Australia MarathonTraining

The Mono fartlek is the workout that Steve Moneghetti has used for many years as one of the best marathoners ever from Down Under. It entails 90 seconds pickups all the way down to 30 second pickups, if memory serves me correctly.

Chris Wardlaw was a 2:11 marathoner back in the 1970s. He became a coach in his later elite years. His training plan is a version of Pat Clohessy's. Pat coached Rob De Castella to fame, as well as coaching the Australian National team. Pat was a two-time NCAA D1 3-mile track champ at the Univ. of Houston (I think 1960-61). He was greatly influenced by Al Lawrence, Olympic bronze medalist in the 10km who also ran for the Univ. of Houston. Al lives in Houston still, I think and is an outstanding coach too.

The Wardlaw/Clohessy approach to training focuses on consistency of moderately high mileage and some faster training (but not much). Runners do the same basic workouts for weeks on end. The pace of the faster workouts varies according to fitness and is a natural evolution. Hills are included as part of a mid-week moderately long run. One long run is done every week at a modest pace. A fartlwek workout is included, but not in high volume or at a wicked speed. Wardlaw has more recently added longer pickups as part of marathon preparation including 5-6 minute pickups. I will search for the website that details the workouts that Wardlaw recommends and get back to you. Tinman

I was unable to find the website that shows Wardlaws principles of training. Basically, I recall it included a weekly long run, a mid-week moderately long run over hills, a track workout or fartlek workout, and one other key workout. The keys were consistency and volume. The underlying theme is this: don't hammer yourself into the ground, keep the miles up, don't use phase training but include all types of relevant workouts in your weekly schedule. I would suggest that there are many relevant workouts, so a bi-weekly schedule repeated might serve well for you. Tinman

So, basically what Deek ("Complex Training") did for much of his career?

The monofartlek workout in detail:

20 minute warm up run, then 2x90 sec pick ups with 90 seconds recovery running in between, then 4x60 sec pick ups with 60 sec recovery running, then 4x30 sec pick ups with 30 sec recovery running, then 4x15 sec pick ups with 15 sec recovery running, then 20 minutes to finish off the workout in 60 minutes.

Sounds like more of a workout for 3km/5km/10km runners.

Koide's training has nothing shorter than a 1km interval.

Just to clarify, the "recovery" sections of this fartlek workout are a pretty solid pace - not a slow jog as you will find with most fartlek sessions. When done properly, mona fartlek is a really tough session, but most people find that they recover quickly. Someone might be able to clarify the exact pace of the "float" between efforts but from memory it was close to 5min/mile.

Overheard:

Hilly discussing mona-fartlek to another runner once-

"It's mona, not monO. It's not a disease."

About 6:00 pace for recovery, which is not hard for Steve. Remember that Deek ran an 8 x 400m workout weekly for many years. The recovery between his 400s was a 200m float in 45 seconds (6:00 pace). The idea is to work your aerobic capacity and your power at the same time. If it were just power as the focus, then a slow jog between the pickups would be utilized instead of a float which is quicker. Think of it as surge training.

I used a version of this to help one of my runners drop his 5km time from over 16 minutes to mid-15s one track season. He ran 6 races that spring; the slowest in 15:31 and the fastest in 15:22. Instead of 400s at 3km pace with 200m floats I used 800m reps at roughly 5km pace with 400m floats. The key was to not run slowly in the recovery portions. I emphasized that the total time, like Deek's, was going to be measure, but the pace on the pickups should feel like race pace. It was apparent that the effort was more important than anyting; solid, strong, but not exhausting. My runner's time dropped by about 40 seconds for the weekly 5 x 800m with a 400m float, just like his overall 5km race time. Tinman

Rick wrote:

Read a great article on Lee Troop from the teamodell web site. Interesting comments about how most of his mileage is run at 7 min/mile or slower expect for the two workouts a 20 minute fartlek and a short track session. No real structure, just consistency in the workouts and volume. What is the Mono Farlek which Steve Moneghetti used? Anyone out there train with or have ever trained with these guys or under Chris Wardlaw? This approah or system for the long term certainly appears to work as the aussies have a history of great marathoners who compete and run well into their early forty years of age.

Well he must just say what ever he wants then as I got this program that he does off another site in Oz. This was his London prep apparently:

Sun AM: 37-39km. 2hrs 30mins. Run normal for 2hrs (28-30km), then run last 30mins hard (9km)

PM: 10-11km

Mon AM: 15-16km

PM: 15-16km

Tue AM: 16km. Mona Fartlek

PM: 10-11km

Wed AM: 28-30km

PM: 10-11km

Thu AM: 15-16km

PM: 15-16km

Fri AM: 17-19km. 3-4 x Eastern Park (7mins) with 2min jog recovery.

PM: 10-11km

Sat AM: 15-16km

PM: 15-16km

All easy runs between 3.40min/km to 4min/km pace.

Core stabilty work for 30mins Monday and Thursday.

Physio Tuesday and massage Friday.

TOTAL: 230-240km

I saw that guys splits for London and he gave it a crack. Think he was 8th?? Whats his background or is he a one off racer??

salazar wrote:

I saw that guys splits for London and he gave it a crack. Think he was 8th?? Whats his background or is he a one off racer??

If you saw his splits then you would know how to use the internet. What a stupid question!! Look at his profile and see if he is a one off racer:

Another example of Elites training the same year round and having incredible success.Maybe this type of training is what we need more people doing in the US.I have a friend that has done over a hundred marathons following basically the same schedule as De Castella for the past 20 or so years.He can still run a marathon in under 2:40 now in his late fourties.Consistency is the key to the marathon.