Long Distance Archive - 1999

12/30/99

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION:

• On this surprisingly warm night (almost fifty degrees), the workout took place around the reservoir.  Basically, the workout consisted of seven repeats of (20 lamp posts fast, 10 lamp posts recovery).  The distance covered is 3 times around the reservoir (1.577 x 3 = 4.7 miles), plus 2 x 0.8 = 1.6 miles from and back to the Daniel Webster statue, yielding a total of 6.3 miles.

FIELD NOTES

• This workout took place just one night before New Year's Eve.  How many people do you think showed up tonight?  When David Diviney got there, he saw eight people including the coach.  He mused, "Small turnout tonight?"  Based upon experience, that should not be the case.  It is just that people are variously "habitually late," "intentionally late," "intelligently late" or "fashionably late."  The final count when we took off was twenty-nine people.
• Santa Claus dropped by in the form of Blair Boyer on a bicycle with gifts.  Audrey Kingsley got a horn and Tony Ruiz got a pair of sunglasses with large letters of '2000'.  As Tony went on to describe the workout, the crowd was rather restless and inattentive.  Why?  Stacy Creamer finally had to speak up for us, "Tony, it is rather difficult to listen to what you are saying because you look so funny in those sunglasses."
• Tony Ruiz said that he received a telephone call from George Wisniewski today, wanting to give his best wishes to the team for the new year.  For those who don't know, George was our coach for sixteen years up until 1997.
• A little bird on the wire at this workout informed us that Scott Willett and Julie Denney were the respective overall male and female winners at the Ironman Triathlon in Israel on December 18th, 1999.  The standard channels of information were blacked out this time, so it came from a thoroughly unexpected (and therefore completely unimpeachable) source.
• Among those present today was Richie Borrero.  Remember?  This is the man who was designated by the coach to take some time off from running.  Last Thursday, he had promised to take time off effective the next day.  How long did he manage to stay off the road, if at all?  According to Richie, he was able to hold off for eighty-three-and-a-half hours.
• So how far are twenty lamp posts?  Well, it turns out that, within one reservoir loop, after you do 3 times (20 lamp posts fast, 10 lamp posts recovery), you would have be just three lampposts short of one full loop.  Therefore, one reservoir loop consisted of 93 lampposts.  Since the reservoir loop is 1.577 miles, this means that the average distance between lampposts is approximately (1.577 x 1609 / 94)  = 27 meters.  But, as we are apt to tell everyone we know, being right on the average means that you are wrong all of the time.  Indeed, the distance is much shorter near Engineer's Gate and much longer at the northwest corner.  On the average, twenty lampposts goes about 20 x 27 = 540 meters.
• 83.5 hours.  540 meters.  How about another number: 2080?  This is the total mileage goal that John Gleason set for himself for this year.  This works out to be 40 miles a week for 52 weeks (question: what does he do on the 365th day?).  As of tonight, he is seven miles short.  That would be the assignment for tomorrow. 
• This workout is supposed to be run as a fartlek and not a sprint workout.  That is, the pickups should not be too fast and the recoveries should not be too slow.  As the coach suggested, this is the kind of workout that you need to do if you want to be like Fritz Mueller when you grow up.  The coach even did six sets himself for two loops with the "A" team, adding "It was possible only because Alan Ruben was not here, because he would have pushed the recoveries too hard for me to keep up."
• For the last few months, getting onto the reservoir was like running an obstacle course in the dark because of the construction work at the West 86th entrance.  The construction work has now been completed, and there are now fences and benches.  Those benches were very convenient for Charles Allard, who sat down on one as soon as he reached that point.
• Eve Kaplan offered this review: "Another AWESOME workout!"  Fine, but in the future we would like Eve to help build up our workout vocabulary beyond one word ...
• After the reservoir workout was finished, people headed back to the Daniel Webster statue along West Drive.  Audrey Kingsley stated, "Ah, this is where the real workout starts" and promptly led a mad charge by a group of six.  Along the way, the group came across someone standing near West 81st Street.  After our group went by, Audrey said, "You know, for a while, I thought his name was Warren."  This caused Craig Chilton to issue this warning to her, "Audrey, before you say something like that, you really should check to see who is among us ..."  Yes, and to think that we have been accusing her of looking around during races ...  (in case you don't get the point, here is a hint: in the Top 10 Favorite Photos of 1999, there is a photo of Sid Howard playing picaboo)
• In the past, we have been accused of publishing many obscure references.  We plead nolo contendere.  However, we must say that we were really pleased with the multilevel interplay within the preceding item.  That has to be our crowning moment ... that is, until the next one.

12/28/99

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION:

for road runners:

3 x (200m, short jog recovery)
3 x (1000m, 500m recovery)
3 x (600m, 300m recovery)

FIELD NOTES:

• There were about 25 people at the workout, on this slow day between Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

• The substitute coach today was Stuart Calderwood, drafted into service via the modern miracle of voice mail.  What was the theoretical basis of this improvised workout?  Well, in the first few workouts this year, we have covered 400m's, 800m's, 1200m's and 1600m's.  So that leaves 1000m's and 600m's to round out the cycle, right?  This was Stuart's prediction of Tony Ruiz's program for today and once he was pressed into service, it was the logical workout to give.  To get his own running in, Stuart sped around the track by himself after everyone else had finished.  We thank him for his services tonight.
• The first group consisted initially of Craig Chilton, Isaya Okwiya, Brian Marchese and others.  After the official workout was over, those three named individuals were observed to be doing 'strides' because Isaya says it is a good thing that track guys do.  Yeah, those strides look like mighty long and fast ones to us.
• In the third group, Ira Gold was leading the group in the first two 1000m's.  For his efforts, he got a promotion to the second group.  The coach said, "Yeah, you can keep Ross (Galitsky) company", as if Ross wasn't fast.  It is a fundamentally different experience to go from first in one group to last in another group even though the absolute pace is quicker.  Of course, Ross was the guy who played the role of The Destroyer at last week's road workout.  He said, "Oh, but that was on the road."
• In the third group, Stacy Creamer ran the 600m's in something like 2:03, 2:01, 1:58.  Why was the final one so fast?  She explained, "There was someone very close behind me for two laps.  I was afraid that if I slowed down even a bit, we would have the biggest pile up on the track."  Not to worry, because her shadow was left on the side of the track screaming in agony with leg cramps.  Audrey Kingsley got extremely concerned and wanted to know, not "Are you alright?", but "Where is the web camera?"  There would be no photos taken for this episode, but for obvious reasons that are completely different from those at Audrey's own dramatic collapses at the Women's Half Marathon and the Manhattan Half Marathon this year.
• As the coach went about assigning people to different pace groups, someone yelled out, "But where is Dan Sack?"  AWOL tonight, as well as AWOL at the track meet on Sunday.  Definitely not in character.
• Jim Olson said before the workout, "Someone should point out to me just who David Pullman is, because I want to apologize to him for taking his stuff home by mistake."  Alas, David was absent today (or else he was really really late even by this own lofty standards), with someone offering the explanation, "Oh, he's probably on a safari somewhere in Africa."
• David Diviney was trying to explain what "cyclocross" was, when Ross Galitsky jumped in to say, "Yeah, I want to find out what that is."  There was a loud chorus saying, "Ross, you are involved in enough sports already!  You don't need another one!"  Ross said, "But I want to get another bike ..."  Ah, we get it --- so it is the need to accumulate more equipment that motivates multi-sport athletes ...  
• Most people have no doubt seen the Top 10 Favorite Photos of 1999 already.  Tonight, Eve Kaplan asked, "What did I do to deserve to make the top 10?"  Answer: "All you had to do was to hold good form and smile.  What more do you need?"  She also said, "I wasn't even aware of it, until a friend in California called to tell me that they saw my picture."  Did anyone say World Wide Web?
• Carol Tyler logged on to the computer today and found herself on the home page in a photo titled "Me and My Shadow."  She had no idea who that guy was.
• After the workout, someone accidentally bumped into the fire hydrant box and triggered off the alarm.  This led someone else to say, "What is a workout if the fire alarm did not go off?"  This was in reference to last week when that fire alarm bell was going on for an eternity while everybody tried to ignore it.  Who was the guilty party tonight?  Someone exclaimed, "XXXXX did it ... and we don't know him."

