Learning through Distress

Uuuuuuuuuuuuughhhhhhhhh!

It was an awful run last night. I was in a cruddy mood and it really affected my run. I didn't enjoy it and didn't even feel a great deal of satisfaction when it was over. I just felt sweaty and tired.

It really was not a great run. For the first time in several weeks, I had to take some walking breaks. My calves were just in agony...so I would slow down and then speed up again.

It turns out that I was engaging in fartlek...not to be confused with fartek (one of my favourite Yiddish words) which is a different thing altogether. Fartlek is Swedish for "speed-play" is a training technique that came into vogue in the 1930's, and consists of intermingling periods of varying speeds in order to build strength and speed into one's training.

You learn something new every day!