07Mar2018 - Mystery Fartleks
07th March 2018
In: Running 2018
I started today looking at positive thinking. How can I turn negative thoughts on a run, into positive ones. When I'm cycling, I have phrases, mantras that I say in my head to help me get up hills. I developed this technique on various cycling holidays, and now when I cycle up a hill, the words come straight to the forefront of my mind as if to protect myself from the negativity that could come. So I need to do this for running too, but I don't have the rhythm that I have on a bike when I'm running so I wasn't sure what phrase would work. I didn't want anything with a negative word in, even if it was turned into a positive phrase because my subconscious wouldn't understand. I thought of a few options and decided to test them at track this evening, when I hopefully wouldn't be feeling negative, but would be able to see if the words fitted with the rhythm of my stride.
Mystery fartleks is not a session I really enjoy - not because it is hard but because I don't know when I would ever have to use the technique in a run or a race. The "why" is answered as "so that you can run hard for a period of time that you don't know when will end". But I don't know how or why I would be in this situation. I asked a friend at track, and she said it would be useful if I was ever being chased by a lion. That was enough, I now had purpose for the training session. As I have been doing recently, I did a mile warm up around the track after arriving early. I was joined on one lap and chatted around, and still managed 8:43 minutes for the mile. I think I'm getting quicker because it didn't feel particularly hard.
I ran the set with Rachel, as I'd had a wobble the day before and wanted the security of running with a friend. We said at the start that we would run at two speeds but would chat all the way. We began a bit too quick for this, and the first split was 7:51mm. We would chat at the end... The set was for 25 minutes, plus a slow start to spread us out before beginning. We did 15 fast splits, and six of these were paced above 8mm, the remainder all sub 8mm. I felt good and my heart rate didn't seem too high. As it started to get hard, I thought about the phrases. I had imagined using a phrase that would go with my stride, but actually what worked was words that regulated my breathing. Be Strong Be Brave. I exhaled when on "Be" and made sure I exhaled well. Inhalation is a reflex, exhalation is what we should concentrate on, so this really, really helped ensure I was breathing deeply and keeping my lungs open. The words would drift away as I recovered on the slow legs, and then when it got hard again, they returned. I am hopeful that this will be useful on long road runs and will try it on Friday.
On the last hard split, Mike told us we had 90 seconds to go and to absolutely give it everything. I knew 90 seconds would take me 300m going hard, so I pushed on and completed this last leg at 7:02mm. It was hard but my heart rate still didn't go over 170 so there must be more I can give.
According to Strava, I achieved three records at track tonight:
This was a surprise, mainly because I never expected to run 5km in a 25 minute set! It felt good that I could do this and not have been working flat out. I really think the breathing phrase helped and I look forward to testing it on Friday.
Split times and heart rates
Mystery fartleks is not a session I really enjoy - not because it is hard but because I don't know when I would ever have to use the technique in a run or a race. The "why" is answered as "so that you can run hard for a period of time that you don't know when will end". But I don't know how or why I would be in this situation. I asked a friend at track, and she said it would be useful if I was ever being chased by a lion. That was enough, I now had purpose for the training session. As I have been doing recently, I did a mile warm up around the track after arriving early. I was joined on one lap and chatted around, and still managed 8:43 minutes for the mile. I think I'm getting quicker because it didn't feel particularly hard.
I ran the set with Rachel, as I'd had a wobble the day before and wanted the security of running with a friend. We said at the start that we would run at two speeds but would chat all the way. We began a bit too quick for this, and the first split was 7:51mm. We would chat at the end... The set was for 25 minutes, plus a slow start to spread us out before beginning. We did 15 fast splits, and six of these were paced above 8mm, the remainder all sub 8mm. I felt good and my heart rate didn't seem too high. As it started to get hard, I thought about the phrases. I had imagined using a phrase that would go with my stride, but actually what worked was words that regulated my breathing. Be Strong Be Brave. I exhaled when on "Be" and made sure I exhaled well. Inhalation is a reflex, exhalation is what we should concentrate on, so this really, really helped ensure I was breathing deeply and keeping my lungs open. The words would drift away as I recovered on the slow legs, and then when it got hard again, they returned. I am hopeful that this will be useful on long road runs and will try it on Friday.
On the last hard split, Mike told us we had 90 seconds to go and to absolutely give it everything. I knew 90 seconds would take me 300m going hard, so I pushed on and completed this last leg at 7:02mm. It was hard but my heart rate still didn't go over 170 so there must be more I can give.
According to Strava, I achieved three records at track tonight:
This was a surprise, mainly because I never expected to run 5km in a 25 minute set! It felt good that I could do this and not have been working flat out. I really think the breathing phrase helped and I look forward to testing it on Friday.
Split times and heart rates