This weeks Fartlek Friday is one of the few workouts I have not stolen very directly from someone else. That is not to say I invented it. As you will see it isn't very creative so I'm sure somebody did it before me. Beyond that I did it as a very direct replacement for a Canova alternation workout.
What it is. The three minute drill is 3 mins "on" followed by 3mins at a quick or moderate pace. Keeping the jog quick is the key to this workout. It may mean that your 'on' reps are a bit slower but the aerobic benefits of it are more than worth it. The idea is to average your marathon pace or just a bit slower.
How long. This is one of those great workouts to build in distance. Start out as a 30min fartlek. That is only 5 hard reps and really easy to talk yourself through. Then each time out you try to do a few more reps. Building up to 1 hour to 90minutes. After your first one at 30mins you will likely think there is no way on God's green earth you could ever do 90mins but this is a type of running most people don't do and you will be surprised how much you improve in the following few months.
Also when you see that kind of improvement in an aerobic workout like this and you will see some huge improvement in your racing as well.
Who is it for? This really is an endurance workout. It isn't to say that a high school student couldn't do a 15 to 30 minute version of a session like this but the people this one is best for is the athlete who is not seeing big improvements in aerobic endurance with just high milage any more and wants to greatly improve their 10k to marathon fitness.
That is it. Short, sweet and simple. Much like the workout itself except that the workout isn't really that short!
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
My First Canova Block
It was January of 2006. I had been training on my own for about 18 months. I had been running a lot, I had in fact averaged over 135 miles per week for those 18 months. I was getting ready for my first marathon and had decided to try to convert a schedule Renato Canova had put out there for one of his former athletes, Rodgers Rop. I'll do a post on the whole cycle some time down the line but for today I'll just say that it was transformative in many ways not the least of which was I went from having bests of 24:35 and 1:07:28 for 8k and the half to having bests of 23:26, 1:04:14 and 2:15:28 for the marathon.
About mid way through my first experience with Canova I would attempt my first special Block. I should have been doing a specific block but at the time I couldn't have told you the difference and more over your not going to get through a specific block without doing a special block earlier in the cycle and I hadn't done a Canova base but all these were problems I didn't know I had.
I ran the first session starting at 7am. At the time I was meeting Sammy a 4:00 miler from Texas who had moved up to Massachusetts recently and was working at the same running shoe store I was. Sammy would stop off at my house for the morning run on his way to work in the morning and after the run he would go to work for the first shift at the store. I would take over for him at 1pm and work until 5pm, it was 2 to 7 on thursday and Sunday was 12 to 4 but that is all off topic.
The morning session was 10k with a goal of 34mins and 10k with a goal of 32mins. The PM session was 10k with a goal of 34mins and 10x1k with a goal of 3:00 per k.
Sammy arrived in full awareness of the monstrosity I was to attempt. He had decided he would do the warm-up and the first 10k then he would cool down and go to work leaving me to the hell of my own making. We warmed up 3 miles on the cold winter morning and did some strides on the busy Lowell Boulavard. It was busy but it is FLAT and that I was grateful for. I had pre measured with a wheel an out and back 5k and a 1k stretch for the reps. Garmins and online measurement existed at the time but they were less accurate and I certainly didn't own a Garmin.
After a 3 mile warm up in 23 mins and a few light strides Sammy and I were off. This was not a target workout for Sammy who was just trying to ease himself back into shape and I was nervous as hell, we hit the 5k turn around in 17:10 and closed up both feeling super strong at 34:15. I was still scared but I was super surprised how easy that had felt. Sammy was pumped as well to have knocked out a tempo at under 5:30 pace stayed in a easy talking effort the whole way. Now he was off to work. I did a little light jogging and a few strides and headed out. I had a split at 1k and 1 mile then 2 miles I was running in a large part by feel. I was super happy to hit the turn around and not feel dead, though my legs were quite heavy, at 15:52, I really started to push on the way back and found I was going about as fast as I could. I finished up in 31:39. At that time it was one of the 5 or ten fastest 10k's I had ever done and it was the fastest tempo run I had ever done. I was shocked. This was early in my Canova training and I was improving fast. However my elation was tempered by the knowledge that I would have to do it again that afternoon. It was already one of the longest and most exhausting workouts I had ever done.
