Fartlek--A Speed Play on the Lake Track

When I reached the lake track car park, I had

leaded legs. I stretched a bit lazily and pondering

whether I should run or take a stroll and smell the rose.


Then Tai saw me and directed me to run clockwise to meet those

"buddies". Surely a man does not has too many options, does

he?

I followed Tai's "command" and 800 meters later, I

saw the "buddies". Among the group are Fatt, Loh, Pak, and Connie.



After the usual greating, some asked for some spices on the run.

I quickly suggested doing a "fartlek". I suggested that everyone take

turn being the leader and the leader controls the recovery time as welll as

dictates how far and how fast the workbout is.

One condition is that the leader has to announce the distance marker ahead of

time for the workbout so that evryone one had a feel of what to expect.


The neat thing about taking turn of being the leader is that for the

slower runner, he or she can really make use of his or her turn to recover

from the "abuse" of the faster runners.


After deciding the ordering (I being first, then Fatt, follow by Loh,Pak and

Connie), the games rolls...

"Charge to the toilet in front" I yelled, and the "buddies" charged along.


After reaching the toilet, Fatt take over the leadership and jogged about two

hundred meters for recovery. Suddenly, he shouted "charge to the starting point"

and he leads the "buddies" to the starting point with a 5:00m/k pace.


At this point, we could see that Connie, who just picked up running again after a

long layoff bearing and giving birth to her second child, was really struggling.

So, when Loh suggested a long charge, a few of us begged for a shorter one on

her behalf. After Pak's leadership, finally came to Connie's. Now, she

really had to make use of that for the recovery...


The leadership and charging rolled on, but after a while, Connie dropped out.


Now, everyone else knew that now the game was really on...


"Charge to the toilet"

"Charge to the foot messaging stone"

"Charge to the stating point"

"Charge to the u-turn junction point"

"Charge...."


And the pace was getting more and more relentless.


There was once when I took over the leadership, I decided to be really

nasty. While evryone was puffing and panting, I ordered a fast

charge again. Everyone else grumbled by still follow suit.

The game rolled on...

Finally, Pak took command and lead the pack to the starting/finishing point

with a 3:50m/k pace.

After the run, the "buddies" walked together for a cool down lap. While

everyone was cursing at each other on being so mean and merciless, everyone was

truly satisfied with the run.

There was enough fun, commanderie, adrenaline rush, spices, etc.

Everyone was smiling and very much revived.


It trully was a speed play on the lake track...


Crank on.