Fartlek Tuesday

You know kinda like Fat Tuesday....but not really. Funny that only in Ironman training would you run a Half marathon as a training run on Saturday and be back at it by Tuesday. I recently read someone's race report from their IM and they wrote, "Over the course of the next two years, I set small goals (like running a marathon) to ensure I learned how to run long distances." Small goals like a marathon? Us IM folks are not right. I listened to folks on Saturday morning before the half marathon who had this half as their A race, and I thought...that is so cute!! (and I had a small amount of jealousy)

You might be asking..what is a Fartlek? I imagine saying something to my niece and nephew's while visiting...I am going to run some Fartlek's and they go...ewwwwwwwwww!! For those that want some learning on this fine Tuesday night, let's look at our good friend Wikipedia. Fartlek, which means "speed play" in Swedish, is a form of conditioning which puts stress mainly on the aerobic energy system due to the continuous nature of the exercise. The difference between this type of training and continuous training is that the intensity or speed of the exercise varies, meaning that aerobic and anaerobic systems can be put under stress. Most fartlek sessions last a minimum of 45 minutes and can vary from aerobic walking to anaerobic sprinting. Fartlek training is generally associated with running, but can include almost any kind of exercise.

Oh how I wish my workout was aerobic walking....

I did my 15 minute warm up, feeling a bit tight in the legs and then proceeded on to the meat of the workout:

6 min, 4 min, 2 min, 5 min, 3 min, 1 min. All of these are done full out, sprinting, trying to keep the same pace up for each one...but ALL OUT. If you left your heart and lungs at the workout, you have done it correctly. The rest was 2 minutes in between each hard set. Trust me, 2 minutes goes by rather quickly.

After that I did an easy 15 minute cool down of running and a bit of walking to bring the heart rate down.

Crazy enough, I felt good and that was even after a 3400m swim in the AM!! I kept a really consistent pace and my final 1 minute was a tad stronger and faster than the first set. Yes, it was hot outside, but I really tried to block that out.

Ironman training, month #2 is starting out pretty awesome! I am looking forward to this weekend as I have Friday off so I am going to ride for a couple of hours that day, Sam and I are going to ride on July 4th for about 5 hours and then I have a small brick to do on Sunday!! It's gonna rock...and I don't care if it's hot, this month is about the bike with the Tour de France, 442 miles at RAGBRAI and LIVESTRONG Challenge San Jose!