Exploring A New Running Route
I've been struggling somewhat with figuring out how to target my running schedule lately. It's been a floundering between starting to train more for The Bear and just running whatever I feel like running. When I went out yesterday, I didn't have a plan for what I wanted to do which is usually a negative thing, but the weather was beautiful so I decided to try out a new route. It was clear and sunny with minimal pollen flying around in my face, so why not?
There's a pretty good stretch of road in my town that was recently redone and had nice, big sidewalks put in. I had been wondering about running on it for some time, but especially when I was training for my half marathon, I stuck to the routes that I was familiar with and knew the distances. But, lacking a clear idea for what I aimed to do for a workout yesterday and feeling adventurous, I leapt from the route rut I was in and elected to explore a new path.
I ended up tracing through some of the downtown section before I got to my targeted road and that was interesting in itself, though having to repeatedly stop and wait for traffic is annoying and reminded me why I stick to more backroads when I can.
Once I did get to the section of road with the new sidewalks, I quickly realized there were some serious hills that I would be reckoning with, but I figured that would just help me stay on my game training for The Bear. I also realized just how enormous some of the intersections were that I've driven through countless times, but never really thought about having to run across.
By the time I traversed this new section of my run and made it back to some familiar stomping ground, I had covered about 5 miles; less than what I expected, but with all the hill work I did, it didn't feel any too short. I rounded the end out with 3 miles of my regular route to get back home and was pleasantly worn out, having done a hard 6 mile tempo run the day before.
I later found out that it was Earth Day and I thought that a good long run outside was a good way to celebrate such an occasion.