Yesterday, I consulted a friend Tom at work about my half marathon training plan. He nicely offered to take a look at it. Little did I know he is a sadistic monster. In hindsight I should have expected no less from a former competitive swimmer. (Who likes the Butterfly stroke, seriously?). So Tom pointed out that since my midweek runs were my shorter runs, they would be more effective if they involved drills and speed work. For example, negative splits, intervals, and of course, Fartleks. After much whining and complaining on my side of the table, he wrote out a plan for my Tuesday Fartlek track workout. This isn't really a list, but it's easier to read in list format.
- 1 mile warm up
- 2 mile Fartlek (90% for half lap, and jog half lap)
- 0.5 mile cool down
- 0.5 mile walk home
This is what actually happened.
- 1 mile warm up (ok, feeling good, building confidence)
- First 2 laps of Fartlek (I got this!)
- Third lap (OMG, I hate Tom)
- Forth lap (I'm just going to walk part of the jog, my lungs are on fire)
- Fifth lap (My legs must be made of iron they are so heavy)
- Sixth lap (I think I'm going to vomit... Yeah, this is not going to happen.)
- Jogged for 3 laps just to catch my breath
- Ran 1 mile while loathing myself and feeling sore already
- Let the B out for her toddler workout (So I could pass out on the grass and watch her run around)
- Ran home because I felt like a loser
- Getting cavities drilled
- Paying credit card bills
- Calculating and paying taxes
- Eating raw chicken
- Descaling fish
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| I've got my eye on you Tom. |
No! They suck...but relative to everything else (tempo runs, longer intervals, hills), I would rather do fartleks. And they make you go faster! it's a bit easier when you're doing it outside//not on a track, because then you can say..."ok, I'm going to sprint from here to that lamp post, jog to that trash can, and sprint again to that cute dog." :) Kind of breaks up the monotony and that dread of knowing when you're coming up to the next interval!
ReplyDeleteTurns out, I like monotony :)
Deletebtw her stink eye is hilarious. she has learned from the best! =P
ReplyDeleteI've never done fartleks, but honestly I have a hard time remembering what the difference is between tempo runs, fartlek, and speed runs.... My current half marathon training plan consists of "run when it feels good three times a week and don't eat 10,000 calories of pancakes afterward."
ReplyDeleteAwwwww but the 10k of pancake calories is the best part!
Deletemy understanding of the tempo run is just pure masochism and unhappiness. ugh. it's basically running at your aerobic threshold (or basically as fast as you can go without dying after 3-4 miles). it does make you a lot faster though...but during the run it's pretty miserable. fartleks i think can overlap with speed runs? unless you're referring specifically to speed work (i.e. drills, negative splits, etc.)
ReplyDelete