{"id":471,"date":"2012-07-18T15:50:58","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T23:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/?p=471"},"modified":"2012-07-18T15:50:58","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T23:50:58","slug":"those-germans-have-a-word-for-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/18\/those-germans-have-a-word-for-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"Those Germans Have a Word for EVERYTHING!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted at The Loop<\/a>, the blogs at Runner’sWorld.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>When I start a new hobby, I get into it by reading everything I can, in bookstores, on the internet, on bathroom walls. Running was no different, and many of you know what I mean when I say: instant confusion. Tempo runs? Repeats? Yasso 800s? Was I really going to have to learn\u2014and practice\u2014all this stuff? How does one, specifically, run \u201c30 seconds below 10k pace\u201d? What the heck\u2019s an IT Band, where do I buy one, how much is it going to cost, and can I use it with iTunes? My head was in a whirl.<\/p>\n

Lucky for me, I don\u2019t have good running genes, so there was no threat of wasted potential. I could safely ignore all that stuff and just run, if I wanted to. I\u00a0have<\/em>\u00a0blogged before about the ills of running too much, meaning too fast or too often. That\u2019s a lesson I should have learned (and maybe would have if I\u2019d persevered with those books) early on. But for the most part, I could just run whenever I felt like it and let \u201ctraining\u201d be another one of those things that the elites do.<\/p>\n

All that said, however, there was one term that stood out, one that really resonated with me. (I\u2019m not talking about \u201ctapering,\u201d even though I pointed out last week how good I am it.) I\u2019m talking about the word \u201cfartlek,\u201d and if you\u2019re in a safe place right now as you read this, go ahead and let yourself laugh out loud. We all know what it sounds like.<\/p>\n

Which is the point. My understanding is that \u201cfartlek\u201d refers to \u201cplaying around\u201d while you run, and if, for you, that means going to Taco Bell to fuel up, so be it. Otherwise, a \u201cfartlek\u201d is any spontaneous burst of speed, done for any reason at all. Maybe you\u2019re feeling good, so you decided to sprint to the next telephone pole. Or you\u2019re getting bored on a hill, and decide to finish it off with a mad dash. A fartlek can be as long or short as you like, as fast or as slow. The point is to enjoy it, and not worry too much.<\/p>\n

And after 5 years of running, I\u2019ve found that I naturally, even accidentally, do fartleks now and again as part of my everyday running. So here\u2019s a list of fartlek tricks, or maybe\u00a0fartlektrugen<\/em>, or even\u00a0zufalligefartlektrugen<\/em>.<\/p>\n