We talk a lot about races that we participate in on this forum, but it is actually through our training runs that we have our day to day relationship with running. I think that all runners have their favourite training routes. They might be routes that we find aesthetically pleasing, or challenging, or simply routes that you have a sentimental attachment to because you used them to train for your first marathon.
So what are your favourite training routes?
Comments
I get to run around the hills (Cotswolds) and routes used in the Sodbury Slog.............Magic
When I started running, I ran along the towpaths of theGrandUnionCanal. That is the, not the larger canal between London and Birmingham that has spawned a certain event. I came to love it for the picturesque rural scenes, and also for the industrial heritage that it displayed.
When I started to tackle races with more ascent/descent, I started top look for big hills. I actually got the inspiration for my first hill training run, from a route that I had worked as a dustbin man, to pay my way through university over the summer holidays. There was a competition among the gangs to load Bird Hill in the fastest time, and I held the course record for a while.
I learned my best hill training routes from local trail races such as the Woodhouse Challenge, and the Beacon Hill Trail Race. It is always worth entering any race within a few miles of your house, because you might just learn something valuable for training!
Bottom of Box Hill steps - to top of Reigate Hill (incorporating extra hill climb on way) and back. Fairly short nasty and brutish - albeit with lovely scenery - but maintains my 'hill fitness' which I now find more important than actual distance when training for most of my events.
Bear B. Hind - I might well run into you. I'm the good-looking one, though this picture of me was taken a few years ago and I've put on a little weight since...
(You should be easy to spot)
Yes - I always carry my red velvet heart with me .
Love a point to point run over the South Downs. Heading out through 7 Sisters country park and on Beachy Head is always fun.
The recent sustained period of rain is really starting to annoy me now. Not so much because I mind running in the rain, but because a lot of my favourite trails are now impassable. I went to run on one of my favourite routes recently, only to find that it was flooded and there were ducks swimming around on it!
Fellrunner, that's not fair! I have to run 2-3 miles to reach anything more of a hill than the bridge over the railway line It's much further to get to anything resembling actual scenery. And as for the Lakes - it's HOURS away!