The Monday Fartlek Run With Ochsner Sport

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This monday I ran with a new group. It was the Runday Monday Signy (Nyon) – Ochsner Sport. This is a group that meets on Monday to do a variety of training exercises centred around running. Ochsner Sport is a Swiss sporting shop.

Last week they went to train in the rain in Trelex on the Parcours Vita trail and this week they met at the Colovray running track. The meeting point was the running track, but actual running took place on a two kilometre about 1.5 kilometres away.

The premise is simple. You warm up, then you run slowly, to the starting point where you run around to recognise the circuit. After that is done you do more exercises, and then you run the course using Fartlek principles.

In broad strokes Fartlek was created by a Swede tired of losing to Finns around 1930. The principle is that you say “from A to B we run fast, and from B to C we recover, and then from C to D we run fast again. The idea is that instead of giving specific distances and paces you use sentiment and feel to establish running pace. If you feel strong, you run fast, but you need to sustain the effort for half an hour.

Within this scope it means that you’re not running at 06:30 per kilometre and then speeding up to 05:40 and then back down. You’re running at a sustainable fast pace from site A to B, and then recovering, and then you speed up again. It’s entirely around feel.

In my case I did it around feel, but I also did it by hare and pursuit. By this I mean that I saw a small group in front and I wanted to catch up to them but I knew not to push too hard. This pushed me enough to get my fastest 5km time by just one second. In other words it’s barely worth the mention but it did show something else that is key, to me.

Apple And Garmin Gamification

Apple and Garmin have a bad habit that they use carrot and stick motivation. Apple is angry with me because I was burning 800+ kcals per day, and then I slowed down my energy expenditure. Meanwhile Garmin is saying that I’m losing fitness, because I’m making sure to rest before making massive efforts. In so doing both of them are being negative, rather than positive.

The silver lining is that Garmin said that I managed my best 5k time, whereas Suunto didn’t notice, and Apple doesn’t know, because I didn’t track with the Apple Watch.

The Fartlek Lesson

On Sunday I went to run around Luins and do some hill trainings, and Runna said “You were too slow” and “keep disciplined around the pace we set” and yet my metrics were positive for the run. My Gap times were excellent, even if my pace up a 10 percent gradient and down an 18 percent gradient was too slow. The reality is that I trained on real hills, rather than virtual ones, and practiced the real thing, rather than simulated.

The fact that the next day I could run my fastest 5k despite being fatigued is encouraging. It means that despite my “fitness” declining my form really is improving. I’m working from a sustainable base, rather than pushing too hard.

No More Boom and Bust

This year I’m making big efforts, but efforts that don’t knacker me. I’m trying to make efforts that build my fitness, without me being in the “overtrained” portion. That’s why I can do hill climbing runs one day, and fartleks the next, with improving, rather than decreasing times.

The Tech Wean

The lesson that yesterday, and the day before taught me is that whilst tech is great at quantifying and qualifying our workouts, it makes sense to minimise the tech we’re using. On Sunday I wanted to run by perceived effort, but via heart rate confirmation from Runna. Runna didn’t deliver. It told me to speed up when my gap was already at 03:90 on a climb, and where the down gradient was 18 percent on slippery grass and gravel. To run fast would have meant slipping and losing control.

By following my own senses I achieved the goal set by Runna, but despite Runna, rather than thanks to it. Hill climbing between vineyards is not the same as hill climbing in flat London.

By having Garmin and Suunto feed Strava the personal record that I got for two miles and five kilometres was absorbed by Garmin grabbing the PR, but when I deleted the activity, it was caught without being released. With a single watch, no problem.

The Pleasure of Another Running Group

What shines through from yesterday’s training session is that we ran as a group to the start of the exercises, and then we did some static drills, before then running at the same time. Those that were fast rushed off ahead, but I held back. I held back because I didn’t know the group yet, but also because I ran yesterday so I preferred not to push too hard.

When I looked ahead I saw that the group in front didn’t drift too far ahead of me. With different timing I could have tried to keep up with them, with more experience.

What I really like is that I got to experiment with new warm up exercises, found a new group, but more importantly, it was highlighted to me that I can train by feel, rather than by app. I can run at a fast pace that feels sustainable, and then slow down to recover, before accelerating again. It’s also about using natural features as pacing points, rather than arbitrary made up distances that are not matched to the landscape.

400m intervals might be great somewhere flat, but if you’re doing them between La Rippe and Cheserex or between Luins and surrounding villages then the distances and paces are obsolete. Fartlek is better.

I plan to run with this group regularly from now on.