This spring has been especially mild, and with it comes many opportunities to play outside! Saturday I joined the TNT cycle team for a ride to Paoli, and Sunday I ran a 7-miler through the arboretum. Sunday’s run was a bit whimsical in the afternoon, and reminded me one of the reasons why I love running in the morning: the afternoon traffic was crazy. Cars overflowed the zoo and field parking lot, plus runners, walkers, bikers, strollers and more! Though I had to stay on my game and dodge ‘em, I was glad to see so many people out enjoying the day.
This is my 16th day in a row without using my car. That could be the topic of an entire post, or an entire book! It has not actually been that hard so far – there are many ways to get from here to there. I walk or bike to work and yoga. The edge of town – where my Tuesday night running group meets and the guinea-pig-food-store resides, is still only 5 miles away and a short bike ride. Even for larger shopping, tougher tasks, or rainy days, there are buses and cabs, friends’ cars to borrow (which I haven’t actually done yet either) and rides to share. Even bags of topsoil fit pretty comfortably in a backpack! I’ve been asking myself what life would be like if I didn’t own a car…
The fantastic weather also brings opportunities to be very careful, in the training sense. Ordinarily, a training schedule is written out in advance, carefully calculated to build up (and reserve time for rest) in just the right intervals to peak at the right time before a big race. This year, the nice weather has beckoned us to bike long, run long; get out there to play for several days in a row. My legs, for one (two?) are feeling pretty tired, and I’m glad to have a couple cooler days for taking a break! It will be interesting to see whether more people finish their summer races faster this year, as a result of a steeper training ramp-up outside this spring. Even more interesting will be whether more people here in Madison struggle with their fall races, on account of burnout from a more intense than usual spring. With A-races in July and late October, I’m planning for a sort of summer recess to rejuvenate midway through.
