Fartlek & The Katusah

Fartlek & The Katusah

Jeff and I started out on the loop this morning, usual lets not go to fast I am tired etc. There was not a lot of shelling or machine gun firing in the morning dawn stillness, we dropped down and past the watch towers and old historic tank, (as opposed to the 20 brand new tanks on the other side of town) when just as we came up a slight hill.

When all of a sudden there was a couple of massive cracks in the air and for a moment the words " Katusah incoming" raced into both our brains, it takes milli seconds to process this thought and reaction.

Now I was about a step behind Jeff, and all I could sense for next two seconds was that Jeff's running pace SUDDENLY picked up for about 6 strides, really picked up. we had processed in the milli second that it was not an incoming Katusah but outgoing shells from an Israeli Howitzer battery that had startled us for that second.

Jeff laughing said "picked up pace then" so I now officially will record this as a fartlek training run.

I admit yet again that "El Barstido Hill" beat us again and we walked. This time though Jeff claimed he was feeling tight so we walked the whole hill and I did not object our first km we had done in 5:03 so a walk just added to the fartlek claim.

El Barstido Hill was this log jam of Israeli tanks that had come back across the border from fighting in Lebanon overnight, so we took time to look at the beasts of war as we climbed up the hill letting my pulse rate drop.

We turned the corner at the top of the hill and ran back to the hotel thru the tranquility of the dawn, well tranquil one minute, boom boom the next minute.

Time is running out to get the second loop promise in as Jeff is scheduled to leave next Tuesday.

Distance 3.7 km
Time 21.26
HR avg 112
HR max 147
kcal 198
temp 26 c
speed avg 9.9 kmh
speed max 14.5 kmh
pace avg 6.04 min.km