[background music] Mark: Here on GTN we have done our fair share
of epic runs over the year. Some that have taken us well away from the beaten track.
We're eager to plan some more, but rather than doing it alone, I thought I'd bring you
along today to show you how to plan a run route of your own, even the simplest of forms
within your local town or city, so that you can start tapping into and unlocking some
undiscovered paths or roots near your own home.
Hands up, who runs the same run routes over and over again, or does that classic out-and-back
run? Yes, you're definitely not alone. If you are just starting out and running, you
may well just be finding your feet with it and doing this, and that's absolutely fine,
or if you live in a built-up area on a city, then maybe just don't know where else to go,
and you're just keeping it safe and simple, also absolutely fine.
I'll also admit that sometimes I fall into the habit of getting hung up on my pace and
the distance that I cover in each run, and therefore end up doing flat runs or doing
that classic out-and-back. Now, there's a time and place for that. I would say that
if you really want to enjoy running, then it's really important to add some variety
and some spice to your running. Today, I'm actually trying to find a new route
near my own home, or at least piecing together a couple of different paths and routes that
I know of. I thought I'd show you my own process, starting off with the map options. Here, I've
got our first option, the very classic good old-fashioned OS map. No, I love these. We've
got tons from various adventures over the years. Some of them are stacked up behind
me here. This one here in fact is actually custom made.
Our house is bang in the center of it, and then we've got all the paths and places to
explore around us. Depending on where you live in the world, these are called different
things and can be more or less detailed than in other parts of the world. I think these
are fantastic because you can just quickly lay them down on the ground and just find
all those paths and start linking them together. Now, jumping forward into a much more modern
form of mapping, to something like Google Maps.
Now, I wouldn't say that these are really optimized for trails or for run routes, but
they're a pretty good sign point. If you do live in a town or city, you're just looking
for routes on the roads near you or on the pavement, then absolutely brilliant, but a
really neat trick they do have up their sleeve, and I've used loads over the years, is their
Street View function. Now, if I'm trying to plan a new routes or a route near me, and
I just got a bit confused and I don't know where that road is, but I feel like I should,
I'll often drop it into Street View, and it might just reject my memory.
If I am planning somewhere completely new, again, it might just give me that mental note
so that when I do get to that point and I need to take that left-hand turning, I'll
recognize it from that Street View function. That's really cool, but now to take that online
mapping up another level. We've got the likes of Komoot, Strava and MapMyRun.
Now, these are the absolute bee's knees, in my opinion, and totally optimized for running
trails and routes. Now, I've been using this loads lately, and it just allows you to simply
map out and create a route, and then you can export that and go ahead and follow that.
A really neat function to it is the fact that actually records and collates other users'
run routes, and then suggest them to you, shows you paths that are quite commonly used,
that can equally allow you to eliminate some paths that maybe you've spotted. You thought,
"That looks really inviting," but it turns out nobody's ever run there.
Probably a pretty good hint that- that's a no-go and best to avoid it. All you have to
do when you are creating a route is you simply just drag, drop, create that route. It will
then tell you the distance of that route, and then an estimated duration for you to
do that route based upon a rough fitness scale. I'm going to be honest. I tend to use a mix
of the bunch. I might start off by throwing the OS map down on the ground and just get
excited and start picking out locations and places that I've really fancy getting to.
Then, I might switch to something like the latter with Komoot and try and piece that
all together and create a route that works for that.
You don't need to do all of that. You might just want to use the latter. I just quite
like these, using an OS maps from time to time. That's what I've done today, anyway.
I created my route. I've saved it. I'm now just uploading it onto my polar grid, which,
again, I'm going to be honest, is something totally new to me. I secured the good old-fashioned
way, just trying to remember my route. Maybe even writing it down on my hand with, like,
place names, towns, second left, et cetera, et cetera. That is absolutely fine, but I
am excited by this because, hopefully, it's going to allow me to explore further and take
things to the next level. Time to get running. So far, so good. Pretty pleased with this
route, but I thought, let's stop for a second and just discuss a few more points of things
to consider when you are planning a run route. We've got the terrain, which-- I've gone for
something pretty punchy today. I've also got the surface, the distance, the safety of that
route. Then, depending on how far you go, you may want to consider toilet stops fueling.
