Tuesday Fartlek Training....

Its 6:55am am I am already in London and ready to go. I actually feel pretty awake this morning and the sun is out, plus its only about 4 degrees – so perfect weather for a run. Today’s plan is to do some sprints interleaved with normal running – known as fartlek training (http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/news/article.asp?uan=722). I start with a nice steady (5.37 min km) run for 1km to warm up. Its cold – so fairly easy to run this morning as I need to stay warm in my thin clothing. 1km comes up awfully quick – I don’t remember it being that quick (guess that is the benefit of running 22km in one go – 1km seems like nothing) – and so comes the first sprint – a 30 second burst at 4.05 min per km. My Heart rate hits 181 at one point – so I am obviously pushing it at least and then back down to normal pace (5.48 min km) for 3 mins. I shortened the first recovery run as I had already covered quite a bit of ground and was worried that I wouldn’t get enough sprints in before hitting work (I was right!)

 

The second sprint ended up being up hill – (3.50 min km) – so I was working hard – but the HR only peaked at 173 – so perhaps I was getting used to it (didn’t feel like that!) – and after 30 seconds – which actually went by pretty quickly – down to 5.49 min km pace again – this time for a full 4 mins. I needed the extra min over the last recovery as that last sprint up the hill had hit my legs and lungs pretty hard.

 

Heading over the bridge near The Old Bailey I sprinted for the last time – I was planning 4 sprints – but I was pretty close to work now – and I hit 3.49 min per km for a full 40 seconds hitting 177 bpm HR. Not to shabby – and a 3 min warm down run at the end.

 

I’d hit work in under 20 mins (17 or so) – which wasn’t too shabby for 3.25km during a training session. God knows what speed that works out to – and it isn’t race pace I know as I can get to 5km in 23 mins – but hopefully this sort of training will improve my speed overall – and do you know – my legs are still burning while I am writing this 2 hours later – that has to be good!!!