Running Yale

Last weekend, I headed back to New Haven for my 5-year college reunion. Crazy how time flies. It's amazing how quickly I can slip back into the college routine. I'm not talking about the late nights out, although that did happen. I'm talking about forcing myself out of bed for some hungover early morning running. Good times!!!

Last weekend I fit in a trio of runs I used to frequent in the ole' college days. I slept soundly on my red-eye Thursday night so I was not too exhausted the next day, but my legs were tighter than rubber bands, so I was a little worried about my IT bands before I headed out. I was greeted by the first real "New England Summer" weekend, 80+ degrees with 90%+ humidity. Friday morning I ran an easy 40 minutes (6 miles) out to the Yale IM fields so get some mileage in on grass. It's about a 10 minute jog out there from campus through a shady area of New Haven. I took a slight detour to jog 800 meters around the Yale track, then hit the grass for a few miles before heading home. After the run I cooled down in our air-conditioned hotel room, where I set the thermostat at 64 degrees, then headed to Yorkside pizza for the first of three Moosetracks Milkshakes and chicken parm grinders during the weekend, which didn't agree with my stomach any of the three times, but I kept coming back (so good)!

After open bar #1 on Friday night, I woke myself up at 9 a.m. and headed to East Rock for an easy 7, another staple run of Yale XC. East Rock was perfect, the trees had full coverage and trails were perfectly clear. It's an awesome scenic run, mostly asphalt, but still great. I always finish that run by jogging right down the center divider of Hillhouse Avenue, past Dickie Levin's place, on what has been described as one of the most picturesque streets at any college. I capped the run with an extended loop around campus, for an easy 7 miles, 46 minutes.

Reunion night 2 went a little later, and a little harder, but I still managed to drag myself out of bed at 8:30 and meet Luke at Payne Whitney gym for a run around Maltby Lakes. This is the best run at Yale that nobody except the cross country teams knows about. Qué lástima! We headed out past the Yale Bowl and into the woods, only doing one loop today. This is a true double track dirt trail, at times complete shaded under trees, looping by multiple lakes and reservoirs. There's easily 10-15 miles of run-able terrain there. We decided on only one loop since I wasn't sure how my IT band would hold up, but I ended up feeling so good we decided to add on back at campus, and ended with about 8.5 miles, or 57 minutes. Great run with Luke. Total mileage for the week was 42! Great to be back above 40 again. Hopefully I can hold it here for a while.

I didn't get home until 11:30 last night but to my surprise my Garmin shipped quickly and was waiting for me at the front door! Looking forward to testing this thing out this week.