Easy Running Tips #27: Navigation and Wayfinding for Running
Hot tip: These are learnable skills.
Greetings, beginning or returning runners! How are you doing? I hope this finds you in good spirits. In today’s post, I’m going to share with you some of my own learning journey when it comes to navigation and wayfinding for running.
Hot tip: Navigation and wayfinding skills are separate skills from physical and psychological running skills, but they’re also skills you need to build.
Disclaimer: As always, this publication is not talking about trail running or being in the mountains.
As you start running, one of the questions is where you’re going to run (and walk, and jog) all the time. I realized that not only did I need to build up my physical and psychological running abilities, but also my route planning and navigation skills. These are all different things. As you’re starting up running, you’re actually learning a bunch of things all at the same time.
Once I realized that, I also realized that sometimes, I wanted to focus working on one thing or the other and that there were some ways I could make life easier for myself.
Hot tip: My main tip in this area is to realize that yourself, and to look at where your strengths are and where you might need to build up your skills.
Pick something to practice, and practice that
For navigation and wayfinding, I realized that sometimes I wanted to work on these skills more when I wanted to do longer runs in places new to me. Other times, I just wanted to focus on the physical and psychological aspects so in that case I might just keep my planning very simple and go to known places or do add-on or doubling loops to lengthen a run (instead of running a long new route).
I would suggest to have a think about what you actually want to accomplish with each workout. Is it just to build up your physical endurance, as you get started? Is it to obtain some mental relaxation and stress relief? Is it to improve your navigation and wayfinding? Depending on why you are going running (or walking or jogging) each time, you might want to challenge yourself to a greater or lesser degree, with exploring new routes.
With that said, finding new, good places to run can be a really fun and rewarding experience, especially once you’ve found good places. But, people run, jog and walk at their own risk. As runners, we need to figure out where we are going and there are always risks. Unfortunately, the risks are not the same for everyone, regarding safety.
One of my own goals: keep getting better at navigation and way-finding
Identifying habits or your own challenges: When I started running, I realized that I had gotten into some habits in finding my way around that I needed to change in order to be a better runner. I’m still working on getting better at navigation and wayfinding. The good news is that these are skills I can learn like any other skills.
My own sense of direction can sometimes be rendered less effective by certain social situations, prolonged stress, emotions, thinking, or spacing out. Thankfully, this has not been while running, but it’s happened sometimes in other contexts. As I’m usually more relaxed when I’m doing an outdoor sporting activity, I now really enjoy practicing wayfinding and navigation in this context. What works for me might not work best for other people.
Celebrating progress! I’ve taught myself a lot as compared to when I started, so that now I enjoy the navigation and wayfinding part of my longer runs (or other outdoor sporting activity).
Hot tip: Adopt a growth mindset attitude towards your way-finding skills. If it’s new for me, I accept that this is new for me and tell myself, “I’m learning. I can improve my navigation skills.”
If you think or say something like, “Oh, I’m bad at directions”, I encourage you to stop thinking and saying that and realize that, like most other things in life, for a lot of people, navigating is just a skill that they can practice and improve. They’re unpracticed. Just consider that you’re unpracticed and that you’re practicing and learning. As well, you can try to figure out how you tick so you can understand what leads to better or worse navigation on your part.
There’s also something called ‘learned helplessness’. This is when people are trained through cultural attitudes to think that they can’t do something or they are actually ordered not to do it; but, for a lot of people, this is just a belief and it is not true. Many can practice and learn what tools and tricks to use, that other people are using to find their way around.
Some people might need more support, and that’s okay, too. On the other hand, some people might need more aids or support to be able navigate or find their way around. If that’s you, then you might need to get some more help to figure out what kinds of aids might be a good boost for your skills, for your specific situation.
For whatever reason, if you are like me and realize you want to get better at navigation and wayfinding, then join the club. Let’s get better at it together. I still practice this and am still working to improve my own skills. That’s okay. Why should I automatically be good at something, if I haven’t practiced it? That doesn’t make sense. So a lot of practice and repetition might just help.
Hot tip: You’ll feel like a boss when you successfully plan and complete an adventure and you stretch your skills.
