Information for the Running Geek

I have had 2 nice runs since my last post in Parcul Titan. On Thursday, I completed a lap around the enter perimeter of Lacul Titan, which is a hair under 2 miles. With the distance to and from the park from my apartment, this run registered 4.21 miles. The path around the lake has about 1/4 mile that is not paved in the southern end, but its a smooth trail. The only problem now is the mud caused by melting ice.

The map on the left shows Parcul Titan as well as Parcul National. You can see our apartment location on the lower right with the red dot.

There is alot more of Parcul Titan than just the lake, leaving much potential for different workouts including trails and stairs, especially when the snowy weather stops and the trails dry out.

The garmin gps watch gives me great flexibility to run anywhere and adjust the route on the fly. Here is a plot of Thursdays run around the lake

Large sections of the park lay unexplored, but right now, the trails have a little to much mud for me.


TODAYS RUN

With the weather beginning to worsen, and snow in the forecast, I took advantage of a not-so-busy Saturday and broke out for 2 full laps around the lake, ending up with 5.6 miles. It was 32 F, which I've decided is the cutoff for the running tights, especially with light wind like today. I probably could have got along without them, but since I didn't try to run especially fast, I didn't overheat too badly.

THOSE HEALTHY ROMANIANS?

There were actually 3 other people jogging today, which made me feel much less freakish than normal! Even on this cool and dreary looking today, there will still quite a few people walking in the park. The Romanians definitely make good use of their parks to get a brief break from the city hustle and bustle. They walk alot which, in addition to the smaller portions of food they eat, explains why their obesity rate (like much of Europe) is much less than ours. You rarely see overly obese people on the street here like you do in America. Unfortunately, one of the consequences of the "Americanizing" going on in Bucharest will be an expected rise in those pesky numbers on the bathroom scales.