With the weather improving and the light evenings we saw numbers back in double figures with 12 runners joining me for a trot around our wonderful city and this week we experimented with a new type of training - fartlek!
Fartlek is not as bad as it sounds. It is actually Swedish for "Speed Play" and is a running session which combines speed and endurance.
I asked the runners to consider three running speeds:
Medium - 5km pace
Fast - full on sprint.
Recovery - a slow, conversational pace
The plan was to run for around 40 minutes and periodically through the run I would call out medium or fast and the point to run to. The medium intervals tended to be longer and the fast intervals shorter. Each was followed by a recovery pace where we regrouped, before the next interval.
We varied the length of the recoveries and the order of the interval types, so that on occasions we had 2 sprints back to back or a short sprint, followed by a longer medium section. We also varied the length of each of the intervals.
After warming up in Abbey Gardens we headed out along Water Lane up to Park Avenue and into North Walls park. From there we headed along Nun's Walk. It was here that we found that the route I thought we could take, we couldn't. So we improvised and ended up in a field somewhere in Abbott's Barton, but soon found ourselves back on the main road and heading back towards the city.
We weaved our way back to North Walls park and back the way we came to Abbey Gardens. We covered just over three and a half miles in 38 minutes.
It was such a good session. There was an excellent vibe amongst the group and there were loads of chats and laughter. Made me proud to be part of such a wonderful group!
Here are the
benefits of fartlek training:
- It’s a great test for strength and endurance
- It improves speed and mental strength
- It improves your ability to put on a spurt in races and overtake the competitor when tired or knock seconds off your finish time
- Incorporating surges of speed helps you learn how much you can push your body over shorter segments
- There is a lot of flexibility within the workout, for example a high intensity session where you push your body to its limits or a low intensity session if you are tapering for a race or easing back into running post-injury
- A fartlek session can be completed alone or in a group.
The Weekly WFC Runners' blog will be out on Tuesday and will feature a special from Mike Hastie on what to listen to on the run!
If you have anything you would like to include in the blog then feel free to email me on WFCrunners@gmail.com
Until next week...happy running!
Coach James
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