Lipari's got a 5 o'clock class ...

The running joke for our near-daily, off-campus practices in the fall is that we have to hustle and get moving because "Lipari's got a 5 o'clock class." Lipari, for those alums and others who don't know, is freshman Tom Lipari, a great guy and a burgeoning distance running talent from (where else?) Long Island.

And while Lipari does, indeed, have 5 o'clock classes for which we have to rush back on most days ... so do several other guys. But again, once I get fixated on some stupid, repetitious phrase, I beat it into the ground with regularity.

Anyway, I was hammering home the "Lipari's got a 5 o'clock class" line pretty hard yesterday, since we went over to New Paltz for mile repeats on the rail trail. This is a rare, midseason foray to New Paltz, since it is time consuming. But it was well worth the rushing over there.

And yes, Lipari and others got back with 22 minutes to spare for their 5 o'clocks. Perhaps a little smelly, but they got there.

The men and women blitzed through the mile repeats at an alarming speed. This is not surprising since the rail trail mile repeats are: 1. straight. 2. flat (the northbound ones were faster and slightly downhill). 3. easy terrain. 4. perfect weather.

And so, everyone hit their splits or faster. We will revisit this workout again soon, but at slightly more challenging venues. This will get us back closer to goal race pace for the longer distances. It was great to get some speed going.

OK. Gotta go. Because ... you guessed it ... Lipari's got a 5 o'clock class tonight!