Thoughtful Training| Podcast ep 14
Nerd out with us on the A to Z Running Podcast! This week we discuss different workouts and what they do for the human body. Understanding why we train the way we do helps us to have more thoughtful training, and in turn, more success.
The World of Running
The 2020 PanAm Cross Country Championships are to be held in North America. There is a bid for the 2023 World Cross Country Championships to be held in the same location. (Source)
Leak about the 2020 Olympics opening ceremonies in Tokyo.
The possible return of Lukas Verzbicas after serious injury.
Main Topic: Thoughtful Training
Have you ever wondered what a workout is actually doing to make you better? If so, this episode is for you. If we understand our runs we will have a more thoughtful approach to our training. The below runs are not done in every type of training cycle and there are alternatives and variations. Tune in to hear the break down.
Types of Runs we dive into:
- Easy runs
- Moderate runs (cruise efforts)
- Steady effort (We mention our article on aerobic fitness.)
- Long runs (more on the science of the long run.)
- Straight tempo run
- 400m VO2Max intervals with active rest
- 2mi repeats (tempo runs)
- 400m glycolytic intervals
- Blended workouts (tempo + intervals)
- Hills
We mention in the episode that we launched our training services. If you want some guidance, let us know! Subscribers get a discount.
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Fantastic podcast! That really helped me better understand the reasoning for the various runs I am seeing in the training guided by you. Though I was hoping to see where a Fartlek fell in this spectrum.
Oh man! How could we forget fartleks? The workout with the best name…
Here’s the short answer for you, Pete: fartlek is a bridge between threshold running and vo2max work. Properly implemented, a fartlek run is an unstructured cascade of different paces and efforts over the course of a run. The best way to do it is to go for a run on some dynamic surface or area (hilly, winding road, trail, etc.), though that’s often not available, and after running easy for 10-15 minutes, decide how long you want to run hard (2min, all the way to the intersection ahead, etc.), go reasonably hard for that amount, then run easy for the same amount of time it took you to run hard. After that, repeat again until you reach the total allotted time for the fartlek portion (like 30 minutes).
The principle of the thing is that you are not running a set agenda for distance/time but rather doing multiple different efforts throughout, mixing it up with longer and shorter bouts, but never extending yourself deep into anaerobic running. Keep it light and cheerful!