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| My lovely city |
My run home from work involves running in the city. This presents a few challenges to overcome to ensure a pleasurable experience. Here are some of my tips for best practise when running in a city.
Know your route
It's important to know your route. I would advise planning so you avoid the busiest pedestrian spots. If you have to go down a certain busy street, have a look on the map and see if there is a side street you could use instead.
Be careful when crossing roads
Although you are running and probably in the zone, you still need to pay attention when crossing the road. A few minutes off your time while waiting to cross is better than getting knocked over. The green man is your friend.
Garmin satellite problems
I have found my garmin watch takes a few minutes lo get to locate satellites in the city, which I think is because of the tall buildings. Keep this in mind when planning your run.
Use the city for training
The city has tonnes of great training opportunities that you can build in to your run to keep the body guessing. Try and work in some stairs, wall jumps, hills, tricep dips on benches etc. use your imagination.
Mix up your route
I said before its important to know your route, it's also a nice idea to change it once in a while, just to keep things fresh and exciting.
Ignore the drunks
When I run home I sometimes get heckled by drunks or youths. Just ignore them, or give them a wave it's up to you, just be secure in the knowledge that in 2 secs you will be away from them, they will be left behind, still drunk, still fat, still a lesser person than you.
Where glasses
I find that I get a lot of dust in my eyes when running in the city so I would recommend wearing glasses of some description to keep this out.
Running at night
Wear bright florescent clothes so that you can be seen. I am sure you have all had the experience from a driver's point of view, when you don't see a runner till the last second because they are dressed all in black, more like a ninja than a runner.
Take water
Cities are hot places because of all the traffic and people. Take some water so you can stay hydrated.
Pedestrian navigation
Sometimes you will have to run through very busy parts of town. I would recommend slowing down a bit, looking as far ahead as possible and pick a route through. Of course you could just put your head down and sprint, crashing in to anyone who gets in your way.
All in all I enjoy running in the city. Hopefully these handy hints will help you navigate your way through the busy metropolis that is your city.
Let me know if you have any other tips I can add to the list.
