Running has become the defining sport of the quarantine era. With gyms closed and team sports on hiatus, it’s one of best ways to move our bodies and focus on our mental and physical health—which we all need right now. Which is not to say it’s not a strange time to run: races are cancelled for the foreseeable future, you can’t meet up for a workout with your friends or teammates, and practicing social distancing makes a lot of routes frustrating or impossible. But at least we can run.
That’s something I’m grateful for, because running has become a huge part of my life. In high school and college I ran track and played football—I never thought distance running was for me. As recently as four years ago, I said I’d never run a marathon. Now I’m dead set on running my fourth. It all started when I took ten weeks to train a client of mine, Eugene Tong, from scratch to chugging through 26.2 miles for a respectable finish at the New York City Marathon. Running with him during training and seeing his progress lit a fire in me—I signed up for next year’s L.A. Marathon the next day. I struggled through that course’s endless hills and found God at mile 18. That same year, I surged through the streets of New York, feeding off the energy of my current home. Then last year I met my goal of breaking three hours with the oh so flat course of Chicago. It’s been a wonderful experience. Everyone knows that running a marathon is about endurance, and it is, but to do it well you need more than that. My secret was picking up the pace on some runs and turning up the intensity on at the track.
In this weird time, the track is one of the best places to get a workout in right now. It’s a bit counterintuitive, since it’s a gathering place, but unlike parks or sidewalks, there aren’t any dog walkers or rollerbladers to weave six feet away from. And a standard track is more than 30 feet wide, meaning there’s plenty of room to give each other enough space.
Now, I know many of y’all have NO plans to ever run a marathon—and unlike me you mean it. That is fine, but a lot of you may be runners. And really, everyone is a runner—it’s what our bodies were made to do—and any runner will get something out of trying to go faster. That means speed is for everyone, right? But here’s the thing: even as elite athletes get faster, the general population seems to be getting slower, with race times declining, even accounting for more people signing up.
I think this is a trend worth fighting. It’s not just about getting into shape or getting a better time—there’s something special about truly seeing what your body and mind can do if you push yourself. One of the great things about running is that, unlike so many complicated things in life, it rewards the effort you put into it almost immediately. And anyone who expands their comfort zone will quickly be capable of things that would have been impossible a few weeks before. The best way to do that is to hit the track. Here’s how.
1. Find a Track.
This is almost certainly a track near you. Yours might be in a public park—my track of choice is at a local high school. Every school will have different rules about public access—they’re likely cool with you getting a workout in if it’s not locked up, especially on the weekends, but be respectful, above all, and certainly don’t get in the way of practice or P.E. class. The track can be a good place to get a distanced workout in during coronavirus, but it’s worth taking pains to avoid crowds right now. There are certain tracks in New York that would not be a great idea to use on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, and that might be the case near you too.