Where do you do your track workouts?

lulukittie

I'm training for a half-marathon using Hal Higdon's Intermediate plan, and every other week there are track workouts. Right now I've just been doing them on roads and checking my Garmin to measure distances, but I know that's less than ideal. Where do you guys go for your track workouts? Are local middle/high schools a good resource? Or do you go to a college track? How do you know what times are best to go? I don't want to be the weirdo showing up without permission, etc.

Carrieendar

The rules on using school tracks have varied in every place I have lived. Contact the school and the office can tell you their rules. At one place in PA, every could use the track as long as they were not there when the school was using it/official use. At another track in PA, you had to register with the school office first.

In NC, you have to talk to the individual school principals because some will allow you run on the track if you are off by 7:15 and others prohibit non-school use (and post signs to this effect threatening arrest).

For universities, it's the same deal. I can run at the local community college track for free, but you need UNC permissions to use the track there.

Local running groups sometimes get group permissions or develop relationships with schools, so that is an idea.

Carrieendar

Does your garmin allow you to set workouts on garmin connect and then upload them? This will allow you to do a better workout without a track. You can set pretty much anything...warm up, 6x800 with 400 rest or 1 min rest or whatever,cool down. Then you can find a flatter, straight area and the watch will alert you when to run and when to rest so you dont have to keep looking at it and calculating distances in your head.

lulukittie

It does, I just haven't used it yet! The part about finding a 1/4-mile stretch that even resembles "flat" is the problem. I live in a very hilly area. Some are more gradual/long, some are steep and short, and there is just a lot of up and down no matter where you go. There is a nice flat trail near where I work (different city), but I don't always have time to run on my lunch break. I will call the local high school and see what they say. Looks like their track team is a spring sport.

saskie78

I run at our local University track, along with many others from the community. As far as I can tell, no one minds! We used to run at a local middle school track and called the school to see what times it was in use (as Carrie mentioned).

lulukittie

I called the local high school, and they said it was fine to use as long as a class wasn't using it. I'm going to go tonight. Thanks everyone!

PinkNinjaLaura

Glad you were able to find a track. I use our local high school one too. I'm there in the mornings before work when it's not being used by the school. I have an interval program I'll use on my Garmin for timed workouts but it's really nice to have the yard markers on the track for distance intervals. My area is hilly too so it's nice to have that consistent flat surface.