So that’s my baseline, starting from a point of realizing that I need to get better at navigation skills. Information is power, so that’s a great place for me to start, realizing I need to work on it.
Hot tip: See if you have any navigation or wayfinding habits you’d like to alter and replace with new habits that will serve you better and make your running safer and more enjoyable.
What’s in it for me? Why bother improving my navigation or wayfinding skills?
Once I work out new routes to run, and also how to go about exploring to find new routes, this can help me make running a resource in my life that can help keep me healthy in mind, body and spirit. I can have more confidence when I’m running, when I’ve planned well and know where I’m trying to go and how I’m going to get there and back.
From ‘poetic’ local wayfinding to having a good plan for a longer run
If you are one of the people whose attitude towards navigation in your neighborhood or local area has been more spontaneous (perhaps we could even say, poetic? or laissez-faire), now is a time to start to learn to plan ahead and find your way around if you want to start to enjoy longer runs not involving laps or repetition, eventually.
Perhaps your navigation -
Was like Emily Dickinson’s poems -
Thoughts - and dashes -
Here and there, Oh, a tree -
With planning longer runs, in new places, we’re more like someone who makes an outline before we write something. An artist who sketches before painting.
Not all adventures are the same.
Hot tip: When you plan an adventure, think of what you need to do before, during and afterwards.
Finding my way around involves preparation and experimentation. Planning is a key part of helping myself have a good running experience.
Are you someone who loves planning any journey? or the opposite, or somewhere in between? For some people, planning is half the fun of any adventure or any trip. You might fall into that category if you love anticipating what you are going to do, and, just as you might enjoy solving a puzzle, you enjoy trying to optimize your adventure, or reduce avoidable unpleasantness. You tend to make a packing checklist, I suspect.
For others (and this is a bad habit some people need to break in the context of outdoor adventuring), you might prefer to gather things at the last minute and dash out the door. Or, you might like to go with ‘the plan of making a plan’, in other words, no plan. Bad idea, unless you are going somewhere hyper-local you already generally know. You might like to make decisions on the spot. “Hey, that direction looks kind of interesting, why don’t I try going over there and see what happens?”
Public service announcement, even though this publication is not about trail running or running in the wilderness, like in the mountains: For true outdoor adventures, having no plan is not an option. It is a guarantee for failure. It would be irresponsible, for example, to go into the mountains without an itinerary and good planning and the proper gear. As always, you have to think as well about what would happen if you were to get lost; rescue personnel might have to come get you.
However, in this publication (as I’ve mentioned above and previously), I am not ever talking about trail running or running in the mountains. But it’s worth mentioning that you would never go unprepared into such a challenging context, especially not where you could put rescue personnel at risk by making it necessary for them to come find you and get you out. It’s different if you’re talking about running somewhere you know. Not all running routes are the same. Depending on the kind of adventure you want to have, you need to put more planning into it. (End of announcement.)
When should I start practicing navigation and wayfinding for running (or walking or jogging)?
Hot tip: You can already start working on your navigation skills even before your running is at a point where you’re doing long runs. I personally found this kind of exciting and fun to do, because even when your body isn’t physically ready to do longer runs, you can start preparing your navigation and wayfinding skills for the time when your body will be ready to do longer runs. You’ll need these skills. Starting now can be a fun way to stay motivated and patient with yourself, as you build up your physical endurance. It feels good to know you’re making progress!
And this is a kind of progress you can make, right now. You can look at a map of your area. I’m telling you, dear runners, even if you are attracted to the Excessive Gravity of the Sofa (or Bed), you can consult your area map even from this position of mighty gravitational pull.
You will actually need these skills laterm when your running is easier. In fact, by the time your running is easier, you will want your navigation skills to be better (if you are starting from a baseline similar to mine). You can actually hit a kind of frustration mark when your running is better, but your navigation skills aren’t, yet. That’s why it is also important not to jump to trying to do things that require the navigation skills that you don’t have yet, before you have them, even if you are physically able to run further. You can build up those skills, though.
Hot tip: Choose your adventure (or not). People are different, and that’s a good thing. If you want to keep it all easier for yourself as you are starting out (or returning), you can just as well run in smaller parks, well-marked nature paths (where you know where you are), your local sports fields or running tracks. If you’ve got a lake or other water body, you can run next to that, then run back. You can go ahead and just run in well-known places if that is more comfortable for you. In other words, you are staying inside your geographic comfort zone—where you already know your way around. You can do laps or a simple ‘there and back’ run.
