Monday, April 30, 2012

What's a Fartlek anyway?

Do you ever take vows?  I pretty much do when I have done something and had to learn the hard way that I will never to that again.  One instance will be to not read about GMO's before taking a trip to the grocery store, and the next would be not to poke around looking for a running schedule when my next run is on a Monday.

  Monday is a hard day for me in general, I have to really concentrate hard to get back to routine.  Make sure I have everything ready to go.  I also have to decide if I am going to wait till Tuesday to get a run in.

  Last night I decided to take my friend Carisa's advice and look up a run schedule.  I couldn't find anything through Run Disney, however I did find this

http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51131/Half-Marathon-Novice-1-Training-Program


This little gem is a schedule to rival all schedules, it is also a time sucker.

This morning I was so torn, as I have piano lessons directly after school that go until 4:45, then drop off kids at home (no dinner made for the fam) then head to a seminar as a favor to a friend.  I probably won't be home till after 9 tonight.  I am thinking in my head that if I run today, not only does it go against the new schedule, it also will be a lot to add to my day.

  The new schedule is also a twelve week for beginners.  I only have 9 weeks to go until my 13.1 on July 4th.  So do I start at week 3, and back track?  Or do I start at week 8, go to the end, then what?  I am so confused.  I guess this is where the science experiment comes in.  I think I will start at week 8, then if I have any set backs (woman stuff always throws a nice curve ball) then I can be prepared.  And if I find I need to back up a little bit, then I guess I will have time to do that. I should write out a theory, and hypothesis, and get my daughter a sure A+ for the next science fair!


   I guess what I need to do is sit down and write myself a nice cross training regimen, that way there is no guess work.  I don't like guess work when I run, and I don't like it when I am trying to decide what's for dinner.

  Just as I was hoping for another training schedule, and getting pretty down in the dumps that this was the ONLY one I could find for free, my friend Retha sent me one.  It has something called a Fartlek run.

 I researched that a little.  Basically it's where one runs easy,
 then runs hard for a number of minutes,
 then easy again...
 pretty much back and forth for anywhere from 40 to 60 minutes, or 4 to 6 miles.  I would have a difficult time with that, but it is great training for hills and stuff that could be encountered during a run.  (That was a very hurried short blurb about a Fartlek, Wikipedia has better answers if you are so inclined)  I will take all training schedules into consideration and do what works best for me, because according to these schedules...I have been doing it wrong.  Who know there was so much to putting one foot in front of the other?


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