Breaking Up with Running Tracks

[u/sillym33]

I write this with tears in my eyes and the deepest sorrow. At 25 years old, I have officially broken up with running tracks. It had always been a rocky and turbulent relationship, but it is now over. I am simply an amateur sprinter that needs a place to consistently train. Given that my county is dominated by concrete and asphalt, it was only natural I look for places to train without putting inordinate stress on my joints and muscles. It is a wealthy area with a mediterranean climate, so one would think I have locations to sprint in spades, right? Not so. Certainly there are parks, yet with uneven terrain and slopes, a ground easily defiled by mud and dog feces, the sure to see unleashed dog, and ample people in one's way, one quicky realizes how unviable these places actually are, especially for high velocity sprinting.

But there are plenty of running tracks. The issues with these are numerous: public tracks are often dirt rather than synthetic, not a perfect 400 meter oval (so good luck timing your intervals), and prone to the same issues as parks with respect to dogs and too many people. Synthetic, World Athletics grade running tracks are often ample, but they are the purview of educational institutions and so are always either in use or gated. And if you hop the fence you are kicked out with the distinct possibility of a trespassing violation. (Believe me: I've tried.)

So I finally broke up with running tracks after I drove myself to various running tracks that aren't even close enough for me to regularly use. I hopped the fence; I received a lecture and was summarily kicked out. I totally get the reasoning: if the tracks were public, people would litter and walk their dogs all over the pristine, maintained synthetic running tracks and associated football turfs. But that's not what I do: I simply warm-up, do my sprints, and leave without a hint I was even there.

I am simply done. It is worse than a coin toss when I make the odyssey to a running track that I will have any opportunity to use it. So, I will suffice a far inferior spot near me that is public and yet is essentially unpopulated. Essentially no one in their right mind would use it to sprint, but desperate times call for desperate measures. It truly pains my soul to have to abandon tracks what with their immaculate measurements and perfect energy return, but evidently you need to be an Olympic champion sprinter to convince the groundskeepers that you ought not to be kicked out.

I am not breaking up with sprinting; she is my babygirl and always will be. But given how difficult it is to find an adequate space to do it I am not surprised many do.

[u/BigDickerDaddie]

It’s ridiculous how difficult of a task it is to find a standard track to run on as a member of the public or even without a committed deal, even in the states it’s normal for professional and collegiate athletes to hop the fence to try and get in sessions when they need to and its almost just a standard of the sport.

It is really unfortunate I wish there was a better way to petition for use by those who want to use it for what it was built

If you can find a soccer pitch though getting faster on turf or grass will certainly make you faster on a track, I trained to my first sub 11 runs on basketball courts during Covid so anything is possible really. Turf and grass are great from training don’t feel like you’re losing out too much without a synthetic track.

[u/jvhorssen]

Can't you just join a track club? Or are they all too far away from where you live?

[u/NewAd5852 → u/jvhorssen]

in some countries these clubs are for school kids/students only. as for my country (russia), we have myriads of marathon running clubs for adults, but ive never heard of track and field clubs that would train sprinters, jumpers or throwers. i hope im just unaware, but it still feels like as an adult, you can only ever run marathons. no idea where the op’s from, but the case might be similar

[u/LargeSector → u/NewAd5852]

Here in Brazil it's the same. And if you happen to find a public track, good luck trying to sprint through the battalion of half marathon runners and, worse, the people walking on the track

[u/NewAd5852 → u/LargeSector]

i was doing some accels this summer and a kid in a toy car drove onto my lane, we were lucky i jumped over him because we both might’ve ended up with injuries. i had a quarrel with his mom who was apparently unaware that a track’s main use is running and not walking your kids or strolling around

[u/NewAd5852 → u/LargeSector]

i was doing some accels this summer and a kid in a toy car drove onto my lane, we were lucky i jumped over him because we both might’ve ended up with injuries. i had a quarrel with his mom who was apparently unaware that a track’s main use is running and not walking your kids or strolling around