Hot tip: There’s a lot to be said for running somewhere you’re already familiar with, when you are just starting out (or restarting), in particular. That way, you can focus on your running, getting it done, and not on your navigating. You’re building up your confidence in your physical and psychological running abilities, at this point. It depends on each person and what will help you get out the door. If it’s keeping it easy that will help you, keep it easy. If it’s a mental challenge that will help you, then challenge yourself within safe limits.
In bigger spaces, you might get lost more easily. Going into something like a nature reserve still requires a lot of planning to know where you are, to get out and back out again before dark. That’s different from running in a smaller local park with flowerbeds and fountains, where you could just run laps around the park until you reach 3 km, 5 km (for those first, building-up runs).
Going to a neighborhood sports field and doing laps around the field might be an easy win to nail down some of those beginning, 20-minute walk-jogs, as you are starting to build up (or regain) your endurance. If you feel like exploring, then you should do some planning.
Let’s look at some things I can do before, during and after my adventure. This isn’t comprehensive.
Before my adventure
Planning phase:
Selecting and planning my route. Selecting my destination and route. How far do I want to run? Or how long? Where do I want to run (or walk or jog)? Somewhere where I know where I am already or somewhere new? Is it well-lit? Are there people around there at that time of day? Are pedestrians safely out of the way of motorists, cyclists, etc., on the path?
Gathering and practicing using what I’m going to use to navigate (before it counts). What navigation applications and tools can or should I use? Map? GPS, mobile phone application, or other device? Is that going to be sufficient for the type of adventure I am planning? Do I need any of that for what I’m going to do?
If I’m going to use a device, how much battery charge and/or data does my devices and/or mobile phone application require? How fast will my my usage consume my battery or data? Is that going to run up my bill, if I’m not on an unlimited data plan? Did I mistakenly plan an hour-long run, but I only have enough battery and/or data for thirty minutes? Or I forgot to charge my device the night before? and that is my only access to my route map? Am I going to get myself stuck?
Having a back-up option in case I can’t rely on my phone or device. What if I drop my phone in a creek or on a rock or lose it or it doesn’t work, or I don’t have network coverage, or run out of battery, what will I do then? Most people have dropped their phone at some point. If I am doing some sport activity that requires a bit more planning, the last thing I want to do is to drop my phone on a rock or in the water or out of battery and have that be my sole means of finding my way around, gone. For some my own adventures, it’s appropriate to have a paper map, compass and pencil with me. Depends on the adventure!
Sharing my itinerary (where I’m going to go) and my expected time back with a family member or close friend. Golden rule: Always tell at least one other person where you are going. (Better, two.) I should keep them updated if I go somewhere new or otherwise change the itinerary. They should expect me to check in with them by a certain time.
During my adventure
Getting out there: Exploring and learning a new route, which I want to do safely. Different people have a different comfort level with exploring. That may also depend on where I am and the general level of safety there.
Observing: Some things to notice while I’m trying a new route: landmarks, street signs, what the running surface is like, lighting, how many people are around, who else is using the public space, what kind of nature there is to look at. If I have a map application available to me on my phone, I might be able to check where I am. But very often (at least in my experience), they don’t give sufficient detail or would even lead me in a bad place for pedestrians to be.
Staying alert to notice who and what are around me: I keep an eye on my environment. This is something to practice and keep practicing.
Afterwards
Check in with that family member or friend (the person with whom I shared my itinerary), and let them know I got back safely. I try to make this a habit so it becomes routine for me and for them.
Evaluation, verification and ‘quality control’: Examining where I actually went and improving my route, if necessary. Did I go where I wanted to go? Did I get lost? Where did I get lost, and why? Where did I make a wrong turn? Did I come across something notable that will help me remember where I went exactly? A bridge? A church? A street intersection? Sometimes I photograph those landmarks if I want to repeat a route. I look that up, on the map. If I was not tracking in real time, I look at some markers that I observed while out on my run to verify, where was I, actually? Is that where I thought I was? How did it all go? How could I improve my experience?
