Hey. Anyone have a good 19-mile route I can use this weekend? I'm accepting suggestions.
My routes are getting kind of boring. You'll notice they're mostly around my house (if I have to drive to the starting line I have more time to talk myself out of running at all) and so they have titles like "Cemetary Long," "Cemetary Medium," and "Cemetary short" (Yes. It's true. I tell people I live by the Stadium, but really, I'm much closer to Trieste's sacred burial grounds). These are fine for my run-of-the-mill during-the-week runs, but for the long one (the cornerstone of any successful marathon program), I need to get a little more creative. For the 18-miler a couple of weeks ago I did the 9-miler twice (zzzzz), which helped me psychologically because it didn't seem as long, but it was long anyway, and windy and cold and miserable and I need to change my approach this time.
The 19-miler is kind of like the middle child-- it has some of the characteristics of the 18 and the 20, but is just a little less special-- a new distance, but not as fresh and exciting as the 18 and not as mythical as the 20 (the longest distance before the marathon, and coincidentally the exact distance to Mahnic on the bike path for a Lubljanska and a liter of beer and back). So I really need to spice this one up (sprinkle a little lemon pepper on this puppy).
This is an appeal to all of you cyclists and/or seasoned runners. I hear you do 19-milers with your eyes closed. What do you think? Where can 19 miles take me (well, let's have it eventually take me home...)?
I am open to suggestions. Triestini, this one is for you. Remember it has to start and end somewhere near the cemetary. And, for your information, 19 miles is 30.577536000000002 kilometers.
Thank you in advance for your kind help and support. If you give me a good one, I will make you chocolate chip cookies.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
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Hmmm...Might I suggest 76 laps around your local track?!
ReplyDeleteThe advantages are:
1. Water station every 400m
2. Mental toughness training
3. Nice running surface throughout
4. No traffic
5. Bragging rights on your blog
Will you bring my chocolate chip cokkies to Paris?!
You know, I had a feeling you would enter this contest, Minken... But don't count your cookies before they're hatched!
ReplyDeleteDamn, I wish I lived in Trieste and or knew the geography of the town. I'd like some cookies, stat!
ReplyDeleteHaven't you people heard of Google maps? Runner's world training logs? I mean, come on!! Let's get creative here, people! You don't have to be a Triestino pizza delivery person in order to suggest a 20-miler. If you can read this blog, you can map it up!! Chop chop!!!
ReplyDeleteSo I looked at Trieste Italy on Google Earth...wow looks very scenic with all that water. So I thought you should run where you have a scenic view...its not perfect, you have to have someone meet you at the end. So here's a route that Google says is a walking route to Monfalcone. Scenic vistas all the way!! It says 16 miles, but I'm not sure where to stop and start.
ReplyDeleteStart at: Trieste Italy
1. Head southeast on Via Doberdò - 0.2 mi
2. Turn left to stay on Via Doberdò - 236 ft
3. Turn right to stay on Via Doberdò - 95 ft
4. Turn left at Via di Prosecco/SP1 - 0.1 mi
5. Turn left to stay on Via di Prosecco/SP1 - 282 ft
6. Slight right to stay on Via di Prosecco/SP1 Continue to follow SP1 -
0.3 mi
7. Slight right at SP1/Strada Provinciale del Carso - 0.8 mi
8. Slight right to stay on SP1/Strada Provinciale del Carso Continue to
follow SP1 - 0.8 mi
9. Slight left to stay on SP1 - 5.4 mi
10. Continue on Località Aurisina - 322 ft
11. Slight right at Località Aurisina Cave - 1.3 mi
12. Continue on Località Sistiana/SP1 Continue to follow Località Sistiana
- 1.2 mi
13. Slight right at Località Sistiana/SS14 Continue to follow SS14 - 3.8 mi
14. Slight left at Via Cesare Augusto Colombo/SS14 - 0.5 mi
15. Slight right at Via Romana - 1.1 mi
16. Slight left at Via Giovanni Randaccio - 0.1 mi
17. Continue on Via Enrico Toti - 0.1 mi
18. Continue on Corso del Popolo - 0.2 mi
19. Slight right at Piazza della Repubblica - 118 ft
20. Turn left to stay on Piazza della Repubblica - 151 ft
Alright, BONSTER, you'd better start working on my 20-miler for March 14th. That should get me almost to your city house, right? Could you pick me up at the end?
ReplyDeleteNow that's what I'm talking, about! Great job, Bonster! You're on your way to winning some cookies... but the day is not done yet! Thanks!!
