The Lone Runner

I ran my two 10k races for the year and accomplished my goal of finishing faster than the year before.  Now it is time to train for the Missoula Marathon on July 13th.  Considering I have about month of training before I taper I am trying something a little different.  I will run every single day and do a long run every weekend but I am not going to go over 20 miles on my longest run.  I think I was over trained for the last marathon and it showed in my time.  Also it is getting warmer so really long runs require lots of water and fluids, I can run around places and keep refilling my water bottle but it does take a toll on your pace.

This weekend I got to go to one of my favorite places to run and cross train - Red Rocks Amphitheater.  This is what it looks like at about 6:30 on a Sunday morning:

There are so many options for running and cross training that you are only limited by what you are willing to try.  I did some stair running, planks, dips, pushups, box jumps, lunges and step jumps.  I spent about 90 minutes out there and even though the altitude is only about 700-800 feet higher than where I live you can really feel it.  A good rule of thumb is that however much water you usually bring when working out bring double that to Red Rocks because it is warm and very sunny.

I went for a longer run of just over 14 miles on Saturday and I was thinking about a couple of the people I know through social media who were going on group runs.   Many people belong to running groups or have a training partner.  In most of my years of running I have run alone other than running with a friend every now and then when I was training for my first marathon.  I thought about it for awhile and this is the only way that I can train and be ready for races.  There are times where I am traveling a great deal for work so I won't join a running group locally.  Plus I wake up really early (by 3:30 - 4 AM most days) and don't want to wait several hours to run with a group (yes, I run in the dark a fair amount).  I'm self motivated so I run, lift, etc. without needing to be pushed by a group or a partner.  There are days when I am sore (like today, my calves are sore) so I didn't run as hard because that is a way to risk injury.  I think everyone has their own pace so trying to conform to somebody else's pace can lead to bad form or hurting yourself.  Maybe some people do it for the social aspect of being around people with similar interests?    The more I thought about it the more I realized I like running alone, it allows me to clear my thoughts or think through a work problem or just let my mind wander.  I can talk to people before or afterwards but I don't really want to have to talk to someone while running.

I'm curious how many other people out there are Lone Runners?  Would you rather run in a group or alone?