What if I had been my own ‘customer’, would I have been satisfied with how well I’d prepared? Did I stay safe? Was there anything I would want to avoid next time? Any area I did not like? A spot I loved and want to go back to? Some nice shade for running in the summer? Was there a good running path that I could take, where I went, or was any portion of the run not suitable for pedestrians? If part of it was bad, where could I go instead? Was I running on concrete the whole time, or, on slippery mud? Was there a really nice running surface that felt good under my feet and joints? Or a bad running surface not suited for pedestrians, or for my shoes, that I should avoid next time?
What did I see on this new route? Would I do it again or (in marketing terms) would I recommend it to a friend? What did my common sense say about this route — did I feel comfortable? Was there anything telling me that I wouldn’t want to run alone there or at a certain time of day? Is it populated? Is it deserted? Anything I need to look out for? I add it all to my mental map and take it into account the next time.
Log an entry: I can write down some main info in my running notebook (which I’ll talk about soon, continuing this series of posts under ‘The Essentials’, so stay tuned). I can make a note if there is somewhere I want to go again, or don’t want to go again. When you make your own new routes, write them down before and afterwards. Write where you went, where you’re supposed to turn, and how far you went.
Hot tip: In running (or walking or jogging), I should take responsibility for figuring out where I am going, where I have been, where I am, and be mindful of my location and environment. I have to take responsibility for my own knowledge of the route. If I run with other people, I don’t always rely on other people to know where I am going. As I mentioned, this is a work in progress in my running and in my non-running. I’m better about this in my running life.
I can encourage this ‘heads-up’ attitude among running partners by the attitude I adopt. I should know where I am going and have the tools to get home in case I’m lost. It’s better if everyone going knows what the plan is and what the itinerary is and can help make that happen. What time are we supposed to be turning around by to make it back before dark? Everyone in my group should know that. Everyone should have access to the itinerary and know the plan. I take charge of knowing where I am going and what that route is generally like.
Hot tip: Start small and local.
If navigating your way around new routes sounds difficult to you, as it might for someone new to taking charge of this for themselves, just start looking at your own neighborhoods around you, on your map. Start with the street names around where you will be walking and running. A lot of time we don’t even know the names of the streets we use all the time. It’s just habit. We don’t think we need this information and in some ways, maybe we don’t. But that habit doesn’t translate well to running longer distances or finding your way back home on a long run in the rain or when you took a wrong turn or when your battery’s dead and it’s dark out. So you can start building a new habit just by learning more about your own neighborhood.
Hot tip: If you’re thinking of going on an outdoors adventure somewhere new with other people, ask where exactly you’ll be going, which route you’re going to take and ask for specifics. Don’t leave it all to chance. If there is no one who has done that planning, then either you need to be ‘that person’ and get everyone else on board with a good plan, or you probably should not go.
Hot tip: Remember that you need to be actively learning your route, if it’s new to you and you’re going to want to come back to that place. Pay attention when someone shows you a route that you don’t know yet. Learn where you are going. Ask questions. It’s perfectly okay to ask more than once, if you don’t remember, the next time you go with someone and if you repeat that same route. But make it your job to learn this as fast as you can. If someone you know well is showing you a nice place to run, you might find yourself talking with them and getting distracted, in which case you need to remind yourself, “Don’t forget to try to learn where I’m going.” Don’t just leave it to them. It helps to learn the street names or directions or easy route markers.
When you’re running with other people for the first time, and also learning a route, you might be distracted, thinking, “[Expletive], this feels terrible, and they are going so fast, and why am I doing this, and when will this end?” You might be huffing and puffing with part of your mind making some very loud judgment about the whole situation. Your mind might be going all over the place, making it hard for you to focus on learning a new route. Or you might be thinking about the social situation and the social dynamics. (And, by the way, you very probably should not be trying to keep up with people that much faster than you, if you are just starting out, but that’s a post for a different day. It’s generally good to build up from scratch gradually.)
Hot tip: If you know one or two like-minded beginning runners, you can try walking or running together, if you’re exploring a new route. You could make it a point for everyone to be learning the route, to be saying your directions out loud and what you’re looking for until you all know the way by yourselves and can each take the lead. Things you can point out (if you already know the way) are obvious landmarks to look for, where to go, where to turn, etc., and where you’ve taken a wrong turn before and how to avoid doing that. (e.g., “Don’t go past ‘x’; if you do, you’ve gone too far.”)
