Thursday, May 13, 2010

Fartlek. Fartlek. Pfffff.

It has been a crazy week and a kinda blah week thus far in terms of running. I tried to go to bed early every night, but the insane amount of paperwork makes it a challenge to shut my eyes before 1 a.m.  I feel lethargic. Before my day is over, I feel like I can just sleep and fade into never never land for a long long time and have no idea where time has went. I feel like I can be Sleeping Beauty (maybe Sleeping Not-So-Beauty).
I did a fartlek session on the treadmill today. I am still new to the fartlek stuff - I mean, see, I don't even know what or how to describe it. Anyway, I ran really really fast and then, slowed down a little. I did 2 miles, with the slow being a 10:30 min/mile pace and the fast being a high 7:00 min/mile pace at 0.25mile intervals.  I felt like Energizer hamster on the rolling, spinning wheel thing. I probably haven't moved my legs that fast ever and at a certain point in time, was kinda happy I was doing that.
It wasn't easy. I was sweaty. I was panting. I was done.
I was going for 3 miles but I just ran out of steam. 
So here are a few fartlek questions for you - the more experience runners. Please enlighten me.
1. When doing fartleks, do you try to have negative splits too? Or do you stick to a certain fast pace and a certain slower pace throughout the entire session?
2. What is the most efficient, effective way to get the MOSTEST out of any fartlek training? (in terms of mileage, time, pace).

Thanks, in advance. Have a good Friday eve. 

6 comments:

  1. Great workout. Unfortunately, I don't have any answers for you. I just run to run.

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  2. I don't have answers either but 7:00 is pretty dang good. Way to go!!

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  3. Fartlek means speedplay and the idea is to combine continuous and interval training. Fartlek allows you to run whatever distance and speed you want, varying the intensity throughout the session, For example from slow pace, to fast, to medium ,to fast etc for varying times or distances within your run/session. Hope this makes sense and helps

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  4. Thanks, Alan! It makes sense. :)

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  5. sorry, i couldnt do them with u. but lets set a fartlek date for next week!

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  6. No worries, Aneta. When will it be a good day for you? Tuesdays early mornings aren't good for me.

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