What is Fartlek? Run by Feel

Distance and Mid Distance:

You have heard Coach talk about Run by Feel.....which transfers to racing. This is one of the top topics of Coach Jay Johnson. I believe that every runner feels different on every workout at different times. Learn to run by feel and not by the 'watch'. (you know who you are)

We do workouts like....4 mins on 3 mins off or 2 on 3 off.....These are good for developing " run by feel". Here is an article that explains 'fartlek"

Fartlek Workouts

Fartlek workouts are one of the simplest aerobic workouts and can be used at the start of a block of training, with both young athletes and older athletes.

Fartlek is a Swedish term that means “speed-play.” You simply oscillate between two or more paces in your run. The simplest fartleks should be done in 5-minute blocks. So you can do 2 minutes “on” – a pace that is challenging, but one you could do for 15-20 minutes. Then do 3 minutes “steady” – a pace that is slower than the “on” pace, but faster than your easy run pace. That is a solid 5 minutes of running. Do 4 sets and you have 20 minutes of running; do 8 sets and you have 40 minutes of running. So you can complete a 10-minute warm-up and a 10-minute cool-down, then do 4-8 sets in the middle, giving you 40-60 minutes of running. Simple.

The common mistake with fartlek workouts is to go too fast during the on and too slow on the steady. So, run VERY easy during the first on segment, but keep the steady at an honest pace. Again, the on portions should be at a pace you can do for 15-20 minutes, so running just 2 minutes at this pace is not that challenging.

This workout is the antithesis of 10 x 400m with 60 seconds of walk/jog. In that workout, you go extremely hard, then walk/jog. Contrast that to the fartlek workout where you run a challenging, but not hard pace during the on portion, then make the steady portion fast enough that the 5-minute block is challenging, but very doable.

You can progress from 2 minutes on, 3 minutes steady, to 3 minutes on, 2 minutes steady, then on to a killer fartlek of 4 minutes on, 1 minute steady. These are assigned as 2/3, 3/2 and 4/1 on a training document. All three variations have you running 5-minutes per set, and you can do up to 10 or 12 sets (though just 5-6 sets will be challenging for a high school athlete coming off their first cross country season or an adult athlete just getting back into training).

Here’s the good news when it comes to your first couple of fartlek workouts. 

If you go too hard early on and end up running slower paces by the end of the workout, no worries – you’re learning how to run by feel. So bombing this workout the first time – and even the second time – you run it is fine, so long as you learn how to run by feel and make the last couple of sets your fastest. 

Eventually, you should get to the point where the difference between the on portions and the steady portions is 60 seconds or less. But again, run by feel and don’t look at paces when you’re doing this work. After the workout, you should look at the splits to see if you need to slow down the on portions and speed up the steady portions, which is what ninety percent of athletes need to do when they first perform this workout.

This is a simple workout, but as jazz pianist Thelonious Monk said, “Simple ain’t easy.” #simpleainteasy

2018-19 UPDATE Newletter

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas. Enjoy your break! Make sure to sign up for Clash Camp and Track Remind (see website). Hopefully we will have some "drop by" days over the 2 weeks. I will announce on remind if we can plan some track or weight room days after Dec 25rh

UPDATE Trips

As we enter our 11th Track and Field Season, we have been overdue for a couple of items, which costs our program money $$. These include:

New Blocks and a Cart
a New (very cool) Team Tent!
A new (Planned) PV Pit to replace the original from 2009
A new (planned) School Record Board for the Gym (Its time we recognize our programs and achievements !!

We also pay 2 coaches from our fundraising

The items listed above will cost our program over $ 25,000 and that will not include entry fee's or transportation

THE ISSUE:
We still have student athletes that need to pay for previous trips. Those trips are funded by YOU but the school picks up the tab for some of the entry fee's and meals and in some cases hotel as well.

With a year of upgrading now, we are going to be tight and we are going to be behind in raising money to cover these costs. If we wait...we seem to always be in waiting ....etc. These upgrades are over due and we are still using a lot of old equipment from 10 years ago.

With that being said.......

We will not plan a trip to Arizona this year.
At least not in a way that we have before. One reason is that we only have a handful of athletes that showed interest and the Charter Bus does cost us $9700. That would be $405 if we had 24 commitments. So the cost would be $550-600. Over the past 2 years, we have had only 18-20 kids.
There is a possibility for a select few that may be willing to pay for the trip through airfare. The bottom line is that the school is going to be in major fundraising mode and can't afford the extra expenses. We are currently seeking sponsors to help too.

