Mini Fartlek Tuneup

Last night, I had a seriously sleepless night. Don't know why, exactly. But, it was at least 1:30 am before I dropped off to slumberland. Turns out that several Gazelles also had some tossing and turning, so maybe it was some sort of psychic convergence...or maybe just coincidence. Anyway, I figure I'll get a good night's sleep tonight, at least.

This morning was crisp, clear, and cooler (42 degrees). The marathoning Gazelles set out for a relaxed 20 minute warmup (we went a little longer, at 21 minutes and change), about 2.2 miles. Then, we ran back and forth on the dirt and gravel part of the trail, doing 16 x 30-40 second fartlek pushes, not as hard as normal fartlek workouts, with 15 seconds of jogging in between. We were counting the intervals in our head, so the length of the fartleks were extremely variable. No worries. Total workout was about 4 miles, pace around 9:00 overall. My legs felt a little heavy, but there was no problem getting going this morning, unlike several weeks ago, when it took 5 minutes or so until I felt smooth running. Tapering does help, huh?

Later, I got my tuneup pre-race massage from Ron, and he worked out some minor tightness in the calves and shin muscles, pronouncing me fit and ready to run. He didn't find any knots or problems while working me over.

So, now there's almost nothing left to do between now and Sunday except eat right, get some sleep, and do a super easy 10-15 minutes on Saturday morning, followed by stretching.