A few years ago I made the decision to stop engaging in any online debates with people I don’t know. It’s something I encourage you all to do, because it can waste so much of your time, and ultimately serves no purpose. Best case scenario (and this scenario is literally one in a million) you manage to change their opinion, but even then, you don’t know that person so how do you benefit from it? What usually happens is that you find yourself increasingly irritated by their views, which is why I try not to engage.
Last weekend though I was watching a video on The Running Channel where one of the presenters was documenting her training for her first Marathon. I might have commented on the video in any case, but there was a prize draw available for those who commented, and given I am always in need of more running kit, the only question was what to write. So when the presenter mentioned that long runs were the least fun runs, that was my cue to explain why they are my favourite runs, especially when you take the opportunity to explore new places and see new sights.
I was expecting nothing more than a like from The Running Channel, so was surprised when someone commented on my post, though why he chose to do that is something I still can’t explain, because it wasn’t really related to my comment at all. Rather than discuss whether he enjoyed long runs or enjoyed exploration, he simply stated that in his opinion an 80 minute run wasn’t a long run. This annoyed me because the fact that runners rarely belittle other runners is something I really cherish about the running community. Yet whilst an 80 minute run might not have been a tall order for him, for many runners it would be a very long run indeed. Because no one starts out running for 80 minutes at a time. That is a duration that you have to build up to, and might even be a landmark run if it coincides with your first time running a certain distance – my first 10 mile run probably took me about 80 minutes, and that certainly felt like a big deal at the time. So, I felt compelled to pull him up on his comment, for the sake of anyone who may have felt like their own achievements were being belittled, and explained that these things are all relative.
The strange part of it all was that I was talking about an aspect of long runs I hadn’t truly experienced for a while. I had done a couple of long runs in new places, but they had been either during the events where you’re not fully taking in the sites, or a long run the day after my friend’s wedding where I simply retraced my drive the previous day. The last time I truly explored somewhere new on a long run was my first long run in Kenilworth, which have have been 6 weeks previously at the time. I had been planning to do the next stage of the Grand Union Canal Adventure the following day, but noisy neighbours meant I got to sleep late that night and given I had a few other things I needed to get done that Sunday, I decided to stay local and explore whether there had been any progress on the Kenilworth Greenway HS2 diversion. Which, as it turned out, there hadn’t.
The past week has been particularly busy, and faced with the prospect of a two hour round trip for the Grand Union Canal route, I once again decided to stay local, but would not make the same mistake I made last week. There were a few footpaths I wanted to explore, and most of them delivered everything I’d hoped for – good variety, technically challenging in places, a variety of surfaces and gradients and on the whole not too overgrown. They also linked up quite nicely with a few other footpaths I’ve used before, meaning that I now have lots more options should I decide I want to extend or shorten my route if I find myself in that area.
There is more to explore too, though the question now becomes when to do that. There are times when knowing a route well is really beneficial, whether that’s to compare your fitness levels with where your were in previous training blocks, or just knowing how far a route is or how long it will take you. I ended up taking my gel far too early today, because I had no real plan for the rest of the run at the time and the path I ended up taking left me further from home than expected. For today, that was fine, but there are also days when you really want to focus on things like taking your gels at the optimal time.
There’s also a side of me that wants to leave a few places undiscovered. When the opportunity arises to explore further afield I intend to take it, but I still want to have places locally that I can still explore in the future and don’t want to burn through them too quickly. It’s a bit of a bizarre mindset, keen to explore yet consciously holding myself back, but there are times when I will really feel the urge to explore and want at least a few options when I do.
Scorpo Stories 