I took the weekend off so not much on the exercise front. Yesterday before I returned home I did a short run in my friend's neighborhood in the
oh so very muggy weather even at 6 in the morning. It made me realize once again how important my routes are to me. I am not sure I would be a runner if I didn't live where I do. I love running beside the river watching it in the different seasons as well as watching it go from very shallow to flood stage (not something I like). I have "my" mountain to gaze upon and if I am not running here there are many many other routes to choose from. At my friend's I ran past many houses, up and down hills, and through winding streets. The houses were attractive enough but I need my open spaces and nature. This is even more true when it comes to biking. For me biking is all about the routes and what I am seeing. I never grow sick of the beauty on my favorite routes and I am always looking for new favorites. Swimming on the other hand I do mostly in the pool but perhaps the above explains why I liked my open water swim so much last week. My hats are off to those of you who work out where perhaps it is boring or not particularly pretty. I don't know if I would do it.
But I do use the gym in the winter quite a bit when it's dark so perhaps I would put up with anything as long as I was getting my run in.
How important is it to you that you are working out in a scenic environment? Not important at all? A deal breaker? Nice but you are just as happy anywhere as long as you are running.
Some pics from my weekend.
Times Square with my friends
We took the 3 hour Circle Line Tour around Manhattan.
A great breeze and wonderful sights.
There were so many bridges, particularly over the East River.
Now we're on the Hudson, the George Washington Bridge
I was amazed and jealous of all the bikers, runners and walkers
all along the bike paths around Manhattan.
We visited the World Trade Center Memorial. It was very meaningful.
There were two pools to represent the North and South
Tower. Names were engraved all along the edges.
There will be a museum in the future.
We had an excellent dinner here!
Nemo at Mystic Aquarium in Conn. on Sunday
Beluga whales
A break at the beach.
Monday it was back home to a broken refrigerator. So refrigerator shopping then the great clean out of all the spoiled food.
What do you do with the spoiled food when your "dump" is open only on Saturdays? I obsessed about this all day. But we have a large freezer so I cleared a couple of shelves, put stuff in garbage bags (unless it could go to the compost pile) and put it in the freezer until Saturday. Brilliant right?
11 comments:
I run exclusively outdoors because the environment that I run in *is* important to me. I also enjoy watching the change of seasons throughout the year. :-)
Looks like a fun weekend! I love a good, scenic run/ride. That said, I also think banging out a boring as hell treadmill run staring at a wall builds mental toughness. I prefer the former of course but will push thru the latter.
It is fairly important to me. I run in downtown DC during the week. We mostly do the same route but for some reason it never gets old.
When I run in my town I like to run by the lakes (right outside my door).
My cousin lives in Mystic. Such a quaint little town.
Love NYC (for a visit). Yes my surroundings are important. I love to run near Loerge or the rivers. My neighborhood is BORING!
that was Lake George
This is a great topic. I like to think I would run no matter where I was located, but I suppose it could be challenging if I didn't like where it takes me. I love the huge variety I have where I live. I also like that I have hills to train on. And I like that there are enough people out and about (but not too many) that I never feel isolated/afraid.
I nearly always choose to run where it's pretty - along the river or to the lake at the university, past golf courses or parks. If I didn't care about the scenery I could just run around the oval at the school next door.
Beautiful pics Andrea, thanks for sharing.
Where I live it isn't half as pretty and beautiful as where you live but I've come to appreciate it since I started running. Within a few minutes I'm outside my village which I prefer. And to be honest, the few times I ran on vacation, I was always glad to be back at running my normal routes. At this point I think I would run everywhere I would live because running is a part of my life.
Visiting NYC is a dream of mine. I think I'll go home via NYC after I finish the Vermont 100 :)
I only run outside and never train in a gym. I like to run where I am and I'm good at adapting to the environment. Trails are my favourite of course but I run on the road every day during the week.
Environment, scenery, landscape, monuments and landmarks are all important while I'm running!
Beautiful post!
freezer is a good idea. i would have prob put it in the outside trash can. and then probably had stray animals around all week huh.
scenic is nice but i am just happy to be able to be out running period!
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