May L4 - Runner FaRtlek InteRvals

This week we pull a page from the running world to introduce some L4 intervals. After a restful April you might feel antsy and ready to jump back into hard training but your body (and legs) will thank you for easing into intervals. Most of us haven’t done too much intensity over the last month. While I love the freedom the spring offers to adventure and explore without a formal training plan, I often put intensity on the backburner. The first intervals of the new training year can often inspire a mix of dread and excitement. This fartlek session is a great way to wake-up the body after a few weeks “off.”

We introduce some light L4 during the first week of the training year for three reasons:

1.     To jumpstart our aerobic system. L4 intervals at the beginning of the new training season will increase our efficiency in the lower-end training sessions that make up the bulk of our early season training.

2.     To bridge our aerobic capacity from the winter into the new training year. We don’t want to lose all that good fitness we built up over the previous race season. Inserting some L4 early on in the new training year helps our body maintain our aerobic capacity. We aren’t trying to build our Vo2Max with these early May intervals so the total “on” time will remain relatively low. Instead we are hoping to use them to maintain our fitness from one season to the next before we get into more threshold and L3 interval training (the focus for much of May and June).

3.     To remind our mind and body what it feels like to go hard. The first intervals of the year after a few weeks off can be painful and, in many cases, intimidating. Introducing hard intensity early in May forces us to “rip of the band-aid.” L4 intervals may not feel great but doing them early makes all the L3 intensity that follows seem less ‘scary’. You prime your mind and body for the rest of the year to lean into the pain that accompanies a hard interval session. I often find that the first interval session, like the first run of the year, is usually the hardest but makes every run after that feel easier.

The workout below is a common early-season session for runners but applies well for skiers as our legs may just be getting back into running shape. Total time: 1.5 hours

Warm-up: ~30 min.

Easy jog 15 minutes

Dynamic stretching: 

·      10 legs swings front (L/R), 10 leg swings side to side (L/R)

·      High knees X 20m

·      Butt kicks X 20m

·      Skip forward 20m

·      Skip backward 20m

·      Karaoke 20m L/R

·      Side shuffle w/arm swing 20m L/R

Easy jog 5-10 minutes more (depending on how warmed up you feel)

Workout: ~30 min.

10-12 X 1 min. w/2 min. easy/medium running in between for recovery.

1 min. ‘on’ at 5km pace – think uncomfortably hard but not a full-out sprint

2 min. ‘off’ at warm-up pace or just above – between each interval you want to keep running at a pretty good clip. We aren’t stopping and resting between each 1 minute interval. Instead, think about returning to a comfortable moving pace. 

Repeat 10-12 times. These should feel really good at first but get increasingly harder as your body recovers less quickly during the two minute ‘off’ interval. The last one or two intervals are should feel pretty challenging.

Note: While I recommend wearing a heart rate monitor, this session will be more by feel. If you have a GPS-enabled watch it can be helpful to select pace goals ahead of time. For example I might aim for 6:30min/mi pace during the ‘on’ portion of the interval and 8:30min./mi pace during the ‘off’ portion.

Cool-down: ~20-30 min.

Easy jog 20-30 min.