I'm not asking for much. I'm fine sharing a track with randos doing their own workout. I don't even care that much if people are walking on the track and I have to go around them or use an outer lane. I'm okay if the track surface is worn down. I'm okay if the track is a non-standard distance such as 317 meters. I just want some place I can always go once per week to get a track workout.
Try joining a track club. They often have the means to enforce no track use but the track club when they work out. You might have to drive across the city or change your training schedule, but you should get your goal of getting a track workout each week.
Are you asking OP to interact with other human beings offline, and adjust his behaviors to accommodate other people's needs? That's quite lofty expectation.
Even when tracks are open there is often lacrosse or soccer practice going on
I feel bad showing up to the track and then the kids have to stop practice slinging lacrosse balls against the wall on the outside of the track
I wish they could build public tracks like the one in the forest at Nike
I have a good idea where my city could build a new track away from everything else
This is a fairly dumb post. How is that track going to be paid for?
In my city we have several tracks that also have soccer fields in the middle -- the club/league rentals of the fields help pay for the maintenance of the whole facility.
Do you want to pay to pay a fee for your workout, or do you like when those lacrosse users do?
Even when tracks are open there is often lacrosse or soccer practice going on
I feel bad showing up to the track and then the kids have to stop practice slinging lacrosse balls against the wall on the outside of the track
I wish they could build public tracks like the one in the forest at Nike
I have a good idea where my city could build a new track away from everything else
This is a fairly dumb post. How is that track going to be paid for?
In my city we have several tracks that also have soccer fields in the middle -- the club/league rentals of the fields help pay for the maintenance of the whole facility.
Do you want to pay to pay a fee for your workout, or do you like when those lacrosse users do?
In my city these are my track options:
1) cracked asphalt or concrete and the kids sports teams leave their gear or dads put up their lawn chairs in the middle of the track. When you do go at 5:30am before anyone shows up you get dog walkers who take their dogs offleash who run wildly across the lanes. The city is actually tearing down to build a one purpose thing (to the highest bidder) so good as a taxpayer bad as a user.
2) We do have one proper tartan/snyth outdoor track about 5 miles away (with no parking) but you literally get 150 ppl at a time - even at 5:30am. And no there is no discipline. Running all sorts of ways in groups of 20 at a time. I kid you not. And they're mostly "every day" runners meaning slow. Good luck running sub 70 or faster. You're just constantly running into them.
3) I guess there's a "track" behind a local high school for inner-city kids where there's a better chance I'll get shot at. And if you want to run on it - the track hasn't been maintained for 50+ years so its just a clover patch with the odd red dirt here and there.
Even when tracks are open there is often lacrosse or soccer practice going on
I feel bad showing up to the track and then the kids have to stop practice slinging lacrosse balls against the wall on the outside of the track
I wish they could build public tracks like the one in the forest at Nike
I have a good idea where my city could build a new track away from everything else
When I used to do workouts, I didn't mind the team practices on the field. But, apparently most of the time, the coaches of those teams did. They would often have the players leave their bags on lane one.
This is a fairly dumb post. How is that track going to be paid for?
In my city we have several tracks that also have soccer fields in the middle -- the club/league rentals of the fields help pay for the maintenance of the whole facility.
Do you want to pay to pay a fee for your workout, or do you like when those lacrosse users do?
In my city these are my track options:
1) cracked asphalt or concrete and the kids sports teams leave their gear or dads put up their lawn chairs in the middle of the track. When you do go at 5:30am before anyone shows up you get dog walkers who take their dogs offleash who run wildly across the lanes. The city is actually tearing down to build a one purpose thing (to the highest bidder) so good as a taxpayer bad as a user.
2) We do have one proper tartan/snyth outdoor track about 5 miles away (with no parking) but you literally get 150 ppl at a time - even at 5:30am. And no there is no discipline. Running all sorts of ways in groups of 20 at a time. I kid you not. And they're mostly "every day" runners meaning slow. Good luck running sub 70 or faster. You're just constantly running into them.
3) I guess there's a "track" behind a local high school for inner-city kids where there's a better chance I'll get shot at. And if you want to run on it - the track hasn't been maintained for 50+ years so its just a clover patch with the odd red dirt here and there.
So I can sympathize with OP.
My hometown was like that sorta. Tracks were either dilapidated or locked up. They let the running club have access one day a week but that was it.
Even if they were open practices went on from 3 pm to sunset and they wouldn't let anyone use it while practice was going on, even just in the infield. One place I lived, even the cheerleading team practiced on the local hs track - their cheers, not running.
You just got to go early to avoid this. I coach at a hs and we got a huge fields around the campus even right next to the track that the other sports can use yet they still use in the infield because it's turf. It feels like complete chaos between distance runners/sprinters/field event athletes, then add soccer and lacrosse both in the infield. I feel like I'm constantly looking out for my safety. So we meet before school on track workout days and have the whole track to ourselves. No disruption, no one crossing in front of us...just focused on the splits and actually running. Yes it's early and hard but so is after school. They can do a secondary run if they want after school but not worry about track access.
NO you don't lmao. Visit houston's memorial park cullen track. they tried to make it like the beaverton oregon track w a forest in the middle. instead you got high schoolers and sweats doing lunges and pushups in lane 1 of possibly the busiest track in america.
What's cool though is if you show up most weekdays around employment hours you might run into an olympian (sprinters, hurdlers)
I did not run in high school or college. My health has gone downhill the past year or two, after age 35 that is. I think I have MS, ALS or a similar degenerative disease.
You cant escape stupidity unfortunately, it festers itself onto the track somehow.
America is clearly an undisciplined country full of alcoholics, drug addicts, idiots, and fat people. This is just the environment were in unfortunately. Your best bet is to avoid them at all costs, they tend to lurk around the parks and tracks after rush hour.
I would love a world too where we could run on a track at any time of the day and not be afraid of these people. Better parenting is the answer.
Also, like somebody else said... clubs. If we group in numbers, we can fight back against the stupidity of America. They tend to originate from soccer clubs I think.