• Most of us make the long trek to the Armory from Manhattan.  It is a long trip going up and coming back, so it helps to have company.  Here is a photo of Aubin Sullivan and Brian Barry tonight, seated in front of Kim Mannen's masterpiece on the "A" train.  This would have been another chance to rack up more Gross Rating Points for Kim's ad copy, except that she has moved on to another company and another account ...  Does anyone know where Sara Lee advertises?  (technical note: Sara Lee is a huge conglomerate with many brands, such as Ballpark Frank (no, we don't mean that baseball player Frank Schneiger ...)).

12/23/99

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION:

• This is an out-and-back workout, starting from the Daniel Webster statue up north, cutting across the 102nd Street transverse, heading south to Cleopatra's Needle and retracing the route back home.  The point is to run the second half at about 20 seconds per mile faster.  For example, if your 10K race pace is 6 minutes/mile, then you should go out at 7 minutes/mile pace and come back at 6:40 minute/mile.  The total distance for the workout is 6.5 miles.

FIELD NOTES

• Two days before Christmas day, this work drew thirty-four people.  Last year, the famous Christmas Eve workout ("Why aren't you home!?") drew only fourteen people.  Shall we say that we are now more mature and committed?
• The question left hanging from last week's workout was: will Stuart Calderwood continue to lead the "B"/"C" people in more workouts, or will he go back to hammering it out with Alan Ruben?  This was answered unequivocally today as Stuart and Alan did the 'horizon' thing on the 'young' folks on the team.
• While we were waiting around for the workout to start, two NYPD officers came around on horses.  They employed a pincer movement, one going left and the other going right to converge at the back of the Daniel Webster statue where they found Tyronne Culpepper.  "Is everything alright?" they asked him.  Yes, everything was alright at that moment as Tyronne was not engaged in an act that affects the quality of life in New York City in a negative manner.  Phew!  Another close call!
• Remember that we inserted a note from the coach to Richie Borrero to remind him to take a week or so off.  Well, he was here again tonight, but he promised to take time off as of tomorrow.  Richie was here tonight with his brother Dan.  Question: "Are they twins?"  Answer: Yes, Richie was the one in the blue hat and Dan was the one in the red hat.  Question: "I have seen them before at the races.  They are fast, aren't they?"  Answer: Yes, they are.
• Now that the NYU final exams are over, Audrey Kingsley can show up again.  She said, "I've been away so long.  At one time, the workout description used to ask, 'Where is Audrey?'  Recently, I am not even mentioned anymore.  Soon it will be 'Who was Audrey?'"  She reached the first mile in a time of 7:35 ( slower than her projected time for a 60K race).  Was she out of conditioning?  Or was it because she was talking non-stop with Yves-Marc Courtines?
• As is often the case, the coach will set up a variation of the workout for those who are racing on the weekend.  When he asked, "Who's racing this weekend?"  Up shot the hand of Dan Sack, making it nine races in eight weeks (including two marathons and a 60K).  We suppose that he has every right to round it off with a track race.
• Since this was effectively a tempo run, there was no place for any recovery runs anywhere.  This was just sheer brute strength.  It is important to go out at that slower pace, which will feel very easy, and then come back strong.  If you go out too fast, then there is no hope in coming back 20 seconds per mile faster.  Taking this point to heart, some of the people may have carried it to the other extreme by going out way too easy and coming back way too fast (special thanks to that pace-pushing triathlete ...).
• For those of you who intend to do the Midnight Run, Alan Ruben has suggested that the Central Park Track Club people and friends gather around the Daniel Webster statue around 1130pm for their own little get-together.
• Here is a random collection of reviews about this workout:
  Eve Kaplan: "It was an AWESOME workout!"
  Yves-Marc Courtines: "It guess that is why they call this a WORKout."
  Tyronne Culpepper: "This reminds me not to skip too many Thursday workouts."
  Bola Awofeso: "I am going to have to take the subway home, because I don't think I will be able to run the 2.5 miles to get home."

12/21/99

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION:

for road runners:

3 x (200m, short jog recovery)
1 mile, 800m recovery
4 x (400m, 200m recovery)
1 mile

for track runners:

3 x (200m, short jog recovery)
1200m, 800m recovery
4 x (400m, 200m recovery)
1200m

FIELD NOTES:

• There were twenty-three people at the start of the 800pm session (and someone is always late on account of the trains).  There were about ten people at the 630pm sprinters' session.
• The sprinting Spaniard Raphael Devalle came over and said, "You know the item about the Stuyvesant track website that you posted a few days ago?  (see our On The Web page).  I was from the class of '74 and Noah Perlis was from the class of '64.  I just want to tell you that no offense was taken."  Oh, really?  Like we care!  More interestingly, he revealed the following fact, "I was a State fencing champion at Stuyvesant."  En garde!
• When Dan Sack arrived at the workout, he was handed a medal for the 15K race on Sunday.  He asked, "What is this for?"  One possible answer: "For running eight races in the last seven weeks, including two marathons and a 60 kilometer race."  Well, it was actually for a first-place open men's team finish.  He said, "But I finished in thirty-something-th place."  That was in fact good enough to be the fifth scorer.  Later on, we found out that he thought that it was an individual medal, and hence his comment.  He said, "I've got twenty-five years of education, and I still can't read a simple inscription."
• When Craig Chilton arrived at the workout, he was also handed a medal for the same 15K race.  He said, "I didn't think that we even had five people in the race."  For the record, the other three people were John Scherrer, Noel Comess (in incognito white) and Rich Piccirillo.  The beauty of this team is that you don't even have to organize anything --- there are enough quality runners showing up by themselves that you can get a team medal any day.
• The "A" team was in fact splintered into two sections:  Stuart Calderwood and Craig Chilton ran the miles, while John Scherrer and Isaya Okwiya ran the 1200m's.  Again, it looked like as if the whole place stopped to watch Isaya run the last 200m of the final 1200m with his long stride.  Said John Scherrer, "I ran the last 1200m in 3:34, but I must look like I was running 6 minute/mile compared to him."
• The "B" team had about eight people, including Tyronne Culpepper, Victor Osayi, David Diviney, Jesus Montero and Dan Sack (please pardon us for not being able to name everyone).  At one point, Dan was heard saying out loud, "Oh, I think I finally get it.  We are running like a team ..."
• The "C" team was led by Ira Gold and Stacy Creamer.  Behind them, the half a dozen of other people in the group set their own agenda.  Thus, Bola Awofeso was heard to say, "I'm not going to follow (name deleted), because he isn't going to be able to finish."  Question: "Why was a name deleted?"  Answer #1: "I don't know.  It's a mystery."  Answer #2: "It's no mystery."
• The "D" team also had about eight people, including Frank Schneiger who was asking, "Why are I doing this?  What am I going to get out of this?"  His questions were met with stony silence.
• The latest (and probably last) team member to enter the winner's circle this year is David Diviney, who won at the New York State Cyclocross Championships on Saturday.  Say what?  'Cyclocross' stands for cross-country steeplechase cycling.  That is to say, you ride your bike until you come up to an obstacle, you dismount, you put the bike on your shoulder, you climb over the obstacle, you remount your bicycle and you continue.  Sounds like a lot of fun?
• Kim Mannen came back from Mexico without being sunburnt, and handed out home-baked cookies to celebrate the holidays.  Did she get any running done?  She replied, "It was not easy to run when it is eighty plus degrees outside."  When asked why she was not with the sprinters, she said, "Coach Tony says that I am not ready just yet, but I will be running track races later in the season."
• David Pullman wants us to emphasize that he came in on time this week.  Maybe that will help him not to lose his belongings like he did last week.  As far as he was concerned, he said that he made a lot of friends with Warren Street and Millrose people who were trying to help him find his stuff.
• As one group was leaving, someone wondered why everyone else was still hanging around.  Answer: "They are all waiting for Sid Howard to give them a ride, except that Sid has already left."  Yes, it is nice to know that one is popular.
• For those of you who intend to do the Midnight Run, Alan Ruben has suggested that the Central Park Track Club people and friends gather around the Daniel Webster statue around 1130pm for their own little get-together.  How about that?

