Thursday, June 11, 2009

Treadmill Fartlek

Today's mission for @WillRunzForFun: complete a 5 mile Fartlek Run.

The hard rain, thunder and lightening convinced me that running outdoors was out of the question (I'm not into accidents!). I hadn't tried a Fartlek in months, so my expectations were to just finish the run and try not to run too hard when it was time for the speed bursts or Fartleks.  Jeff Galloway explains how to run Fartleks in his 2007 Runners World article "Speed Play".

For my run, I turned on the television, jumped on the treadmill, and ran a 1 mile warm-up at about 8:40 minutes/mile.  At each commercial, I then turned up the speed on the treadmill to a level as high as I could bear.  For me that target Fartlek pace was about 7:35 minutes/mile which I was able to hold twice during the run for about 2-3 minutes or so.  I ended the run with a 1 mile cool-down at about 8:40 minutes/mile.

My average heart rate (161 bpm) was high for this run which is usually the case when I'm on the treadmill.  And yes there was lots of perspiration!  I cooled off with a half mile walk outdoors with the dog (there's nothing like natural air conditioning!) The next time I do a Fartlek Isis will be with me, so I'll need to run with caution.

I'm ready for Saturday's 8 mile Long Run...
__________
If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed!

0 comments:

Post a Comment