Tried out two new things today

[Bazza1234]

In my never ending quest to remain "motivated", I am always searching for new things to do to keep my interest up when on the road.  First thing was a new kind of "fartlek". I have previously done fartleks based on heart rate numbers. I would run (longer and slower  or shorter and faster) until my HR goes to around 90% of my HRmax and then walk until it dropped to 70%. This has been quite good EXCEPT that I must then wear a HR chest belt - and sometimes I am just not in the mood for that.  So today and yesterday (at parkrun) , I set myself an average pace for the runs (7:30 mins per k which is my half marathon race pace )  - then using my Garmin watch, I set off to run for a while to see what pace I was averaging - it told me 7:10 per K , so I walked until my average pace fell to the required 7:30. Continued doing this for the next 30 minutes - sometimes running slower and a longer distance before walking - sometimes running a shorter faster run - average pace goes up after having run and goes back down again after having walked. I had to meet my wife at a local market after 30 minutes so I then had a bit of a rest wandering around for an hour or so. Then to get to a cafe for some lunch ( fish and chips by the  seashore ) I did the aforementioned all over again - another 30 minutes of pace based fartlek which basically was a kind of "back to back" run - the first time I have ever done this.  

I have no idea whether this has been of any benefit to me - however  - at the end of the day I felt that I had had quite a heavy workout. I started out with quite low energy level - so I don't think I would/could have done much of a non-stop run kind of workout - and without the back to back nature of this double workout, I couldn't/wouldn't have been able to do a total of 60 minutes.   

[ju-ju- Graduate10]

Sounds fun Bazza and beneficial... Sounds like good training 😎

[JaySeeSkinny Graduate10]

Interesting idea. I also run longer runs with an HRM, but sometimes just don't want to. That might be a way of ensuring a decent work out, but not too exhausting!

[Bazza1234 Graduate10 in reply to JaySeeSkinny]

I mostly use my HRM to either control myself during long runs and short easy runs, or for HRM fartlek type runs.  I also wear it to analyse some of my runs after the run - to see what has been happening to me.