The Running Thread - 2020

[Neon Cactus]

ATTQOTD: I run from home. I'm 3/4 of a mile from the Katy Trail, which is a 3.5 mile long runner/pedestrian friendly trail near downtown Dallas. Then I can add longer runs from there around the basketball/hockey arena, House of Blues, SMU University and other areas. In the other direction, it's a couple of miles to White Rock Lake and there's a 9 mile path around the lake. I could drive and park at the lake, but most days I just run there and back from home to add more miles.

 

[OldSlowGoofyGuy]

ATTQOTD: I always have to travel to run, although sometimes only a half mile.

I have 3 courses:

Paved roads close to home. 1/2 mile travel. We live on a gravel road (really either a dust road or a mud road, depending on the weather) with a steep hill that is not good for running. About 3 times a week, I'll drive to the end of the gravel road and run on the paved roads. No sidewalks and not a whole lot of traffic, though I do jump off the road approximately once per mile to avoid a distracted driver.

Technical school. 15 miles travel. Minimal traffic. Pretty easy to piece together a 6 mile run with various loops.

Local college. 24 miles travel. Minimal traffic. A combination of track, trails, and lots of loops. Easy to put together a long run.

I usually combine the tech/college runs with a trip to the Y for a strength workout and/or yoga and a grocery store run. This makes the effective travel 0 and 9 miles.

It works well to have my vehicle available as a water stop, place to dump or add gear, etc. Plus, it's equipped with a running clothes dryer/destinkifier.

 

[amazingact21]

ATTQOTD: I am pretty fortunate in that my neighborhood backs up to a local parkrun course. So I’ve got that 5K route available plus additional pathways for increased mileage. The only downside is that it’s been so wet and muddy lately, I don’t want to get my good shoes filthy. (The perks of acclimating to English weather!)

 

[opusone]

ATTQOTD: I run from home. I'm 3/4 of a mile from the Katy Trail, which is a 3.5 mile long runner/pedestrian friendly trail near downtown Dallas. Then I can add longer runs from there around the basketball/hockey arena, House of Blues, SMU University and other areas. In the other direction, it's a couple of miles to White Rock Lake and there's a 9 mile path around the lake. I could drive and park at the lake, but most days I just run there and back from home to add more miles.

Hey, I grew up running around White Rock Lake when we wanted a longer run. I always enjoyed that run.

 

[SarahDisney]

ATTQOTD:
Sometimes on Sunday mornings I run through Times Square. Can't do that after 8am, though.
I almost always start from home. Lots of places to run - the streets, Central Park (stupid hills), pathway next to the river. This morning I did the Central Park reservoir, Monday I ran commuted home from work along the river with a friend.
My default is streets for anything less than 5-6 miles and the path along the river (which is about 0.5 miles from me, so I run there) for longer runs, but sometimes I switch it up.

 

[gjramsey]

ATTQOTDs:

Resort runs: never done one. I think they started up after my last time there, and that was over marathon weekend in 2018.

For runs, workdays are all from my house, if I have to go into work that day. I have my own personal heat map for the neighborhoods I do them in. I can go from 3-10 miles easily, with a lot of repeated streets. That never seems bad in the dark. For Weekend runs, I will go to where my running club meets and run the trails in the neighborhood there with our group.

 

[ANIM8R]

January 2020
All running
Miles: 59.4 (No Marathon weekend for me )
Avg. Pace: 9:45

But I pinched a nerve in my back on 1/30 so I'm sidelined for about two weeks. The first couple of days were HORRIBLE...much better now.

My short-term target race is Cap City Half in late April. Long-term is the Space Coast marathon in Dec. Also thinking about Detroit in October. I hope my back cooperates!

 

[MommaBerd]

ATTQOD: I, too, am fortunate to have lots of options for distances, terrain, and scenery that I can run right from my house. We have a greenway a few miles from me that is great for my long runs. I do mostly out-and-backs because it makes calculating mileage easier, and I try to pick what is most scenic. If I did loops, I would have to run along a busy four-lane road, and that is not at all appealing to me.

 

[GuinnessRunner]

ATTQOTD:

For anything less than 8 miles, I typically run from the house. Beyond that the hills around here start to get to me. I'm lucky enough that we have a greenway path about 15 minutes away that is mostly flat and that I can get 16 miles on without repeating anything (assuming it's not flooded from the rain). It also connects to a park with a track (although paved, not rubberized) so I can do speed work there too.

 

[surfde22]

QOTD: Do you run from home or have to travel somewhere to go run? Do you have a lot of options for mileage at home or end up having to run a loop multiple times?

I almost always run from home. I have lots of options for places to run around me, even if that includes running on the shoulder of slightly busy roads at times. I often use an app call RunGo to create routes with turn by turn directions when running anything over 5-6 miles.

 

[sky13]

ATTQOTD: I run from home!

I live maybe a quarter mile from my nearby park, which just re-opened last year (after being closed for a few years for refurbishment). It's a fantastic place to run in. Almost completely flat, with wide open pathways, and no roads within the park. One end to the other is around 1.75 miles, so if I do a full loop of the park I'll get a 3.5 mile route, which is my average running distance. If it's after dark, about half of the park is extremely well lit with lots of people (including families with kids) walking around even up to around 9-10pm. The other half of the park is further away so tends to have fewer people wandering around it after dark, which makes it feel less safe. So if it's after dark, I'll do two loops of the well lit half of the park instead of one loop through the whole park!

For longer run distances, I'll either continue looping through the park (though might go onto other paths just for variety), or go around the neighbourhood. There was also one time I just decided to run and see how far away I could get before having to stop, then took the train home after.

