found:

FLRC Challenge: Sweet 1600 (Asser Levy Recreation Center)

This was a really tiny track as part of a playground complex. We shared a Naked Juice (Mango) before this effort. Beating down sun and tight turns on an asphalt surface. There was a couple doing plyo workouts in the middle, but other than that we were alone.

FLRC Challenge: Sweet 1600 (John V. Lindsay East River Park Track)

This track was SO beautiful! We walked along the East River walkway from Asser Levy. The track is a genuine quarter-mile with a nice rubberized surface. A lot of people here and a soccer game going on in the infield. We liked it so much we did it twice: ran it once and walked it once.

FLRC Challenge: Sweet 1600 (Chelsea Park Track)

After hitting Sweetgreen for a shared salad we headed up to this track which ran around another soccer field. The surface was rubber mats on top of asphalt, and really in need of an upgrade. Super tight turns on the corners. We did another walking effort on this track to wind down and talk a little.

FLRC Challenge: Sweet 1600 (74th Street Track)

We were whipped after the last effort so we grabbed some Gatorades from a nearby grocery and enjoyed them as we walked up the Hudson River Greenway to 74th Street. This track was a cute cinder oval looking over the Hudson. Grabbed a cab back to the hotel to rehydrate with some Ithaca Flower Power (one of 3 beers on offer) and then some delicious Mexican food.

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Plenty of local shopping to keep us fed and hydrated, all mentioned above.

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Amazing! Good job, you guys! And thanks for letting us know about all these tracks in NYC :wink: looking forward to checking them out!

I loved reading about your Manhattan adventure!

Oh my, @amy-dawson and @scottpdawson, you have just upped the ante in urban trackage! @tonya-engst is already trying to think of how many tracks we might be able to hit in one day in Vancouver when we’re there again in August, though there’s no chance we’d be able to walk between them. I imagine few cities have the track density you found in Manhattan.

Story

I’ve been slowly increasing my mileage all year, and as I pass the 20-mile per week mark, I’m starting to add short runs to days that previously would have been a walk or a rest. Also, it is so hot this week that I’m trying to run in the morning, though usually I prefer later in the day. And, I saw yesterday that I can run before work (I work at Cornell) and clean up with a water bottle and towel at the car. When I am at work these days, I don’t actually interact with other people at close range—it’s all Zoom or I’m in my office alone. (Before COVID, I would have showered in Teagle, but I’m still not ready for that.)

The Cornell track was open using the small gate about 80 feet left of the main gate, so I casually ran an 11-minute mile while admiring the fluffy clouds in the blue sky and enjoying the breeze. I may have seen @vedgund on the track - not sure if it was him. For my second mile, I was feeling good, so I tried for a good time, but I think one of my Vancouver times was faster.

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I stopped at Gimme on the way to the office and had my favorite purple bottle filled with coffee.

Two miles on a track and a Gimme coffee is a great way to start the day!

Story

Hellooooo from (scorching hot :fire:) Italy! :it:

I already miss you all but I can’t say I’m sorry to be here… we spent a few days around the lakes in the north of Italy (Lago Maggiore and Lago d’Orta), visiting lavish gardens and fighting the heat with huge quantities of ice cream (you know me :rofl:).





So, this morning I figured I had to start looking for tracks, since from now on my only contribution to the Challenge from abroad can be to record Sweet 1600 efforts. The one I went to belongs to A.S.D Bulè Bellinzago and is very close to my village, Cameri. It was technically closed for renovation, but nobody came to complain, and I happily had the whole place entirely to myself all the time I was there.




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After the run, I had breakfast in the best “pasticceria” in my village, Salsa. Here is the proud owner, Andrea :smile:

His mini pastries are so yummy!

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Hey, I’m really pleased you can keep up with us via Sweet 1600 posts! And that we get to see great photos from Italy. What is “A.S.D Bulè Bellinzago” such that they own a track? :slight_smile:

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@adamengst Haha glad to entertain! :grin: It looks like A.S.D Bulè Bellinzago is a football club. This is their website: https://www.bulebellinzago.com/

So fun to see your photos from Italy. We will miss you here in Ithaca.

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Story

With some concering health issues waiting to be checked out by the doctor, I haven’t been trying for speed on any of the courses in the past 2 months. However, something came over me tonight, and I decided one fast mile wouldn’t kill me - right??

After dropping the cat off at my parents house for them to cat-sit while I am out of town starting tomorrow, I stopped at the Dryden High School track. Let me preface this with: before this challenge, the last time I ran on a track was in high school, so I don’t know jack about warming up, cooling down, or anything in between (except the running bit).

I started with a mile warm up: 1 lap walking fast, 3 laps at 3min/30sec walk/run. That was already the fastest mile I’ve done since Lucifer’s Crossing in June.

The harder effort for mile 2 was 30 second run/walk intervals, with the final 400m taking the run intervals as fast as I could, scoring a sub-12 minute mile. Regardless of what other people think about it, my leg didn’t complain, my heart was only a little grumpy, and I am extremely happy with my time.

Even though the trail shoes keep my leg happy, they feel like they weigh 10 pounds when you’re trying to run fast on a track.

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Congrats @heathercobb3! Way to go! :heart:

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