Fall in love with a new route for Valentine's Day

I'm not meant for spring marathons really. Training in the winter is not nearly as much as training in the summer, although I do enjoy the odd run on crunchy new snow. But rain combined with cold wind is no-one's favourite running conditions. And if it is your favourite, well then you're just weird!

But I am training for a spring marathon so I've got to get out there 5 times a week. I've got to run a range of distances at different paces. I've got a route for every single distance I need to run in training. I've got a series of mile and half mile loops dotted around my home that I can stick in at the end if a long run falls a bit short. My brain is a veritable directory of run routes.

But as I reach the halfway point in my London marathon training, (and my 4th marathon training in 2 years) I'm getting a bit bored with those routes. Like any partners in a long-term relationship, my routes and I are getting a bit stale. We're taking each other for granted, just rubbing along on a daily basis, with little or no romance in our day to day lives.
As with any partnership, your relationship with your routes takes work. It requires effort. It requires those little surprise touches to keep the romance alive.

While my route directory can't take me out for a nice meal, offer me a glass of fizz or whisk me away for a weekend, together we can keep things fresh. In the last week, I aimed to include a new section in every run. Last Friday's 16 miler took me down a new section of the Thames, from Putney to Kew. I run Kew to Chiswick regularly, but never usually go past Chiswick Bridge, so it was a whole new section for me and my brain. And a completely different direction too, which is of course is the easiest way to spice up your running life (and God knows, those long runs need some spice). This morning I ran my 9 mile river route on the other side of the river from usual. A simple change but it felt exciting. Just like a first date.

I find Gmap pedometer really useful for plotting new routes, but most of the time I just let myself get a bit lost in a familiar area. I'm lucky, I can run by the Thames, and a river is a great way to reassure yourself that you will never get really lost. It's like a soggy, dirty, unhygienic comfort blanket.

So fall in love again with your local running routes. Run a route the opposite way. Add a new turn into the route, see where it takes you. Add a couple of miles onto a tried and tested route over a certain distance. Take a bus to a new location and run home.  You can only get lost on a new route once - after that, you can add it to your list of conquests. Whether or not you choose to keep the relationship alive is up to you, but at least you gave it a chance!