{"id":4707,"date":"2019-06-09T10:23:17","date_gmt":"2019-06-09T08:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=4707"},"modified":"2022-10-24T18:35:57","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T16:35:57","slug":"local-run-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=4707","title":{"rendered":"Local Run Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
My local park. Life could be worse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite the fact that my recent move to a flat place with\nconvenient shops and metro stop has led to a bit of sedentary laziness, I am\nspoiled as regards good local parks. This isn\u2019t uncommon in Prague, as this\ncity was ranked last year as the world\u2019s greenest city. Much of my area is\ncovered in trees and parks, so finding a place to jog isn\u2019t hard. Where I\nchoose to do my red-faced huffing and puffing is a few minutes\u2019 walk away at a wonderful\npark called Hv\u011bzda (star). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like most other things in Prague, it\u2019s got a history. In the\nlate 900s (i.e. Bob Hope\u2019s 5th<\/sup> birthday), the forest was donated to the\nB\u0159evnov Monastery\u2019s grounds. About 500 years later it became a walled in game\nreserve for Ferdinand II. And part of the grounds were involved in the historic\nBattle of White Mountain in 1620. Now it\u2019s a park noted for its birds and other\nanimals. Visitors can enjoy sightings of the Middle spotted woodpecker, the\nnarrow-mouthed whorl snail, and, today, the short-legged North American\nred-faced cry-jogger.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Today I do my run routine along the long packed dirt boulevards\nand, when I\u2019m feeling a bit more John Muir, down the paths which meander\nthrough the woods. The day before we had epic rainstorms in Prague, so there\nare a number of these whorl snails on the sides of the trail. They\u2019re big. Naturally,\nmany of my neighbors enjoy the park for walking and running and cycling. There\u2019s\nshade and a playground. There\u2019s a grassy square in the middle of the park,\nwhich sits in front of a castle. On the grass people have picnics and play\nsoccer and sunbathe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, I finish my run, breath one step away from\nhyperventilating, and head towards the gate. It\u2019s there that I spot Burke, who\nhas also taken up what she calls \u201cpodcast walking\u201d at the park. She is sitting in\nthe shade of a tree in the pub\u2019s garden, and she is slightly red-faced behind a\nbeer. Because, like just about everything else in Prague, there\u2019s a pub just\noutside the gate of the park. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve spent an extended period of time in Prague (or the\nCzech Republic), you have no doubt noticed buildings of a local organization called\nSokols. These were developed in the mid-1800s to promote health and exercise to\nyoung Czech men. If you have done any sports in the Czech Republic (martial\narts, weightlifting, gym workouts, basketball, floorball) there\u2019s a good chance\nyou have spent time in a Sokol. And then, after you were done working out, you\nwalked into the building\u2019s pub and had a beer.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s no secret that the Czechs love beer. But I have always\nadmired the attitude that completing a good workout deserves a good beer. Why\nnot? But as an American it\u2019s hard for me to equivocate this in U.S. terms. I\nmean, imagine leaving the YMCA\u2019s pool and having a beer in the caf\u00e9. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sit in the garden with Burke and the waitress brings me a\nbeer. It goes down like a wingless plane and she brings another. I push away my\nconcern about wasting a workout to the wiles of beer and focus instead on the\noverwhelming joy of having just completed a hard workout and having my beer\nneeds literally catered to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the best part of living in a new neighborhood is\nfinding new places and things around you. We have thus far found three pubs,\nthree parks, and a brothel. But I\u2019m not sure if a pub across the street from my\nrunning spot is such a great thing for my waistline. I\u2019ll probably nix out any\nphysical gains. Hell, at least I\u2019ll be faster than the whorl snail. Hell, maybe\nI\u2019ll bring one for a beer next time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My local park. Life could be worse Despite the fact that my recent move to a flat place with convenient shops and metro stop has led to a bit of sedentary laziness, I am spoiled as regards good local parks. This isn\u2019t uncommon in Prague, as this city was ranked last year as the world\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/damiengaleone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/hvezda-park.jpg?fit=2100%2C1400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EvEu-1dV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4709,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707\/revisions\/4709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}