I’m going to be visiting New York in a couple weeks, and trying to figure out if there are any safety issues running in Central Park. How early did you run? Wondering if its safe to run around 7:00am?

Also, any particular route you’d recommend?

thanks,
Mike

Well, to be honest, I’m not a regular in Central Park, so I couldn’t say for sure. What I can tell you is that on the two mornings I ran there recently, at around 7AM or so, there were a TON of people running and cycling in the park, particularly on the loop that goes all the way around the park (the paved road, that you’d share with cars and cyclists). I would be REALLY surprised if anyone’s ever been attacked or mugged while on that loop during daylight (and sunrise is before 6AM these days).

That being said, one can never be too careful. I posted in May about a member of my running club who got mugged at about 6pm (it was still light out) on a path in along the East River right next to the track where we train – there were definitely people around jogging and walking then, too, so, you never know what might happen.

All things considered, I think I would recommend Central Park as a great place to run at 6am. Just stick to the paths where there are a lot of runners, and make sure you’re aware of your surroundings (maybe leave your headphones at home so you can be more attuned to what’s going on around you). You might also consider running with a loud whistle attached to your keys or to an elastic band around your wrist or something, for emergencies, though honestly, at that hour, I don’t think you’d really find a quiet place in the park where there weren’t at least a few people nearby.

And a general note on safety in New York: I grew up in a pretty affluent suburb in Orange County, California, and I really feel safer in New York most of the time, because there are usually other folks around at all hours, getting off of work, going to work, etc. Back in my hometown, there have been armed robberies, home invasions, and murders… I’d have to say that, per capita, there’s probably a lot more violent crime there than there is here. Don’t let all the hype about New York City get you too worried to enjoy living here. And definitely don’t let it stop you from running.

(Just don’t go running in Central Park, or any other park, anywhere, for that matter, by yourself at night!)

I’m actually planning on migrating my website to my own URL soon – then I’ll be able to link to the training log on RunningAhead.com and I won’t be “double posting” daily running entries. That means the RSS feed for this blog won’t update every time I post a run, but that’s okay, I’ll still write about interesting things that happen to me during particular workouts.

I actually think the FitnessJournal.org log might be more attractive to you, because you’re more of an all-around type of geek-athlete with all that swimming and cycling you do, and you’d get to track your progress using the cool map tool they have. The only drawback, as I mentioned in the post, is that the analytic tools aren’t as nice as RunningAHEAD.com. But if you’re not so concerned about being able to create a chart to track the progression of your lactic acid threshold or VO2 Max, I’d go with FitnessJournal. It’s prettier. Though, you DO have to pay for it (around $40 if you sign up for a whole year). FitnessJournal also has a shoe mileage tracker.

good to find you. Good luck with your training!

And yeah, I thought you’d appreciate the use of the camera phone.

nice job on the running pics, btw

My plantar fascitis is getting better, due to the fact that I’ve been wearing running shoes (but not my training shoes) everywhere. My old casual shoes just didn’t have enough cushioning. Also, it helps to stretch your foot and massage the bottom by running your foot back and forth over a golf ball.

My housemate offered to give me acupuncture treatment for it, but it involves sticking a needle right into the bottom of your foot, so I decided to pass and see if stretching and massaging work.