Rundle 4 (and 5) Hometown trail.

 I live in a small town… I think that’s a song lyric from somewhere. Not sure, it certainly sounds familiar. No matter.

This weeks run route is pretty flat

This weeks Rundle is in my hometown. Small towns may seem a little limiting, and consequently boring in running routes. With such a limited selection of roads you’d think a runner would get bored quite quickly. 

Well, yes and no. It becomes a challenge. You start to set yourself rules. The one I use the most is you can never run the same direction on the same length of road twice in a run. You can run the road in opposite direction, but not the same way more than once. Crossing over your route is OK. Another one I use is to never do a direct U turn on the trail. If I’m on the trail and I need to turn and head home. I have to leave the trail, run on a road and rejoin the trail somewhere else, or run around a city block or two before heading back the way I came. You are allowed to double back and run a road previously run if you need an emergency stop for fluids for example.

Running around parking lots as well. Sometimes I use them, sometimes not. Circumnavigating one might add .25 of a mile or more depending on the size of the lot. 

Sometimes I’m working my route out beforehand, sometimes on the fly. It’s fun. It keeps your mind active. It turns the run into something that’s alive and evolving. I once managed a run of 15 miles around town following my rules.

You don’t always need to be obsessed with the minutiae of your run. Perhaps on a track session or a hill workout you should. But a recovery run or even a long slow run? Just be out there and relax and enjoy being out there.

So I did today. It was a bit hot out. 70 degrees apparently. This route is a simple one, not using too much brain power to create. I was on the wonderful Dakota Rail Trail for a couple of miles, and I’ll write more about that in another post. It’s just a great amenity to have. As per usual, I should have run slower. But this pace was feeling quite comfortable in the conditions. In fact I was quite shocked when I got home to find out my HR had slipped into zone 5. But that was probably down to the heat and is too much information.

Tomorrow it’s Parkrun and I’m already excited. I haven’t been for two weeks. I can’t wait.