12/16/99

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION:

• This time, we do our warm up eastwards through the 72nd Street transverse and then head up to regroup at the Alexander Hamilton statue (right across the Metropolitan Museum near East 82nd Street).  Our first long pick up is two miles through the northern hills and stopping at the top of Harlem Hill.  We recover southwards and then turning east on the 102nd Street transverse.  We turn north again and at the first traffic light three lampposts down from East 102nd Street, we run one mile strong to finish at West 102nd Street.  We head back home from there.  The total distance is 6.3 miles. (=4.9mile upper loop plus 1.4 mile northern hill loop)

FIELD NOTES

• It was a cool and windy night.  We had 36 persons in attendance tonight, obviously without the two who are doing the Ironman triathlon  in Israel.
• Coach Tony Ruiz was unable to provide a detailed report on the weekend's race results as he was out of color ink cartridge for his computer printer.  As he spoke from memory, he probably missed one of the major team stories of the Joe Kleinerman 10K --- the masters women team was indeed led by the amazing PR-smashing Stacy Creamer and also Sarah Gross, but it was the third scorer Mary Rosado running at a 'marathon-like' distance who helped the team finished second in this race, just enough to move the team up to third place for the year.
• For this workout, you are advised to run the first mile of the two mile pickup at 10 mile race pace and the second mile at 10K race pace.  Then the next single mile should be at the same 10K race pace.  This is a lot harder than you think if you choose to ignore the instructions, because that second mile and the solo mile both involve that big Harlem hill.
• The first people to finish the final mile were Alan Ruben (as the spectators mumbled, "Of course") and Erik Goetze, followed at a short distance behind by Ramon Bermo.  Our trailer's explanation was, "It's not that I did not want to stay with them.  It just happened.  I knew I could have stayed with them, but it would have taken a lot."  Hey, Ramon, aren't you the guy who wants to race yourself into shape at the workouts?
• Right behind the first three was Richie Borrero.  This guy is the MAC $$$-winner in his age group this year, and he had to run quite a few races in order to accomplish that.  As Richie went by, the coach Tony Ruiz yelled out, "Richie, try to take a week off now.  It will do you a lot of good."  If Richie did not hear that, then he can read about it right here.
• On the way back, the talk of the town was about how Stuart Calderwood drove the second group to a tremendous final mile today.  First, he reassembled the fractured group from the first two-mile pickup.  Then they started out together until the bottom of the hill.  As Tivon Jacobson noted, "Then all of a sudden the people in my group just took off up the big hill leaving a sonic boom behind."  Well, Tivon will have the next month to think about this episode as he takes his intersession break in Arizona/California.  But everybody thought that they were pushed to run better and harder.  We don't know if we want to take a poll to see if these people want Stuart to recover from his cough so that he can hammer it out with Alan Ruben or to keep him around with them.
• It has come to our attention that these workouts have been invaded by French-speaking people.  This week, we were listening to Roger and Olivier chatting in French on the way up, and with Yves-Marc Courtines on the way back.  Of course, we are not francophobic here.  After all, the past president of this club is Sylvie Kimché, who tries to assure us that she is deep at heart still a plain girl from the French countryside and that is why Columbus (Ohio) is just like home to her.  Yves-Marc made the following recommendation today: "I think  we'll need a frog icon to route all the French people to their special corner."  Yes, everybody (and especially our Brits) is welcome to click on this icon.

• Pam Bohl is not a French citizen, but she happens to be a resident of Paris (France).  Pam drops by our workouts whenever she is in town (e.g. see 9/7/99 workout description when she was between Alaska and Paris), like today.  As an international member, she probably logs more airplane mileage for club events than anyone except Colin Frew.  In fact, she is even on the list of people for the Armory Track this season!
• Speaking of French speakers, we must relate a story about Tyronne Culpepper.  Once upon a time, at a certain social function for Central Park Track Club people, we came into a room and saw this very strange sight of four people speaking on wireless/cellular phones in different corners of the room.  It was a scene that could be the subject for the Theater of the Absurd.  Anyway, one of these people was Tyronne, who was called by someone on his phone.  He seemed very happy to hear from the person and said, "Comment ça va?"  Then he said, "Okay, I'll have to switch to another language, because that is all I know in French."  Of course, he may not be the only mono-phrased French speaker on our club.  Speaking for himself, Roland Soong claims that he can say "Ce qui me rend fou c'est quand tu est comme ça" in flawless French due to countless practices.  Do you know where that phrase comes from?  Knowing that you don't have a prayer to come up the answer, he tells you that it is from Nabokov's Lolita.  Postscript: John Scherrer wrote: "I would have known the Lolita reference."  Good for him!  In the next quiz, he'll get a 10-item handicap!
• Speaking of francophiles, where in the world is Kevin Arlyck?  Things don't seem to be the same without his critiques of our workout descriptions ...

12/14/99

Workout Description:

3 x (200m, short jog recovery)
3 x (1200m, 600m recovery)
3 x (300m, 100m recovery)

Field Notes:

• It was rainy and cold outside tonight.  On the whole, we would rather be in Cancún like Kim Mannen.  Instead, twenty-six of us showed up at the 8pm session at the Armory.
• The starting time was 830pm last week and 810pm this week.  We would like to get started with the coach's speech around 745pm in the future as we are sure that everyone would like to get home early.
• To save some time, the coach did not cover the race results over the weekend.  He will save that for the Thursday workout, when we can stand in the cold and listen to him recite the results while we shiver.  Here is the sneak preview.  Of course, the Joe Kleinerman 10K was the final scoring race of the year.  Unofficially, our final placings are Open Men in 4th place, Masters Men in 1st place, Open Women in 3rd place and Masters Women in 3rd place.
• The coach recommends that the opening 1200m be done at 10K race pace.  But if your 10K race pace is slower than your 10 mile race pace, you should try the latter.  We hope that you are thoroughly confused by the preceding statement, but we will have mercy on you by giving you the answer --- Stuart Calderwood's times at the Hot Chocolate 10 Miler (5:38 min/mile; cough) and Joe Kleinerman 10K (5:40 min/mile; cough, cough, cough).
• One of the most difficult things to adapt to is the air (or lack thereof) inside the Armory.  As the workout progressed, people were getting into trouble with breathing (typical symptom: burning throat).  We note for posterity that the third (that is, the least fast) group was reduced to just two people (the flying Jim Olson and Aubin Sullivan) on the last 1200m as everybody else dropped out.  When told that he was running as fast as the preceding group, Jim said, "But I am not going to have anything left for the rest of the season."
• John Scherrer wanted to know how we found about his photo at "Recalling a Summer of Politics."  He got the standard answer, "It is easy for someone as famous as you are."  The very humble John did protest, "But I am not famous.  However, there is another John Scherrer who is a faster runner and who has done something like a 13 minute 5K in NCAA competition."  Well, we don't know about that, but we may have a case that this John Scherrer (class of '98) is not as famous as his fellow alumnus Devon Martin (aka Devon Sargent) (class of '90) --- while both of them appear in the Columbia University Track & Field Alumni page, Devon gets an annotated photo and John doesn't.
• David Pullman arrived fashionably late and was running his own workout afterwards, chasing after John Scherrer.  Someone should have told John to let David pass, or else John may find himself named in the 2.5 billion lawsuit as well (if not already).  This is not as far-fetched as you might think ... (there goes yet another unexplained insider reference coming from this website ...)
• The Armory house rules requires that people should run in groups of eight or fewer people.  Obviously, we are much bigger than that and we will have to split up.  This makes it impossible for the coach to manage all the groups all at once.  Therefore, we are looking for volunteers to act as timers.  We are not asking for you to do that at every session, but just once per season.  If you can do it, please send an e-mail to rolandsoong@centralparktc.org to get listed.  Or you can just show up --- there is no such thing as having too many timers.  Tonight, our timer was Bola Awofeso, who said, "I don't know why I am coming up here."  Answer: "To time?"  Afterwards, Brian Barry said, "Bola is a good timer.  He makes us move on immediately after each set."
• There were a couple of people who wondered if they could move from the 800pm session to train with the sprinters at 630pm.  The short answer is, "No."  If you have a 800pm session pass, you will not be admitted before 745pm.  That's final.  If you really want to transfer, you will need to clear with our president John Kenney, who will tell you about the cost differential between the two sessions.
• Final comment: This workout description is extraordinarily long, even by our very wordy standards.  The reason is that there was another team up at the Armory and we want to impress them as to how verbose we can get in our workout descriptions.  So maybe we can't beat them in running, but we can sure outlip them ... tsk, tsk, tsk ... and we are pretty sure that they will all be reading this ...

