Fartlek Running

I hope that everyone took a moment to reflect and remember yesterday on the 12th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on our country.  That horrible day will be etched in my mind forever, and those lives lost will not be forgotten.  I pray for those families who lost loved ones on 9/11/01 and I pray for our country to remain the land of the free and home of the brave.

9/11 Memorial in NYC

On another note, today is my parent's wedding anniversary!  They have been married for 32 years and are a great example of a loving, happy marriage.  Congratulations, Mom and Dad!

Top of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse on their visit in July

Training is underway for Half Marathon #3 in a mere 6.5 weeks!  On Tuesday evening, I tried a new form of speed work for my training run: fartlek running!  I've heard this funny word time and again but never understood the meaning.  After doing a little research, I tried it out and really enjoyed this technique.

"Fartlek" means "speed play" in Swedish.  A fartlek run features untimed intervals of running at a fast pace and recovery.  Basically, sprint for as long as you feel like it, run at a comfortable pace to recovery, then repeat.  Continue these intervals until you've gone the distance or the length of time you wanted for your workout.

A lot of people will pick a landmark to sprint to for each of their fartlek intervals.  You can also do as I did and sprint during each chorus of the song you're listening to.  I found this to be very motivating and easy to stick to, especially when the song had a long ending and the next one had a long beginning :)

Overall, I went just under 3 miles in my 30 minute fartlek run.  I was impressed with my average pace, since I know my recovery intervals were around an 11:00 pace.  That means I was getting on up there with my sprint intervals!  Fartlek running was a nice change of pace (pun intended) for my speed work, and I'll probably do it again!

Question for you: What's your favorite form of speed work?
I usually use the treadmill for speed work, but I did enjoy this fartlek thing!