Tim Smith has previewed over email the introduction of the Lone Runner Challenge, a series of fun events designed to keep you moving, interact with your surroundings, and get creative in how you train. These will be organized in addition to the TNT workouts he emails out early each week. We thought Strava was the best way to encourage and issue the challenges, so post away, hashtag your activities, and let us know how it went in the discussion section below!
The first Lone Runner Challenge (#LRC1) is called The Road Less Run (#RoadLessRun). Strava maintains a heatmap of all their activities. This is an aggregation of any who has their profile set to public (Settings > Privacy Control > Activities > Everyone). Popular areas to run show up brightly, whereas less popular areas are faint or not lit up at all. We challenge you to to check out the map (https://www.strava.com/heatmap#10.97/-72.23913/43.66282/hot/run), researching your own route, and go explore! This can either be running from your home/work, or specifically driving someplace entirely new. If you find a particularly challenging section, feel free to add it as an official Strava Segment, and maybe you'll encourage other runners to head out there someday! Of course we encourage you to use your personal judgement and be safe out there. The picture I've attached is of the greater Hanover/Lebanon area, but you are not limited by what is pictured. Strava refreshes the map each month. Soon, your new activities will show up, making our community shine brighter than ever!
We encourage you to complete the challenge by next Tuesday's workout (3/24). As you finish your activity, hashtag the activity title with "#LRC1 #RoadLessRun" and any other comments you want. Check in on the discussion section and link to your activity and tell us how it went! If you see anything interesting, we encourage you to take a picture and add it to your activity.
Have fun out there? Why not do it again!? This challenge can be completed multiple times.
Popular roads/trails show up in this map as white hot, whereas other roads show up as grey, or faint purple. We encourage you to head out and explore the roads less traveled.