Rock n Road Runners Thursday Intervals: Freedom Fartlek (self-coached session)

NOTE: Due to it being Liberation Day, Dan & Rik are taking the day off, there won’t be a coached session this week. But feel free to carry out the following set of intervals yourself or with some pals!

This is a 60 minute group run focused on building strength, stamina, power and speed through interval-based training.

This session is lead by fully-qualified run coaches Dan & Rik and entails a thorough warm up consisting of easy running, mobilisation work, dynamic stretching, drills and strides. This warm up also focuses on improving various aspects of run technique, biomechanics and efficiency. Not will interval training improve your performance at all distances but it’s a really fun and social way to train. Anyone and everyone can benefit from interval-training regardless of experience level or goals.

The main set is usually interval-based, meaning that there is some faster-paced running for a set time or distance, interspersed with recovery which is either easy jogging, walking or standing. The aim of each interval session is to improve a certain aspect of our physiology, such as our pace at Lactate Threshold, Vo2 Max or increase our Running Economy and Neuromuscular Efficiency.

These sessions are also individualised for each attendee as we regularly carry out 3k and 5k time trials (or use a recent race result) to ascertain pace zones for different running intensities. This allows you to run at the right effort and avoid overexerting and overtraining.

The first session is free and all subsequent sessions are £5, unless you are a member of the Rock n Road Runners run club. If you would like to join the club click here or email rocknroadrunnersclub@gmail.com for more info.

THIS WEEKS SESSION

– Warm Up: Easy jogging, mobilisations, drills

– Strides

– Main Set: Freedom 3/2 Fartlek

30-45mins of 3mins Hard / 2 mins Recovery (walking or jogging)

Try to maintain the same effort for each interval

These are run by effort, hard should be about 9/10

Once you start to drop off the pace then stop the workout and cooldown

– Cooldown

More info on the science behind this workout here.