Plyometrics and Citystreets

My forward trend continues (lots of knocking on wood).  After the plyo workout on Friday, Saturday was the last day of Citystreets.  On Saturday morning they've been closing a route from the Brooklyn Bridge, up Centre Street to Lafayette, to Fourth Avenue to Park Avenue South, onto the Park Avenue Overpass, around Grand Central Station, and then up Park Avenue to 72nd St. My legs were pretty sore, so I figured I'd go as far as I could, and then turn back.  Once I got going, my legs felt good, and I managed to log the full route -- another 15 mile long run.  Hooray!!  The pace was pretty good too -- faster than I've been going in months.  That was aided by the periodic waits for cross-town traffic, but don't tell anybody.  I'm glad I got the run out of the way, because yesterday the DOMS from Friday's plyo ate my quads.    No injury, but I was not happy going down stairs.  Today is much better, and tomorrow I'll be ready of another run.

Plyometrics?

A few weeks ago, my friends at SBRC sent around an email to see if there was any interest in a once a week core and plyometrics class in Brooklyn Bridge Park.  A few years ago I made a twice a week core class part of my routine and it made a huge difference in my mechanics.  I stopped when tri training substituted swimming for situps.   Mostly that's been a good thing, but I have been wondering if some of my recent issues could be remedied with core work.  So, I expressed interest.  I did this without doing any research into the meaning of the other word in the class title -- "plyometrics."  It sounded like pliable, so I assumed it meant stretching.  Stretching is good too. Oops! I was wrong.   Plyometrics is another word for  "jump training."  It involves jumping onto things, jumping off of things, jumping up and down, sprinting, skipping, running with high knees, doing grapevine steps, lunging, and jumping some more.  OOOOPPPPPPHHHH!!  It was a beautiful morning, and I didn't get hurt, so we'll see over the next few days whether this is a good addition to the workout.  I did a few miles afterwards, and it seemed to to have smoothed out my form a bit.  I think it is good for opening up the hips and getting the glutes to fire.  I certainly looked silly enough doing it.  :-)  Do any of you have experience with this?? did it help?

Payday Lending and Speed Work

Okay, the two aren't really related.  Did 6x400 this morning.  It hurt, I was slow, but glad I did it.

Then I read the paper, and saw that the New York AG is charging pay day lenders with usury.  This is great news for a bunch of reasons. First, because it will add some immediacy when I teach about payday lending and consumer financial protection in the Fall.  Second, the article does a nice job of showing how fringe lenders can structure themselves to place their operations largely outside the reach of state regulators.

I find payday loans to be very interesting.  They are simple, transparent and clearly abusive.  What does it tell us about consumers that they are willing to use them (given that they must have both a job and a bank account)?  What does it tell us about state legislatures (other than New York) that  have expressly lifted their usury caps to allow legal pay day lending, auto pawns and other scary lending practices?

Fitness Data, Data Privacy and Consumer Protection

We have discussed the wonders of personal fitness data on this blog before.  I was just joking yesterday, during my run, that if the run was not recorded it didn't happen. . . Indeed, the intersection between fitness data and social media is now almost pervasive -- see, I ran yesterday!! Really, I did.  Here's the photo, complete with route!  There's a lot you can figure out from this photo, though I won't give a list. Perhaps the most insidious was that Nike+ added its own hashtag when I shared it.

This is all childs' play compared to the information that's available from my Garmin, and apparently a fitbit generates even more.  There are now sites that allow you to combine the data from all of your devices and link Strava to Garmin to Nike.  We data junkies just gather and link and gather and link without really thinking about the privacy implications of all of this.  Do I really want Garmin knowing my maximum heart rate??

Chuck Schumer has apparently taken this on as an issue, arguing that the data utilities ought to offer an opt out from data collection.  This seems sensible to me, though, of course, the tradeoff will be that we'll have to pay for our data fix.  I can live with that.

The run-der down under

Couldn't post while in New Zealand because Google thoughtfully blocked me from signing in from an address outside the US, reading it as a security violation.

