Funny little trick by a coach

my brain hurts. f@ck you for making my brain hurt.

Asshole.

sort of funny wrote:

So I was talking to my coach about doing a fartlek. He is a structured guy and likes to have the rest and the hard effort measured out. So he tells me he wants to me alternate 2 and 4 minute hard efforts with equal rest.

Now the funny thing is he tells me run 7:00 min pace on the easy stuff and 5:00 min pace on the harder stuff (like I can measure that anyway) so that I can average 6:00/mile. Now after talking to him I started thinking to myself, since I'm a numbers kind of guy and that doesn't make sense.

If I wanted to run equal hard effort and recovery and average 6:00/mile wouldn't I need to run 12 mph (5:00 pace) and 8 mph (7:30 pace)?

you would only be right if you were measuring fartlek/rest intervals in distance, not time.

You're right. If you did it his way you'd be averaging 5:50/mile.

Alright, so then, in 12 minutes you would want to have covered 2 miles, right? With 2 hard 2 easy, 4 hard 4 easy... =12 minutes. 6 of those are at 5:00 pace, so you've covered 1 and 1/5 of a mile. Leaving 4/5 of a mile left to be covered in the remaining 6 minutes. Then to figure out what that pace is for the full mile, divide 6 by 5, and add that to 6. 6/5 is 1.2, .2*60s=12.

So you're both wrong, you'd have to be running 7:12 miles if you want to be averaging each mile in 6 minutes.

Your problem is in your units.

On the one hand you're talking about averaging out your running based upon spending equal amounts of TIME running. So training half of the time at 5mm (12 mph) and half at 7:30mm (8mph) averages out to 10 mph (6 minute miling)

On the other hand if you run for half of your training DISTANCE at 5mm and half at 7mm (rather than half the time) then the pace averages out to 6mm.

Basically if you train in terms of X miles per week then running half of them at 5mm and half at 7mm will average out your pace to 6mm.

If you train in terms of time, let me know and I can let you know what percentage of your time should be fast running and what percentage slower running.

Clever and innocous little problem that I quite like actually :P.

anyway that's not what fartlek"s about, that's intervals.

Fartlek means speed play, accelerations and pace changes at will.If you're running on an undulating circuit you could say you'd run hard until the top of the hill after next, or till you see three cows in a field.Fartlek isn't 4 minutes at a certain pace and then 4 minutes cool.

the important thing to remember is that the PLANE WILL TAKE OFF

Actually, you're math is wrong. Using your math, you should "divide 6 by 4, and add that to 6", getting 7:30. Or more clearly, to figure out the pace is for the full mile, you should multiply 6 * 5/4 = 7.5.

I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

mashedswede wrote:

anyway that's not what fartlek"s about, that's intervals.

Fartlek means speed play, accelerations and pace changes at will.If you're running on an undulating circuit you could say you'd run hard until the top of the hill after next, or till you see three cows in a field.Fartlek isn't 4 minutes at a certain pace and then 4 minutes cool.

Yes I realize, but not everyone can be the brightest bulb in the box...

well sounds like either you or your "coach" or both of you haven't got a clue what you're doing, stick to maths, leave running to runners.

Could be that you're talking about VO2 max intervals.

2 minutes at 12 mph and then 2 mins recovery at 8mph,repeat 3 times, 5 minutes recovery start over,3 sets in total,still won't make you race at 10 mph though cos

unless your VO2 max speed is 12mph and you're running

a race that corresponds to 10/12=83% intensity ie a 15k or

10 miler or a half marathon it doesn't make sense.

For the record

VO2max(VS) speed is roughly equal to your 3K speed

VSx96% = R.E 5K speed

VSx92% =R.E 10k Speed

VSx88% =R.E 1O mile

VSx82%=R.E half marathon

VSx78% = R.E Marathon

whateverstillnotfartlek wrote:

well sounds like either you or your "coach" or both of you haven't got a clue what you're doing, stick to maths, leave running to runners.

Could be that you're talking about VO2 max intervals.

2 minutes at 12 mph and then 2 mins recovery at 8mph,repeat 3 times, 5 minutes recovery start over,3 sets in total,still won't make you race at 10 mph though cos

unless your VO2 max speed is 12mph and you're running

a race that corresponds to 10/12=83% intensity ie a 15k or

10 miler or a half marathon it doesn't make sense.

For the record

VO2max(VS) speed is roughly equal to your 3K speed

VSx96% = R.E 5K speed

VSx92% =R.E 10k Speed

VSx88% =R.E 1O mile

VSx82%=R.E half marathon

VSx78% = R.E Marathon

Good luck next year in Beijing superstar.

You are going aren't you?

Had some myself wrote:

You're right. If you did it his way you'd be averaging 5:50/mile.

Yep, I just did the math. You are correct, as is the original poster.

Terminator X wrote:

my brain hurts. f@ck you for making my brain hurt.

Asshole.

i lolled

lol lol lol lol

i lolled some more...

speaking of funny little tricks by a coach, one time my coach announced to me that we were doing an 800m time trial....

whateverstillnotfartlek wrote:

well sounds like either you or your "coach" or both of you haven't got a clue what you're doing, stick to maths, leave running to runners.

Could be that you're talking about VO2 max intervals.

2 minutes at 12 mph and then 2 mins recovery at 8mph,repeat 3 times, 5 minutes recovery start over,3 sets in total,still won't make you race at 10 mph though cos

unless your VO2 max speed is 12mph and you're running

a race that corresponds to 10/12=83% intensity ie a 15k or

10 miler or a half marathon it doesn't make sense.

For the record

VO2max(VS) speed is roughly equal to your 3K speed

VSx96% = R.E 5K speed

VSx92% =R.E 10k Speed

VSx88% =R.E 1O mile

VSx82%=R.E half marathon

VSx78% = R.E Marathon

Thanks for your input, when was the last time you broke 30:30 for 10K? The system works it may not be a fartlek but it works.

my humble opinion wrote:

Had some myself wrote:

You're right. If you did it his way you'd be averaging 5:50/mile.

Yep, I just did the math. You are correct, as is the original poster.

Of course this all assumes that you've either got an easy bit at the begining the same duration as your final hard bit, or you've got an easy bit at the end the same duration as that final hard bit. Otherwise it becomes more complicated to figure out your average pace.

Just for fun.