Thursday, November 7, 2013

Training : Where + When : Part 2

Christian and I have vastly different running preferences.  His happy place is a technical trail with rolling hills, so he is always doing something just a little bit different throughout his run.  The focus on the trail combined with the exertion of running and being out in the (sort of) wilderness is just his thing.  I like predictability and bathroom access.  When I get the chance on the weekends, I love to walk in our neighborhood.  My workout starts the instant I walk out the door and I'm never more than 10 minutes away from home.  I also don't do hills well at all with my knees, so the flatness of our sidewalks is a plus.  I also love being able to pick up or drop off a headlamp, extra layer, or water bottle right into my mailbox.  I have my own little aid station and drop zone right in front of my house.  



This is not to say that walking my neighborhood is at all boring.  For starters, we have clay soil that expands and contracts with the weather, so there are always sidewalk obstacles to contend with.  We're talking 2" dropoffs between sidewalk slabs.  I'm not going to admit how many times I've almost bit it right here at home.

The other nice part is getting to know my neighbors a little better.  Once I stopped and chatted for 20 minutes with a 96-year-old who was out getting her paper.  Another time I was nicely motivated by a guy taking out his trash while I was out walking in the dark, who said just one word to me as I passed.  "Determination!"  I also get to recognize the early morning weekend dog walkers.  It turns out that the one neighbor we'd seen dozens of times is a former ultrarunner.  What are the odds there'd be another person who thinks that running for lots of hours is such fun just two doors down?  We can be so insular in modern life and it's nice to get outside of my four walls and see the people passing through life in the same place I am.

1 comment:

  1. This is awesome Brynne! I too love walking my neighborhood! You go girl!

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