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.
Sorry to hear about the health issues. You were pretty fast for someone who was never on a team. How'd you get into the sport?
I also have nerve damage in my feet (Alcoholic Neuropathy)
I have at least 2 Cancers that I know of
I'm unlikely to make it to age 40
That is pretty depressing. Assuming you aren't being a hypochondriac, why they ef aren't you out living/enjoying the last years of your life?
Seriously dude, you should have enough saved to last you a few years, life is cheaper in Poland, there are tracks all over, the people are nice (if you aren't an azz).
Go to Georgia or Armenia and you'd probably enjoy it even more. Do something besides wallowing in your misfortune. I figure I've got ~30 years left and felt anxious about wasting my life so noped out of the US.
I also have nerve damage in my feet (Alcoholic Neuropathy)
I have at least 2 Cancers that I know of
I'm unlikely to make it to age 40
That is pretty depressing. Assuming you aren't being a hypochondriac, why they ef aren't you out living/enjoying the last years of your life?
Seriously dude, you should have enough saved to last you a few years, life is cheaper in Poland, there are tracks all over, the people are nice (if you aren't an azz).
Go to Georgia or Armenia and you'd probably enjoy it even more. Do something besides wallowing in your misfortune. I figure I've got ~30 years left and felt anxious about wasting my life so noped out of the US.
I run, nap, wander and drink mostly.
Don't see good reason to rule out hypochondriac just yet, given the notable anxiety.
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.
Next thing you know they will want to employ the National Guard to make sure people comply.
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.
Sorry that you live in a shethole. (Where is this??)
In Vancouver we have multiple rubber tracks within a fairly short drive. (And people generally use them civilly/properly.)
OP wouldn't like the soccer practices in the infields, though!
Houston built a mini Nike style track through the woods at Memorial Park. Closer to 200m than 400m but beautiful and super cool.
The HS track in Northern VA where I live now is always busy with runners. It's not a public utility that people really think about much but the demand is certainly there. Running culture generally skews to silently suffering rather than vocally pushing for things like public tracks to be built.
The Memorial Park track is a five lane 400m oval. And yes, very cool and very needed. Take a look at how busy it gets… very obvious that it was needed by the demand.
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.
It's cool that we have public track and play facilities at all. It's a great amenity, it's free, and in many places, they remain open for the public outsisde of school hours. Sometimes we might need to be reminded of what a great option this is since we've largely come to take it for granted.
And it just as cool to see the kids and teams using some damned fields to get some exercise and time with eachother rather than being on a screen or doing something less healthy. Seriously, watch them a little and it is very endearing.
And how about those senior citizens who use it to walk laps and be active like we would hope they do, in a safe, well-lit place, around other people.
Yeah, sometimes our paths cross, and sometimes a little discussion is necessary to make our needs known and inform others of rules and such.
I don't have a problem with any of that, for the most part.
Do your track workouts on weekends, evenings, or mornings... The track team at my daughter's high school are done by 5:30 pm. Doing your workout while school is going on can be a bit dicey. I think that all of the tracks around me are unlocked...
He's too old and, quite honestly, I doubt that he will ever break 15:30 again. Sub 16:00 might be a stretch. Comeback attempts rarely have happy endings.
This ^
A public track is not justified for your nihilism workouts. You're doing them all just fine on this board.
Ann Arbor is blessed with this at the University of Michigan
?? The infield is all grass and motorcycle parking (yes, motorcycle/scooter parking) where the high jump mats were? Track has full thickness potholes. Worst track in the country. But free. Ill take it.
Yep. That's why these facilities always rent out the infield for ball sports too. Also, the facility is going to host a bunch of track meets - not a big deal unless you're trying to workout after like 730am on the weekend or on friday after work.
If you want no ball sports on the infield at all the best you can do is find sections of a bike path or crushed limestone trail, measure them with gps, and put out cones (or use natural markers). I do some repeats on a .7 and 1.4 mile section of a rail trail - because it wastes less time than driving to a hs or college track and guessing/hoping there won't be a practice or game going on. This might be hard for middle distance though where you really need to practice running race pace.
1. Are tracks really necessary for 99.5% of runners in an era where highly accurate GPS watches and HRMs are available? Post-collegians running middle distances are a very small number.
2. Building a track from scratch is expensive. Assuming that you can acquire the land at reasonable cost, the site prep, grading, drainage, and a stable substrate is a minimum of $100-200K depending on the condition of the lot. A mid-level public high school worthy surface will set you back $600K, a high-quality competition grade surface is $900K. Want lights, restrooms, and a security fence? That's another $150K. This is why school districts lock their facilities up and why parks departments don't build them in the first place. That's a lot of money spent just to see stroller moms, walking groups, tai chi groups, Crossfitters, kids doing skids on bikes, people shooting fireworks, homeless campers needing a dry spot to pitch tents, etc. creating the need for an expensive repairs and resurfacing every few years.
easy. Just let us use the public school track when there isnt practice? We are paying for it anyway. This isnt a novel concept, most all tracks used to be this way. Are people stealing mondo? 12 tennis courts, 6 baseball fields open around the clock but our track is locked and shackled to keep people from stealing exercise.