Yuck! I know that I normally end of liking speedwork after worrying about it all day but that is NOT true for fartleks!
But I had to laugh yesterday. Because as we are all gathered in GameDay’s lobby, Coach Joe F was explaining how we were going to divide up into groups. He was like “Group A will be a 9 minute mile or faster, Group B will be middle of the pack, and Group C will be the really really slow people.” Everyone laughed. Someone shouted out “You need to go to sensitivity training!” This of course led to a barrage of jokes about how slow we all were, as we were doing our 10 minute warmup in our groups.
Our coach asked us when we saw the water truck, if we wanted to stop and get water. Yes, yes, yes of course! I felt like we had been going at a pretty good pace. After we stopped for water we started up again. Then, I could tell the actual Fartleks had started, because we definitely picked up the pace. I was huffing and puffing for what seemed like forever, but figured probably only a few seconds had actually passed. This WAS hard! Half of our group had fallen behind.
And then about 5 minutes later she shouts out “OK, you guys ready for the first Fartlek?” WHAT? We weren’t doing them already?!! So I picked up speed for what seemed like 5 minutes but was only 1. It killed me. I was like “forget this” and dropped back to my REAL marathon pace. I did the fartleks by myself, using the interval function on my watch for awhile, but then I just lost count so just ran my normal pace. It was too confusing. I was also confused because we actually passed the group that was in front of us (I guess the slow runners, but not the really slow runners like my group or the really really slow runners like the people behind me. JUST KIDDING!!!).
It was only later, at the happy hour, that I heard that 1. The group in front of us started off too fast and then died when they got to the first set of Fartleks which is why we passed them. 2. I WASN’T crazy. The girls behind me also thought we had started the speedwork when we didn’t. We all agreed that the speed was just too fast.
Most people I talked to didn’t end up doing the Fartleks after a few of them, and just ran at a normal pace. I guess all that really matters is that we did at least SOME speedwork.
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Hello ... I think this is my first time commenting, but I've been reading for a while. Sorry! (Flying Pig was my first marathon, too, but, no plans for another ... yet!)
Maybe fartleks wouldn't be so terrible if you guys didn't speed up too fast. The way we do them is to race each other between set points (like telephone poles), kinda like when you're a kid ... last one to the sandbox is a rotten egg!
My group has a 10K training program (I've been a mentor since completing the class myself). On fartlek days, we'll typically have two or three fartlek spots where you race your fellow runners in a full out sprint.
Not too bad ... really :)
I think what was most confusing to me were keeping track of the intervals. If my watch went up to all of the intervals that we did I would have been okay. It was just too hard when my watch was beeping every minute. I can't keep track of if it went off two or three times plus what interval comes next. It was so confusing!
I think your idea of set points instead of a continuous run based on time is a great one.
Hey Emily!
Last night, I started off the interval stuff byself and then gave up I decided to catch up to a group where Lori, one of the coaches was leading and keeping track of the time. She would yell "On" or "Off" and we would adjust our pace accordingly. There is no way I could have done the intervals by myself. I would have been looking at my watch the ENTIRE time and seeing the seconds tick by. Crystal started off with a group, but their marathon pace was way too slow so she ran by herself. She commented she has one pace and that is "comfortable." The good thing to remember about last night is that we did 7 miles. Sometimes we make this running thing so complicated! I am doing 15 on Saturday, how much do you have to do?
I have no idea. I am really confused about my schedule and a bunch of us who are running chicago are superconfused. I think something got mixed up and they had us tapering for like 4 weeks! Joe B was trying to help us figure it out without the schedule, but I think I'm going to have to email Joe F about it :)
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