12/9/99

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION:

• We go from the Daniel Webster statue up to the reservoir.   For one loop, we run a series of 3 lampposts fast, 3 lampposts recovery.  The pace should not be any faster than 10K race pace for those fast lampposts.  We come off the reservoir at the West 86th Street entry point and we turn north.  At 102nd Street, we run to the top of the Harlem Hill fast, recover down to the 110th Street into the park, and then we end with a one mile pickup to complete the northern hill loop.  We just jog home from there on.  If you are racing on Sunday, then your workout consists of 3 sets of (3 lampposts fast, 2 lampposts recovery) from West 90th Street and then reversing to go home.   The purpose of this workout is to mentally divide the run into small, manageable segments (thus invoking the name of Fritz Mueller in vain).

FIELD NOTES

• This was just three days before the last scoring race of the year, the Joe Kleinerman 10K.  There were forty-three people present at the workout, including quite a few newcomers.  This count includes non-running Scott Willett on his bicycle.  Who are the newcomers?  Quite a heterogeneous mix --- there are people who found us on the web and there are people who have never see our website.  And Margaret Angell brought a friend named Margaret ...  For those who want a better idea of what these workouts are about, there is a massive file (over 300,000 characters) containing the historical archive of workout descriptions (in fact, you are reading it right now) --- you will not believe how much can be said about so little ...
• The headcount was not that easy to make, because the group was packed in tight around the coach.  So for once, the coach did not have to yell out loud to be heard.
• The Joe Kleinerman 10K is a men's double points race, which means that it is possible to for some teams to make quantum leaps in their standings.  In the Open Women's division, we are in third place, 15 points ahead of the next team (GNY).  If we can field three people who complete the race, we are guaranteed 1 point, whereas the maximum points that GNY can get is 15 for winning.  We expect to be able to field many more than 3 women out there on Sunday.  In the Masters Men's division, we are the current leaders by about 10 points.  Since the maximum points is 30 for winning, we still need to put in a good effort in order not to be overtaken.  So we need our big guns out there on Sunday.  In the Open Men's division, we just moved from fifth place to fourth last week.  Again, we will need a good effort from the team to hold on.  We should be able to do that, provided that we don't have people staying in bed like Erik Goetze did last week ( ... okay, so he had a cold ... ).
• Joining us tonight all the way from Italy is Marco Tagliati, brother of Michele Tagliati.  He is an international member of the our club, having just completed the Florence marathon in 2:52:30.  He will be running the Joe Kleinerman 10K on Sunday.
• As a reminder, you are all invited to Mindy Solkin / Raphael DeValle's Marathon Millennium New Year's Party.  You have the choice between the sprint and the endurance option, or both.  Details can be found on our home page.

12/7/99

Workout Description:

3 x (200m, short jog recovery)
4 x (800m, 400m recovery)
3 x (300m, 100m recovery)

Field Notes:

• This is the first indoor track workout for us this year.  So there are some adjustments and adaptations to be made.  The first thing that we need to be aware is the time.  As we are signed up for the 800pm session, we are not permitted to enter into the track area until 745pm.  So our proposed schedule in the future is as follows:  if you think that you need to have an extensive warmup, you can come around 730pm and warm up outside on the street (you can leave your belongings inside); we will then proceed to the track at 745pm and dispense with the announcements immediately; we will start running promptly at 800pm.  The coach has promised no mercy to anyone who says, "Tony, I got here late.  What is the workout tonight?"
• There were thirty-two people present today for the 800pm session.  
• There were some first-time visitors to the Armory track.  What do they think?  Upon seeing the cavernous track area for the first time, David Diviney was in awe.  Afterwards, he said, "I can keep doing those 300m's forever here."
• Craig Chilton looked around today and said, "Good, the pacesetters Alan Ruben and Stuart Calderwood are not here today."  Before he got too happy, Stuart showed up.
• We will be running in Lane 2 most of the time, and we should use Lane 3 only for passing purposes.  That means you should not hog Lane 3 indefinitely.  And always be aware of who else is using the track.
• On the last 300m of the night, it seemed that everybody stopped and rooted for Margaret Angell to either pass the lead male runner (Ira Gold) or to hold off the trailing male runner (Tivon Jacobson).  She did not do it tonight, but given her track credentials, those guys are in big trouble once she gets a few more workouts in.  P.S.  Enough inquiries about this event has prompted us to publish the commemorative photo.
• The Armory house rules requires that people should run in groups of eight or fewer people.  Obviously, we are much bigger than that and we will have to split up.  This makes it impossible for the coach to manage all the groups all at once.  Therefore, we are looking for volunteers to act as timers.  We are not asking for you to do that at every session, but just once per season.  If you are interested, please send an e-mail to rolandsoong@centralparktc.org to get listed.  Currently, the sign-up list is blank!

12/2/99

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION:

• The route today is the six mile loop in the clockwise direction.  The first long pickup is the mile beginning at West 102nd Street.  The second pickup is 1000m from West 96th Street to West 86th Street.  The third long pickup is the 800m from Cleopatra's Needle to East 72nd Street.  Around the southern end of the park, we recover 10 lampposts, run 4 lampposts hard, 2 easy, 4 hard, 2 easy, 4 hard and jog to the statue.

FIELD NOTES

• Being just two days before the 10 mile scoring race, we had just thirty-two people at the workout.  The winds earlier in the week have died down, so this was just a pleasantly cool night.  The only drawback was that the cars were allowed in the park tonight, which drew a lot of complaints from passerbys.
• One of our female runners got to the statue and was going to head into the bush.  Instead, she found a police car parked right behind the statue with the spotlight turned on.  As she pondered her options, someone suggested the bushes on the south side.  "No," she said, "It's so dark over there and you never know if there are some weird people over there."  When someone said that only Sid Howard comes from that direction, she said, "Oh, you mean to say that Sid is weird!  I've got to report what you just said to the webmaster."
• Just to show that this is no laughing matter, one of our teammates was once arrested, placed in handcuffs and led away in a squad car for the said offense.  Since he had no family in the city, one of his teammates had to go down and bail him out.  This has been a public service announcement from your favorite website.
• Yves-Marc Courtines will be running the 10 mile race on Saturday.  So he looked around and asked someone, "Are you going to run just the four mile loop."  The honoree was perplexed, "Of all the people here, why would you think that I would be the one?"  Bad reputations apparently travel fast and wide.
• Somewhere around the swimming pool at the northern end of the park, a bicyclist came around and yelled in evident surprise, "Hey, Richie Stewart!"  When a teammate asked Richie who that was, he smirked and said, "Oh, someone who knew who I WAS!"
• In the absence of the big cannons, the alpha males today were Jesus Montero, John Scherrer, Guillermo Rojas and Gordon Streeter.  Let's make sure that their names are entered into the record, so to speak.
• There is an art and a science in designing workout routes.  In particular, the route today has the drawback that the end of the last long pickup is at East 72nd Street, which is temptingly close to West 72nd Street.  Is it not surprising to see all these people conveniently taking a right turn?
• After the workout, one of the older people on the team told Rick Shaver as a point of information, "It does not get easier."  A very grateful Rick said, "Gee, thanks for letting me know."
• For the record, we note that Dan Sack was not at the workout today.  We will state carefully that this does not preclude him from running by himself, because we can imagine him sending in a complaint to that effect.