That's probably more for the longer runs, not when you're just starting out.
Let's start by discussing this terrain and surface, because this can drastically change
your run. A five-K run that you ordinarily do may suddenly take twice the length of time
due to the train and surface, which is absolutely fine, but you just need to make sure that
you're prepared for that. That's where things like Komoot and Strava that I discussed before,
they can help you in advance by sort of giving you an estimated time.
At least you know what you're signing yourself up to. An OS map, I know it's very basic,
but the contour lines on that can help the closer together they are, the steeper, the
gradient. I knew my boy scouts were coming at some point. Now, if you don't have a device
like this, it's sort of helping guide you turn by turn, I can understand you might be
slightly nervous about the idea of getting lost on a route.
Suggestion here is, go out there, explore along a new path or route, and go as far as
you're comfortable with it. Just enough to venture, see something new, turn around and
come back. Lock that in your memory. Then, next time, maybe you might want to go a little
bit further and take that turning that you may be sore. Then, you're maybe not getting
yourself to a point of feeling like you're totally lost, but then, of course, the ideal
and the optimum is to do a loop. Why? Well, it's just fun.
Everyone wants to do a loop because then at least you're not retracing a path that you've
done before. Now, another suggestion here when you are starting to explore, and I do
this all the time, is plan out a long route, but also plan a short route, and knowing that
there is a turning somewhere along the line that you can take that short route. If, for
instance, that route turned out to be harder than expected, longer than expected, or you're
just not feeling up to it, you can, of course, also just do multiple shorter loops. Then,
when you're feeling up to it, start going further afield. I'll get a crack on my run.
I'll catch up you guys in a second. Almost finished my route. Just one last field
to get it through and I'm home. It's been pretty good, but I thought I'd round out my
advice here. One last bit on the mapping front is you can, of course, run with your phone
and refer to the map on there. I know plenty of people do that. I just suggest stopping
when you're referring to your phone. Don't try and run whilst looking at your phone.
That is just a recipe for disaster. If you're worried about dropping your phone,
you can get a kind of phone hand-holder to keep it nice and secure. If you're running
in the rain, I get a clear case like you use for cycling, so you can still see the phone,
or failing that, get a clear freezer bag. Also for using headphones, you can get audible
turn-by-turn guidance for the likes of Strava and Komoot, which can be really good.
Aside from all these mapping options and what not, I thought I'd share a few bits that I've
learned over the years as I've been running and trying to find routes and paths. Now,
my first bit that I found really useful when I initially got into running was just running
with others and joining a local running club. You can learn so much in terms of your local
area, what's on your doorstep by running with others. They just start showing you those
different paths. The other thing, and this comes in really
useful when you're visiting somewhere new, particularly in the cities, is just search
for things like the sea, a lake, a river, a canal, green spaces. More often than not,
you'll be able to find a promenade, coastal path, a path through a park, or a canal path,
a river path, whatever it may be. That's always been really good.
Finally, and I'm sure there's many of you out there that are concerned about, the safety
when it comes to running. Now, my suggestion here would be to try and head out early, providing
it's like that tends to be the safest time of day, somewhere around 6 to 7 AM. It's just
quite quiet out there on the roads or on the paths. Of course, if you are heading out in
the dark, I'd suggest wearing something bright and reflective gearing, maybe even a head
torch. I don't go anywhere these days without my
head torch, just in case I get caught out. On the subject of getting caught out, I'd
also advise, particularly so if you are going on a bit of adventure and going a little bit
further than usual, it's taking some money with you, even some cash or a credit card,
just in case you need to buy yourself some food, some fuel to get through that run, get
yourself home, or some transport to get you home.
Also, at the end of the day, getting lost is actually part of the adventure. I've got
so many great stories and adventures from when I've actually got lost, and found some
brilliant paths and routes in the process. I hope you do feel a little bit more confident
and equipped now when you are going to plan routes and you're heading out there and exploring
a bit more. If so, give this video a Like. Make sure that you are following us on social
media and subscribe to us on YouTube. [00:10:14] [END OF AUDIO]