Mattress Disease

For the past month I've been suffering from what my husband calls "mattress disease".  In other words, it takes all my effort to roll myself out of bed to go running. 

But so far this summer, only once have I hit the snooze and failed to going running at all that day.  But I do average 10-30 minutes of laying there not wanting to get up.

Today was no exception but there was a deep twitch in my legs, it's like they were saying "feed me" and what they wanted was speed.

I was too lazy to do intervals but I did convince myself to run fartleks this morning.  My legs thanked me and my brain realized that I did have some speed in me.  All in all, I was pleased with my performance.

So, feel free to hit the snooze but also make sure you hit the pavement too.

Fartleks

One of the things I envision the most when I'm running is the image of wild horses galloping across the countryside.  To be able to run as free and as fast as a wild horse would be a beautiful thing.

Last week I volunteered to help out with my son's Webelos scout activity of playing kickball.  The boys wanted the leaders and parents to also play.  The kids were pretty competitive and I was not going to let them out run me so I ran faster than I have in years (probably decades).  It was an all out effort and it reminded me how good it felt to run without the fear of running out of gas before my allotted miles were finished.

The kickball game made me want to do some speed work this week.  I've run fartleks many times before but yesterday morning I let myself run as fast as possible.  As soon as I thought I was at my peak I felt another gear kick in and I ran faster.  For 10-15 seconds at a time I was able to run like a wild horse and it was wonderful.

Bonus: I'm not even sore today!