11/30/99

Workout Description:

As in the previous Tuesday workouts this month, the course is three loops around the reservoir.  The pickups are 600m's at specific points (namely, you get on the reservoir, jog for 10 lampposts, run hard until the E90th Street steps, recover for 7 lampposts, run hard until the northern pumphouse, recover for 7 lampposts, run hard until the West 86th entrance, for each loop).  If you are racing this weekend, it is sufficient to do just two loops.  If you are Dan Sack, you are advised to just go home.

Field Notes:

• At 625pm, the weather report says 34 degrees, with wind chill at 13 degrees due to the 20 mph north winds.  Still, we have 29 people showing up on this last Tuesday road workout.  
• Next Tuesday, we will be at the Armory Track & Field Center.  If you have signed up already, here are the key points to note:
  (1) Please read the house rules for the Armory Track & Field Center.  These rules are designed with courtesy and safety in mind.  Please note that if you break the rules, you may get yourself and the team banned from the facility!
  (2) The Central Park Track Club is signed up for the 8pm session.  This means that we will not be allowed to enter the track area until after 745pm.  Do not attempt to sneak in before the designated time, for you may get yourself and the team banned from the facility!!!
  (3) If this is your first time up at the place this year, then your picture ID should be available for pickup at the front desk.  If you have not turned in a picture previously, you should bring one with you so that your ID can be prepared on site.  If you have not signed up yet, you should not even bother going up there because you will be refused entry --- you should talk to John Kenney first about late sign-up. 
  (4) Travel instructions are also linked through our  workout page.  It is very easy (but long) to get there by subway, and the neighborhood is bustling and safe.
• Whereas last Tuesday was exceedingly warm, this one was a preview of winter.  The Coach said, "This is especially hard on Puerto Ricans (that would include the coach himself), and especially for someone who has just come back from Puerto Rico."  That would be Sarah Gross.
• When the Coach got to the statue, he started to look around.  "I'm looking over my shoulder for George Wisniewski," he said.  Apparently, George showed up for the first time in years last week.
• Although everyone was anxious to take off, Stuart Calderwood felt compelled to make one announcement: "There is someone among us who ran the New York City Marathon one week, then ran the NYRRC Cross Country Championships the next week, followed by the Philadelphia Marathon the week after.  On this past weekend, he ran the Knickerbocker 60K on Saturday and came back to run the Peter McArdle 15K on Sunday.  His name is Dan Sack, and he's here tonight."  In the light of this long list of accomplishments, the fact that he has two broken bones in his back becomes a minor historical footnote.
• Your Open Women's team rep Audrey Kingsley would like to remind you about the last women's scoring race of the year, the Joe Kleinerman 10K on December 12th.  The current standings are such that we need to field a team in order to guarantee a third-place finish for the year.  We do not have to place, we just need a team to finish to get the minimum number of points (specifically, we are 15 points ahead of the next team and we are guaranteed 1 point if we field a team while the other team can get at most 15 points).  So come out there even if you don't feel like racing hard, because this will be more of a celebration of the hard work over the whole year.
• On the Men's side, the situation with the Masters team will depend on how we do in the last two races (the 10 miler this Saturday and the 10K on the Sunday after) as the top teams are separated by just a few points.  This means that the old geezers will have to go out and work hard.
• The first group of people to finish were Stuart Calderwood, Jonathan Pillow and Toby Tanser.  Stuart would like the record to reflect that he was in such lofty company on this occasion.  By the way, an unreported race result (note: XC results are always scored by hand and published in the middle of the week) was that Toby Tanser won the Peter McArdle XC 15K this Sunday; in the same race, Stacy Creamer was 2nd overall female and 1st female master.  An even more astonishing race result was that self-proclaimed-non-runner-type Ross Galitsky finished 13th in the Knickerbocker 60K.

11/18/99

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION:

• This workout was a strength-oriented workout designed to help the 10k/10 mile racers in early December.  The course is very simple: 4 times the lower loop for 6.8 miles in total.  On the first three loops, you run this at one minute per mile slower than your 10K race pace.  On the last loop, you increase your pace to 10K race pace.

FIELD NOTES

• There were twenty-eight people at the workout tonight.  The temperature was in the mid-40's, but there was no wind chill on this still night.  People were reminded that the Annual Club Party was scheduled for Saturday (December 4th), not the date printed in the invitation that was mailed out.  Given that the location was misprinted last year, someone said, "If there are no mistakes, then it wouldn't be an CPTC invitation."
• This workout is obviously a test of your patience.  The first three loops may feel comfortably easy after you are warmed up.  The important thing is to avoid the temptation to get progressively faster from loop to loop, or else you will have a hard time on the last one.
• Charging hard and fast to finish first today was Stuart Calderwood, the alpha male of the day.  Why this hard effort just three days before the National Masters Cross Country Championships?  Because Stuart was mentally re-playing a previous workout (see 4/8/99 in our historical archive ) in which he ran with Ramon Bermo and Alan Ruben.  That workout preceded one of his best races ever.  Today, he said, "All I had to do is to imagine Alan Ruben (not here today) running right next to me."
• Coming up behind Stuart was Victor Osayi, who asked, "Stuart, I need to know exactly how fast your mile pickup was!"  Yes, the high jumper want to know exactly how high (down to the last centimeter) the bar rests.
• Then came a third group which had at least half a dozen people at the start of that last loop.  When they came around, Ramon Bermo was in front of the pack.  That figures, because this man professes "I am racing my workouts to get back into shape."  A surprise showing a few steps later was Randy Ehrlich, just back from an 11 hour ironman triathlon.  Randy said, "That triathlon was a PR by one hour and thirty something minutes."  Yes, it is such a depressing thought to think that PR's can be broken by hours, and not just seconds.
• So maybe Alan Ruben was not here today, but Gordon Bakoulis was here as alpha female and getting serious about that Olympics Marathon trial.
• After the race, there was some general discussion about the Homdel (NJ) course on which the National Masters Cross Country Championships will be held this Sunday.  Sid Howard said that he ran there over ten years ago, and all he could say was, "The first mile was all uphill.  Then there was the Bowl, in which you are running around in circles.  There are no big hills, but the course is deceptively hard."  Later on, Bill Dunlop came around on a bicycle and he had just raced there last year.  Bill said, "The first mile is completely uphill from the flats to the treeline.  Then there is the Bowl, in which you are running around a long big bend.  After that there are many rolling hills, up and down.  The final straightaway is about two hundred meters long, so you better start your kick with about a quartermile left."
• Fritz Mueller came out today to try to do two loops.  He ran the first one too hard, and just jogged the next one.  When Coach Tony Ruiz saw him, he said, "I gave them a Fritz Mueller workout today."  Fritz vehemently denied it, saying "I never did four times the lower loop.  Only the four mile loop."  So, back in the days when men were real Übermenschen, they ran four times the four mile loop routinely in workouts.  Needless to say, Fritz gave an obnoxious smirk about the wimps of today.
• We would like to warn you about not trying to start any conversation with Tivon Jacobson about whether or not a mouse dropped from the top of the Empire State Building would die from the impact.  Believe us when we say that this won't help you run any faster, except away from him.  This has been a public announcement service from your favorite website. 
• Our Global Surveillance System (tm) spy camera picked up a certain Central Park Track Club member climbing the rock wall at NYU instead of coming to our workout.  Previously,  this individual phoned in to plead a prior business engagement.  What kind of funny business is this?
• Speaking of spy cameras, we received this note from a member of another team the next day, "By the way, you should wear better glasses because last night we came across each other in the south of the park.  I said hello but you didn't  recognize me. I think you were looking at girls !"  We plead oxygen-depleted attention-deficient syndrome instead.
• The next workout is Tuesday 7pm (11/23) in Central Park.  There will be no workout on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday).  On the week after Thanksgiving, the two workouts are still Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm in Central Park.  Then, on Tuesday December 7th, we will move to the Armory at 8pm every Tuesday thereafter until April.  On Thursdays, we will always be in Central Park at 7pm.

