Long Run Route (Read 974 times)

When I first started and was running roads, I just extended my regular runs on faithful paved bike path - out / back. Now, I usually look for certain topographical features to mimic a race or, in winter, which area has the best snow conditions (either hard packed to run without snowshoes or some light soft snow on top base for snowshoe running). They are usually loops of some sort with potential side excursions to use or not use as time / fatigue permit, but they might be out/back. Either way if I'm trying to run, say, 4 hr I can adjust appropriately. And if I take a wrong turn, it may become a 4.5+ hr run. Ooops. But that's the fun of experimenting. Next time I'll go back and figure out where I went wrong and find another loop. I definitely need mental stimulus and the feeling that I'm going somewhere if I'm going to be run / walking for multilpe hours. I"ll use an elevation profile of race course and try to match the key features (usually size and slope of hills) of that on my routes, based on map. Sometimes I gotta explore some new territory, although I may do that on other runs if I'm not sure how much of the terrain may be runnable.

I often have my wife drive me out somewhere and I try to find my way home. She's been unlucky so far...

Mostly just curious....how do most people find a route for your weekly long run? Do you just run an out-and-back, going a little farther out each week? Or do you do one large loop, and figure out how to make it larger each week? Or multiple loops?

Jessie, What I do is think about all the various options of routes in the area, then I play around with www.gmap-pedometer.com to get a basic idea of the distance and play with different options. I go out of my way to avoid out-and-back routes, and will look for loops. If it is a totally new route, I will usually drive it first to check out the road & traffic situation to see if it even makes sense to head out that way. Sometimes, it sure can be hard to find new routes that are close to the mileage desired. I think there are about 40 miles of roads in my town, and I did 1800 miles last year in the 3 town area, so I pretty much end up on a first name basis with all the hills, dales and potholes.

The beach!

I always use Google Earth for my long runs, unfortunately it's getting harder to find different and interesting route in my area. I'm getting anxious for summer to come