Workout No. 2: Fartlek!

Got out in the sun today for my second workout since last Monday’s glorified strides.  I pulled a workout out of my college coach’s 800 m winter training and did a fartlek of 4×1 minute hard, 4×45 sec hard, 4×30 sec hard with 1 min easy pace recovery between repeats.  This second workout was a bit more intense than last week’s, though still short (8 total minutes of faster running interspersed with easy jogging).  It felt glorious to get out in the sunshine and get some fast running in!  Everything felt great – no toe twinges even after I’d cooled down. Yayyyy!

Also, fartleks are just awesome in general – no worrying about pace or hitting splits or having to witness exactly how out of shape one is 😉  They’re the perfect workout for getting in a solid effort and gaining a nice feeling of satisfaction without any stress over paces.  Not to mention the joy of escaping from the monotony of daily easy runs! 

Workout Monday!

So apparently everyone in my little workout group has a greater sense of self-preservation than I do.  It was 101 degrees out when the workout was supposed to start and I was the only one to actually show up and risk heat stroke ha ha.

I ended up doing a workout on my own anyways, since I new I’d never get back out the door if I went home and waited for the sun to go down.  A fartlek in the shade (with the ‘off’ portions strategically timed to coincide with breaks at the two park water fountains) served me well and I only feel *slightly* dehydrated.

Ok, so I totally chugged a whole bottle of gatorade when I got home…plus a smoothie…and a bottle of water :S

Interesting sights on the run included a girl running in a sweatshirt and sweatpants (how the heck are you not dead?!?), a little group of old-man runners with awe-inspiring matching white beards (I really hope I’ll be running still at that age!), and this sign:

The workout: 3 x 800m (400m Recovery), 400m for turnover (distances via GPS watch), averaged 7:30 pace during the ‘on’ portions (I’m going to use the long grass, heat, and hills as my excuse ha ha)