Another of the most popular and obvious places to run is on a track. Its plusses are many:
- You can easily track (so to speak) your distance and/or pace, giving you a quantifiable means of monitoring your progress.
- You can stop immediately if something goes wrong.
- You’re usually in a safe, secure area. Many tracks are lit for an hour or two in the evening in the winter.
- There are no cars to deal with.
- There are no hills to deal with.
- You often have easy access to water fountains and bathrooms.
- You don’t have to worry about potholes, hidden roots, and other things that can trip you on roads or trails.
Add to these advantages the fact that synthetic and rubberized tracks transmit about 20 percent less shock to your legs than asphalt does, and you can see why so many runners, especially beginners, find the track to be a safe haven. Another nice thing about outdoor tracks is that they’re standardized. Almost all tracks at high schools in the United States are 400 meters around. If you didn’t pay attention in school when the metric system was discussed, don’t worry. One mile equals 1,609 meters. So four laps of a 400-meter track is 1,600 meters, just nine meters (roughly 30 feet) short of a mile. It takes you only a few seconds to run nine meters, so do what most runners do: ignore the difference, and count four laps of an outdoor track as a mile.
The biggest problem with running on a track is the tedium. I know I start feeling like a caged rat sometimes if I’m just running around and around on a track at an easy pace. Most runners find that running for more than half an hour on a track starts to get on their nerves. One way around this problem is to run with a friend in the outside lanes. The time will pass a lot more quickly if you’re talking away with a buddy by your side. Another way to beat boredom on the track is to try to lose track of the number of laps you’ve run. Just like when you’re running a new route on the roads, run for your usual amount of time, and figure that you’ll cover roughly your usual distance.
Most long-time runners go to a track only when they want to do their one or two hard workouts of the week. During these workouts, they want to be on the track because they can precisely gauge their effort. They’ll go to the track with a set workout in mind (such as doing quarters) and watch every second to make sure they’re sticking to their plan as closely as possible. Why don’t they run on the track most days? Because one of the greatest pleasures of running is exploring nature and enjoying a variety of scenery and terrain. Despite all of its other benefits, the track doesn’t offer that variety. Lack of variety is part of the reason that most long-time runners avoid indoor tracks. It can be pretty tough to get in runs of any real length on the indoor tracks that you’ll find in the United States. Most of them require at least 10 laps just to cover one mile. I know this feeling all too well. When I started running again in the early ’70s, I ran mostly at an indoor track at the YMCA. Around and around and around I ran. Next thing I knew, I had covered half a mile. So once I felt a bit more confident about my running, I moved outside and rediscovered how much more fun it is to run in the great outdoors.
The other good reason to use indoor tracks only when you have to is that they’re so small that the turns are very tight. Even more than standard outdoor tracks do, these indoor tracks place undue strain on the hip facing the inside of the track.
The biggest problem with running on a track is the tedium. I know I start feeling like a caged rat sometimes if I’m just running around and around on a track at an easy pace. Most runners find that running for more than half an hour on a track starts to get on their nerves. One way around this problem is to run with a friend in the outside lanes. The time will pass a lot more quickly if you’re talking away with a buddy by your side. Another way to beat boredom on the track is to try to lose track of the number of laps you’ve run. Just like when you’re running a new route on the roads, run for your usual amount of time, and figure that you’ll cover roughly your usual distance.
Most long-time runners go to a track only when they want to do their one or two hard workouts of the week. During these workouts, they want to be on the track because they can precisely gauge their effort. They’ll go to the track with a set workout in mind (such as doing quarters) and watch every second to make sure they’re sticking to their plan as closely as possible. Why don’t they run on the track most days? Because one of the greatest pleasures of running is exploring nature and enjoying a variety of scenery and terrain. Despite all of its other benefits, the track doesn’t offer that variety. Lack of variety is part of the reason that most long-time runners avoid indoor tracks. It can be pretty tough to get in runs of any real length on the indoor tracks that you’ll find in the United States. Most of them require at least 10 laps just to cover one mile. I know this feeling all too well. When I started running again in the early ’70s, I ran mostly at an indoor track at the YMCA. Around and around and around I ran. Next thing I knew, I had covered half a mile. So once I felt a bit more confident about my running, I moved outside and rediscovered how much more fun it is to run in the great outdoors.
The other good reason to use indoor tracks only when you have to is that they’re so small that the turns are very tight. Even more than standard outdoor tracks do, these indoor tracks place undue strain on the hip facing the inside of the track.
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