11/16/99

Workout Description

• We start from the Daniel Webster statue to the reservoir and do three counterclockwise laps.  On the first loop, we get on the reservoir and jog for ten lampposts.  Then we run a warm-up of 3 lamppost fast, 2 easy, 4 fast, 2 easy and 5 fast.  The first pickup is the half mile from East 90th Street to the northern pump house.  We recover 400m and then run another 400m from West 91st Street to West 86th Street.  On the second loop, the long pickup is 1200m from the southern pump house to the northern pump house.  We recover 400m and then run another 400m from West 91st Street to West 86th Street.  On the third loop, what we do is 3 times (10 lampposts fast, 5 easy).  Then we stop when we see the coach, chat and shiver in the cold.  The total distance of the workout is ((3 x 1.59) + (2 x 0.8)) = 6.4 miles.

Field notes:

• There were 26 people at the workout, including Sarah Gross on bike patrol.  She said, "I'm doing what I hated other people doing."  In spite of this relatively low turnout, we had the entire proceedings recorded by a videocameraman (J.R. Mojica).   Somewhere, this workout will be showing up in one of his video movies.
• Richie Borrero brought copies of tapes of the Chicago Marathon for Eve Kaplan and Bola Awofeso.  When asked if any CPTC people was on tape, Richie said, "No, but my brother Dan was on for one second.  He took the tape and replayed that one moment about fifty times."
• At the workout, there were several non-running-related announcements.  This is a reminder that runners are not always self-absorbed and self-indulgent --- we do many things other than running, and we care about other people and things too.  So maybe it's all about 'me', but 'me' can be tender, loving and caring too.  Right?
  
  • From Eve Kaplan, we have this note that appears now on our home page: "As some of you may know, I work for Do Something, a national non-profit organization dedicated to developing and recognizing youth as leaders in their communities via curriculum and projects that foster community development.  Brittanica.com (yes, the online version of those famous encyclopedias!) has announced that Do Something will be the recipient of $1.00 (one dollar) for everyone who logs onto their site ( www.britannica.com  ), selects Do Something as their charity of choice, and registers.   Registration is easy - just your name and e-mail - and you can even select "Do not send me info" if you don't want to be bothered.  Do Something is in need of financial support so we can continue to foster the development of the next generation of leaders.  So, PLEASE GO TO www.britannica.com  and REGISTER FOR DO SOMETHING AS YOUR CHARITY!!  Thanks.  P.S. you can also check us out at www.dosomething.org "
    
  • Meanwhile Frank Handelman wants your assistance in preparing free turkey dinners that they give out at the Goddard-Riverside Community Center on Thanksgiving and Christmas days.  More than 1,000 people get a good meal this way.  The details will appear shortly in the News Items section of our home page.
    
  • Finally, Stuart Calderwood said that even if you don't know how to cook a turkey for Frank, you can still earn a turkey dinner for someone by running Turkey Classic race this weekend.  The corporate sponsors will donate turkeys for men and women who finish below certain cutoff times.  For many runners on our club, those times should be virtually like training runs.  So please get out there.
    
• This was a brisk, cold night, and everyone was awestruck at the sight of Tivon Jacobson in shorts.  And he is from Arizona, no less.  Tivon had a simple explanation, "I just didn't have time to buy long tights yet, because this cold wave came so suddenly."
• Yes, once again Toby Tanser couldn't get a plane out of town and once again he ended up running our workout.  Are we unsurprised, or what?  Are we going to be stuck with him all the time?  Will Aero Peru come through at the last moment?  Will they have water up at Huancayo?  Stay tuned for further episodes of your favorite drama show, Toby's World ...  By the way, in case you haven't notice, the New York City Marathon wrap-up story was penned by none other than Toby Tanser.  
• You are no doubt aware that this Toby Tanser guy has posted a new quiz, for high stakes (namely a Fila t-shirt signed by Paul Tergat).  We didn't notice many people approaching him today for hints; in fact, we didn't see John Scherrer at all, as he must be researching the answers.  On the side, we heard Stacy Creamer groaning, "Oh, there is absolutely nothing on the World Wide Web about that other race that Grete Waitz won more than nine times."  Since John Scherrer used a Norwegian source last time, it may be that he already knows this one --- now you see why John should be handicapped ...
• For the NYRRC Cross Country Championships last Sunday, we wrote: "Hard to believe, but Dan Sack just ran the New York City Marathon last week.  But at least he has promised not to run the Philadelphia Marathon next week."  Today, Dan came up to tell  us, "But I am running the Philadelphia Marathon!"  Sorry about the misinformation.  We should have known better.  Coach Tony Ruiz had this to say, "You have my blessing.  But I will keep that in the back of my head, and I won't forget."
• The workout terminated at West 91st Street, but people still had to go home.  Since it was cold, people obviously wanted to keep moving to stay warm.  Our Global Surveillance System (tm) found three people running down to Central Park South and recorded these words:
  Male # 1: "Hey, I am running this faster than the workout on the reservoir.  Are you trying to break me?"
  Female: "No, no, no, not at all." (steps on the accelerator pedal even harder)
  Male # 2: "Why are you running so fast?  Are you thinking about food?  Are you thinking about dinner?"
  Female: "I am always thinking about food."  (puts both feet on the accelerator pedal)
  There was even a mass sprint finish to 59th Street.
• Next week, there will be a Tuesday workout at the Daniel Webster statue at 7pm.  On Thursday, being Thanksgiving Day, the coach has declared an off-day.  He said, "It's Thanksgiving Day and I am going to be with my family.  If you want to come here, you will have to talk it over with your family.  Of course, you can just come here and talk to yourself.  That's okay with me."

11/11/99

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION:

• The entire workout takes place around the bottom loop.  Without getting into the intricate timing and landmarks, the core of the workout is three repeats of 800m's with 3 minute jogs in between, and a full mile run.

FIELD NOTES

• There were 29 people present at the workout, including some marathoners just out there to loosen up as well as some cross-country racers just out there to loosen up.  This workout was designed to help people prepare for the 10 miler and the 10K in December.
• Tony Ruiz was off today to cram for an exam, so Stuart Calderwood was our coach.  Someone groaned, "Oh no, the workout is going to start on time today."
• When Stuart went around pointing at the marathoners and enumerating their accomplishments (e.g. Sandra Olivo's twenty minute PR), someone pointed to Ramon Bermo and said, "What about him?  He had a time of 3:08!"
• Charles Allard was one of the marathoners who showed up at the workout.  When asked what he was doing here, he said, "I was wondering about that too!"  When Stuart pointed out that Charles crossed the finish line with the clock reading 3:00:01 but his chip time was 2:59:56, someone yelled, "Thank God for the chip!"
• As a reminder to people about the club standings, our Masters team of Alan Ruben-Noel Comess-Victor Osayi finished 2nd in the New York City Marathon, and thereby catapulted the team into first place, just a few points ahead of the next two teams.  So the final two scoring races of the year will determine the final standings.
• One of the people to arrive late at the scene was the legendary Fritz Mueller, who drew a spontaneous round of applause.  What did Fritz have to say?  He said, "Oh, shit!"  As prepossessing as ever ...
• During lunchtime today, there was a dual cycling-running meet between NYU cycling coach G'mo Rojas and NYU running coach Ramon Bermo.  Incredibly, the matched race was declared by the two principals to be a draw.  Excuse us?  A draw?  After thirty minutes, it was a draw?  We guess the fix must have been on, so that neither one of them will lose their jobs to the other.  The two of them have not buried their hatchets, as they have declared war on all those people who have heaped abuse upon them during the build-up phase of this non-event.
• Bob Howard was seen walking up West Drive in civilian clothes.  In case you have not noticed, he ran the New York City Marathon in 4:59:09.  
• Jackie Cortes showed up at a road workout for the first time in a long while.  Good to see her!

