Running A-Z: F is for Fartlek (Train to Run Faster with Fartleks)

I am having a great time with this new running A-Z blog series. Every week I cover a new running-related topic following the order of the alphabet. I am wide-open for future topic suggestions. Let me know in the comments. This week we are on the letter F. F is for fartlek! 

Fart what? Yes. Fartlek. After all these years of running it may still make me giggle like a 12 year old girl, but fartleks are an effective, fun way to train to run faster.

Fartleks are a form of interval training. You practice periods of fast running without specific speed or distance goals, followed by rest intervals based on feel. It is a go-as-you-please interval plan that can be fun and challenging for new and experienced runners alike! 

Fartlek is a Swedish word that means speed play. Ollie, my dog, describes it best. 

“I run faster to chase a squirrel and slow down to sniff a tree. I think you runner humans call that Fartlek, I call it life.”

— Ollie

Have you ever picked up a running magazine and felt confused by the running plans? The article might recommend to run half marathon pace for 800 meters, or 10K pace for 400 meter repeats, or 5K pace for 400 meters divide by four and subtract 10 seconds. Huh? If your head is spinning because you can't calculate math in your head, (or particularly well with a calculator, like me) or you don't have a track nearby, then fartlek might be the interval training plan for you. 

The great thing about fartleks is that you don't need any special equipment, a GPS watch, a track or a treadmill. You run entirely by feel. A heart rate monitor can be helpful to monitor effort, but not necessary. 

Warm Up

Warm up between five and 10 minute by walking or jogging at conversational pace. You should be able to hold a conversation at this pace without stopping for deep breaths between words or sentences. Breathing should be very easy.

Speed Interval

After you are warmed up, it is time to start your first fartlek interval. Choose a spot ahead in the distance, maybe a parked car, a telephone pole or a stop sign. You choose the distance. Pick up your pace so you are running faster with a rate of perceived (RPE) exertion between a 7-9 until you reach your destination.

RPE is a great way to calculate effort if you don't have a heart rate monitor. Use this chart to help determine RPE.

Recovery Interval

Slow to a jog (or walk, if necessary) to return to conversational pace. This interval takes as long or as little time as needed for you to recover from your speed interval. The key here is to be honest with yourself. Don't start running until you are breathing normally again, and (important!) don't jog or walk any longer than you need to in order to recover. As soon as you are recovered, prepare for your next speed interval. 

Recovery time can vary from workout to workout, day to day based on a variety of factors: the weather, how well you ate (fueled), how well you slept, how recovered you are from your last workout. 

Your workout may look like this: Warm up. Run fast to the top of a hill, recover as you jog down the other side of the hill, run to the park bench, then run faster until you reach the white minivan in distance. Recover as needed then run fast to the next stop light. 

Continue for 25-45 minutes depending on your running experience. 

Fitting it all in

Effort sessions should be limited to two times a week for beginners and no more than four times a week for advanced runners. Any type of speed work, tough strength training workouts, hill repeats or long runs are considered effort sessions. Your body needs time to repair and recover after a hard workout, so allowing rest periods and recovery workouts in between tough sessions will allow you to come back stronger for your next one. 

I recommend a fartlek session once a week for speed training. It is a fun and effective way build speed work into your running and strength training routine without too much pressure!

Have fun with it. 

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Any questions? Have you ever trained to run faster with fartleks? Hit me with your favorite fartlek joke. Let me know in the comments.

Coach Lea

What Should I Do First: Strength Training or Running?

What Should I do First? Strength Training or Running? 

First of all, congratulations for incorporating both running and strength training into your weekly routine. As a running coach and a personal trainer, I believe the strongest runners are the ones who make time for strength training.

What comes first? Running or Strength Training?

I understand that it can be tricky fitting it all in, it is something I have to work at in my own training. I want to put in enough miles to stay consistent and improve in my running, but I also want to make sure I am doing at least the basic strength, balance and stability exercises to stay strong and healthy. Not to mention I still need build scheduled rest days into my weekly training schedule. How do I make it all fit?

One great way to do this is to perform some strength training moves on the same day as you run. Then the question arises, what should you do first, run or strength train? You should do whatever one is most important to you. Think about your goals and which activity will bring you closer to achieving your goals.

If your main goal is to run a marathon, then running should come first, since running is your primary goal. You could then choose to do some strengthening moves after you run and allow for a full rest day after this hard workout. Remember that rest is essential in order to improve.

If your main goal is to build strength, then strength training should come before you run. You will have the most energy for the activity you choose to do first, so it should be the most important to you based on your goals. 

