Central Park is confusing!

Weather has become a very good motivational force. When you look at the forecast and see that Monday night through Wednesday night is supposed to be "snow, changing to freezing rain, changing to sleet, changing to freezing rain and snow and sleet," there really is no way out of it. Gotta do it now!

Sidenote: In light of all the grossness outside for the next two months, I was looking around for a gym that had cheap monthly membership so I could do some treadmill running. Jessie researched it and, sadly, the gyms in Manhattan feel the need to gouge you just as every other service does. They force you to sign an annual contract for at least $80/month (on the way cheaper side) and if you want to cancel the contract, not only is there is a fee... but you have to get a freakin' doctor's note saying that you aren't supposed to work out anymore! What! This isn't elementary school! Completely ridiculous. Worst comes to worst I can go to the gym at NYU Washington Square and get something done there.

My plan was to head to Central Park and run around the reservoir again, and seriously, if you look at a map like this, you think: Duh. Easy. Stay on the big roads!

Lemme tell you... not as easy as it looks. First of all, I didn't want to immediately tackle the big-big loop around the reservoir, because running something like that for the first time at night alone is probably not a good idea. Secondly, there are WAY more paths through this thing than this map lets on. All that greenspace is actually riddled with teensy little paths.

So when I got to the Park and started running with the pack (don't want to go in the opposite direction!), I quickly realized that my sense of direction is not good. I kind of ran along for a while, saw the buildings of the West Side, veered back over and popped out at the 72nd street entrance. What?? How did I get down there? I thought I was going north! Apparently not.

With my directional sense adjusted, I made my way back to where I started, but... there were no big, snow-cleared roads! I ended up running down a slush path and up an ice hill pocked with footprints of sledders to finally get back to the 79th street entrance. At least it was interesting, and my calves and stabilizers were definitely worked from trying not to fall on my face. I ran for about 20 minutes in the Park, have no idea how far I went (although it was probably further than 2 miles), and jogged back to the apartment.

I slept like a rock (again) and feel fine this morning, actually. Maybe next time I will stay on the big road so I can get some actual pace data!!