No...not trying to breathe through both ends of my body like I was on Day one, Week one
"Fartlek, which means "speed play" in Swedish, is continuous training with interval training" (Wikipedia)
I've been sidelined for a wee while because of an eye injury but got cleared just this morning to run again - but "take it easy and if things get blurry stop immediately".
Hurrah!
Home, changed into gear and out the door. Ten minute warm up walk and decided to take it 'nice and easy'.
Well, here's what transpired. I aimed at a longer distance than was maybe wise, a bit too eager to be out and about. At the same time, it wasn't THAT long a distance so I didn't want to quit, because among my many character flaws bloody stubbornness is in the top 100.
So, I kept on running and trying to "slow then slower still" so I could keep running.....
However, I've always had trouble adjusting my pace so it was really just throwing me more - until I hit on something that turned the whole situation around
I was getting very frustrated trying to get a good balance between running slow but still reasonably covering the distance in a timely fashion. And I thought of a solution.
Reverse Fartleks.
Instead of picking two points to speed up between, I'd do the opposite - pick them and slow down.
My problem really being, I'd decide to slow down but couldn't"find" the pace - it felt "artificial" and soon, too soon, I'd start picking up speed again. However, by picking a distance between two random points ahead it seemed way easy to smoothly drop a gear and "cruise" for that clearly defined distance.
Hard to describe in words, but it worked wonders for me, it felt very "simple and unhurried" and I guess that objectively its a much better way of measuring "recovery running" than "legs feel better now so speed up (too soon) again" I did the entire route and ended better than I had been before the "reverse fartlek" epiphany
For me, it bridged the gap between "all or nothing" and fulfilled my wish to be a "continuous runner" rather than the "run, walk, run" faster people I'm always worried that at long distances if I try the "run, walk, run" system I simply, because of screwed foot bones, would not be able to pick up again on the "run" after walking. Now though I feel confident I can basically do an "almost a walk" segment that will allow me to work up to longer distances more comfortably
Hopefully it might also work to help new runners, if you are like me it is very hard to "run slow" when we already think we couldn't possibly be slower as it is I still have a huge struggle to figure my pace at the best of times still, and it was really worse the first year or two when I was still trying to gain enough experience to be able to gauge my "fast and slow"
Anyway - it's darn good to be out running again
Wishing you all many happy miles in your future
Written by
Irish-John
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What a brilliant idea this is! I sometimes struggle to slow down my pace (I am not super speedy, but I do tend to set off on my longer runs faster than I should) so this reverse fartlek idea might just be the way ahead for me. I am going to bank this for future use, thank you Irish-John.
I'm glad to read you are back running - thought I hadn't noticed your posts for a while. Hope everything with your eye injury continues to improve. 😊
Thank you Dd I'm rather excited about it myself I really have had a problem slowing down when it would be optimal to do so and the run was a vast improvement over what usually happens - me finishing absolutely knackered and feeling good but kind of also feeling rather decrepit
I think I'll be able to conserve and ration my energy a lot better now that I can "objectively measure" my slower pace while getting my lung capacity topped off
Funny how I always thought that Running was a simple mechanical thing - but really there are so many components to it and lots of sometimes very subtle individual tweaks and adjustments that keep it fun and interesting
I'm wondering if there is an Indian influence in your Forum name BTW? I lived there '84-'85
No Indian influence I’m afraid, just a play on my name 😊.
It must have been a fascinating place to live for a year or so.
Learning to run is certainly interesting. I’m learning as much about myself as anything else. I think I’m quite hooked now though. If anyone had told me I’d be steadily working my way through the timed version of ju-ju’s Magic Plan a year ago, I would never have believed it. 😊.
I'm continuly amazed that I keep running It really was the most unlikely thing for me to attempt, and I only tried it at first because I was profoundly and dangerously bored with where I found myself in life
My "impossible dream" four years ago was to run three sevenths of a mile lol. Now I have the effrontery to attempt a full Marathon in a few months
It is the healthiest addiction I've ever had, this running lark
I really should have checked in but so much going on and not running I didn't have much to write about.
I think of you every time I run - your "let your feet just kiss the ground" advice is still something I'm trying to achieve with my size 12s LOL But now that I think I've cracked Pace, hopefully I can concentrate on a lighter footfall and come up with some technique that will see me if not too toeing through the tulips at least not leaving Sasquatch the furrows behind
I will tell Geoff about Reverse Fartleks. He always claims that he can't run slower, even when I let him run with me for the sole reason that he wants to drop his speed he always ends up ahead of me. And worse, running back to join me!
