Running style

I’ve decided to take a more adventurous tone with my running.

In the past, and currently, I’ve been so obsessed with time and distance and trained by my cycling mind that I’ve taken a single route, mapped the route, and followed that route religiously.  Here and back, here and back, here and back.  Each repetition provided an opportunity to compare stats and see how I’ve improved.

That works real well on a bike, since there are relatively few areas where you can really stretch out in the saddle and drop the hammer without having to contend heavily with automobiles.

Running, on the other hand, can be done just about anywhere there’s a sidewalk.  And in some cases, where there’s just flat ground (like the easement alongside railroad tracks, or the concrete channel skirts of bayous).

Plus, with tools like Google Earth on our side, we can map out just about any area, route, distance, or path that we choose to take.

So, I can now do on foot what I could never do in the saddle, and that is to just pause at an intersection and decide, right there on the spot, whether or not to go straight, left, or right.
Tuesday evening, when I added a half mile to my run, I did just that.  I came to the end of my route and instead of turning back I decided to turn left.  Why not?  It turned out to be a pretty good run.

This is, so I’ve been told, what ultra-runners do.  They just wake up and run.  Where?  Forward.  Until they decide it’s time to turn around, then they turn around.

 

I’m wondering how long I’m going to be able to do that until I get lost.