Healthy Running and Racing Context, Part 2

All regular runners, competitive, recreational or fitness, have a go to running route. The four miles and change that compose my favorite circuit were actually the key ingredient in the training that produced the fastest times of my competitive college running career.

I could and have run this loop along the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis in the dark of morning or night. I've run the lollipop style route both forward and backward. I've run it as a segment of a longer run all the way up to 12 miles. It's flat stretches, bridges, light polls and hill segments have served for hours of repeats hitting every imaginable goal for physiological stress and adaptation possible. 

You'll find it known simply as the Hennepin Loop in my logs and journals and by the dozens of athletes that I coach who also attend the same university I did as a college athlete. Hennepin Loop + Nic Island means 5.2 miles. Hennepin Loop + Boom equals 6.5 miles. Hennepin/Stone Arch Fartlek means an RPE based fartlek run measured by light poles on two long bridges over Old Man River.

It seems to me many of us have these home turf areas that are the foundation to our successful running endeavors. But how does this tie into my previous post about creating a healthy context for serious athlete training and connect back to my perceived success at a local 10-mile racing event?

Back in February in the midst of an intense period of sleep depravity, work pressure and general winter doldrums common in Minnesota I needed to get out for a run. It also needed to be as seamless as possible. Shorts. Shirt. Socks. Shoes. Run.

Simple. No watch or GPS. No phone or fitness apps. No uploads, downloads, instagrams or tweets (Of course I'm ruining it by blogging about it now). Just a familiar, favorite route where the mind turns off, the CNS takes over and some unknown time later you are back home again. 

I will never know exactly which physiological systems were taxed or the extent to which they were pushed. The minutes per mile down to hundredths of a mile will remain an unknown in my log. Yet the time spent on my feet that day were just as much a training day as any prescribed workout with umpteen variables dialed in and programed into my Garmin 220.

There is more to say on this but I'm going to keep this post short and extend my thoughts on to another entry later this week. Thanks for staying with me on this topic and I hope to have you back when I wrap up things up next time.