BFG Rave Runs: Fartlek in Stockholm

Fartlek, as readers know, is speedplay in Swedish. What better place to do a fartlek run than in Stockholm Sweden!

Headed due east this morning, toward Ladugårdsgärdet, a part of the 27sq km Ekoparken, the world’s first national park within a city. Just 2 to 3 km from Gamla Stan (old town), it was quite startling to run into vast open spaces and woods (pine trees?) under a clear blue sky. There were many stately houses at Nobelparken (Nobel prize winners get to live here?) and ran past the PRC embassy.

An old poster from the Stockholm marathon was left on a lamp-post, a reminder that this is part of the marathon route. Some day, perhaps?

Over to the north was the Kaknastornet, the tallest building in the city. This is the automatic operations centre for radio and TV broadcasting in Sweden, that opened in 1967 and provides what is termed the best view of Stockholm. Since I didn't have my camera phone with me, this pix (aerial view from the east) will have to do:


Crossed the short bridge into Djurgården, this time I ran due west along the unpaved footpath besides the waterway. The crunch of gravel beneath the shoes was the only sound along this stretch, and I was glad for the occasional runner out there with me.

Today's training called for 3 sets of 10 min fast-paced run with HR above 150, followed by 3 min recovery. Basically a mile-repeat training.

Completed the third set just at the bridge heading back toward the whart, and took a slow 2 km warm down back to the hotel.

At a traffic junction, a lady cyclist pulled up beside me. She's riding a Cervelo P2 - exact color scheme as mine. Nice! (I mean the bike, not the biker.)

Noticed a few walkers and skaters out there, with Nordic inline skates and ski poles. Stockholm has a good network of cycling lanes, even in the town center. From my limited observation, I see good discipline amongst cyclists. Something to emulate, Singapore!

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Today, there's a marathon over at Kustmaran, a remote town in Sweden. Last Sat, there was the Midnight Sun marathon at Tromso Finland. Yes, I'd checked these out for some future reference! ;)

Enjoyed the tremendous weather, fresh air, cool evenings and long days.