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Fartlek on Dariva

March 1, 2019 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Left my house this morning with no clear plan for what I was going to do. I wasn't sure to what extent yesterday's recovery run had actually served its purpose, so I wanted to see how I felt before committing mentally to doing a workout. A mile in I was feeling pretty good so I decided I'd try doing a Fartlek workout meant to simulate the sort of workouts I do on Tuesday nights with the BAA when back in Boston. Dariva, an old carriage road closed to traffic just outside of town, is a popular place for pedestrians, picnickers, and occasionally joggers and bicyclists. Today is Bosnia's Independence Day and the weather was lovely--sunny and in the 50s--so there were plenty of people about, though fortunately, not many unleashed dogs. The road has a gradual slope similar to the steepest part of the Capital Cresent trail between the canal and Mass, but it's wide, fairly-well paved and once the snow has melted, ideal for doing a workout. I decided to do timed intervals of 3, 5, 7, 5, 3 minutes, with breaks that were slightly longer than half the time (in BAA out recoveries are usually about the half distance we just ran, which is always more than half the time we ran for). I ended up shortening this on the way back down the latter though cause it just felt like more time than I needed. The intervals alternated between uphill and downhill and I managed to feel good on all of them while still going fast. I can't say for certain how fast they were, but Strava tells me that my overall paces was in the mid 6s for this part of my run, including the recoveries, so I take that to be a pretty good sign. I apparently hit a 2:39 800m, a 5:36 mile, and 76 400m at some point during the workout. Mostly, I just stayed focused on trying to go fast, which you kinda have to do when running alone. When I do this sort of workout with other people, I generally focus on staying with the pack (unless I'm leading it) and try to keep myself distracted from the effort.

After I finished I decided to throw in 4x1 minute with 1 minute recoveries. These were seriously moving, up on my toes most of the way, the first time I've done anything like that in months. Felt good at the end and proud.

For my cooldown, I proceed to jog up the quarry entrance at the very end of the carriage road. Then I got curious about whether there was a in fact as side road off of the highway and whether there was a way to safely get there. I found that although the highway had little shoulder, if I didn't mind the dried stalks and sage grass snapping at me I could make my way along the highway on the other side of the guardrail until I finally reached the side road about 2000m later. From there I got curious as to what was around the bend and before I knew it I'd climbed a mountain. That happens sometimes. There was snow at the top and something called an "Etno-Selo" (ethnic village) which appeared to consist of one house, some goats, and maybe a small tavern. I kept hoping I'd see a farm road across the valley to the village of Hresa on the far side which I'd reached in the past from a completely different direction. No such luck. In nearly any other country I'd consider just bushwhacking, but the landmines from the last war make that no-go. I did see on the map that if I kept going along the road I was on eventually it would merge up with the main road to Hresa but that seemed a bit further away than I wanted to run, I turned around and headed home. At first I just savored the downhill, but then I started to pick up the pace more and more until I was essentially back at a tempo pace, which I managed to hold for the last 5 miles. The final mile was a real challenge--I hadn't eaten or drank anything before I left this morning--but I knew that if I asked my body to go forward it would respond. At long last I swung onto the old Ottoman bridge across from city hall and gasping, clutched the side and stared down into the Milacka, letting the sunlight warn the back of my neck. I bought a loaf of fresh bread and at good deal of it as I walked up the hill back to my house.