Fartlek is Your Friend

Up until a few months ago, I thought fartlek was just a funny word. Now, as a fledgling runner, I am reading about it all the time.

I just got back from my lunchtime run of 3.5km around Safa Park which I finished in the rubbish time of 23 minutes. In my defense:

- I only started exercising a few months ago, and could barely run to the end of the road. My 3.5km time used to be 27 minutes.
- I have two bad knees so I deliberately go slowly.
- I run in the Dubai midday sun
- I don’t want to push myself too hard and end up really sweaty for the rest of the day at work.

But, I would like to improve my time. I run at a steady pace, so I would like to get it down to at least 20 minutes so that I can run 10km in an hour or less. So, I am going to introduce a fartlek session into my training tomorrow. I will sprint a bit, power walk a bit, jog a bit and see how that affects my fitness and timing. I will also definitely, definitely, definitely do my morning swim tomorrow.

I had a nice realisation after my run. I like exercise. I knew I loved yoga – it makes me feel calm, happier and generally great, but I also enjoy my morning swim, I enjoy my weekend runs or walks on the beach, and I enjoy my lunchtime runs. I also like the resistance machines at gyms, when I get the chance to go (I don’t have a gym membership here – most people have gyms in their building, though). The only things I don’t enjoy are evening runs and my kick boxing. Purely because they are after work and that time is precious to me (though yoga after work feels like a treat). I need to get over that way of thinking because it’s making me lazy – I make excuses to do anything else but exercise – perhaps I need to speak to somebody on Skype, apply for jobs, go for a dinner review or go to the supermarket… I need to start viewing it as ‘me time’, which it is.

So, that said, tonight I am going to do some exercise after my dinner review at Mango Tree. And tomorrow, I have a vinyasa yoga session. Can’t wait.