Fartlek Run + Progression: 4 miles easy, 4 miles alternating between 90 sec. @ 10K pace and 90 sec. easy, 2 miles easy, 2 miles moderate/hard. 33° at start, 48° at end, humidity starting at 60%, ending at 45%, no wind. Another Saturday morning on the Highline Canal Trail. I met up with Michelle and Michelle. They were doing 6 today, so we ran three miles together then they turned around and I continued on until the 6 mile marker, then I turned around. The first 4 miles went by pretty quickly, because I had the Michelles to talk to for the first 3. Then the next 4 went by quickly because it was the fartlek portion and I had to concentrate on changing pace every 90 seconds. Then when I started the first of the last 4 miles I felt like time had come to a stand-still. It was taking forever for a mile to go by. This was not supposed to be a progression workout. I was supposed to do all of the last 4 miles easy, but I was not very comfortable at the slower pace and since I took a couple of days off this week, I decided to turn it into a progression run and do the last 2 miles a little faster. So here are the stats. Splits for the first four miles were 9;25, 9:13, 9:09, 9:10. Paces on the fast portions of the fartlek intervals were 7:31, 7:44, 7;26, 7:51, 7:32, 7:21, 7;25, 7:31, 7;34, 7:28, 7;24, 7:00. Pace on the easy portions of the fartlek intervals varied between 9:08 and 9:38. I went a little further than 4 miles on the fartlek portion because I had just started the fast portion of the 12th repetition when I completed the 4th mile and I didn't want to cut the interval short. Splits thereafter were 9:27, 9:31, 8:09, 7:46. I brought my fuel belt and intended to wear it, but then I accidentally left it my my car. I was okay, though, because it was cool and shady and I'm used to not taking much fuel, if any, on my runs. Two weeks ago I went back to the trail later in the day and took a couple of pictures. So here's a picture from two weeks ago to give you an idea what the Highline Canal Trail looks like. It's much sunnier in this picture than it usually is when I run this trail. Also, it's not quite as green now. Leaves are starting to fall.
| 