The Art of Amateur Fartleking

While glancing over my training schedule early this morning I saw that Higgy Stardust noted today's run was supposed to be my hard day. Throughout the day I felt an odd pain in my left knee that had me worried about this hard day's night run coming up when I got back from classes. I couldn't really pinpoint what the pain was, since it was inconsistent in when it chose to present itself. It was sharp, brief, and to say the least, worrisome. But by the time I got home and geared up to run I was feeling pretty good; so I let my apprehension melt away like a snow-cone dropped on a hot city sidewalk in mid-July, all the while tears cascading down the cheeks of a lonely little girl whose lot in life is to subsist in a reality where her only desire is vanishing before her watery eyes. I indulged in a handful of cashews about half an hour before my run, which I normally would avoid like the Rand (I'm not saying Dickens, I like Dickens; despise the Rand), but the only other sustenance I had all day was a banana in the early afternoon delight, so I figured I needed a little fuel to face the fast pace race speed.

I decided, just about the moment I started running, that I would embrace today's workout by fartleking my way through the 3 miles. I know, 3 miles doesn't give you much room to speed play, but I made the most of it. Along the way I'd pick a lampost and hike my pace up until I made it to a parked car off in the comfortable distance, or sometimes I just ran a block with the Falcon in hyperdrive, before reverting back to an even recovery pace in preparation for the next speed segment. This really works quite well for those that want to remove the structure from within their run, throw out the need to add up numbers on the old abacus or Casio calculator watch (or whatever the kids use these days for computations) and just have fun with it. You can be more disciplined about it if you want to keep the numbers in play, but I prefer the capricious approach. 


I've recommended this down and dirty art of amateur fartleking approach to a number of people who want to start running, but hate running (like I once did: story to come). Using this method as a proper introduction to running, a non-runner won't burn themselves out too soon when taking the jog/walk fartlek approach, because your body needs to get used to the idea of motion before going too fast, too far, too soon (a painful personal lesson I learned at the outset of my running habit: story to come). This essentially increases the chances of a non-runner actually running again. The beauty behind the fartlek is that as much as it works for beginners, it works for all other skill levels as well, because it's very much a personalized workout strategy. You set the limits of your own comfort level and basically make a game out of accomplishing these miniature goals along the way. I finished today feeling like I had accomplished a very solid run, probably the best one I've had since I started the training last Tuesday.