Today's assignment was ten miles with the middle miles alternating 1 minute fast and 4 minutes easy. I ran on the paved railway trail from Standish to Windham. It was a beautiful sunny day in the forties, perfect running weather!
My legs felt great on my warm up so I knew I'd have a good workout. The one minute intervals were all between 6 and 6:15 per mile pace according to my Garmen, but I don't put much stock in it's accuracy. Since this was supposed to be Fartlek, the pace didn't matter anyway. At the Windham end I couldn't help but venture onto the Presumpscot River single track for a bit, fitting in one minute of fast running on dirt during that brief foray. Then it was back to the quicker pavement running.
On the way back to the car I was passed by a woman pushing a jogging stroller during one of my four minute slow segments. She was young, fit, and fast, but still, getting passed by a jogging stroller is always a bit of a slap in the face! I caught her on the next one minute fast segment and picked up the pace of my recovery intervals so as not to allow that to happen again. I was once passed by S.F. pushing his kid in a jogging stroller during a one mile road sprint because his child care arrangement fell through. That was by far the fastest moving jogging stroller I've ever seen, he ran around a five minute mile that day. Today's was the second fastest.
All in all, it was a very satisfying and fun run. My legs are starting to remember how to turn over and push off at a faster-than-ultra pace. I think I see a few short snow shoe races in my near future!
It is interesting story. You are really inspiring me to keep exercising. It is important for us to keep our physic to keep fit. I guess young and fit will not always happen to us. We are getting old everyday. Thanks for sharing.
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