01/17/2020 - pack - One ON, One OFF – Not Talking Bout Shoes!

AO: The Pack

When: 01/17/2020

QIC: Whole Coconut

PAX:

Number of Pax: 3

Number of FNGS: 0

Pax Names:

Anchor, Guac


BackBlast:

Winter is trying to make a comeback this morning but, despite the chill, at least it was dry! Of course I overdressed, again, but it felt good to get out and get some early miles and see some of my favorite running FiAs! We missed a few of our regulars so I can’t wait to see them again soon too!

Reflection: Running is such a weird, wonderful sport. There are workout highs and lows and sometimes “ruts”. We push ourselves to accomplish amazing things and in our quest for “more” we sometimes fail to stop and say “WOW, I DID THAT”!  Maybe it’s the winter and short days, maybe it’s all the rain and gray days, maybe it’s other factors like stress, maybe it’s just not taking time to appreciate just how awesome our bodies are even on our “worst” workout, but we all occasionally hit a case of the “blahs”.  I know I’ve had a case lately.

Alas, you’re reading to see what the heck we did this morning… so I’ll stop my reflection here. Suffice to say, we all came out today looking for a little “change” while still getting miles.

The Thang: We did a fartlek workout on the loop. Nope, not middle school potty humor. A fartlek is Swedish for speed play workout! We started with a 5 minute, easy warmup to get going. Next we went 1 minute “hard” (like a 7-8 perceived effort) and followed that with 1 minute “easy” (like a 3-5 perceived effort). We continued switching these speeds back and forth and wrapped with about 5 minutes “easy” at the end. Taking our focus off the finish line and staying present just minute to minute made the overall workout fly by! We stopped thinking about distance and started thinking about what we’re doing in the moment and put all our energies into those hard minutes while calming our breathing and our brains in the “easy”. Challenging ourselves to change pace and stride and set our intention with the run to focus only on the workout and not just the mileage definitely left us all a little more energized, with a little smile despite the fatigue.

Thanks ladies for joining in my CRAZY once again and giving a different kind of workout a try. I can’t wait to share more runs with you! You are my tribe! ❤️

Whole Coconut

Pictures:

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