The Better Fartlek

I decided that I needed to do some speed work. Not that I really think that it will make me speedy. And not that I think Nordic Meisters isn't giving me a good enough workout. (Especially when it takes me so long.) But I just wanted to see where I was in terms of running fitness.

DISCLAIMER: This is going to be a "here's my workout" post, complete with splits. I don't plan on doing many or any more of these posts. The workout posts seem completely unproductive. In other words, someone fast would read this and think I'm a chump; someone slow would think I'm bragging. As with everything in this blog, I have no goal with this post. We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

After some trepidation, I made my way to the bike path for an attempt at a fartlek. (I'm not going to explain the fartlek because I assume you've been glued to every word in previous posts.) I just wasn't feeling frisky today, so I wasn't sure a hard workout was the best idea. But I really wanted to get one in. Um, yeah, perhaps I'm schizophrenic. I figured the bike path would be the best place for this type of workout since it would be free of cars and snow, and the 1/4 mile points are marked. The plan was one-mile warm, three-mile fartlek (1/2 mile intervals), one-mile warm down. What you can see missing from the plan is pace. I really had no idea. I was thinking I'd try 7:30 for the steady halves and 6:30 for the hard halves. Well, it didn't quite work out that way:

Half mile splits:
1 - 3:37
2 - 3:21
3 - 3:39
4 - 3:14
5 - 3:29
6 - 3:12

3 miles: 20:31

Here's what I learned: I've completely lost my sense of pace. I couldn't bring myself to slow to the 7:30 pace. I thought I was, but I guess not. Also, there's no way I could have run any of those halves at 6:00 pace. I think my legs would have exploded. I am completely devoid of any fast twitch muscles. Overall, though, I think it was a decent workout.

Ah, but did I answer the real question: What kind of shape am I in for the 10-miler? Honestly, I have no idea. I can't decided if I should be discouraged or encouraged by this workout. I mean, it was hard, but it didn't kill me. What was really interesting was how much harder, say the 3:14 felt as compared to the 3:29. I felt like a huge difference. So again, I have no idea. I guess all this workout did was make me tired.

I don't want to make this the gross bodily function blog, but I would be remiss if I failed to mention this. Since high school, I've known that mixing tunafish for lunch and a hard workout is a bad idea. Vurp-tastic! (Sorry.) But really only in my warm down. Strange.