Neighborhood Fartlek

Today I ran a 5 mile fartlek in the neighborhood near my house.  I had no plan and ran just as I felt.  I wasn't sure how my body would respond after some fairly hard workouts this week.  I felt pretty good though.  My groin was a bit sore early on, but that was about it.

I've slept in the camper the last few nights and I had trouble sleeping last night.  Right as I was about to fall asleep, it started to rain and I was up the rest of the night.  I was going to get my run in at 6 AM, but realized I forgot to charge my Garmin.  Therefore, I had to wait a few hours to run.  I did get some sleep.

It was very hot by the time I started my run at 11 AM.  I went with a singlet and short shorts.  That was a big help.  To work my groin into the run slowly, I ran the first mile and a half easy.  I then went moderately hard for 3 minutes.  Part of this was uphill.  I tried to make the hard sections uphill when I could.

After the first faster segment, I took about a 5 minute rest.  I then ran 4 minutes uphill at a harder pace.  I finished up my third and final segment with a mile left in the run.  I did run pretty hard in the tough segments, but I didn't feel like it taxed me too much.  My groin wasn't too sore afterward either.  It seems to be getting better.

I'm always amazed at how time flies by during speedwork sessions.  You are so focused on the current segment that the whole workout is over before you know it.  That was certainly the case today.

I'll be running my long run with the Breakfast Runners Club at the Plainfield Rail Trail on Saturday.  It'll be my first time running with the group and hopefully I'll meet my teammates for the marathon relay next month.  I look forward to it.

5 miles - 44:37 (8:56 pace)