This is a great way to incorporate some speed work into your long run and prepare you for some hard running at the end of the race.
Each week I will be posting the Friday Fartlek Run Sessions that you can do to enhance your running. Fartlek is a Swedish term that runners often use and it means speed-play. See a previous post about training intensity (levels) to know how hard to work.
Progressive Run
- 30min Warm Up Level II;
- 40min Level III;
- 10min Level IV;
- 10min Cool Down Level II;
- 10min Stretching
The warm-up is really just the pace you would maintain for a long run to develop a good aerobic base anyway. For this session, we combine the two and extend it out to 30 minutes.
In the next phase of the workout, you increase the pace to Level III for 40 minutes, before spending ten minutes at Level IV prior to the cool down.
The Cool Down (CD) is at a low intensity, jogging (Level II) for a minimum of ten minutes.
Finish with 10 minutes of stretching to assist with the recovery.
Make sure you have developed a good aerobic base prior to commencing Progressive Runs into your programme. You should have a number of long runs of the same duration as the progressive run completed before including these into your programme.
This is a good first variant of the Progressive Run to do. Build each week by either reducing the Level II phase and increasing the Level III phase, or decreasing the Level III phase and increasing the Level IV phase.
This workout is 1:30hr long and I utilise this for athletes that are focusing on 5km and sometimes 10km. I utilise variations of it that are two hours long for athletes training for 10km or longer, but only during the last part of their programme.
If you would like further advice feel free to contact me.
I am the Head Coach & Director of Qwik Kiwi – Endurance Sports Consultant.
I specialise in assisting first-timers and recreational athletes to achieve their sporting goals. I can be contacted at coachray@coachray.nz and 021 348 729. Make sure you sign up for my informative newsletter.
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If you enjoyed this workout, here is a similar session I published 12 months ago.
Friday Fartlek: Carpenter’s Perfect 20-Minute Workout
For more great workouts see my eBook: ‘Top 10 Workouts from Coach Ray – The Ten Most Popular Training Sessions from www.CoachRay.nz”. Use the workouts within the eBook to enhance your fitness.