But while there, I had two runs I wanted to mention.  30 hours and 3 connections brings you to Wellington, the coolest little capital in the world.  200,000 people and truly the windy city putting Chicago to shame.  65 mph winds and torrential rains (just like when I was there 19 years ago).  The one day that was less windy and no rain was fine for a run before I appeared for my lunch talk at the New Zealand Commerce Commission.  This was my first run after my trip and fall on the streets of the Chicago leavened with stiffness from my day plus of traveling.  So I took it easy for a 4 miler along the Wellington harbor.  Passed the Museum of New Zealand, some restaurants, a theater complex, a play ground some tourist plaques and a cool statue of a guy appearing to dive into the water.  I turned around at the road that led up into the hills of Roseneath neighborhood where I had dined with the chair of the Commerce Commission the night before. Less windy for this purpose means only 25 mile gusts.

The rest of the time in Wellington was work with talks at the Commerce Commission and keynoting the annual Competition Law and Policy Institute.  Smart sophisticated people knowledgeable about both their own systems plus ours (and others).  2 day annual conference focusing on competition law and policy with some excellent presentations on consumer protection, trade and competition, and a reflection of the 25 years that the Institute has been meeting.

Play time meant a one hour flight the next day to Queenstown.  Much middle earth kitsch at the Wellington airport including a giant Gollem and a large Gandalf on a very large eagle.  Queenstown is where the rest of New Zealanders go to play.  Kind of a Kiwi Vail.  Nice downtown, good restaurants, some upscale shopping and every outdoor activity you can imagine.  weather is sunny and 45.  After check in and lunch in town, I change into my cool weather running gear and head out for the 13 miler that my clumsiness interrupted back in Chicago.

Head through hills down to the long lake (as in the Long Lake in the Hobbit movie) through a nice public garden.  There is a running path going left but not right so I go left.  Its the Queenstown that heads out along the lake to the airport in Frankton and then a right turn following the water to a two way one lane bridge and a path that appears to continue roughly forever.  I turned around at the far end of the bridge at the edge of the Hilton resort and reversed course getting lost in the public garden in town and ending up back in town rather than on the street to my hotel.  A cold drink later and a walk up the hill and I was back for a nap, a nice dinner in town, and the next day skiing at a place aptly named The Remarkeables.

Here are some pictures roughly in the order I ran.  Not sure why they are sidewise. Better ones are on Instagram properly aligned.




 

Cape Cod

It is thundering  outside, so I'm feeling good about my choice to run this morning and hunker down with a Carl Hiaasen book this afternoon.  We're in Wellfleet for the week, and it has been a good week for outdoor exercise.  I managed a 12 miler (with 3 of it on the beach) on Sunday, a 40 mile bike ride to Provincetown (replete with Jewish wedding), a family bike ride and kayak yesterday, and a 7 miler largely in sand this morning.   I haven't been pushing the pace on any of this, keeping my heart rate at 70-75% and focusing on form.  The good news is that nothing hurts.  Okay, that's really good news!!! I'm a bit behind schedule on my marathon training plan.  Usually, I'd have a 15 miler or two under my belt by now, but I'm feeling more optimistic about my ability to ramp up the distance than I have in months. . .

New York's Ever Changing Running Landscape

I've been running in Brooklyn and Manhattan for almost 16 years now.  I was surprised, when I arrived, to find that it was a great place to run.  When I started, I had two runs: over the Brooklyn Bridge to South Street Seaport and back, and over the Brooklyn Bridge, across to the West Side, around Battery Park and back.  Later, I added in the Prospect Park Loop, and a long run over the Williamsburg Bridge.  That was pretty much the routine for a long time.  After a few years work on the Manhattan Bridge was completed,  that got added in as a two bridge loop.  The Battery Park route was a casualty of 9-11 for a while, but these were the routes for a decade.  Then all sorts of things started to happen: (1) Hudson River Park made running up the West Side a pleasure; (2) Brooklyn Bridge Park continues to evolve and change; and (3) even Ikea made a contribution by landscaping a park behind the store with great views and industrial grit.

Today, something even more fundamental happened -- Prospect Park changed.  For the last few years the bottom of the Park has been a construction site.  Where the skating rink used to be, there were barriers promising a future wonderland to be known as Lakeside.  I've gotten a few glimpses, here and there, but this morning, a rerouting of the pedestrian path forced me to face the new world.  The lake in Prospect Park has always been a nice natural feature, but access was reserved to walkers on the nature paths.  Now there is a network of intersecting walkways, terraces, and fountains (not operating yet) that are really quite impressive and make use of the natural features as well.  Even the waterfowl seemed happy.