Basecamp-Week 12

HOUSEKEEPING

• FINAL WEEK: This is the final week for the Basecamp program. I will record an additional episode next  week (Week 13) that will cover transitioning from Basecamp to any other training program you wish. I go over all the details of the 6 Week Build At Peak Mileage schedule that is provided. & finally, send you off with a few words of encouragement & inspiration.
• I hope you enjoyed this program. It was an experiment for me & I would love to get your feedback on the program. If you would take a few minutes to FILL OUT THIS SHORT SURVEY, I would really be appreciative. 
• You can also send any personalized feedback to me directly at [email protected]. 

WEEKLY TRAINING DETAILS

QUALITY 

5/3/1 Fartlek for a timed 3 miles

In Week 3 we did a timed fartlek so that we would have the opportunity to see a clear representation of improved fitness. If you did that session, then you can pull up your time & compare this week’s effort. Hopefully you got faster. If you did not do that session, I stand by this session being one of the very best sessions you can add to your repertoire.   If you want to use it as a time trial, you do the workout EXACTLY THE SAME WAY. You just keep a record of the overall time it takes to do 3M of fartlek. 

Here is a description: 

So this session is half workout/half time trial. I have learned over the years that time trials are absolutely dreaded & frequently skipped in a program. I hope you will be open to this session but if you aren’t that is OK. While there is not a real need for knowing your specific paces in this program, since so much of the work is based on efforts & feel, I find that many people want to test their beginning & ending fitness in a program. This workout is designed to allow you to do so. Or you can disregard getting a 3M total time & just do the session. I am cool with it either way. Our final workout of this Basecamp will be the same session, so you can test your improved fitness (or improved ability to know HOW to do the session). 

Fartlek is a Swedish word for “speed play”. In the history of distance running, the Swedes & Finnish marked a huge transition in the training theory. Prior to the use of fartlek, most runners either ran easy, or walked even, to develop fitness. The Scandanavians upended this continuous running at one speed with fluctuations & pace changes in the context of a single run. In this way they made varying paces a part of training theory. Eventually, this led to breaking up training runs into intervals (shorter faster running balanced with rest periods). There are two basic types of fartleks: traditional, free fartlek & structured fartlek. The traditional version is a kid of play, where acceprations of varying paces & distances are included in a run. Typically, runners choose natural landmarks (trees, hills, telephone poles, etc) as they run to accelerate to & then run easy after. Individual fartleks are truly free-form & completely up to the runner to implement. When run in groups, they are still free-form but one runner decides where they are running to & at what pace. This can be alternated between runners in the pack or one runner can be the determiner throughout. Also, if done in a park or the like, a coach can blow a whistle to control the distance run & the athletes can choose the pace. These are examples of traditional fartlek. A structured farle is what we are doing. A predetermined time is designated to run at a faster pace & slower pace & the athlete still determines the pace they choose to run for both the faster & slower sections. 

In our case, we are alternating 5 min of faster running with 3 min of easier running; 3 min of faster running with 3 min of easier running; 1 min of faster running with 3 min of easier running. This iwrittent 5/3/1 w/ 3 min easy jog. Once you complete one set of 5/3/1 you continue until you reach 3 miles of running. You can vary the intention, difficulty & benefits from a fartlek in a wide array to encourage different training stimulus. For our purposes, we want to pick a pace for the faster sections that we feel we can sustain for that timeframe at a hard effort. Hard is not all out. It is a challenging pace or effort that you feel you can sustain for 5, 3 & 1 minutes with the rest being 3 min.  Don’t worry so much about the pace of the faster running...this is “speed play”! Have fun with it. If you go too fast, adjust & run easier on the rests or the faster section to ensure you can run the whole 3 miles with the changing paces. I appreciate it will feel a little willy nilly. That is understood & expected. This is about learning to determine you efforts & paces & how to sustain them in a structured time/distance framework but with a very loose pace or effort framework. Relax! You cannot do this wrong. No matter what you will be getting a good stimulus from this workout. This is the training session.

SPEED ECONOMY

8-10 x 200m w/ 200m jog

You have now done this sessions a number of times & hopefully have a good feel for it. I end with this Speed Economy session because it is the most important for you to continue to keep in your training program. If you balance this workout with the strides workout, you’ll be pretty well set on keeping your quickness & speed. 

The 200m interval distance is a classic distance & is ubiquitous nearly all training programs. 200m reps are really excellent because they require a bit of endurance but do not overtax the system & when combined with a 200m easy jog, are an excellent way to extend the speed element of your training without developing the anaerobic system & inducing lactate accumulation. In most programs I would give my athletes 5K paces for these intervals. Since you are not using paces in this program I recommend that you start these out a little slower than your strides pace to be sure you don’t overextend yourself. If after 2 reps you feel the pace is manageable, you can go a little faster. Keep track of the pace you run on these. We’ll be doing this session again in a few weeks & you can compare your results. Again, a reminder that the recovery is  a VERY EASY pitterpat jog. You can do this on the track, where on a standard track 200mis half a lap, or on the roads. 

LONG RUN

• 30-40 mpw: 12M EASY w/  final 20 min CLOSE
• 40-50 mpw: 14M EASY w/ final 20 min CLOSE
• 50-60 mpw: 16M EASY w/ final 20 min CLOSE

CLOSE = A CLOSE is a finish in the final minutes of a long run. Other programs might call this a “fast finish”. These are designed to allow you an opportunity to start pushing a little bit on the long runs. By controlling the amount of time you push the effort or pace faster, we allow you to dip your toe into the water of a Quality Long Run (QLR). The QLR is a fundamental aspect of the Telos program. These are long runs with workouts built into them. These are used for athletes training for all races but play a huge part of the half marathon & marathon programs I devise. Another reason that I began including CLOSES in my programs is because my athletes began running too hard on their long runs, whether by pushing early in the runs & making an effort too fast or by racing others & making the effort too hard. It is critical to remember that the “hard” part of ...