I’m a data geek. I have a 910 Garmin watch, metronome and usually I train with Heart Rate too. I want to see all the data while I’m running. It has been a good thing for my racing and training but I rarely, very rarely, do a solitary run, with nothing, in a place where I hardly see anyone. In fact, that is difficult to find in LA.

Well, I had a solitary run the other day. I was with the Sole Runners. I was running 2 hours and 45 minutes. Usually I run with Sole Runners but it just worked out that my first 7 miles were a solo effort. I wanted to get in this run the day before the Surf City half Marathon. I was doing two back-to-back runs training for the Catalina Marathon.

It was slightly cold and a little windy on the Palos Verdes peninsula. The usual throngs of people didn’t come out. As I was running along the cliffs, on the Cabrillo Pier and along boats in the marina I saw very few people. I didn’t have my Garmin or metronome. I don’t listen to music, so nothing was in my ears except the the birds chirping and docks creaking. It was just me, the pavement and my ChiRunning.

I turned up this walkway/street and no one was in sight. Check out the video, no one. I didn’t worry about pace, cadence, time or distance. I just worked on my ChiRunning form and enjoyed each stride.

My sole run ended when I ran into Sole Runner Rene about mile 7. We ran together for another 7 miles on this beautiful day. It has been a long time since I really had a solitary run (an hour alone), even though it wasn’t the entire distance. At first I was feeling a little weird but awesome at the same time. I’ll have to do this more often. Do you ever run solo? Without music? A watch? Is it ever just you and the road?

Train Focused, Steve Mackel – Master ChiRunning Instructor