Tuesday 7 January 2014

Fartlek Tuesday

I am not feeling well at the moment, not physically unwell but mentally unwell and exhausted.  However, exercise is suppose to be a good tool to support this type of illness and therefore I am working to my 'Unstoppable' training plan as much as possible.

Today's session is all about threshold running, our running coaches describe this as the 'holy grail' of marathon training.  When I first received my training plan I thought these sessions were the same as speed intervals and wondered why I was failing - sprinting full on for 5 mins is not within my current gift!  However, I recently attended a training session organised by the charity (Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research) and our training coaches (full potential).  The day was packed with useful information regarding how our training plans are devised, what to expect on the day, nutrition etc. There was also a practical session out on the running track showing us the correct way to have a 'threshold session'.  The basic routine is to warm up, and then run x number of mins at threshold then recover at jog pace and repeat.  Threshold equates to aprox 80-85% effort - you can speak a few words if somebody asks a questions but you couldn't have a good old natter! It is also described as controlled discomfort (which does not sound pleasant!).  The end result is that I now understand how these sessions work, and how important they are in the plan to get 'marathon ready'!

The goal for today was 60mins run, including 6 x 5 mins at threshold with 90 secs recovery in-between.  Due to the horrible weather conditions I decided to go to the gym for this session today.  Plus given my current well-being state, running outside could have been more hazardous than normal!  So 15mins at 11.5 on the treadmill, followed by my threshold runs up to 12.5.  Managed 5 of the 6 okish - could mostly tell my body was not happy about a hard workout today so stopped half way through the final threshold run and took it down to a fast walk to finish off.  Didn't meet the entire goal, but close enough and hopefully will still get the benefit from a threshold session.

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