The humble 10k training run

The scene of a thousand runs.

I'm always writing about races, marathons, important long runs... and yet, most of my runs, by far, consist of the routine 10 km training run. It's only appropriate, I'm thinking, that I should record one post about this, a run that is equally important as the long runs that lead up to any particular long distance running event.

The 10 km training run is the filler that consolidates the endurance obtained by means of the long run. It ensures continuity of my running activity. Three times every week, I go out of the front door either for a straightforward easy (recovery) run that lasts around 55 minutes or for a 'quality' run which includes running at a fast pace.

By now, my running career spans a good quarter of a century. Throughout the years, the route of my standard 10k training run has changed according to where I was living. In the early days it used to start where there's the "LOVE" atrocity at Spinola Bay and followed the St Julian's, Sliema and Gżira coast towards Manoel Island and back. I still make it a point to run along parts of this route whenever I'm in Malta. It's surely the area most frequented by runners and joggers in Malta.

In my 'second' life in Belgium, my standard 10k started off as a cold and dark double loop early in the morning in Ixelles, to be replaced by much more pleasant variations at the Bois de la Cambre and the adjacent Forêt de Soignes. Then over to Hoeilaart and two alternatives: towards the same Forêt de Soignes but from the opposite direction, or towards Overijse and the straight road leading to Huldenberg.

But that's history. Now we seem to have established ourselves at the edge of Overijse, close to Hoeilaart. A steep hill creates a physical barrier from Hoeilaart, so my 10k has now been oriented towards Jezus Eik and the adjacent Arboretum. The fact that I work from home makes it possible for me to start my run at lunchtime, which is much more convenient than the early morning or the evening. I go up a slight uphill, then along a road running parallel to the E411 motorway, across a flyover spanning the motorway towards the main commercial street in Overijse, and soon enough into the Arboretum - the forest.

It takes me 18 minutes to leave the streets and enter the forest paths. That's too much, but the alternative would be to drive and start at the edge of the forest, which would be inconvenient for a daily run. That leaves 19 minutes of running in the forest and another 18 minutes to go back home. The forest section consists of a winding path to begin with, followed by a long straight with large trees on both sides, then a turn to the left into a picturesque S-shaped path leading down and back up to another path, which goes back to the first winding path. It's a pleasant route, marred just a bit by the occasional unleashed dog and one rather stony passage.

It's my standard run, and the way things stand, if I keep running for as long as I intend to do, it may well turn out to be the route I've run most. Literally a thousand times or more.