Running REALLY REALLY slow without lapsing into a "walking step" is incredibly hard, at least for me I do a short run now and then like that just for fun and also it lets me focus on my body mechanics. I absolutely cannot run with anyone however - no matter what, I just get all "fast slow fast slow etc" instead of being able to match their pace
It would be interesting to learn what Geoff thinks of reverse fartlinks if he tries it, do let me know if he does
Great that you are back out there I-J and what a fantastic idea you’ve discovered, makes perfect sense and I think I’ll have a go at that tomorrow on my long run.
just reporting back, tried the reverse fartlek on my last long run and it’s really interesting. Giving my brain a new challenge was a great way of sneakily getting around the ego sentry, .....so brain obligingly worked harder than usual to slow down. It’s still a challenge though, I feel kind of clumpy and heavy legged when I run at the correct slower pace and it feels a bit like the run will take an absolute age, and yet later in the run I could feel how much energy I still had and could see how it will eventually get me to run much further.
Hope your marathon training is still on track 🤗🏃♀️
It does take a bit of adjustment Jorge, I absolutely agree Marathon training is interesting lol - am posting a wee bit about it and RF this morning and will be interested in any feedback you might have on it
Good to have you all healed and back with us I-J! A plan for keeping it slow huh? As a 50min 5k runner on average, I’m not sure I could go any slower but I guess it’s worth a try! Enjoy your come-back!
Keep experimenting Irish-John, we’re all different so basically it’s whatever works for you at the end of the day. Day one week one must have quite a sight to behold....you trying to breath through both ends of your body 😂 🏃♂️💨
Day one I was totally foolish. So out of shape, running in jeans and ratty old street shoes for starters. Sheer stubbornness and "gotta do something to drag me out of the pits of desperate boredom" kamakazi mood.
No kidding, I barely managed to stop a woman who saw me and thought I was having a heart attack, from calling the paramedics. I wonder if she has ever seen me running since and what she might think now lol
I think everyone else who’s replied to your post has said it all really, what you’ve come up with seems like the perfect option for me too. I always compete against myself when it comes to pace, and find it near impossible to slow down, but it always leaves me feeling wiped out at the end of my run. But I still won’t give in and try a slow one! Until recently, that is, when I had a minor non-running injury. The difference was amazing, but I didn’t like being so slow. Now you’ve come along at exactly the right time with a suggestion for how I can combine my competitive side regarding pace with my logical side that tells me to try taking things slowly - thank you!
Thank you I'm really hoping I have hit in something that will help - I owe a hell of a lot to the programme and the members of this forum, turned a most miserable time in my life into one of the most enjoyable and continuously intriguing chapters I couldn't have imagined
Wishing you many happy miles - including the slower ones lol - in your future
Thanks I-J! I completely agree with you about the programme and members of this forum. By the sound of it, both our lives have been changed far beyond anything we might have expected as a result of dipping our toes into the unfamiliar world of learning to run. You’ve got to embrace every new challenge and opportunity, because you never know where it might lead! Keep on running (as the Spencer Davis Group might have said)!
You play Alto sax I take it? Many years ago I used to play too - tenor sax Every time "Urgent" by Foreigner plays on the car radio it makes me want to get back into it I'd probably be better these days too - thanks to running, plus seven years nicotine free, my lungs have a hell of a lot more capacity lol
Yes, I play alto in a band, we play all sorts of stuff, doing the pubs, clubs, festivals, dinner dances and weddings. I’d really like to regularly play tenor too but I’m only 5’0” and it always looks so big for me 😂. Like running, it’s another of those things that can really take you out of the everyday problems in your world and, if you’ve not played for a while, I’d be encouraging you to pick it up and play again. You’re right, dropping the nicotine habit as well as our new found, much healthier running addiction, will definitely have helped. If you’ve got a sax at home, I’d hope to hear back from you that you’ve picked it up again and let all those musical memories come flooding back 🎷 😀
I realised today that I actually run Neutral Fartleks
We had to drop off an old fridge at the recycling centre (it had been in our garage for some time even before lock down!) Right next to the centre is one end of the Middlewood Way, a disused railway line, with lots of bridges over it and a live railway line runs below it at one point.
I had no music with me so set off to run at least 5k for a (non)parkrun.
My usual "technique " is to just run and not to look at my watch until the next bridge or gate or whatever. Sometimes it is I will turn back at the next......
Not running faster or slower, just running - so Neutral Fartleks.
I fact I ran just past the halfway point of the only 10K race have ever done before turning back and running another 1km. I then got a stitch and conscious that I haven't run further than 6, maybe 7k over the last few weeks, I stopped my watch.
I then restarted it and walked nearly 1km then decided to run. After 2km running I met Geoff walking back to tell me he had just done his fastest 10k and I decided to walk the final kilometre with him back to the car.
So 8km running, a total of 10 km towards my End to End challenge. I see from the map that I have just "passed " a cider farm, still in Cornwall, just over 79 miles done, 794 and a bit to go.
That is such a helpful post. I am going to try the fartleks on my run tomorrow cos it seems to have speeded you up by slowing you down. Hope your eye recovers totally soon.
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it was a definite 'gratitude' moment when they said I could go out again 
I've been naughty.....but I enjoyed it ;) 
How hard to push as a postgrad?
A change in approach to training...
Uphill Fartleks
My first 5k
