So, when I used to ride my bicycle a lot, I had a particular training schedule I used when getting ready for a big ride, especially centuries. Monday was an easy spin day, nothing in the big ring. Tuesday was sprint day, all-out efforts for increasing distances allowing full recovery between each effort. Wednesday was a distance day, trying to pedal at least 75% of the upcoming weekend ride, but done slowly. Thursday was interval day, 95% all-out efforts on hills or out of the saddle, never fully recovering between. Friday was another easy spin. Saturday was an easy spin with a couple of sprints. Sunday was the big ride, going for distance in the best time manageable. Then it started back with Monday...
Why do I mention this? I'm running now, not biking... but I realized today that, following my successful one mile attempt from Wednesday, it might be time to start introducing alternate training elements into my three days a week.
Early this morning, then, I set out to do something I hadn't done since high school ski team practice... I was going to go do Fartleks! Basically, a Fartlek is similar to doing intervals or sprint training. You simply vary your pace throughout the course of your run or walk. (If you really want to try this technique, this article has more details).
The way that I did it today was to warm up with one lap, then on each subsequent lap I walked 250m, then started a jog, then sprinted the final 20m. Wash, rinse, repeat.
It was fun, actually. I think it's important to have variety in a training program so that you don't become mindless to what you're doing. So, I'm going to take one of my two non-timed days each week to do something like this... whether they're Fartleks or some other technique. Viva la difference!
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