I am on the road in Charlottesville. Stopping here for a short layover on the way to DC for a meeting. In my brilliant packing job, I managed to forget both my Garmin and my MP3 player. I briefly lamented this and then realized that I was going to be in new gorgeous places that I know quite well and should be able to easily figure my distance when I got home online (http://www.mapmyrun.com).
As an aside, the Medical Alumni Association at UVa has a cottage available to alumni to use. It is a lovely, quiet, well-restored building, on the National Register of Historic Places, and used to be the kitchen for the buildings in front of it on Main Street. Erin and I just love it.
Starting from "the cottage", I went down Main, through the Mall, up Barracks (down one of my favorite hills in CVille), past Barracks Road shopping center, up and around the law school, Darden Business school, the track, across to the football stadium, up JPA past the hospital and back to the cottage.
The run made me remember how much fun just lacing up and going can be. I stopped when I needed to, I slowed when tired. I sped down hills when it felt good. I got water from fountains when I saw them.
It was not a fartlek, but the meaning of that word, "speed play" came to mind repeatedly during this run. I was having fun, playing, looking, enjoying, and so on. Now, part of the fun was certainly being back in a town I love, but I think I could recreate this as part of my training. The idea I have is that one run a week will be a medium distance run, no electronics, and just look and think. (Ed note: I usually listen to podcasts and use my running time to double with keeping in touch with my selected forms of media).
Anyway, time for another unassisted run around CVille!
No comments:
Post a Comment