One-mile repeats are a bread-and-butter session for distance runners prepping to race 5K, the marathon, or anything in between. Every once in a while I like to mix up the intensity and recovery a bit to work on both stamina and speed while also keeping my athletes more engaged throughout the workout.
I recently had a conversation with Sarah Gearhart, author of We Share The Sun, which comes out on April 4 wherever books are sold. It’s part biography of Patrick Sang, the legendary coach of Eliud Kipchoge and other distance-running superstars, and part behind-the-scenes peek of the inner workings of his training group based in Kaptagat, Kenya. I was fascinated to learn more about the architect responsible for multiple world records, major marathon wins and course records, numerous global medals, and other incredible competitive accomplishments. Coach Sang is a private individual but he opened up to Gearhart in a big way and she did a wonderful job painting a portrait of a man who is revered not only for the successes his athletes have experienced in sport, but also for his holistic coaching philosophy and the impact he has on the rest of their lives. In addition to telling Sang’s story, Gearhart shines a light on many of his athletes, most of whom aren’t well known beyond the races they’ve won or the times they’ve posted.
The Mona Fartlek can also serve as a good 20-minute benchmark session every 4-6 weeks by simply comparing your total distance and overall average pace (and heart rate and power, if you’re into those sorts of things) from one attempt to the next. What I love about this session is that it’s efficient and versatile: it can be done anywhere and you can make it as hard or an easy as you need/want it to be.
Let's face it: Training for a marathon or half-marathon can get monotonous. Both programs involve lots of sustained running at or around goal race pace. This is a part of the deal, of course, and an important component for developing fitness, dialing in pacing, practicing fueling, and more. That said, it gets repetitive, if not boring, and a lot of people tend to lock in to a set pace and then zone out until it's time to stop. Racing, however, requires you to pay attention, listen to your body, and make adjustments on the fly, which is why I love to assign the In-n-Out Tempo Run from time to time. Not to mention, it's much more interesting than its more classically constructed cousin!
Fartlek, in its purest form, is unstructured speed work. "Speed play" is its literal translation. Now, I'm as guilty as anyone else who has ever called any structured interval workout done off the track a "fartlek" session, but if we're being honest that's not a fartlek: it's just an interval workout. A fartlek is simply a series of faster pickups with a recovery interval in between. It's also an interval workout, but the length and speed of the pickups, as well as the recovery intervals in between, are not pre-planned and totally up to you.
Mario Fraioli recaps his experience racing the Masters Mile at the 2023 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, Massachusetts.
We're in the midst of marathon season which means the long run takes on an extra level of importance if you're training to race 26.2 miles. The 3 x 3 Cutdown is one of my favorite go-to long runs to help develop the specific fitness and skills necessary to succeed on race day. Here are the details:
As runners, we all have unique backgrounds and different reasons for getting into the sport. The following seven habits are tried-and-true behaviors the most highly effective runners — not necessarily the fastest runners — have in common and practice every day. Make them work for you and become a more motivated, happier and fitter athlete.
Variety, it’s said, is the spice of life. It can also be the key to spicing up some of the same old workouts you do week in and week out. Can't decide between hill repeats, a tempo run, or an interval session? Try rolling them all into one workout! I call this cover-all-your-bases butt-kicker “The Mixed Bag” and it will help to stimulate fitness gains that you didn’t even realize were stuck in stagnation.
