I feel the need, the need for speed!

Fartlek Run – effort level 2 with 8 x 30 seconds at effort 4
4.6 miles in 34:28
Route: DfES – Home 1

Another first for me – a Fartlek run. Those crazy Scandinavians! How do they come up with these things? Speaking of northern Europe, it’s turned bloody arctic today. Purchase of Nike running gloves with xmas money tuning out to be a shrewd investment.

The training plan called for 30 mins, so I decided to make this a run home from work. It wasn’t too difficult to find 8 sections where I could fit in 30 seconds of extra effort – not quite out and out sprinting, but almost.

I did two sets at the beginning of the route along the edge of St James Park, one running through Golden Square in Soho, two along Great Portland Street, a further two along the perimeter of Regents Park and a final one at the end of the run at the top of Camden Square. It wasn’t a bad arrangement for a first attempt and I’m fairly pleased with how I performed overall.

By the end of the run, I had rather overdone it, and my knee was giving up. I stretched it out at the end though and it felt fine. Still does in fact (although that may be down to the several glasses of wine I have since consumed with Strachan and Dougan).

Slightly disappointed that I didn’t make a personal best time for this route, given the sprinting element, but it’s still faster than I have run in a while, and I did have to jog rather slowly to recover from the fast sections.

Seeing the osteo again tomorrow, so expect a knee update before the weekend. Am planning to do a second fartlek session on Thursday - giving up opportunity to dine at the Cinnamon Club in order to do so! Assuming I manage it, I will be back on schedule and raring to go for the weekend 9 miler.