The Swedish word Fartlek means “speed play.” A fartlek involves intervals of changing speeds and efforts, and there are no stopping breaks.
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Sadly, runners are way too hard on themselves.
This is easier to recognize now that I’m a coach, but I was once an athlete myself and I get it. The world doesn’t really care about anything except the last lap and there’s no glory for “almost.” Falling short of our goal often feels like failure.
But the truth is, the opportunity for success in racing is so much bigger than a PB, a win, or hitting the goal time.
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The mile generally doesn’t get a lot of love in the world of recreational running. As runners are always looking to run farther and longer, the mile isn’t even considered a respectable goal. But when runners set their sights on the mile the challenge isn’t in the distance, but in covering that distance as quickly as possible.
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For runners, winter is often a “just get through it” season. But in truth, we want more than to “just get through” winter.
We want to hold onto all the fitness gains made through the spring, summer and fall.
We want to be positioned well for our goals in the new year.
We want to maintain our sanity when poor weather, limited daylight and unsafe roads constantly interfere with our running plans.
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Strides are short running intervals of about 15-20 seconds in duration. All runners should do strides. Long distance runners, middle distance, and even sprinters can benefit from strides (read on to find out why!). The only runners who should not do strides are injured runners.
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Cadence simply means “steps per minute” (spm). In running there is a commonly accepted “good” cadence goal of 180 steps per minute, but cadence varies quite a bit from person to person and at different speeds. In fact, cadence is directly related to running speed, and we can actually run faster by intentionally taking more steps.
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Here is my rule for injury prevention:
Pain or discomfort of level 2/10 (on a scale of 1-10 where 10 is maximum pain) is the maximum allowable pain level where running may continue.
If the pain is 2 or less AND remains steady or decreases, running may continue.
If the pain is above 2 AND/OR is increasing, running must be stopped immediately. Not after the workout. Not after the run. Just stop.
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The TOP reason for injuries in runners is running through pain. To be fair, there’s a lot of trial and error in running. Some small pains can and will fade away, and are inconsequential - but this is the exception. Our default must be to respect all pains.
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I get a lot of questions about how to set up a week of training: how to schedule workouts, easy days, a long run, strength training and rest days.
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What exactly IS tempo running? If you’ve ever googled Tempo running, you probably got some articles talking about lactate threshold, vOBLA, HR percentages, and VDOT or V02max calculations.
All this jargon is not helpful for most runners. So here are a few (I hope) actually helpful tips on how to get started with tempo running today.
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We’ve all had at least a few truly awful workouts. We feel terrible from the first steps, can’t hit the paces, need more recovery and usually cut the run or workout short. If we do finish, it’s ugly.
Runners tend to be pretty hard on ourselves. We question our fitness, we blame our lack of mental toughness, and doubt our training.
But the truth is, most “bad” workouts have nothing to do with our mental toughness or fitness. Usually, we label a workout “bad” largely because of inappropriate expectations.
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The Snake Run™ is an interval workout for runners. It can be approached two different ways: as a speed workout and as a strength workout, depending on the effort levels used.
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I’ve lost track of the number of conversations I’ve had with runners who feel the need to “warn me” about their age. Many wonder aloud if they can still improve, or if they are destined to get slower and slower.
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It’s a tall order to muster up the motivation for a workout when you don’t even know what the workout is!
When the plan is on paper and there’s no thinking involved it can make a huge difference in our motivation to lace up our running shoes.
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Presenting my Top 3 Training Philosophies! I believe that these foundational training principles are the “secrets” that lead to actual progress. These were my own training philosophies that helped me get to the top as an Olympic athlete, and they have proven truly effective over and over again with all the runners I coach.
Here’s what you need to know to take your running to the next level
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Crazy work schedules, extra family responsibilities, travel, accidents, illness, you name it. Sometimes life just… happens. And when it does, the training plan goes out the window.
How do you navigate training interruptions without losing fitness?
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What should runners DO on a rest day? Resting is much more than simply not working out and I encourage runners to get extra rest on these days.
The time normally spent running or working out will ideally be spent “doing” rest. Sleep is the best, but some other great options are reading, laying around, watching a tv show, writing, chatting with a friend, more family time, etc.
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As a coach, the best thing I can do to help runners reach their goals is to be crystal clear about race day expectations. We can hope for a magical day when the stars align and we feel amazing, Those days do happen (occasionally) but we should not expect it.
We need to expect fatigue and discomfort due to exertion.
We need to prepare mentally for the moment in the race when it gets really hard. Not IF, but WHEN it gets really hard.
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The result of our best effort can vary from day to day but we can always discover what we’re capable of on a given day if we commit to 100% effort.
“Just do your best” sounds simple but getting the most out of ourselves takes practice and finesse.
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Are you training for a marathon running only 3 or 4 days a week?
Real Talk.
That is not enough running days. Even if you’re getting the miles in.
Marathon training should involve 5-6 days of training per week.
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