Fartlek Benefits and Good, Bad, and Ugly Training

Accept those ugly runs, because the great running is coming.  

I remind myself of this on occasion.  I tell new runners this frequently.  Don't over-analyze a painful or slow run.  Take a quick look at it, as maybe there is a legitimate reason for the poor performance.  Often it is as simple as recent over-training, lack of sleep, poor diet, etc.  But never, ever, let a few days of unusually ugly  training take you mentally down.  Think about that time where training was going great, where good results came with ease.  Trust me, you can't have one without the other in any long term training program.   Take the great...and the ugly.

I seem have entered a period where the training effort isn't as strained and I am seeing rapid improvement.  Only a week a go, I went into O2 debt on a 8 mile run with some local high schoolers.  We dropped several back to back miles near the end in the 7:45s. I wasn't happy to say the least, however, I applied the above rule.  

Yesterday was the first sign of good things (Garmin Connect Run Details), as I ran the same 8 mile loop holding back exactly at 8:00mpm over the last 6 miles.  I finished the run having felt that I hadn't really run.  Today's session of 6 miles with 5 x 75 second Farltek went quite well. (Garmin Connect Run Details)  I joined local running power house Kevin Grant for today's workout.  Going into this, I was nervous that a) he'd run the recovery (4 minutes between sets) too fast and b) he'd run at 5mpm pace for the speed-ups.  I was targeting 6:20mpm for speed-ups, and 8:15mpm for recovery.   As expected, we ran faster (6:00 to 6:15 over some surprisingly hilly terrain, with 7:30mpm recovery), but I felt like I had another gear to go and we both ran in full conversation mode.  So, yes...I am happy and enjoying these last two days...knowing full well a string of harder runs could hit me at any moment.  Let's ride this for as long as I possible.

I'll spend a few minutes going over Fartlek training.  It was good to hear Kevin uses it the same way I do.  Fartlek and hill repeats are spring boards to building up speed and power.  After weeks of base work, with long slow miles, the body seems to settle into the slower rhythm and losses the ability to run effectively at or near lactic threshold levels.  After 3 weeks of increasing miles, and slow pace, the thought of running Marathon pace was truly frightening.  Granted, I am training for a 50miler.  Improving the levels of effort till reaching Oxygen debt, and gaining power, will improve my ability to run the uphills.  Kevin and I both noted that performing Fartlek training yields fairly quick improvements in pace. He noted that weekly Fartlek session will allow him to join his high school x-country team's speed workouts at the start of the season in three weeks.