Route Comfort

I am a creature of habit.  I have a mental book of several courses that I rotate through weekly.  Right now, my routes are between three and five miles, but soon, with my half marathon training starting, I'll need to  start branching out and finding new, longer routes that I'm comfortable with. 

I live in a small town (Wethersfield), which is just south of Hartford.  My town stretches about 3.5 miles by 4 miles, touching the south end of Hartford.  Someday, I hope to be able to run the outer roads of Wethersfield, which would be about 14 miles!  The majority of courses that I like are main roads only.  I get a little nervous running on side streets, because as I've mentioned, I'm an anxious person- I picture myself falling and getting injured and no one coming to my rescue on side streets.  Plus, my family and friends pretty much know my routes, so if something were to happen, they'd know where to look.  I know it sounds crazy, but it's just how I think.

My absolute favorite route is one I've titled "The Loop".  It starts at my house, and goes around a park in town, totaling about 4.4 miles.  I like it because it has minimal sharp turns, and interferes with minimal traffic lights.  There is very low incline on the beginning half of this route, and in the last mile, there's a hill (not a huge one, but still a struggle).  One of my other favorite routes is 3.1 miles, and consists of two areas of hills.  I really try to push myself to get a better time going up the hills, and I just had my best time yet on this route last week! 

Another course I like to do is from my boyfriend's house in Hartford.  He lives next to a golf course, and I like to run the outskirts of that.  It's 3.5 miles, and it's fun to try and watch people play golf as I run.

Because there are a lot of main roads in Wethersfield, I think it will be easy to extend my distances without compromising my comfort.  I'm looking forward to accomplishing longer runs with more hills, and hopefully crushing my goal of the outer loop of Wethersfield!

Do you have a favorite route? Why is it your favorite?

How do you decide which route or course you'll run on any given day?