21

Nov

10 Places To Run In San Francisco (Before Judgment Day)


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San Francisco is more than just another pretty face among the many in the Golden State. It’s also the home of Rice o’ Roni, the Nike Women’s Marathon and the #1 Placeholder for Runner’s World 25 Best Running Cities in America. That being said, if you ever find yourself in SF make sure you check out these 10 places and make the most of your time there. For reals!

  1. Crissy Field
    One of the best places to run in San Francisco. Having wide open fields, you can run along a long and flat dirt path. And – awesome views of the Golden Gate Bridge!
  2. The Presidio
    This is San Francisco’s national park covering over 1500 acres. This old military outpost is a great place to go for a nice quiet run.
  3. Golden Gate Park
    I love this place! Part of the NWM runs through GG Park. You can make your route as easy or as challenging as you like with a nearby total elevation change nearing 2000ft to below sea level out and backs.
  4. Ocean Beach
    This is another great place to run a path along the sand. If you want to come here for your long run, start out at Seal Park and head towards the water.
  5. Twin Peaks/Mt. Sutro
    Here you’ll find the best views of the city and a steep b*tch of a climb. Plus, hello, it’s Twin Peaks! I just like the name.
  6. San Francisco Bay Trail
    Want a tour of the entire Bay? Try this popular dirt trail on for size. Also a great place to meet other local runners.
  7. Lyon Street Steps
    These incredibly steep and will crushing staircases are popular among hard core runners and masochists in the know. If you make it to the top of the staircases (close to 300 steps) and back make sure you do a Rocky Stance!
  8. Embarcadero
    The Embarcadero is the eastern waterfront roadway of the Port of San Francisco.  You will not come up against auto traffic but it does get busy with tourists. Great and easy to get to for runners visiting the city. Views = A+
  9. Baker Beach
    Good routes around Baker Beach can go from 2-8mi. Go here and especially check out The Sand Ladder, which is apparently epic. Rumor has it there is some nudity in the area. I’m in!
  10. Dipsea Trail*
    Escape from the city and run this breath-taking 7 mi trail which also happens to be the home to the oldest trail race in America (The Dipsea Race)! I’ve been trail running in SF and trust me, it is no joke.

Much love to John Frenette of Hella Sound Running Music , John Hegstrom and the people of DailyMile.com for help compiling this list!

*If you want more amazing trail recommendations in the Bay Area check out The GPS Runner.

546 days ago Short URL 3 Comments

Running Routes

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11

Aug

How To: Find Local Running Routes With Your Garmin

(And Why Can’t You “CONNECT” on Garmin Connect?)

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If you’re a relatively new Garmin Forerunner user or have yet to experience the full effect of Garmin Connect (http://connect.garmin.com), this will blow your mind:

Aside from some cool analytics features for pace, time splits, max/min speed and elevation change – you can also find cycling and running routes via other Garmin Connect users.

From the Garmin Connect page click on the “Explore” tab. You will be taken to a search page where you can look up by keyword and location different activities from other Garmin Connect users. Filtering options include: activity, event type, distance and elevation.

It’s a very cool way to know what to expect when running a route (depending on notes + output). For example: I found a user who ran the the trail at Elysian Park – one I’ve been meaning to check out. After clicking on the route I found out that there was a decent elevation gain – and am now able to figure out alternate routes if the distance is not what I’m looking to do (this person ran a 5 mile route).

From the looks of it, you cannot “friend” or “connect” with other Garmin Connect users (ironic). It would be cool to be able to connect with other Garmin users who are running the same routes (especially because you already know their pace). I doubt that Garmin would put much time or money into building out an online community from the possibilities their site presents. It is a really stellar opportunity for a developer to create a mashup app based on a geo-location game. Wishful thinking? Maybe?

647 days ago Short URL 3 Comments

Training

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02

Apr

Google Map: Los Angeles Running Clubs


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Here’s a frequently updated Google Maps list created by yours truly dedicated to popular running clubs in the greater Los Angeles area. This list contains the day(s) of the week and times club weekly events are scheduled.

779 days ago Short URL Comments

Running in L.A./Running Routes

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01

Apr

Los Angeles Running Route: Foursquare Mayorships

Running Supermayor? Just Do It!

Looking to seriously run (pun *totally* intended) L.A. via foursquare?

Here are some popular running routes with the minimum number of check-ins it will take you to have a chance at stealing its coveted crown (note: a lot of these may take a while). If you’re a badge or mayorship junkie, this will be a bit of added incentive to diversify your running route portfolio!

Happy running (and don’t forget to check-in before you take off from that starting line)!

1. Runyon Canyon – 27 check-ins

2. Hermosa Woodchip Trail – 44 check-ins

3. Griffith Park Trail – 32 check-ins

4. Santa Monica Stairs – 36 check-ins

5. Rose Bowl Loop – 26 check-ins

6. Silverlake Reservoir – 25 check-ins

7. Aviation Park – 26 check-ins

8. Ballona Creek Bike Path – 18 check-ins

9. LA River Bike Path – 17 check-ins

10. Lake Hollywood Reservoir – 12 check-ins

PS – If you are looking to battle some folks virtually here’s my Twitter List of LA-Runners (most are also on foursquare).

780 days ago Short URL 3 Comments

Running in L.A./Running Routes

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19

Mar

How To: Use Social Media To Find Running Routes

You've Unlocked The Great Outdoors Badge!

If you are tired of using the same run of the mill ways of finding running routes around your neighborhood (word of mouth, google, running clubs, etc.), several new tried and true routes are as easy to find as clicking through a popular social media outlet. Here are a few high traffic sites (which are non-running and sports specific) that you may have left untapped. All of these sites have proven to be good sources in my own search for new routes to romp through.

Yelp.com (http://yelp.com) – Traditionally known as a foodie or shopping junkie site, Yelp is also a good place to find local parks, routes, and trails for running enthusiasts. Once you happen upon an interesting reviewer with enthusiastic trail running reviews, you can follow them for more information and places to run. You can check out elite Yelpers in the topic section “Daily Runner’s Log” to get you started off on the right foot.

Foursquare (http://foursquare.com/) – For hardcore social media junkies / runners Foursquare is a good place to track down other runners by simply “checking in” where you run and looking at other runner suggestions for routes and tips on that particular location. Several trails around Griffith Park have tips on Foursquare like this venue here.

Twitter (http://twitter.com) – Using third party Twitter applications like Tweeple.ml is a good way to target local users as well as other running enthusiasts to be able to chat about local running routes and races till the cows come home.

Social Site of Your Choice – You don’t have to sign up to runner or workout specific sites like DailyMile.com or IMathlete.com to add yet another social media outlet to the myriad of Facebook-like accounts you already have. Take whichever site you are already actively on and run (pun intended) a few searches for topical forums and reviews on running related topics. Why reinvent the social media circle slash wheel when you can carve our your own running community on your favorite site?

793 days ago Short URL Comments

Running Routes

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