At this time I was religious about getting my cool down in, I'm not anymore, but I cut myself some slack and did a little over 2 miles cool down back to the house and got ready for work. At the time I was using chocolate milk as my post workout recovery and I had bought a special half gallon of it just for this day and of course completely forgot about it.
The shoe store I worked at was pretty slow and I basically used to just stand around all day and see only a few customers. This day was much of the same though I snuck a few more sitting moments on the try on benches than usual.
It was dark that evening when I got out of work. I walked my mile home as was my custom at the time and changed up for round two. I headed out for my 3 mile warm up and just felt exhausted. I wasn't tight or sore I was just exhausted and had heavy legs. I was in new territory and I had no idea what to expect. In fact that I wasn't sore or tight was sort of mind blowing to me.
Back on the Boulivard I did my strides and got right to work. I was shocked that although I felt very heavy and tired the slower running felt very easy and I was ahead on my splits right from the gun. I was 16:33 at the turn around and finished up feeling aerobically good but very very tired at 33:03.
I took 5mins rest with a good bit of jogging and strides as it was January in Massachusetts and though the weather was good by those standards it was far to cold to stand around for five minutes. I attacked my first 1k interval not knowing what to expect. I had no set out splits but I had checked my split on the tempos at an intersection and I used this as a ballpark mark to get a sense of how I was doing. There was a light breeze and on the odd reps it was at my back. I hit my finish in 2:59 and I was pumped. I had nice long 2 min rests but it is strange when you have run that much hard mileage it isn't your breathing you are trying to recover. That comes quickly instead your legs are like sand bags and you don't have an ounce of spring. No amount of rest will get that back for you.
Rep two into the wind hurt more and was a 3:01. Rep 3 was my flyer in 2:55 I was pumped up about it but I knew if I tried to keep that up I would be done very soon. On rep 4 all my delusions were gone. I suffered through a 3:01 into the wind.
For the next few reps I ran 2:57, 3:03 and 3:00. Each rep was incredibly hard but I would get it done and feel like this was just how it was going to be. I would have to fight a war with my dead legs but I would finish, one circle of hell rep at a time.
The 8th rep was a 3:05. It felt noticeably worse than the others and I could tell as I was running it that it was slower but I tried to tell myself during the rest that it was the wind that had killed me. Plus I only had 2 reps to go. Every part of my being knew I was done but I only had to go out and back. One more in each direction.
I had exceeded everything I had ever done I was in a whole knew place I leaped into the 9th rep. My legs felt unresponsive and my feet just slapped down I was slow at my split and no amount of will seemed to move my body. 3:07. Really not so bad but I was crushed it was 7 seconds off pace and it was a tail wind rep. The rest seemed to be over instantly and I was pushing back on my last rep!
The top of the mountain was in sight and you would think that would bring out the final reserves for a last great effort. There were however no reserves left they had been brought out and burnt up long ago. I felt like I was barely moving. I ran 3:13 slower by a good bit than the pace of the 10k I tempo I had run in the morning that had felt so easy. Honestly if you told me before I looked at the watch that the rep had been at 6 minute mile pace I would have believed you. It felt that bad.
Honestly my workout was done after 8 reps. I had not done the prep work to be ready for a session like this and frankly it kind of amazes me that I got as far as I did but even with that the last two reps were a bridge to far.
As I stood dazed hands on knees I began to realize just how wiped out my legs were. Shaky, weak, unresponsive. Crushed. I had NOTHING left. I mentioned above I ALWAYS cooled down but now I knew I was done. The quickest way back to my house was a straight mile jog. I painfully struggled through it. I couldn't lift my legs properly. I actually felt fear that I wouldn't make it back to my house but I had no choice. One step at a time I made it back. I nearly fell on my walk across the driveway to the kitchen door. It was after 8pm. I was ruined.
This time I remembered my chocolate milk! I drank straight from the bottle and had in a minute or two finished the whole bottle. At which point I remembered that drinking a half gallon of milk was a bad idea. I had seen enough gallon challenges in college to know that a half gallon could be enough to make you puke. Luckily though I didn't feel so hot I had none of those problems.
