My friend Doug posted this article about Interval Training on his Facebook page and joked that he was already Interval Training by running 30 minutes once every 30 days. Ha ha. Right? http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100226/ap_on_he_me/eu_med_intense_exercise
Turns out maybe that isn't so crazy after all. In fact, that's how I've been living most of my life outside of running, until now. I'll do next to nothing for 60% of the time, and then come in with a jackhammer and give 300% for the remaining 40%, and over-deliver on my net results. Net is all we care about, right?
...but then came running. Nobody has ever before suggested I could train for the Marathon by running one day a week - super intense, or otherwise. I mean, that's ridiculous. So, I had to learn something new. No way around it. I had to become a girl who toils away daily and chips at her little block with tiny tools. If this article is right that I didn't need to run as frequently as I have been, and I could have just ramped up my intensity and gone out there one freezing day a week, or a month, well then I'm gonna be real pissy.
The article trips itself up though when it says the intense day isn't supposed to be so intense that your breath is labored, or that you're really exhausted. Has this journalist ever gone running? One's breath is always labored when running, if you're new. I'm always exhausted during and after! It's running, for G-d's sake!
I don't know. I'm not going to be so quick to buy into the Interval Trainng method. If I just slammed it home once a week, well then, I might miss the pleasure of writing daily, and all the insights that come with taking on an endeavor such as attempting to dig a hole out of prison using a nail file. I wouldn't trade this experience for the world; so no thank you to the power drill. You can have it! I'm going to earn my freedom the old fashioned way, one chunk of cement at a time.
Now, in the spirit of daily toiling, I'm attaching a video I took this week of Mexican Fire Ants fulfilling their destiny, one chunk at a time. Either that, or there was some kind of Half Marathon for Ants down in Veracruz, Mexico! Enjoy...
Eh, I dont buy interval training. For me, it is building up the strength to run. If I only ran once a week it wouldn't be nearly as effective as running a little less 4-5x a week.
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