Hot tip: This might be basic, but it’s helpful for me—I can try to always have the next little landmark in mind as I proceed. This isn’t just for driving but for running, too. That’s a great question to ask yourself or someone who is showing you somewhere to run. Try to point out the main street names or things to look for to find one’s way on this route. Things to look for, and ask:
“What’s the name of the street I’m/we’re on?”
“Where do I/we turn next? what am I supposed to see there?”
“What are we looking for next, what’s the next street name or big landmark that I am supposed to look for right now?”
You can learn to ask yourself these questions. Note all the places where you make turns onto other streets.
Hot tip: Make yourself a map. Try to draw it and label the streets.
Hot tip: Some running applications will record your route for you but even if that’s the case, you’re not going to want to be looking at your device the whole time. So keep your eyes open and try to learn the route in person. Look at it ahead of time if you are going to repeat somewhere you ran before. What if you had to explain it to someone else, how would you give them directions?
Hot tip: Don’t only rely on tech. The tech solutions will keep changing for this (like augmented reality and wearable devices) but it’s good to practice navigating without constantly looking at a map. What if the battery on your ‘coolest device ever’ goes dead, or it doesn’t work, or it tells you to go somewhere wrong for a pedestrian, like on a busy motorway? You can’t only rely on tech. You need to use your own senses.
So, to conclude, here are a couple of options for practicing your navigation and wayfinding skills:
Option 1: Focus just on your running. So as I’ve mentioned, you might not have all this stuff figured out as you start; but, you want to get started on your running journey. If you go somewhere relatively ‘safe’ and well known to you, you might not need a lot of tech and you can be researching these options for way-finding tools in between runs, meanwhile, as you get started.
So, if you have somewhere ‘safe’ to run (whatever the safest place looks like to you in your local context), you can’t use the fact that you don’t have a data plan, or have a phone, or have some other device as your excuse not to run.
If you’re going to have a purposeful wander, in a hyper-local area where you can do that safely, then go ahead and wander lonely as a cloud. Wordsworth would be proud.
Option 2: Focus on just your wayfinding. You could just as well do an exploratory walk of a new route, and focus more on your wayfinding skills, as you are preparing yourself to be able to do slightly longer runs, as you build up. So that can be a fun feeling, to know you’re doing a walk and working on your wayfinding even if you are not running. That’s really helpful. You’re building your mental map.
Look at your local map and start figuring out what places you can go that are 3, 5, 8 and 10 km routes (including going there and coming back). So what’s 1.5 km away, via a safe route for pedestrians? etc. Go walk a new route that you will try to do a walk-jog on, next time. That would be a great first step. Or, you can walk to somewhere nearby (if you are lucky enough to have a public space like this) where you can do some laps that will add up to 3, 5, 8 and 10 km. Do some planning and measuring.
Hot tip: Start practicing your navigation skills in your own neighborhood and then move on from there. Using your own applications or devices in your own neighborhood, where you know where you are, could be a good way for your to start practicing using whatever you’re going to use to navigate running, for slightly longer runs.
You’ll be able to see what level of detail you have in your app when you’re on foot (and, for real, if it is your regular map application on your phone, it is probably not going to be very good unless your entire neighborhood has been mapped very accurately on one of the free maps and it is all up to date) so you may very quickly find out that it’s not suitable to use for running.
It depends where you live and where you’re running. but don’t end up trying to go onto a busy motorway or whatever just because a map says you can go there. You really might not be able to. Be careful, of course. You’ll be able to check how quickly your battery and data get used up when you use whatever you’re using, if you decide to use an electronic device.
Well, dear runners, walkers and joggers, we’ve reached the end of this post. Navigation and wayfinding are things I am working on. So my advice is to myself, as much as it is to anyone else. And at times, I still prefer to go to local, pretty-much known areas and enjoy a wander. I’ll wrangle with this topic a bit more next time.
I hope this was useful for you in some way.
Until next time, take care,
Ellen
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.[…]
—William Wordsworth