ReplyDelete@ bonster: So I looked at Trieste Italy on Google Earth...wow looks very scenic with all that water.
ReplyDeleteIT IS ;-)
Processor busy... will get you an answer shortly... Just one question: are you suresuresure you want to start at your home and reach the Karst heights? It's almost 1000ft level change... I am calculating now a trip from your home, but bear in mind it is quite easy to transform it in a almost-zero level trip by simply starting from the Karst (which means to take either a car or a bus).
ReplyDeleteNo problem if you want to start me up high. You can always start me in the Carso and then finish it at my house (going down is easy...). That way Cristian doesn't have to wait for me or come back to get me. But I trust your judgement. I am happy to run in the Carso and have no problem crossing borders...
ReplyDeleteFirst proposal (estimated 18,75 mi, but with some error of course):
ReplyDelete(get google earth)
Let's start at your home and reach Cattinara as possible (I suppose you do Erta Sant'anna, Salita di Raute, the hairpin beneath the highway, then up along via del Castelliere til Strada di Fiume)
From here, you head to Via Forlanini, you know where this odd round-about-which-is-not-a-roundabout is, the crossing between Via Forlanini and Via Marchesetti? Ok, right in front of the crossing, a bit on the right if you look towards Karst, there is a pedestrian crossing and a path that goes straight down into the valley of Longera/Lonjer. Go in there, reach the village.
When there, search for the only big road (there should be a traffic light too), via Max Fabiani, on the RIGHT. This is a steep road that brings you on the SS14 for Basovizza, you know. On this road, reach the crossroad for the golf course/Padriciano/Padriče.
Now, that was the hard and ugly part (about 3,5 miles), which could be eliminated with a car. From here on, it's all downhill (in all the meanings ;-).
On the road for Padriciano, there is a single first house on the left, with a big, graveled parking lot. Well, there, TURN RIGHT. Direction Sincrotrone. It's easy, just pierce the wood straight, you hit the Sincrotrone.
When you reach the paved road of Sincrotrone, turn LEFT. Run around the Sincrotrone building till you reach the road between Padriciano and Basovica/Basovizza, (google: Strada Provinciale del Carso).
TURN RIGHT. Head for Basovizza. Immediately after the sign "Basovizza", turn LEFT. You'll see a lot of parked cars and people jogging. Do you see on GE that road that leads from Basovizza directly northwards to Sežana/Sesana? On some maps it is called "Sentiero della Cinciallegra" (kind of a bird, "great tit" tells me the translator). Never seen Cinciallegre there, however.
This is a wonderful straight, pretty leveled, with gravel ground.
And now comes the most original part: in Sežana, we don't turn back on the same road. Right when we enter in the town, we immediately turn LEFT towards the village of ORLEK (see it on the southwest?)
Keep running to Orlek and then over it, we will soon reach the what-used-to-be border and then the cycling path for Trebiciano/Trebče.
Cross the town of Trebiciano and go ahead in the same direction on the overpass of the highway. Cross the highway and turn LEFT. You will be on a gravel road parallel to the highway for a while, then it will turn a bit to the inner side and will lead you to Area di Ricerca.
Go straight ahead the Area, pass the Elettra wreckage, the road for parking lots, the main crossing with the roads full of cars, maintain your right side but go straight, you'll see there is a parking lot at the end of the area with a microscopic roundabout and from there there is a road that takes you to that big parking lot where once the highway used to finish, you remember?
There, on this big area, you should find a road on the right side that goes below the road and crosses it, so you can turn LEFT (actually, the road is on the right, but it turns left after some meters, pardon, yards :-)
Final part, with a view of the whole gulf of Trieste: after you passed this kind of tunnel or what you call it, turn RIGHT on a gravel road that will go almost parallel to the old (Allied-built) Road 202. On Google Earth, there is this picture posted.
Just follow this large, recently re-built path and you'll reach the golf course again. From there, you should follow the same road as you did on the beginning: Longera/Cattinara/Home
Variants: we can start at Padriciano and compensate for the three missing miles by going for a while towards Opicina and then getting back through Banne.
I hate the act that I'm ill, surely I can't go with you from the beginning. But if you plan to do it on Sunday (let's check the weather) I would be glad to accompain you from/to Padriciano-Golf course.
I can't get an exact figure of the distance since the measuring on Google Earth can't follow each curve, and a lot of this track is not calculated by softwares. I think the my bicicle colud be useful also for distance measure.
The keyboard has some troubles with "f".
ReplyDelete...I hate the FACT...