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Secret Passage

January 30, 2020 (Night)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
I discovered the coolest secret passage ever on my run today. In the north of London in a neighborhood called Harringay, there's a mile-long 6-foot-wide passageway paved with large flat stone and surrounded by high walls of peoples' homes and gardens on both sides. It looks like something leftover from the Middle Ages and you can neatly slip along it for blocks in parallel to the main streets. The cross streets have speed bumps every time they cross it and the entrances to the passage itself are blocked with little barriers to keep out motorcycles bikes. It's absolutely marvelous. Like a safe, clean, well-lit alley that only the locals know about. And now I do too!

The main focus of the run prior to this discovery was an interval workout on my own at Finsbury Park. Since it's mentally difficult to do a workout by oneself, especially without track to measure yourself by, I picked the interval length I though I could most reliably coak myself to keep up a sustained effort for without losing focus: 2 minutes. I did 10x2min w/1-minute recoveries, which I think comes pretty close to doing 10 x 600m (nearly 4 miles total). I was mostly winding my way hither and thither around the park, but I managed to start by 1st, 5th, and 9th pickups from the same place and so was able to ascertain that I was indeed keeping up the same effort (getting several seconds faster on the last one). I did my best to not slog the cooldowns but to keep up a reasonable recovery pace there as well The pace before and after the workout was pretty gentle, but I kicked it down to the mid-7s for the last 3 miles. Found that I was actually feeling pretty good at that speed.