The weather is unsettled and so are my workout plans today. I decided last night to forgo a Friday morning run even if the skies were clear. For my upcoming race, I'm clearly better off doing more longer distance runs even if my run frequency drops to 4x per week (plus one day of cross training). I'll let the storm decide what I'll do today. I'm forgoing my usual Friday Central Park circuit but if conditions are favorable this afternoon I may go out for a long run nearer to home. If we are seeing driving rain and 30+ MPH winds I'll accept this as a rest day and use that recovery benefit tomorrow morning when I plan to go out for an hour or more.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about ways to facilitate longer runs. Routes that put me on a straight path for long periods seem to work better than those that force me to change course every quarter mile or so. You'd think it would be the opposite because change can help fight off boredom but those long straightaways provide an opportunity to "float" and focus on my surroundings. It would be great to live somewhere like Colorado, California or Oregon that enabled long runs that didn't intersect with traffic. The Bethpage bike path is really the only paved route around here that provides me the opportunity to just run straight ahead. for long distances. Belmont Lake State Park (home of the Dirty Sock 10K) also provides a fairly straight path and it has the extra appeal of being a dirt trail. I'm going to think about my options for longer distance runs over this weekend. Maybe I'll come up with something new to try.
Friday, September 3, 2010
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Very clever blog headline "Earl y".
ReplyDeleteMy safe long runs are around the fenced, grassy, hilly route of my local high school. It is 1.25 miles around. When I run, with my dog I can listen to music on my iPod without fear of traffic.
Thanks, couldn't resist the pun! That's a good solution as long as you haven't tired of that route. I don't like following the same roads over and again although I feel differently about trails. I've tried running with music and ultimately found it uncomfortable and distracting. More often than not I'd remove the earphones at some point in my run. I finally left my iPhone at home.
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