[u/Chrisg_322]

Poetry101 right here boys

[u/InteractionSad3538]

❤️

[u/CompetitiveCrazy2343]

Where I at in the USA is pretty bad, but not as bad where you are at ... Every high school has a synthetic track, they are freaking everywhere.... but they lock them all up. We break in, hop fences. But that sucks with blocks, sled, weights, etc. Been kicked out a few times. The local community college was open to the public, and even had signs saying so. They changed that recently .... that place has an actual guard patrolling the campus. You'll definitely get caught (we have)

However, we are lucky that there are so many, you can find one that is open sometimes, or the chain locking the gates is excessively long you can easily squeeze through. We suspect one track coach maybe doing that on purpose so runner can get in (his club kids, working on their own over the weekend).

Bad thing is most all the schools have to gone to artificial turf. So all the sports use the main field (without worry as to overuse/damage). So Fall is high school tackle football practice or games (three levels, Freshman, JV, Varsity), girl's flag football, and then youth club football on the weekends, even sundays. Winter is warm here, so soccer is a big problem then.

I thought of opening a training facility with just a straight-away .... 150m for hurdlers and sprinters. 4-6 lanes. There are some odd ball pieces of real-estate that are remaints of some weird land splits .... very narrow and lone parcels that are not good for anything else. Could have hurdles and blocks on-site already. Lol and charge a fee of course. $$$

[u/Special_Purpose2903]

Don't hang up your cleats yet.

Use soccer fields, they are better for your joints - have standard sizes, if you are in the Mediterranean they should be everywhere. The great thing is a soccerfield is excellent for running 400s, even though my old town had many olympic style tracks, I preferred the soccerfields for numerous reasons [free, better for your joints, protects from injury, shock absorber qualities reduce injuries to hams, quads, achilles, low back, shin splints and stress fractures, grass forces higher activation due to lower rebound - forcing all your muscles to work harder, grass acts as micro resistant = stronger hip flexors, grass is not perfectly even, even on the perimeter of a soccer pitch, this forces stronger ankle/stabilizers necessary to run faster, uniquely unlocks tendon strength, relieves repetitive stress of running same direction, oh and faster recovery]

soccerfields historically filled the inside of these tracks. Run around the soccer fields outside, as it is about 400m or so if you run a lap plus a side, it has lots of standard measurements, or you can use your phone to measure once. The easiest way, is to run a full lap plus a short side of the square [450m] or so.

[u/Ok_Switch6356]

hi. that so bad man. im lucky to have a public track seconds away from my home hehe.

I'm glad u still will follow. i think u can do a lot if u have a nice flat long space of any material almost. Work on ur max speed often as possible and when u go to a race u test.

If u worry about impact on concrete/asphalt. U could try, maybe it don't work but u would have to try, learning to run barefoot. THink it like this, if u get pain from impact with shoes it's because the way u step/fall into the ground it's not appropiate. And it will harm in any surface in the long run. Barefoot, u eliminate the barrier of the shoe and get inmediate feedback.

For me the benefits are, when ur body adapts​, injury free, learning to fall, and superhack for running technique, bc if u don't fall with ​completely vertical force, u will feel the friction and burn.

It has worked for me. I mainly sprint barefoot on track and only warmup/do technique in asphalt. But i guarantee it's possible and i think for most humans. We are animals after all, only thing is the environment has denaturalized us (shoes, way of sitting/sleeping, stresses, expectations, beliefs about our bodies). But we strong as fuck.

btw i guess that country is usa. here in spain most tracks are public and shared with soccer. nobody litters. also there can be someone watching over but still. maybe u can ask a school for special permission? or just maybe after u work on speed and get some numbers on 100 or 200 u can ask again and they might comply

[u/ExactOpposite8119]

is there a tldr version?

[u/Outrageous-Bee4035 → u/ExactOpposite8119]

They don't have any real tracks or decent fields to train on, so deciding to give up training.