We have had some help with Mr. Boley and our school, but this is a year we need to cut back on future expenses. We will ALL help participate in fundraising this spring that will support our operational expenses. I hope that all makes sense with those of you that have helped or enjoyed those trips.

If you have questions or want to discuss how to help, please see Coach Miller

We are very excited about our Track Clash Club and our Spring Season!!

Have a well deserved break from school and get out and do some running and/or training.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Winter Training for Mid Distance and Distance

Please Read: This is a good outline of what we have talked about many times before. As you transition into building up miles in December and January.....800 meters up to 5000m

Think about running by feel on your pace. This is a good resource that we have used in the past:


Runners Winter Training (800,1600,3200,5000)

Racing after the season ....OR NXR

Hello Gang....Here is a great article that came to me this week from Coach Jay. It fits perfectly and I like his use of 'race rhythm" and not  so much the  splits. This confirms a lot of what we do in our LT training already!  With that in mind, we will try to have events each month. November 9th (Weather Permitting) we will hold a 2 mile flat track time trial. This is a great time to use your cross country training and see what goals are next for the winter and spring

I know some of you will be getting right into winter sports, but nobody should stop all together. Take 2-3 weeks off then get back to some fun runs. We will have a winter program starting up after Thanksgiving. Enjoy this article. I hope you can find time to read these from time to time.

Hello, and I hope this finds you doing well.

While this newsletter focuses on things coaches and athletes can do to have a great experience at a postseason meet, the suggestions in this email are also helpful for coaches and athletes who are done with their season. For that group, simply keep this email and revisit it at the start of next year’s cross country season, making sure the following elements are in the training plan.

Race Pace Rhythm

This is a must do, not a nice to do. 

Athletes must have run race pace in practice in the weeks leading up to the most last two or three races of the season. This is especially important between the state meet and the NXR or Footlocker regional meets if the course for those meets are easier than the state meet course. There is a rhythm to race pace and athletes need to know how that rhythm feels.

Workouts can include longer reps, likes 1,000m repetitions, or shorter reps, as short as 300m repetitions. Are 300m repetitions too short? Not in my opinion -  we did 300’s at the University of Colorado to prepare for 10,000m championship races, so it follows that that 300m is long enough for high school athletes running 5,000m. 

The key is that the athletes groove the rhythm they’ll need to run in the race, if they are to run to their fitness level.

Replicate Race Distribution In Practice

This one is simple. If you want athletes to be able to go out a bit hard in the first 300m-500m of the race, then settle into the rhythm of race pace, and finish the race speeding up, so that the net race distribution is a negative split race, then you need to practice this well before the race. I know many coaches and athletes know this, and there is a very good chance that a staple workout that was done throughout the year can be tweaked to better prepare athletes for the specific task of a well-run race.

For instance, you could do 3 x 300m with 30 seconds jogging recovery, going out harder than the 5k pace you hope they’ll average during the race. Take 2-3 min easy, then do the next part of the workout, which is some work at race pace. 

The second part of the workout could be 5-7 x 500m at the rhythm of the race. This allows the athlete to groove race pace and learn to run that pace when they are uncomfortable. 

Then they Jog 3-5 min, then finish with a 1,600m where you’re running race pace for 800m, then the last 800m is split into 500m, 200m, 100m, where the athlete switches gears three times. 

Rest for 5 minutes, then finish the day with some fast strides, followed by neuromuscular work and general strength and mobility that you normally do with athletes following a hard workout.

The great thing about the workout above is that it teaches athletes to…

Speed Up When You’re Tired

You can’t expect an athlete, even one with great aerobic fitness, to know how to speed up in the last kilometer of the race if they haven’t had a chance to do it in a workout.

Learning to keep a calm mind when you’re running hard is an important skill, and one I learned from University of Colorado coach Mark Wetmore. It’s also crucial to teach athletes that when they are tired, they can speed up. And the way you do it is by designing workouts that demand that athletes speed up when they are fatigued.

This is not rocket science, but it does take some planning. And when in doubt, give them more rest between the different workout elements to ensure that they can run fast for the last part of the workout.

Note: I really like workouts that have three parts — A, B and C — where A gets the athlete into race pace rhythm, B has them doing some decent volume at race pace, and C is the crux of the workout, the time where they run race pace, then crush the last part of the workout. 