After a short while I took a painful shower and dragged myself to bed. I was so exhausted I assumed I would drop into a coma like sleep. I was wrong.
The damage I had wrought on my body had pushed me to a state where I could not settle into a sleep. I lay there. I had cramps. I shuffled to the bathroom. I was dehydrated, I was exhausted. I was wrecked. I knew after an hour or two that no real sleep would happen but I had no desire to get out of bed I would simply lay there in my misery and hope to feel somewhat closer to human when the sun came up.
It would take a while but I would recover. I would however not be the same. A new athlete had been born. My will for the long war had been hardened my endurance had reached new levels. I would find out in my marathon debut that one great session like this alone was not enough to really finish a marathon perfectly but it was enough that I do feel this was the turning point of when I went from a guy who had potential to run a good marathon to a marathoner.
About mid way through my first experience with Canova I would attempt my first special Block. I should have been doing a specific block but at the time I couldn't have told you the difference and more over your not going to get through a specific block without doing a special block earlier in the cycle and I hadn't done a Canova base but all these were problems I didn't know I had.
I ran the first session starting at 7am. At the time I was meeting Sammy a 4:00 miler from Texas who had moved up to Massachusetts recently and was working at the same running shoe store I was. Sammy would stop off at my house for the morning run on his way to work in the morning and after the run he would go to work for the first shift at the store. I would take over for him at 1pm and work until 5pm, it was 2 to 7 on thursday and Sunday was 12 to 4 but that is all off topic.
The morning session was 10k with a goal of 34mins and 10k with a goal of 32mins. The PM session was 10k with a goal of 34mins and 10x1k with a goal of 3:00 per k.
Sammy arrived in full awareness of the monstrosity I was to attempt. He had decided he would do the warm-up and the first 10k then he would cool down and go to work leaving me to the hell of my own making. We warmed up 3 miles on the cold winter morning and did some strides on the busy Lowell Boulavard. It was busy but it is FLAT and that I was grateful for. I had pre measured with a wheel an out and back 5k and a 1k stretch for the reps. Garmins and online measurement existed at the time but they were less accurate and I certainly didn't own a Garmin.
After a 3 mile warm up in 23 mins and a few light strides Sammy and I were off. This was not a target workout for Sammy who was just trying to ease himself back into shape and I was nervous as hell, we hit the 5k turn around in 17:10 and closed up both feeling super strong at 34:15. I was still scared but I was super surprised how easy that had felt. Sammy was pumped as well to have knocked out a tempo at under 5:30 pace stayed in a easy talking effort the whole way. Now he was off to work. I did a little light jogging and a few strides and headed out. I had a split at 1k and 1 mile then 2 miles I was running in a large part by feel. I was super happy to hit the turn around and not feel dead, though my legs were quite heavy, at 15:52, I really started to push on the way back and found I was going about as fast as I could. I finished up in 31:39. At that time it was one of the 5 or ten fastest 10k's I had ever done and it was the fastest tempo run I had ever done. I was shocked. This was early in my Canova training and I was improving fast. However my elation was tempered by the knowledge that I would have to do it again that afternoon. It was already one of the longest and most exhausting workouts I had ever done.
At this time I was religious about getting my cool down in, I'm not anymore, but I cut myself some slack and did a little over 2 miles cool down back to the house and got ready for work. At the time I was using chocolate milk as my post workout recovery and I had bought a special half gallon of it just for this day and of course completely forgot about it.
The shoe store I worked at was pretty slow and I basically used to just stand around all day and see only a few customers. This day was much of the same though I snuck a few more sitting moments on the try on benches than usual.
It was dark that evening when I got out of work. I walked my mile home as was my custom at the time and changed up for round two. I headed out for my 3 mile warm up and just felt exhausted. I wasn't tight or sore I was just exhausted and had heavy legs. I was in new territory and I had no idea what to expect. In fact that I wasn't sore or tight was sort of mind blowing to me.
Back on the Boulivard I did my strides and got right to work. I was shocked that although I felt very heavy and tired the slower running felt very easy and I was ahead on my splits right from the gun. I was 16:33 at the turn around and finished up feeling aerobically good but very very tired at 33:03.
