{"id":597,"date":"2019-03-21T18:53:22","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T18:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/?p=597"},"modified":"2019-03-21T18:53:32","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T18:53:32","slug":"over-and-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/21\/over-and-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Over and over…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One struggle for many runners is finding new scenery and training routes to avoid monotony. Since most of us work within geographic and time limitations in our lives, we find routes nearby that we enjoy but that we may use over and over again. Don\u2019t despair, there is much to enjoy from running the same road or trail repeatedly. This may involve tuning in to music or a podcast (but do so safely and mind your surroundings) yet there are visual ways to keep yourself engaged while running.

Changes in the season alter our views dramatically. In the spring and summer in our area, you might see blue herons and muskrats and in the fall and winter, it\u2019s thousands of geese. Year-round, there are owls and coyotes on the move. From November through March you might see what everything looks like after a heavy wet snow versus a howling blizzard. The vegetation takes on a different look depending on whether there\u2019s been sufficient rain. The trail has various personalities based on the amount of water that has changed it.

Most places vary in their appearance, usually just a little, every day. Running at different times allows you to see the trail or path in different kinds of light, whether it\u2019s from the sun, your headlamp, or, if you\u2019re fortunate, the brilliance of a full moon. Every type of light, from early dawn to the middle of the afternoon to sundown, gives everything a slightly altered look.

Beyond natural differences, there are the human-caused ones. The other day, I was running along a familiar path and there was a bag of fresh bagels next to the trail with no one in sight. Were they forgotten, were they left there on purpose? Next to a sidewalk I go along frequently, there\u2019s an outdoor pool in an apartment complex that hasn\u2019t been drained since last summer. Questionable maintenance standards? One evening there were four kids on bikes who were all attached to a makeshift trailer and speeding down the trail. This was clearly an act of creativity but who knows what they were up to?

If I\u2019m focused more on speed training, I don\u2019t notice anything except the watch and how I feel. The upside of repeating the same route on these workouts is comparing my times with prior ones and making goals for future ones.

Running familiar paths will bring many benefits, even if it\u2019s just the knowledge you\u2019re on a trail or road that you know well and that you\u2019ll get in a run that you\u2019ll be pleased with on some level. Enjoying the new amid the familiar can occur in many parts of our lives and repeating routes allows us to see that balance played out well.

While running a standard predawn route this morning, there was nothing too unusual but I did I catch the familiar scent of the fried chicken being cooked at King Soopers. On that note, I\u2019m heading to dinner and here is this week\u2019s food review (not fried chicken):

Running food review of the week: (note–gels, bars, chews, and other items affect everyone differently. Try them on a short run before using them for a key training run or race): Chocolate Coconut Roctane Gu<\/a>: I\u2019m not a big coconut fan but I figured I would test this one. In situations where it would have been impolite to decline a coconut-flavored dessert, I\u2019ve eaten coconut cake, pie, etc. This tasted a lot like those, with a dash of chocolate. For those of you who like coconut, this bodes well, as there was positive feedback at these various dinner parties for the coconut-flavored desserts. The wind was up the day I used this and I had run hard the day before yet I felt good. While the taste was not to my liking, I think this product would be good for those who like coconut. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One struggle for many runners is finding new scenery and training routes to avoid monotony. Since most of us work within geographic and time limitations in our lives, we find routes nearby that we enjoy but that we may use over and over again. Don\u2019t despair, there is much to enjoy from running the same … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Over and over…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9W0ku-9D","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1005,"url":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/26\/untamed-precision\/","url_meta":{"origin":597,"position":0},"title":"Untamed precision…","author":"36jonraessler50","date":"November 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"GPS watches have gained in popularity for several years now, to the point where I\u2019m pretty sure I was in the minority with my \u201cregular\u201d watch at my local run club. When I first saw GPS watches in the early 2000s, they were brick-sized machines worn on the wrist, or\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1338,"url":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/17\/mixed-results\/","url_meta":{"origin":597,"position":1},"title":"Mixed results…","author":"36jonraessler50","date":"April 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I've written posts on running while travelling and it's often a pleasant way to see an area. It's also the case that not all places are suitable for running and there have been times on the road where I've stuck to a treadmill or rolled off laps in a hotel\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":954,"url":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/21\/building-back-slowly\/","url_meta":{"origin":597,"position":2},"title":"Building back slowly…","author":"36jonraessler50","date":"August 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"My local run club started up again this week. There were several rules around participation including a twenty-person total cap, we would be broken into smaller groups for the run, and we would be required to wear a face covering when in close proximity to others. I was on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2068,"url":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/11\/when-reality-doesnt-meet-expectations\/","url_meta":{"origin":597,"position":3},"title":"When reality doesn’t meet expectations…","author":"36jonraessler50","date":"April 11, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"There are four stretches of dirt trail, each ranging from .1 to .5 miles, along my standard running routes where my pace as it relates to effort doesn't make sense in the context of the terrain. It's common knowledge that we tend to run faster on most downhills whereas going\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1167,"url":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/16\/31\/","url_meta":{"origin":597,"position":4},"title":"#31…","author":"36jonraessler50","date":"October 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"A few years ago I posted that I'd run in 28 different states and since that time, I've added three more: Nevada, Arizona, and this past week, Oregon.I travelled to Portland for a work conference and upon arriving, I initially figured that my Oregon miles would need to be logged\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1095,"url":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/27\/a-belated-happy-birthday\/","url_meta":{"origin":597,"position":5},"title":"A belated happy birthday…","author":"36jonraessler50","date":"May 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I started this blog a little over three years ago. For the first anniversary, I did a long run using birthday cake flavored Gu (which tastes just like a good sheet cake, by the way) and last year\u2019s anniversary occurred (obviously) in 2020. The number of notable world running events\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":598,"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions\/598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}