The Track May Be A Great Place To Work Out

If memory serves me, the only workout in Running with the Buffaloes that has lots of photos is a track workout at the end season. Why? Because it was done a track and Chris Lear, the author  and the photographer, could stand in one place and get a lot of shots. 

But why were we on the track for a workout late in the cross country season? 

When you’re at 5,200 ft and you want to run the race pace, getting on the track makes a lot more sense than running on grass. It would have bun near impossible to run a longer workout on grass, at the pace we’d run at sea-level, in Boulder, at 5,200 ft.

For other coaches, such as John Sipple at Downers Grove North (IL) — his boys were fourth last year at NXN — the reason to go to the track is that there aren’t dirt paths or lots of grass parks to train on near his school. The track is his best option, and obviously he’s figured out a way to make it work for his team.

Bottom line is that the control you have with the track — getting splits, helping athletes groove race pace — could make it the right place to do these end of the season workouts.

How to get better for next season? Whats Next?

Hello All....Whether you are training for NXR or Spring Track, I believe in order to get better you need to run! Here is the latest newsletter from Coach Jay. I believe in what coaches have always said but runners need to believe it as well. Running should be a habit of mind all year long (44 weeks or more per year). Don't make XC a 12 week only routine!

Here you go...Enjoy!

Hello, and I hope this finds you doing well.

For the majority of high school runners, the chance to race in a junior varsity uniform in school-sanctioned meets has ended, or is ending in the next ten days. At some schools, there is a tradition of training for a Nike Cross Regional meet (NXR) for junior varsity athletes. 

So, athletes are either entering a time where they won’t be meeting with their team for a few weeks, or they will continue to train with their team for the NXR meet. With that in mind, here are my suggestions for junior varsity athletes in these two scenarios.

Recover, Get Ready To Get Ready, Then Get Ready

I’m of the opinion that high school athletes can improve from season to season (and year to year) if they simply run 48 weeks a year. So that means two weeks of not running following the cross country season. I first heard this principle from Greg Weich, one of the best high school coaches in the country, and the coach at Broomfield HS in Colorado (here is a summary of his contribution to High School Running Coach). 

Other coaches, such as Joan and Marc Hunter, who coach the reigning NXN Boys Champion Loudoun Valley team, take less down time. After having a spring season where they were top 25 in the 4x800m relay, distance medley relay and 4x1600m relay, they are the current number one ranked cross country team, so obviously their approach works. As with many things in running, there are multiple ways to approach training.

My approach is simple:

1. Recover from the cross country season.
2. Get ready for the first steps of training — so get ready for the training that gets you ready to do real training.
3. Get ready for real training by doing aerobic training, basic neuromuscular preparation and lots of general strength and mobility.

Obviously athletes need to follow the directions of their coach. What follows are my recommendations, which should not be taken by parents as the rule for training following the season.

Recover From The Season

The key takeaway here is simple: a high school athlete needs a mental break from the rigors of training. Parents and coaches will know athletes are ready to train again when athletes are antsy, wanting to get out the door run. One could argue that high school student-athletes in 2018 have unrealistic demands placed on their time. Giving athletes a break from training for a week allows them to live the life their friends who aren’t distance runners get to live.

On the day that they are antsy to train, try to delay formal training for one more week, then resume training. You want them excited to resume training, and if they aren’t chompin at the bit to train, wait another week.

The First Week

The first week following the end of the season, I recommend one week of nothing. No running, no cross training, no general strength and mobility. If they want to do some activities — swimming, basketball, biking with parents and siblings, hiking, a yoga class, etc. — that’s fine. The key here is they feel like they get to do as they please, which could mean video games and Netflix and possibly some junk food.

The Second Week

The second week, athletes need to be active, yet the activity should ideally be an activity that they wouldn’t do during the season. No running this week, and no cross training this week. There is no reason to do strength and mobility work this week.

Basketball, ultimate frisbee and yoga come time to mind as activities that athletes might not do during the season — this is a great week for those activities!

The key here is that the athlete is active four to five days this week, but there is nothing that looks like the focused training they would do during the year.

The Third Week

Key Point: From here on out, the coach is obviously in charge of the training.

This is the first week of formal training. What should this entail? Here are three areas that all athletes need to focus on:

1. Focus on the neuromuscular system. Athletes should be running strides, and running some of them fast, the very first week of formal training, assuming they have a safe surface to run on. If the roads and fields athletes ran on during the cross country season are icy and snowy, then they will have to find an alternative.

2. Strength and mobility are crucial if the junior varsity athlete is going to handle either more volume, more intensity or more of each variable over the winter. A strong foundation of bodyweight work should start during this week of training.

