This morning my hip bone hurt, whether from an injury or soreness after Sunday's hike I am not sure. So I said "no" to the planned five mile run and hobbled off just to see what would happen. Weight bearing, especially on the downhills, increased the pain. But, after the first mile and a half, I realized the intensity of the pain overall had not changed. So on a whim I quickened my pace from one telephone pole to another. No change in the pain level. Emotionally though picking it up felt good. So I slowed down to a jog between the next two poles and then picked it up again. That, too, felt good. So I repeated the pattern again and again for about the next mile. Sometimes the spacing of the poles required an uphill interval, sometimes a downhill. As the space between poles varied, I increased or decreased pick up speed depending on how long the space was. This mimicked my favorite speed workout -- repeats of different distances and intensities.
By the time I reached my street, I was feeling tired but quite proud of myself. I pushed up the hill and finished strong, and ended the workout much closer to my running buddy than usual.
Banishing excuses and running strong energized me. I think I shall try this again next week. Maybe I will even dig out the stop watch.
2 comments:
I think what you did is called a fartlek. I usually throw in a walking element into the mix.
I know what I did is something akin to a fartlek, but I think of fartleks as being a timed interval followed by a timed rest. This was much more random.
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