Random Fartleks

I love me some fartlek. The 7-mile fartlek, which I ran this morning, is my favorite workout with the Gazelles. So much so, that I”m going to write one of those boring accounts of my workout.

I don’t know why I like fartlek so much, maybe because with all those easy 1 minute legs to buffer the intense 2 minutes of pain, I’m able to fake a bit of endurance and keep up with the group, push them even. Well, the last time I ran it, back in April I think, I claimed I “ran them into the ground”, referring to the guys I was running with. OK, sure, whatever. If anything I probably ran myself into the ground.

Normally, I’m running with a group of 5 or 6 guys, but this morning it was only myself, Jorge, Kenny Hill, and “Mike the new guy” who started out together. I had thoughts during the 15 minute warm up portion to I-35 of going with the lead group, but a falling meteor off my skull disabused me of that silly notion. Anyhoo, I could tell during the warm up that Mike wasn’t going to hang on, and he dropped back after the first leg. Then, at one point Kenny said, “Please God, just let me get through this and I’ll never miss another workout”, and he dropped out after about the 3rd leg or so. Dunno if he took it to the house or went back to run with Mike.

So it was just myself and Jorge for the majority of the run. We did 8 or 9 legs total, we did them hard, finally shutting it down with about 1.5 miles to go. Normally, I fartlek all the way home, but Jorge said he usually stops the intervals at Mopac and does a cool down the rest of the way. That was fine with me. I had to shut it down when we got to the Zilker fields, Jorge had kicked my ass and I was toast. We cruised home (and when I say cruise I mean “it was all I could do to keep moving forward”), doing the last mile and a half in about 10:30 11:57, for a 51:12 total time for the 7 miles, or about a 7:18 pace. Hey, maybe I should just fartlek when I race.

It's only fair to share...

Facebook

Twitter

Email