If your main goal is fat loss, I think that both running and strength training are equally important. Cardio exercises that gets your heart rate up (like running) will help you lose fat, but you want to make sure you are not also losing muscle, so strength training is important. I usually recommend to my fat loss clients that they do their cardio work first, so they have the energy to raise the intensity enough for fat loss. 

If I am training for a race then running will be my priority, but in my off-season (aka hot summers), strength training takes the front seat. There is no right or wrong answer. It's up to you to decide what is best for you, based on your current goals. 

What do you do first? Running or strength training? 

Coach Lea

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Running A-Z: E is for Endurance, How to Build Running Endurance

Welcome to the latest installment of Running A-Z where I cover a running related topic following the order of the alphabet. This week we are talking about how to build running endurance without risking injury. 

If you are a distance runner or want to be, you should be focusing on building your cardiovascular endurance. Running endurance is how long you can run. A new runner may be looking to build their endurance so they can run a 5K without stopping and a more experienced runner may want to run a full marathon. These are both great goals that require the same process. 

Gradual Adaption

The safest way to build endurance is through gradual adaptation. This means that you must not rush the process. It takes time, consistency and patience to build endurance without risking injury. If you are new to running this process will take longer than someone who already has an established running base. Be patient.

Rules of Running Endurance 101

Never increase intensity (speed) and volume (milage) in the same week. This means if you are doing speed work to increase your pace, your overall mileage for the week should remain the same that week. On weeks where you increase your milage do not also increase the intensity of your workouts. 

Increase milage by approximately 10% per week. Every 4th week, drop the milage to allow your body a chance to recover. 

All endurance training running should be done at a conversational (slow) pace. This means you should be able to have a conversation with your coach or running partner for the duration of the workout. If you are breathing heavily, you should slow down (to a walk if necessary). Once you build endurance for a particular distance, you can then work on speed to cover that distance faster. 

Rest days and easy mileage weeks are essential to successful endurance training. Overtraining will lead to injuries and depleted energy. It may be tempting to push harder and run longer in hopes of achieving faster results, but this will often backfire. It is during the recovery periods that your body adapts and grows stronger. Always allow rest days in between effort session (fast or long runs) for proper recovery. 

Aim for 7-8 hours of sleep a night. If you are going to bed at midnight and getting up a 5am for your training run, you are not doing your body any favors. Sleep is mandatory for a recovery.

See my post on nutrition for runners for more tips on how to effectively fuel for running.

Are you working on your cardiovascular endurance? How can I help? 

Coach Lea

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Quick Tip Friday: Running Shoes or Cross Trainers?

Can I run in my cross training shoes? Can I cross train in my running shoes?

Running shoes vs. trainers

If you are not putting in a ton of running miles each week, you can run light miles in your trainers, but you shouldn't cross train in your running shoes! Running shoes provide support for forward and back movement, not lateral (side to side) moves.

You need trainers for your gym classes (think boot camps, Zumba, cardio classes, etc.) or at home workout videos. If you run a moderate amount, you should have running shoes for running and trainers for everything else. Running shoes are generally more expensive than trainers, so if you cross train in your running shoes you are burning money and risking possible injury. Any questions? Ask in the comments.

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Coach Lea

Running A-Z: D is for Diet How to Fuel for Running

It's a four letter word in every sense. It has a negative connotation. I am talking about the word diet. Most people think of the word diet and associate it with being hungry; lettuce and carrot sticks come to mind. But actually the definition of diet is the food a person habitually eats. You could be on an all Twinkie diet or a healthy, balanced diet. What you eat is your diet. 

Carbohydrates

Runners have dietary needs that are a little different than the average person. While you may have heard that runners need to carbo-load before a big race and envision a giant plate of spaghetti and garlic bread to meet these nutritional requirements, the truth is that we shouldn't be that extreme. If fact, consuming large amounts of carbohydrates immediately before an event could lead to gastrointestinal distress (which is the last thing you want during a race). 

Carbs may have a bad name in some nutritional circles, but they are necessary for athletes. If you focus on consuming the right kinds of carbs, unprocessed whole foods, they provide the essential energy and fuel that you need to run strong.

The idea is to have a steady flow of high quality carbs in your system leading up to race day. Choose foods like slow-cooked oatmeal, sweet potatoes and brown rice, rather than bagels, donuts or crackers. If you eat a mostly healthful diet, there is definitely room in your diet to include whatever carbohydrates you enjoy, but for sports fueling, I recommend focusing on high-quality nutrient-dense foods.

A lot of articles you will read will give you a daily % of carbs to include in your diet, but people who do not track their macro-nutrients closely (new runners for instance) may find this confusing. If the guidelines sat to 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat, a lot of people may not understand what that means for their daily diets. 

