I’ve had my week of easy recovery runs and was ready to get going again with a serious block of training as I build up to the Lakeland 100 which is my big A race for the year.
I was happy with my Cateran race but I have been reflecting a bit on how it compared to the Hardmoors 55. I feel that the Hardmoors 55 was a better overall performance. One of the main differences in my build up to that one was the amount of speed work I had been doing as I prepared for the Inverness Half Marathon.
So I’ve decided to change my training a bit and add in some Fartlek sessions on a Monday night with Kilbarchan AAC. Normally once I start my ultra races I don’t do much speed work but I’m interested to see if it will help.
The session last night was 4mins (2mins Recovery) x 6 then 2mins (1min) recovery x 3. The first three were out on the cycle track and against the wind which meant for the second three we had the wind behind us. It certainly made a difference to the distances run.
Once home and downloaded the stats I was pleased to see that I had run over 5 miles for the 30mins which is always my benchmark for a good run.
Here is my training plan for the next 3 weeks …
The race is the Milngavie Trail race being organised by Graeme Reid and his scout group. It looks a cracking route and fitted in well with my training.
In the L100 recce back to back we will finish off the course so we will have covered the whole route before the race. The plan is to run from Coniston to Keswick on the Saturday and then on Sunday to run from Keswick to Dockray on the Sunday. Dave T has promised a lovely run back to Keswick from Dockray to complete our 35 miles for the second day.
Jonny, Marco and I will be joining Dave T for these runs. I have a suspicion that we might split into two groups with Dave and Marco leading the way!
That’s a cracking result for the Fartlek, clearly shows that you’ve recovered well and aerobic fitness is well intake.
I suspect the slightly less impressive result at Ceteran was more down to the dealing with lots driving, logistics and stress in the days before the race than lack of speed work. You couldn’t avoid this, our running hobby has to fit around the real ups and downs of our lives, I think you handled things well.
I do think speed work is useful though, not for the speed itself, but for the different type of stimulus to aerobic development that it provides. Speed work provides different signally pathway to low intensity runs, but these different pathways all stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis, so to get best rests you want to do both. Looking at studies of elite endurance athletes the optimum balance looks to be 80 to 95% low intensity running and the rest speed work - a small amount of speed work goes a long way.
The exact balance will change from phase to phase in training. If you want to develop the speed side then two speed sessions a week might be required, but if you are just maintaining speed and aerobic fitness then once a fortnight can be sufficient.
For ultra-running I suspect hill sprint interval sessions is probably more beneficial than Fartlek on the flat. Hill sprints provide a good aerobic stimulus as well as stressing the power and strength side that can help with resilience required for ultra running.