Who Wants to Play?

"Do a fartlek," they said. "It'll be fun," they said.
Okay, so no one told me to do a fartlek, but I'm pretty sure I've been told that "fartlek" translates into "play". And who doesn't like to play? But then I realized, I'm a person who prefers to play with others. Playing by myself just isn't the same.
So while it was a short run today, I thought some play was in order. I did a 20min fartlek, with added warm-up/cool down time.
The first 5min I had a great rhythm: run-jog-run-jog-run-jog
The next 5min felt tougher, so I changed up my rhythm: run-jog-run-walk-run-jog-run-walk...
The last 10min I was done. My sprints were not quite so speedy, so I increased my recovery time: run-walk-run-walk-run-walk

Was it a great workout? No.
     Was it a fun workout? Not particularly.
          Was it a wasted workout? Never!

...when you only are running 1-2x/week, there is no such thing as a wasted workout! But maybe next time I do a fartlek, I'll find someone else to play with!