"There are thousands who run to hear the leaves, and listen to the rain, and look to the day when it is suddenly as easy as a bird in flight."
-George Sheehan
What is it about us runners where we feel the need to time everything, to dissect the splits, to know our averages? Yes, it is to our advantage to know these things sometimes but tell me-where is the fun in knowing everything about running? It eliminates, for me at least some of the freedom and the mystery. Knowing how fast you're going doesn't make you faster.
Fartlek -Speed Play
At this point I'd rather not know my speed anyways . Yesterday, was my first experimentation with a speed workout since oh well....track season. After work I stopped at an old bike trail in Lake Mills, WI. To me, this wasn't just a random trail to run on. When I was in high school this is where I ran every day. It was here that I dealt with high school drama and stress and boys. But most importantly it was here where I first really learned to run. It was nice to go back to where it all started.
I started out easy the first 5 minutes or so but it was hard to hold back. What I ended up doing was a form of interval training known to runners as a fartlek. You spend your entire run playing with different speeds going faster and slower at certain times or in certain intervals or if you're me-entirely dependant on how you feel.
The heat index was 102. yuck. After the initial warm-up I played around doing some segments simply by feel and some by counting the minutes in my head. Because of the heat my run was a combination of sprint-run-jog for the middle 2-3 miles. The weather, though hard to deal with ended up being a good thing so that my first experimentation with speed was controlled.
The thing about running fast is that miraculously it helps you forget your pain. Normally I spend my entire run thinking about my knee, my IT band and whatever else I can worry about going wrong with my leg. But when I'm drenched in sweat and worried about how fast I'm going or trying to hold my pace all of that goes out the window. Could it be? That going faster makes my legs feel better?
It was nice to go by feel, and it helped for once to just run freely without the restrictions of a watch or paces or even the tempo of the song on my ipod.
Halfway through I passed a man and a woman running on the same trail as I was. They were both wearing one of those belts with water bottles in it. Yes, I was really temped to ask for a sip. But I feel like that may have been overstepping my bounds a bit. There IS such a thing as proper running conduct. Anyways I pulled up next to this guy for a bit and we talked about the weather briefly. He asked how far I had gone down the trail and then said "nice pace" before I sped on. I know, I know, he was probably just being nice. But it was good to hear on my first speed workout back no matter what the reason.
By this time I was pretty much melting. I don't recall the last time I produced this much sweat. I wished I had water. I wished I hadn't sprinted 3 miles ago when I was feeling awesome. In the worst case scenario, though they were now a solid 5 minutes behind me, if I were to pass out the nice man and woman would find me eventually and perhaps drop some of their water down my throat. Of course I eventually made it back to my car. For next time though when there happens to be a heat advisory out running is probably not in my best interest.
So what IS it about running today where everyone feels they need a GPS, an ipod, a watch. It it really that beneficial to know the exact .001 miles you ran? The exact millisecond when you stopped? I just found that a "successful" workout can be completed without all the fancy gadgets (and water hah). I think there is something to doing a free run every once in awhile so you can properly learn to listen to your body. So that you can remember why you love running. Not for the times or the distance but the feeling you get somewhere in the middle.
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