Fartlek training

As someone getting back in to running I've done a few multi-mile gentle runs and I thought I'd mix it up a bit with a Fartlek-like run.

I wore my Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS + heartrate watch and my intention was that whenever I felt I'd recovered from one sprint I'd go again.

My average pace on this 2.64m run was 7:34 min/mile which is much faster than it would have been if I'd done the usual constant-effort run.

The graph nicely shows me running faster every time my heart rate dropped to 170, including at 16:00 where I was going uphill finding it tough going but I checked my HR on the watch and it said 170 so I made myself run.

Would I ever have done that without the HR watch to let me know, and the promise/threat of seeing my performance on a graph? Probably not.