Fartlek Monday

Today's workout felt pretty good. Probably because I took the time to warm up well. Usually when I have a couple of athletes at a facility, I will leave them to warm up with each other. I'll either watch their workout or jump in. Going from zero to sixty without getting the muscles loose is not the greatest idea. Sort of like starting your car in cold weather and peeling out. You probably wouldn't do that to your car, so why do it to yourself?

Besides a solid warm up, I think the weather change helped out. Today was 10degrees warmer than last week's workout at the same venue. Today was about 36, still cold, but the wind was also dramatically lessened. That meant we were using less energy to keep ourselves upright and more to propel ourselves forward! Less shivering overall was also a plus.

Still only in the first 3 weeks of this training cycle for the athletes, we kept it nice and easy today. A "controlled" fartlek. I call it controlled, because a standard fartlek has no distance, pace or time limitations. It is simply go as hard as you see fit for as long as you see fit. I like to create the ability to progress and have it be measurable. Therefore, today's fartlek was 1,2,3,2,1 with equal rest. It is a nice, introductory workout...sort of a welcome back to hard running. The "on" segments are brisk to slightly faster, the "off" at everyday run pace.

Good workout, but I can't wait to take it to the track on Thursday!