A short play with Fartleks and a year younger 😁

[Instructor57]

So this was just a short 2.5K today (intentionally)

I wanted to get a few quicker bursts in but not tire myself too much .

It was more of an experiment than anything else .

My run on Monday and the one on Wednesday both put a year each on my fitness age so I decided on a few quicker bursts today to see if I could halt that trend, especially having had a birthday in January 😁 .

And although it was just 2.5K and not overly fast bursts I was happy to have lost a year .

I now know how fickle Mr Garmin can be !

So what did I learn , nothing that I did not already know and that is to vary your runs, vary distance and vary speeds .

It's too easy to fall into the trap of just running the same distances at the same (or similar) speeds every time we go out , I will now try harder to stick to what I used to do after I first graduated in July last year and that is to do a cycle of a short quicker run , a steady 5K, and a longer slower run 😁🏃

[Couchphoenix Graduate]

Sounds like a plan, I think it’s good to mix things up as you say 👍🏃‍♂️

[Instructor57 Graduate in reply to Couchphoenix]

Thanks, it's something I had lost sight of over my last half dozen runs or so

[Birdlady64 Graduate]

I agree - it's so easy to fall into that trap. Sounds like a good plan - it worked before so it should work again now. Variety is the spice of life after all! 😁

I will try to do something similar - and

a shorter faster run would be a perfect thing to do in my lunchbreak

[Instructor57 Graduate in reply to Birdlady64]

Yes , A quick short lunchtime run sounds perfect 👍

[9weeks2Run Graduate]

That is great, Well done you!

Congratulations on losing a year and getting out 3 times this week, wonderful achievements.

Sounds like a great plan.

I got caught in the rain yesterday whilst out for a walk. I tried a very short slow jog/shuffle for not even a few minutes up part of the road (unfortunately Strava picked this up as a run and logged it when I was walking fast so deleted the post !). My chest felt very tight unfortunately when I stopped so I am going to focus on walking at the moment

Take care

[Instructor57 Graduate in reply to 9weeks2Run]

Thanks Rebecca, and yes your right I think to concentrate on walking !It will take time and patience and determination I guess .

And as we know you have all these !

Take care x 😁👍

[9weeks2Run Graduate]

Ah thank you so much for your kind words and support.

I am going to set myself some little goals so I have something to work towards as I really miss that and look forward to being able to run again x

[Instructor57 Graduate in reply to 9weeks2Run]

You will get there ! 👍

[Hidden in reply to 9weeks2Run]

For yourself 👍🙂

womensrunning.com/health/we...

[9weeks2Run Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for forwarding that article to me , it is very interesting and useful

[Jools2020 Graduate]

Well done, Ian! A shorter run with Fartleks is always good! I agree that we all fall into the trap of doing similar runs. Even my longer runs have morphed into me trying to improve on pace. Time to step back and assess, I think! 👏👏👏👍

[Instructor57 Graduate in reply to Jools2020]

Yes exactly .It's only a year come off but it re emphasises the basic principles 😁

[Littleoyellow Graduate]

I'm still catching up with folk after absenting myself for January I57. Good to hear you're taking the bull by the horns and moving your running forward by mixing it up in 2021 😁 and getting younger too. This time of the new year feels like a time to re-evaluate - you are trailblazing Ian!

[Instructor57 Graduate in reply to Littleoyellow]

Yes thank you ! I also had some time off (well, 3 weeks)

It was good to get out again ! 😁