I just did a 7.5 mile fartlek run. 5 minutes hard (little faster then 5k), 5 minutes easy (little slower then long tempo pace). I felt pretty good and I want to kick this bitch up a knot. Do I...
a. Increase the intensity of the hard running
b. Decrease the rest period
c. Increase mileage/length of fartlek
the answer is in your heart...
if you can't find it ill tell you... the answer lies in b
It sounds like you're not racing your 5k's fast enough, if you can handle that workout running the intervals faster than 5k pace.
As for kicking it up a knot, remember to only do that every 3-4 weeks.
If you're training for a 15k+ race then increase the length of the run. Otherwise work on shortening the rest.
shorter recovery.
Mix up the speeds more and vary the surges, though there is nothing wrong with what you are doing. This is fartlek after all.
The best answer has more to do with your spirit, physiology and needs as a racer than anything.
Just for the record Nyambui ran 13:20 years ago w/ a 10'/10' pattern, and Mills ran a 1'/1' fartlek to get ready for 28 10k gold on a soft track. Personally I prefer no strict timing of surges for a genuine fartlek. On a marked course a slow /fast pattern or more interval like approach is still fun.
i vote shorten rest
Here's another vote for shorter rest. Five minutes is awfully long; seems like almost full recovery.
I ran my PR road 10K on spring by running the following workout once a week--
4 miles of 3 minutes hard (5/10K pace), 3 minutes slightly below tempo pace HR.....
for a month, followed by the kick-it-up-a-notch workout:
3 miles of 400 sprint (2-3K pace to HR max), 200 float, 200 tempo: 6 loops of a half-mile lake, with the final 200 as fast as I could run.
Did that second workout for a month. Then PRd.
So that's one way of kicking it up. The latter workout is the so-called "Mono Fartlek" described in RUNNING TOUGH.
But I think you're headed in the right direction. The great virtue of both these workouts is that they callus you to hilly races--constant rising and falling HR--and they make tempo or slightly sub-tempo pace feel easy. That teaches you to recover while still running fast.
a.
Decreasing the rest makes it more of a race and less of a workout.
7-8 miles is a good standard length for a fartek.
Making the fast part faster is a standard training tool to measure your progress.
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