11/9/99

Workout Description

• We start from the Daniel Webster statue to the reservoir and do three counterclockwise laps.  The first pickup is a 1200m from the southern pumphouse to the northern pumphouse.  We recover to West 86th Street, and the second pickup goes from there to East 90th Street for a 0.577 mile (= 0.577 x 1609 = 928 meters) pickup.  Thereafter, there were some repeats of (10 lampposts fast, 5 lampposts jog) that we can't remember the details of (and neither did Toby Tanser).  The total distance of the workout is ((3 x 1.59) + (2 x 0.8)) = 6.4 miles.

Field notes:

• On this first workout after the New York City Marathon, there were 26 people present.  Obviously, that big race was a big factor in lowering attendance.  But Stuart Calderwood offered this alternate explanation: "Everybody is tapering off for the big cross country race this weekend."  Yeah, right on, we'll see y'all there ...

• Mark Gombiner wondered if it was safe to leave his clothes in the bushes.  ("Is it safe?"  re: the movie Marathon Man)  Generally, it is not safe since our habits are known to the locals, who are not particularly discriminating.  We remember Max Schindler being really upset because someone swiped an old t-shirt full of holes that he left in the bushes, as it was his sentimental favorite shirt.  Last year, someone left a marathon goodies bag in the bushes and came back to find it stripped clean of the energy bars but the mailers were still there.  So you should come dressed in absolute discardables if you want to leave anything in the bushes.

• Ramon Bermo came late and kept asking everybody what the workout is on the way up.  "I was late.  What do you want me to do?"  The retort: "We want you to show up on time."  His explanation: "This is the workout right after the New York City Marathon.  I know that the coach is going to talk on forever."

• Audrey Kingsley showed up at the workout, but obviously did not run much after that tough marathon race.  She said, "I showed up because I don't want you to write that you were disappointed that I didn't show up."  So instead, we'll write that we were disappointed that she showed up because she should be resting and/or doing her homework!  Yes, we are determined not to let her win one ...

• Toby Tanser and Julia Casals are still trying to leave town and not succeeding.  So they showed up at the workout instead.  They were scheduled to go to a high-altitude training camp in Huancayo, Peru, but there were problems with the airplane arrangements.  This training camp culminates with a marathon (gasp! gasp! gasp!).  When told about this marathon, Harry Morales pondered, "Do they even have water up there?"

• For the distance runners (coached by Tony Ruiz), the Tuesday workouts will continue to be in Central Park at the Daniel Webster statue at 7pm.  On the first Tuesday in December, we will begin our first indoor track workout at the Armory at 8pm.

11/4/99

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION:

• From the Daniel Webster statue, we jog up to West 86th Street.  The first pickup is 1000m to West 97th Street.  Recovery is to West 102nd Street.  The second pickup is 1000m up over the hill down to the Martin Luther King Boulevard entrance into the park.  Recovery is east, then south, to the New York City Marathon entrance into Central Park at Eest 102nd Street.  The third pickup is a 1000m to East 90th Street.  Recovery is northbound to East 97th Street.  The fourth pickup is 1000m through the cutoff to West 102nd Street.  Recovery is southbound to West 90th Street.  Supposedly, there are some lamppost pickups back to the finish but the reporter has chosen to not to listen anymore by this point ...  The total distance was billed by the coach as 5.7 miles, but should be 6.7 miles in reality.  

FIELD NOTES

• Just three days before the New York City marathon, there were 36 people in attendance.  It was nice and cool, but very dark for the first Daylight Savings Time road workout.  We'll just have to get used to it.
• Although this workout was called the 1K workout, those 1000m's are 'estimates', so you should not be overly concerned about the times that you recorded on your $149 Nike digital sports watches.
• The first people to arrive (namely, Eric Aldrich) witnessed the presentation ceremony by Toby Tanser's delegate to the winner of the translation prize (see Famous Saying # 654), Kiet Vo.  The winner's enthusiasm was tempered somewhat when it was explained that Toby just trying to get rid of the coolmax singlet.
• The next to arrive for the workout was Ramon Bermo.  He said, "Listen up, everybody, we shouldn't run longer than those guys on Sunday, so this workout will just have to be 26 miles 384 yards ..."  When the real coach Tony Ruiz arrived, he said, "Ramon, I could hear you talking loud from all the way down at Columbus Circle.  You know, you were a normal guy until you got into this triathlon thing ..." 
• We posted this message on our home page about this workout: "Michele Tagliati says that he will bring a contingent of NYC marathoners from Italy to the Thursday workout, so that they can see how the other side lives (runs).  So we advise everybody to be on their best behavior (no spitting, no puking, no urinating, no flying elbows, etc).  We don't want them to get the right impression ..."  This turned out to a false alarm, as Michele found himself "on call" for daughter Isabella and the Italians were still jet-lagged to deal with new cultural shocks.
• Just as well that the Italians didn't show, because this is what they would have observed:  At one point during the coach's speech, a female member went into the bushes right by the statue to do her business.  After 15 seconds, we heard a very loud shriek: "Aaaaaaah!"  After another 30 seconds, she finally emerged and said, "There is a man in there!"  After another 30 seconds, a male member then emerged from those bushes.  Both were seriously teased by all those present.
• When the coach talked about the Club Awards Party coming up, he mentioned that some people on the club can really party.  At which point, our Disco Queen # 1 directed everybody's attention to our Disco Queen # 2 by pointing.  Well, if the truth be told, there has to be a lot of finger pointing all around.
• The person who came in last (and we won't name names) had this to say, "I used to have to worry about being left behind.  Now all I have to do is maintain my slow pace, and there is a steady stream of teammates dashing out of the bushes to rejoin the workout with me."
• After walking back to the statue with a muscle strain, Sid Howard said, "This is the best I've felt in a long time."  Say what ...?

11/2/99

Workout Description

• What workout?

Field notes:

• Heavy rains and howling winds (25mph to 35mph from the southeast, gusting to 40mph).

• Notwithstanding these conditions, we still saw almost twenty people showing up.  Of course, the coach Tony Ruiz had to be there, since this is his job to be there.  Here is an incomplete list of the others: David Diviney, Eve Kaplan, Thomas Pennell, Jonathan Pillow, Toby Tanser, Kiet Vo, Laurel Touby, Jim Aneshansley, Brian Marchese, Eric Aldrich, Tivon Jacobson and, of course, Stacy Creamer and Stuart Calderwood.  What is wrong with these people?  Why do they show up on an absolutely dismal night?  The most innocent explanation is that it is a sense of team spirit that made so many people come.  A more cynical explanation is that these people have no other meaningful lives outside of running around a track like gerbils.  Finally, maybe these people were still jealous of the extensive coverage that Stuart Calderwood and Bola Awofeso got for being the only two people to show up for a workout during hurricane Floyd and thought they can get exclusive space this time.

• The sprinters were absent en masse from the track on this nasty night because they thought they would be warm and dry indoors at the Armory track.  Instead, a miscommunication caused them to be turned away at the door.