 

[FFigawi]

QOTD: Do you run from home or have to travel somewhere to go run? Do you have a lot of options for mileage at home or end up having to run a loop multiple times?

I normally run from home. The Marina Walk is about 5.5 miles around with plenty of bridges to make shorter loops or longer figure 8s. There’s also a nice bouncy running trail next to where we have our weekly sea swims if I feel like running on a softer surface.

 

[steph0808]

QOTDs

-Resort fun runs - I have never done one. I am usually only at Disney for Marathon Weekend, so really no point!
-Dogs - My 11yo boxer and 8yo beagle are not runners. I have taken the 9-month-old lab puppy for half-mile runs about four times, just to burn off his energy. And he still wants to chase the tennis ball 5709324 times afterwards. We go about 11-12 minutes/mile. He'll be 1 in April, so I'm hoping by fall that we will be able to work up to 3-4 miles.
-Routes - I will run outside at my house about 20% of the time. It's hilly, and I'm in the country, so there are no sidewalks. I have a decent 4.5-mile loop that I can do with hardly any traffic, except for the .4-ish miles that run right along the highway. If I'm just doing an easy run or not running for time, I'll do this route. Otherwise, I'll drive to my favorite rails to trails. It takes me about 17 minutes to get there, but it's flat, not pavement, there are no cars, and I can go 20 miles and only have to go across two roads.

 

[ReginaMBK]

ATTQOTD: I live in DC (well, Arlington - so shout out the Mike Wardian reference earlier!) and so I'm lucky to have a lot of trails around me. I can get to 3 different trails within about 1-2 miles so I will run from home. The only days I drive to a start location is to run with my team on weekend group long runs. I was recently back where I grew up, and wasn't so lucky - had to do neighborhood loops which is torture for anything over 4 miles, or drive 20 mins to a trail for anything longer. Makes me grateful to train where I do!

 

[KevM]

It all depends on the day. There are a couple days a week I run with a run club, so have to drive to those. I also recently started wanting to trail run at least once a week, so Saturday’s I generally drove to the trails of the Wissahickon. When I run from home, I have a lot of options. On the neighborhoods around me I can get -8 miles or so and if I want to cross a major road I have easily gotten 14. I’m also only about 1.5-2 miles from the Schuylkill River Trail and it’s real easy to get 20+ miles on that.

 

[GreatLakes]

QOTD: Those who run with their pets. Does your pet run in front, to your side, or just all over the place? Tips for running with your pets?

My wife did a few races with one of our past dogs and with our current dog. They ran besides or behind her slightly but she spent many years as a dog trainer and doing agility courses so the dogs have a lot of training time with her. She wears a running leash that goes around her waist and has some give but none of our dogs are pullers.

QOTD: Do you run from home or have to travel somewhere to go run? Do you have a lot of options for mileage at home or end up having to run a loop multiple times?

I mostly run from home but do travel to get in new courses or for direct access to trails. I am about 1.5 miles from a park entrance and that park is part of a huge park system that also connects to other park systems. I could easily do 500 miles in that system if I wanted.

 

[Dopey 2020]

ATTQOTD I’m another lucky one with many options from my home. During the week is my usual 4 mile loop, other days I can do that multiple times or change it up with a 6 mile loop or a 10 mile out and back plus several small neighborhoods to add up to different distances, all while leaving water in my driveway most times and running back by instead of carrying it. When it’s dark or icy I hit the treadmill in my house.

 

[Professor_Cookie]

QOTD: Do you run from home or have to travel somewhere to go run? Do you have a lot of options for mileage at home or end up having to run a loop multiple times?

ATTQOTD: Most of my midweek runs are from home. Our neighborhood is a little over a mile that makes a large B. We are connected to another street that is a out and back for a additional mile and crossing the highway for another out and back can add a mile. I hate making u-turns so I rarely run the other routes. On the weekends, I go to the LSU lakes where the options are endless for distance without repeating.

Attqotd: I used to travel for all my trail runs, but now I run out my door to save on gas and time...well, if I got back to running.

 

[mtnmjd]

ATTQOTD: For my midweek runs , I run in Central Park before work so I guess that qualifies as traveling somewhere? Weekend runs are mostly from home, I will occasionly drive a bit if I want to mix up my trail runs.

@Sleepy425 so sorry about the loss of your pup.

 

[Kazrak]

QOTD: Do you run from home or have to travel somewhere to go run? Do you have a lot of options for mileage at home or end up having to run a loop multiple times?

I pretty much run exclusively from home. We live next to a greenbelt that connects to a (paved) creek trail at the far end, and the creek trail ends at a loop around a local community college. It's about a 5-minute walk to my usual start point (nice warmup), then almost exactly half a mile from there to the loop. It's 1.9 miles around the college, so once around the loop including getting there and back is 2.9 miles - just under a 5k. (I have a detour I can add to get it up to full 5k if I want.) If I do the loop twice, it's 4.8 miles, and a slight detour makes it 5 miles even. Three loops is 6.7 miles, just over a 10k, and I can detour out on the creek trail to get it up to a 12k if I really want.

If I wanted to go further afield, in dryer weather I can go down to the creek and run on the unpaved trail. The unpaved trail connects to the Bay Trail, which goes for miles in either direction around the Bay. (I don't think it fully loops the whole Bay yet, but they're working on it.) I could also go through some of the industrial areas north of the college, which are pretty quiet on Saturday when I do my long runs.

This wasn't planned at all when we bought the house, but it worked out incredibly well.