3. The development of the aerobic metabolism is vital for distance runners, as well as middle distance runners. Thus, in this first week of training, some light fartlek runs make a lot of sense. If coaches want to assign a long run, the distance should be quite a bit shorter than the long run distance at the end of the cross country season. For instance, a junior varsity athlete who was doing 8-mile long runs during cross country may run 5-6 miles for their first long run. They are four months until March, giving athletes 16 weeks to build their long run distance.

This week, the athlete is ready to follow the winter training the coach has laid out. Obviously each coach will have a progression of training — volume, intensity, neuromuscular work and strength and mobility work — that will take the athlete from this week to the first week of outdoor track.

You can argue that this is a great time for running circuits, circuits where athletes run 300m-500m and then do exercises between the running. 

Note: Running circuits are very different than weight room circuits, where athletes go from exercise to exercise. The running circuits I’m referring to are mostly aerobic in nature, compared to a weight room circuit, which has a significant contribution from the anaerobic metabolism to fuel the session.

What I love about circuits this time of year is that you can get a 30-, 40-, 50-minute high-level aerobic stimulus that is challenging, yet the overall running volume is low. 

Coaches should design circuits that are appropriate for junior varsity athletes’ abilities and their strength and their mobility. The video examples I have to share are likely one step beyond what would be appropriate for a young athlete. That said, if you need ideas for circuits, simply respond to this email.

NXR and Footlocker Junior Varsity Racers

One of the neat things about NXR and Footlocker is that a junior varsity athlete can continue to train through the months of October and November and race with their teammates at the big meet. What follows is simply my suggestion — athletes need to follow the direction of their coaches.

The First Week Of NXR Training

I think it makes a lot of sense for a junior varsity athlete to take 5-10 days of easy running, light strength and mobility, yet no decrease in neuromuscular work, following their last race with their school.

From there, the training should include an aerobic workout and a race pace workout each week. Some coaches would say the aerobic workout needs to be a long run, others would say a threshold run. The key is that there is aerobic work being done at this time of the season.

Race pace workouts are key during this period and should be done at goal race pace, with fast finishes. 

Finally, I like to see athletes do aerobic repeats, which are longer repeats (800m, 1,000m, 1,200m or 1,600m) where the majority of the repeat is aerobic, with the end of the repeat, and the end of the workout being a bit anaerobic. These workouts are fun and athletes recover quickly from them.

Another type of workout athletes can do during this portion of the season is Critical Velocity (CV) workouts. Some CV workouts fit well at this time of the year, as they improve the aerobic metabolism, yet are easy to recover from, allowing for some race pace work later in the week.

In the coming weeks, the Boulder Running Clinics videos of Tom “Tinman” Schwartz will be available. He discusses his Critical Velocity (CV) training in detail. 

Sharing This Newsletter

Thanks for reading! If you like this newsletter and want to support it, share it with your friends, tweet about it, or best of all, visit CoachJayJohnson.com and learn about the projects I’m working on.

If you’re seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here. 

Have a great Thursday!

Jay

email to Parents and Meet INFO for Sept 25th - Sept 29th

As mentioned earlier....

We have split races this week. Some will race on TUESDAY at Adams Co Fairgrounds, while others will race Saturday at Polson Ranch in Sadalia (Near Castle Rock)

You can see what we have you listed in on our WEBSITE! Please let us know if you need to change your race day due to school or activity reasons, etc.

BUS OR NO BUS
For TUESDAY....We are told that we must leave school by 12:15 at the latest. Those running will be excused at 11:55am and leave by 12:15
The races are Boys 2:50 and Girls 3:25 (Only 2 races) This will be a fun water and mud course too!.

WE WILL NOT HAVE A RETURN BUS!! The district can't guarantee us a return time, so we have canceled the bus home. Parents, please let us know if this is a problem, or we can change the race day if needed. The races will be over by 4pm

Saturday the race will be in Sadalia and since it is close and a Saturday, we also will not require a bus at all. Directions and time schedule will be posted for this meet as well. NO BUS OF THIS MEET!

The Adams Co race is
Adams County Fairgrounds, 9755 Henderson Road, Brighton 80602, near US 85 and 124th. Easily accessible from I-76, E-470, and I-25.
About 45 mins to drive via 470

Saturday the race drive time is around 30 minutes. Directions will be posted

Thank You all for your flexibility and patience as we have 4 meets over the next 2 weeks