According to the Road Runners Club of Amercia, the International Olympic Committee developed these guidelines to define nutrient needs according to your activity level and body weight. 

Intensity of exercise                 gram carb/kg body wt         gram carb/lb body wt

Low intensity                                      3-5 g                            1.5-2.5

Moderate (  1 hour/day):                     5-7 g                            2.3-3.2

Endurance (1-3 hours/d):                    6-10 g                          2.5-4.5

Extreme  (>4-5 hours/d):                     8-12 g                          3.5-5.5

This gives you a rough guideline to where to start and then you can adjust accordingly to how your body reacts to the intake. Every single athlete is different and only you can determine what works best for you. It may take some trial and error. Some people are carb-sensitive and may need to cut back from these guidelines to feel optimal. Other athletes may feel low on energy or experience poor performance if they consume less than these guidelines. 

An effective strategy for me has been to consume most of my daily carbs right before my workout and immediately afterwards to refuel and lower my carb intake on days that I don't workout. I know a lot of people are scared of carbs, but it is not necessary to feel this way. You can definitely eat a moderate to high amount of healthful carbs as a athlete and remain slim if you choose the quality of your carbs and your timing carefully. Do some experimenting and see what works for you. 

Protein

I find that a lot of new athletes may not be getting enough protein in their diets. Protein helps muscle growth, repair and adaptation. An athlete should consume protein with 30 minutes to one hour after a workout in addition to meeting their daily requirements. I recommend whole food protein sources like eggs, lean meat, fish, nuts or beans. Protein supplements (like powders or drinks) can be a convenient way to consume your protein when you are short on time or on the go. I enjoy protein shakes occasionally in addition to consuming mostly whole foods. 

National Academy of Sports Medicine recommends the following protein intake according to activity level and weight.

Activity level                           Grams of protein per lb of body weight per day

Sedentary                                  .4 grams per lb

Strength Athlete                       .5 - .8 grams per lb

Endurance Athlete                    .5 - .6 grams per lb

Fat

Repeat after me: Fat does not make you fat. Consuming more calories than you burn will contribute to weight gain. If you make mostly healthy, balanced choices and keep your calorie intake at or below maintenance, no single macronutrient in itself will cause weight gain. I add healthy fats in the form of avocados (in my salads, for example) olive oil for cooking and nuts, like pistachios, for snacking. I find that fats help sustain my hunger. Fats have more calories per gram than the other macronutrients so I recommend that you watch your portion sizes as to not accidentally go over your calorie needs. 

Eating low fat packaged products may actually be less healthful than the full fat versions. Read the nutritional label carefully, food manufacturers often take out the fat in order to display a low fat label, but add in sugar and processed ingredients in its place. Often the full fat versions of foods are the best choices.

Hydration

According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine sedentary men should consume 13 cups of water a day and women nine cups a day. People trying to lose weight should should drink an additional eight ounces of water for every 25 pounds they carry over their goal weight. Water intake should be increased when exercising or during hot weather. 

Work to drink two to three cups of water two hours before exercise to hydrate, drink one cup for every 20 minutes of exercise and replace lost water after exercising. For exercise that lasts more than an hour or in extreme heat consume a sports drink to replace lost electrolytes. When exercising one hour or less, plain water is sufficient.

A Note on Balance and Cheat Meals

I don't like the phrase 'cheat meal' because it implies you are doing something wrong. I live by this statement: What you do occasionally does not impact what you do habitually. This means if you make a habit of choosing healthful, whole foods most of the time, enjoying a less than nutritious meal (like pizza, french fries or fried sushi: three of my favorite indulgences) occasionally won't make a big impact on your overall health and fitness goals. It goes both ways. If you habitually eat fast food and make poor food choices, eating an occasional salad won't impact you positively either.

Bottom line, it's your life. You have to enjoy it too. Sometimes it's Grandma's home cooked meal or celebrations with family and friends that bring meaning to life. You shouldn't have to worry about every calorie consumed. If you make good choices most of the time, there is no reason to turn down Grandma's (or Olive Garden's) garlic bread. (Can you tell I like garlic bread? Second mention in one blog post.)

I am a personal trainer. It is beyond my scope of practice to provide detailed meal plans or advise people specifically on what to eat or not to eat. I am permitted to give general guidelines like I have in this blog post. If you need more specific nutritional guidance, feel as if you have an eating disorder or issues with food, I recommend you speak to a registered dietitian (RD) who has the educational background to help you. Remember that personal trainers, online health coaches and even nutritionists are not permitted by law to provide specific diets to cure or treat any disease, included obesity.

What's your favorite health food and what's your favorite indulgence? Did I mention garlic bread? 

Coach Lea

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