Looked at the schedule tonight: ho-hum, another eight. Hmm, what can I do to spice this up?One word: Fartlek. So I warmed up for about a mile, then started throwing in bursts. Two laps. Three laps, accelerating into four laps even faster. A few 200 m strides thrown in, then the last mile and a half at about GMP. Which meant a very interesting run, no boredom, and less than 69 minutes needed to cover eight miles. And the legs feel better now than they would have if I had jogged the eight in 78 to 80 minutes. I think fartlek is going to be a key for me in the next nine weeks as I try to boost my volume and keep things interesting at the same time, plus improve my speed without injury or burnout. | 