Do you run on the sidewalk or in the road? (Read 1156 times)

Do you guys honestly think that the asphalt is "soft" enough to make any difference?

We've been through this before.

Usually streets. However, the neighborhood I usually run through has a few streets that are brick, and I move onto the sidewalk on those. The bricks just seem to be more of a pounding.

I notice a huge difference. When I run on the sidwalk my shins and knees hurt a lot more. But the trail is much better than either surface. I run on the asphalt or on the dirt shoulder since I usually can't get to the trail.

Ditto. I also notice the sound of my shoes slapping the surface is much louder on concrete. I live in Southern California which has an abundance of bike lanes on most roads. It's too tempting to avoid that nice soft unused asphalt lane while running on the hard concrete sidewalk adjacent to it. However, there was an unfortunate story earlier this year about a local woman who was running in a bike lane one morning and was struck and killed by a sleepy driver. Shortly after that incident, I was running in a bike lane when a woman runner approaching from the other direction pulled me out of the road (literally) and pleaded with me not to run in the bike lane anymore. She explained that it was her friend that died. I promised I would stick to the sidewalk, but I've occassionally broken that promise. It's actually illegal in CA to run in the bike lane when there is an adjacent sidewalk. So as much as possible I just avoid the issure entirely and prefer to run on paved or dirt trails away from traffic. However, for my long run this weekend, I need to get in 12 miles before running a 2K with my family. So I had planned to run TO the race and meet my family there, which forces me to run several miles on public roads between the 3 separate trails that will get me there. Wish me luck.

At home I run on the road because sidewalks don't exist. Here in the city I run on sidewalks unless I don't feel like running over annoying pedestrians and dogs who somehow manage to hog up the entire sidewalk.

Sidewalk.

Most all of my running is on polyurethane foam.

Is that the ground surface, or did you have your feet swapped out for foam blocks?

...... It's actually illegal in CA to run in the bike lane when there is an adjacent sidewalk.

It is?? Are you sure?

If you're very sensitive to the hardness of the surface, your form is bad. You're creating too much impact. When you're running smoothly, the hardness of the surface doesn't matter much at all. I can run barefoot on concrete and not take any more impact in my shins/knees/hips/back/etc than I'd have on a rubber track.

I dunno Ed, you should really try running on polyurethane foam. Everybody's doing it.