Stick to the plan

Day:        25
Distance: 7.85km
Time:       40:30 secs
Calories:  604

On Day Seven of this blog I wrote:

"The plan I'm supposed to be following calls for five runs per week, but ...I struggle to see how I'll ever fit five runs in"

Having spent much of the day toying with the idea of squeezing in an extra run after work I decided whilst on the way home that I'd stick my neck out and aim for five runs this week. As memory served I had thought I was coming home to a nice 35 minute run at 'easy' tempo, but upon checking my training plan I realised that I was out of luck as it was time for another course of the dreaded Fartlek training.

The only Fartlek run that I've done so far in preparation for the marathon was on the last day of 2010 and that wasn't too much fun. This one was even harsher as it called for a 40 minute run consisting of 5 sets of 2 mins x 'easy' and 6 mins x 'fast'. Again, I'd like to protest at the imbalance of this method. Why not 2 mins x 'easy' and 2 mins x 'fast'? I'd actually stand a chance of running at something approaching 'fast' for those sections. But no, like an unthinking member of some weird Marathon based cult I blindly accept the wisdom of the plan and follow it to the letter ...

To get myself into the right kind of tempo to begin the run I started off with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's bass-heavy anthem "Spread your love" ...

This was a good idea. To an extent. The song was perfect to set the pace for the initial 2 minutes of 'easy' running, but at 4 minutes in length it's a little too long. Although I started on that song deliberately the rest of the playlist was on shuffle and after "Spread your love" there wasn't really any perfect union between tempo and music. This is largely because the vast majority of my playlist consists of up tempo rock and/or roll songs to fire me up not slow me down.

I did once have a go at creating a playlist for Fartlek runs. The compilation of the playlist was guided as much by length of the songs as tempo (i.e. I was looking for slow songs which lasted c.2 mins and fast songs which lasted for around 4 mins). I ended up with a very odd mix which went from the slow building majesty of "All in it" (British Sea Power) to the OTT Glam stomp of "Ballroom Blitz" (The Sweet) before seguing into Mark Kozelek's cover of "Love at First Feel" (an AC/DC anthem) and so on. I think I managed one run with this slow/fast playlist before deciding it was a rubbish idea. Seeing as I'm going to have to complete a number of these Fartlek runs I wonder if this is an idea worth revisiting? Musical accompaniment that helps guide my pace might just make these dreaded outings bearable. Might.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, Fartlek runs. In summary, they are to be feared. I just hope they're doing me some good and their inclusion isn't some practical joke on the part of whoever wrote the Guardian's Marathon training plan.