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Originally Posted by Broadsword2004
BTW lksteve, so you mean fartlek runs will help you if say, you can only run two miles, fartleks will help you run that two miles faster, but fartleks won't help you gain the endurance for running more miles?
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well, you'd be hard pressed or hard corps to do three or four miles of fartlek...look at the variety of workouts on the website i posted...there are differing speeds that you can run at...when i was a platoon trainer in IOBC, we would start off with the first mile at about an 8 minute pace...second mile would be at a 6:30 pace, third mile back down to 8 minutes, fourth mile at 7 minutes, last mile at 8 minutes...within about a month, we were starting at a 7:30 pace, dropping down to sub-six minute miles, slowing to seven minutes, dropping down to six minutes, maybe six and a quarter, then slowing down to 6:45, with a cool-down mile at seven and a half minutes...i used to get called on the carpet because my platoons didn't call cadence...that's life at the Infantile Center...at the end of an IOBC class, my 32 year old ass was hard pressed to push a bunch of 23 year old lieutenants who had been trained by a sadistic SF type, but that was part of the reward...
that's one way to use the technique...another way is to run a mile at an 8 minute pace then run quarters alternating between a 1:30 quarter and 2:00 quarter...do that for two miles...run another mile at 8 minutes...after you toughen to that, up the pace, increase the distance...run a mile and a half at a 7:45 per mile pace, run a quarter at 1:25, another at 1:50...whatever works for you...the trick is you have to identify a training site to facilitate this...the distances don't have to be exact...you can run fartleks by time, especially if you have one of those beeping watches with interval timers...you can use fire hydrants, crosswalks, trees, any landmark to start and end your intervals...
if you do six miles of speed interval training, varying your speed, you will increase your speed over six miles provided you never run slower than your current speed...you can cheat yourself doing fartleks...i know some guys that run a really smoking interval, but will slow to 9 minutes between intervals...this isn't going to get you where you are going...fartleks are all about pushing your limits...if you normally run 7:45 miles, you can slow to, maybe 8:15 between intervals, but you'd better be pushing 6:45 or 7:00 to get anything out of the enterprise...
if you can find a track, or since you use a baseball field for speed work, you can do this...run four laps (on the track or six laps around the warning track on a baseball field) at a warm-up pace...spring the straight aways-foul lines, run the curves...do this for sixteen laps on a track (24 laps on a baseball field)...add this regimen to your workout once a week...
another option...time yourself around the track or the baseball field, while you are running at your PT test pace...on a track, you should be able to determine your mile speed...anyway, if you are running 7 minute miles, you need to jog a quarter at 2:00, run a quarter at 1:30 (your target speed should be no slower than 6:00 miles)...on a baseball field, you are going to have to adapt...maybe if you are running a 7 minute pace around the field, you'll finish a lap in 1:30...those are you base speeds and you need to proportion your speed work to hit a 6 minute mile...that would be a 1:15 lap around the baseball field...
fartleks are a sloooooooow way to build endurance, but an effective way to increase speed...to gain speed and endurance, you have to alternate your work outs...i don't know how far you are from reaching your speed goal, but i'd incorporate fartleks into my training a couple of days a week...one time do a mile at a quicker pace than normal, then next time you do them, increase the speed but shorten the distance for you speed intervals...
for goodness sake, if you are aiming at a career in SF, you are going to have to learn to improvise...take a can of spray paint...pace off 400 meters, make a mark...pace off another 400 meters, make a mark...do this along a route you normally run...
another $0.02 observation...quit looking at the obstacles and start looking for solutions...a Special Forces soldier spends most of his time overcoming inconvenience to get things done...no time like the present to start doing just that...
i hate to sound crass or coarse, but i got mine...you need to figure out how to get yours...but keep us posted, we can help...you are in a situation where you need to be creative...that should help in the long run...