Like many, I struggle with the epic battle of life commitments vs. the run. The battle also becomes more intense as mileage increases. How can you find the time for a 8, 10, or 16 mile run while balancing everything else.
One of my recent solutions has been to give up the luxury of running at different places and starting the vast majority of my runs from home. Instead of taking time to drive to the park or stopping on the way home, I have been running the vast majority of miles starting from home. It has given me a lot of flexibility and saved a lot of time.
While I thought I found a solution to win the battle, the roads had their own sneak attack and have been slowly fighting back. Their secret weapon: road crowning.
Road crowning is the secret evil plan to hinder runners from using the roads. Sure it could be considered a good thing for drainage and road safety but why design roads for vehicle safety.
Running on a crowned road means that you are always running at an angle. Although it may seem slight, the same angle for mile after mile is very hard on the shins and hips. While simply running on a crowned road is not bad, running too much on a crowned road is a bad thing. It took me way too long to figure this out so now my shins are in great pain.
Some obvious solutions:
- Alter your running terrain: time to find some other places to run, preferably off concrete
- Run in the middle of the road: If it’s safe, run in the middle of the road. Drivers don’t expect to see a runner in the middle of the road so be ready to jump in the ditch
- Typically sidewalks are not crowned so if you have them, use them. Many runners think sidewalks are for walkers but suck it up and stay off the road.
How do you avoid the crown?