• How bad were the conditions?  We asked Stacy Creamer, who has been to workouts under all sorts of conditions.  She said, "It's really not all that bad.  I remember us standing underneath the slats and peering out to watch what was happening out there."  Not to mention the great lightning storm when people were huddled against the doorway as the thunderbolts came down ...

• When people started asking the coach to give the workout, he said, "I don't think it is a good idea to run on the track tonight.  It is pitch dark and the track surface is slippery.  In other words, I am effectively cancelling the workout tonight."

• So what did people do after the workout was pronounced to be officially cancelled?  They stood around in the rain to chat!  The funniest sight is Kiet Vo standing with an umbrella, which was quite useless in the wind ...

• This is just five days before the New York City marathon, and we were hoping that we would not see any racers out there tonight.  In fact, only two showed up: Jonathan Pillow and Thomas Pennell.  Thomas is a triathlete, so what does he care about a little water?  Jonathan will be making his marathon debut, so he has to cram in a few useful tips (e.g. how to get into the local elite starting section, hanging out with Craig Chilton for the first few miles, double-knotting the shoelaces on his racing flats, etc).

• We were most gratified NOT to see Audrey Kingsley, who must be in the middle of her carboloading program.

• On his way out, Eric Aldrich did not give the accumulated water on the roads any respect: "This is just cross-country running."  Well, usually cross-country races take place during the day when you can see ...

• We want you to take note that the next Tuesday workout will be in Central Park.  It will be a speed workout done on the roads.  We meet at 7pm at the Daniel Webster statue.  The Armory track schedule for distance runners will be announced shortly.

Here is recap of the situation with the Armory track facility (as of 11/4/99):

WINTER INDOOR WORKOUTS AT THE ARMORY TRACK: This year, CPTC has been forced to raise the price of indoor workouts due to a combination of an Armory price increase and our own budget constraints, which make it impossible for us to subsidize these workouts at the same proportional level that we did in years past.

The Armory's new fee schedule for teams is as follows: $150 per person prior to 11/1/99 for teams with less than 30 people registered; $175 per person on or after 11/1/99 for teams with less than 30 people registered; $125 per person prior to 11/1/99 for teams with more than 30 people; registered $150 per person on or after 11/1/99 for teams with more than 30 people registered

Please note that The Armory is also attempting to address the congestion problems that surfaced last year. This year, there will be two separate workout sessions: 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM, and 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM. The above pricing reflects the 8:00 Pm to 9:30 PM session. The first session is more expensive, costing $175 and $200, respectively.

Based on last year's attendance, we should easily qualify for the 30 person discount. In addition, CPTC has also decided to help defray the cost of these workouts and charge members $100 each for Armory workouts.  For this to work, we need your help in QUICKLY providing the following by 11/4/99 (this is the date granted as a final extension) at the VERY LATEST:

1. A passport- size photo of yourself for your Armory ID card
2. A check for $100 made payable to the Central Park Track Club

Mail or hand-deliver this to John Kenney, 252 W. 85th St. #8C, NY NY
10024 (Home ) or hand-deliver to John Kenney, MCI WorldCom, 200 Park Ave., 6th Floor, (Met-Life Building, Grand Central Station)

Our Club has made every effort to make this facility as affordable as possible to our members. That being said, we also believe strongly in supporting what I hope many of you will agree is one of the best things about New York. The Armory has led to a resurgence of Track in the New York area, building on it's wonderful legacy. It has also filled a void left by budget-cuts in the NYC public schools sports budgets. If any of you are interested in making an extra tax-deductible donation to the Armory High School Sport Foundation, please contact me at 212-519-4380.  Please call me if you have any questions about this.  John Kenney, President, CPTC, 212-519-4380 (office), 212-874-3224 (home) 

As we reach the end of our outdoor track workout season for the year, we want to thank the following volunteer timers.  As the cliché goes, we couldn't do it without them ...

How did these people get to be timers?  Here are the essential rules:

Rule # 1 --- You must know how to count laps (but not more than 10) and read a stopwatch, as shown here by Eve Kaplan
Rule # 2 --- You must know who is in your group (as opposed to someone else's group), as shown here by Eve Kaplan and Bola Awofeso
Rule # 3 --- If you are a runner obsessed with the hundredth of a second (like Audrey Kingsley), you may just want to preserve your own splits

Quotations from some timers:
--- "The workout goes so fast when you are the timer"... Audrey Kingsley
--- "I got them out of here in under 45 minutes"... Frank Handelman

--- "Keep the jog alive! This is not the Central Park Walking Club!" ... Sid Howard
--- "Piece of cake.  It's all downhill." ... unknown person

10/28/99

WORKOUT DESCRIPTION:

• From the Daniel Webster statue up to the reservoir, four loops with each being 15 second faster per mile (or 23 seconds faster per loop, if you insist), and then back to the statue.  Total distance is 7.8 miles.

FIELD NOTES

• There were forty-five people at the start of the workout, including those two Kenney kids and the cycling Bola Awofeso.
• Nathan Klejman showed up and said, "I know you haven't seen me all year.  But I'm still here.  All I have to do is just show up once a year."  And this is that one time.
• Scott Willett showed up and said, "I'm here just to see what you people do."  He has been allegedly injured.  When told about the Global Surveillance System (tm)'s report that he was seen running for two hours at Van Cortlandt Park recently, he said, "No, that's not remotely true.  It was under one hour."  This is the art of making people confess --- charge them with high crimes and they will admit to misdemeaours.  (Corollary: Ignore them, and they will admit to high crimes).
• When Tyronne Culpepper showed up, he was congratulated by multiple persons for his photo in the NY Running News, page 104.  He hadn't even seen it himself, or so he says.  Also present in that picture are Eve Kaplan and Kim Mannen.
• Audrey Kingsley jumped into the first group today, because she said that she could only see fast people like Thomas Pennell waiting in the next group.  So whom was she running with on the reservoir?  Can you say Thomas Pennell?
• Traditionally, the workout 10 days before the New York City marathon (and the Boston Marathon, for that matter) has been a 9 miler, divided into 3-3-3 involving a visualization of the first 10 mile, the next 10 mile and the final 10K of the marathon.  (Yes, how do you visualize dying at the end?).  This workout was a significant departure from tradition.  Why?  Because the recent race times for our marathoners have been mostly right up to par and confidence is high, so that an additionally tough workout may not matter much at this point.
• After the workout, some 'old-timers' were reminiscing about the bad old days.  This conversation was recorded:
  Tony Ruiz: "Do you remember that we had the 15 mile workout ten days before the marathon?  That was something."
  Stacy Creamer, Roland Soong, looking around: "We aren't that old!  That was before our time!"
  Stuart Calderwood: "Those were the high mileage years.  So how many of those people are still around today?"
  Sid Howard: "I did them.  I'm still here."

10/26/99

Workout Description

• 8 to 10 repeats of (400m, 200m recovery).

Field notes:

• At the beginning of the workout, we counted 48 people present.
• If the workout description says 'eight to ten repeats', how many are supposed to do?  Eight?  Or ten?  Or nine?  The idea is that if you feel that you are stressed and/or winded by the eighth, you should stop.  If you want a really hard workout, you can come back on Thursday to Central Park, where there will be that traditional long, strong run 10 days before the New York City Marathon.  You can thrash out then and taper off afterwards.
• At the tenth 400m, Coach Tony Ruiz was heard to instruct, "I wanna see good form!  Not ugly speed!"  We are not sure that we agree entirely, as we would have sold our first-born child gladly for speed, ugly or otherwise ...
• Oh, about the winter indoor track season at the Armory, you must get your act together by sending in the check and photo to John Kenney, one way or the other (see instructions on our home page).  We need to reach the magic number of 30 participants in order to qualify for the group discount rate.
• There were a couple of interesting situations in the Group "D" today.  In the front, the leaders probably need to learn some discipline as they vacillate between