I took 5mins rest with a good bit of jogging and strides as it was January in Massachusetts and though the weather was good by those standards it was far to cold to stand around for five minutes. I attacked my first 1k interval not knowing what to expect. I had no set out splits but I had checked my split on the tempos at an intersection and I used this as a ballpark mark to get a sense of how I was doing. There was a light breeze and on the odd reps it was at my back. I hit my finish in 2:59 and I was pumped. I had nice long 2 min rests but it is strange when you have run that much hard mileage it isn't your breathing you are trying to recover. That comes quickly instead your legs are like sand bags and you don't have an ounce of spring. No amount of rest will get that back for you.
Rep two into the wind hurt more and was a 3:01. Rep 3 was my flyer in 2:55 I was pumped up about it but I knew if I tried to keep that up I would be done very soon. On rep 4 all my delusions were gone. I suffered through a 3:01 into the wind.
For the next few reps I ran 2:57, 3:03 and 3:00. Each rep was incredibly hard but I would get it done and feel like this was just how it was going to be. I would have to fight a war with my dead legs but I would finish, one circle of hell rep at a time.
The 8th rep was a 3:05. It felt noticeably worse than the others and I could tell as I was running it that it was slower but I tried to tell myself during the rest that it was the wind that had killed me. Plus I only had 2 reps to go. Every part of my being knew I was done but I only had to go out and back. One more in each direction.
I had exceeded everything I had ever done I was in a whole knew place I leaped into the 9th rep. My legs felt unresponsive and my feet just slapped down I was slow at my split and no amount of will seemed to move my body. 3:07. Really not so bad but I was crushed it was 7 seconds off pace and it was a tail wind rep. The rest seemed to be over instantly and I was pushing back on my last rep!
The top of the mountain was in sight and you would think that would bring out the final reserves for a last great effort. There were however no reserves left they had been brought out and burnt up long ago. I felt like I was barely moving. I ran 3:13 slower by a good bit than the pace of the 10k I tempo I had run in the morning that had felt so easy. Honestly if you told me before I looked at the watch that the rep had been at 6 minute mile pace I would have believed you. It felt that bad.
Honestly my workout was done after 8 reps. I had not done the prep work to be ready for a session like this and frankly it kind of amazes me that I got as far as I did but even with that the last two reps were a bridge to far.
As I stood dazed hands on knees I began to realize just how wiped out my legs were. Shaky, weak, unresponsive. Crushed. I had NOTHING left. I mentioned above I ALWAYS cooled down but now I knew I was done. The quickest way back to my house was a straight mile jog. I painfully struggled through it. I couldn't lift my legs properly. I actually felt fear that I wouldn't make it back to my house but I had no choice. One step at a time I made it back. I nearly fell on my walk across the driveway to the kitchen door. It was after 8pm. I was ruined.
This time I remembered my chocolate milk! I drank straight from the bottle and had in a minute or two finished the whole bottle. At which point I remembered that drinking a half gallon of milk was a bad idea. I had seen enough gallon challenges in college to know that a half gallon could be enough to make you puke. Luckily though I didn't feel so hot I had none of those problems.
After a short while I took a painful shower and dragged myself to bed. I was so exhausted I assumed I would drop into a coma like sleep. I was wrong.
The damage I had wrought on my body had pushed me to a state where I could not settle into a sleep. I lay there. I had cramps. I shuffled to the bathroom. I was dehydrated, I was exhausted. I was wrecked. I knew after an hour or two that no real sleep would happen but I had no desire to get out of bed I would simply lay there in my misery and hope to feel somewhat closer to human when the sun came up.
It would take a while but I would recover. I would however not be the same. A new athlete had been born. My will for the long war had been hardened my endurance had reached new levels. I would find out in my marathon debut that one great session like this alone was not enough to really finish a marathon perfectly but it was enough that I do feel this was the turning point of when I went from a guy who had potential to run a good marathon to a marathoner.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Strides
I love strides! Love them, love them, love them. Is this clear. I am seriously the worlds biggest fan of strides. There are a few reasons for this not the least of which is that strides are awesome and that they are more awesome if you lack much natural speed and therefore need to keep working the speed you have in order to run anything at a decent pace.
For the uninitiated strides are simply short sprints of 10 to 20 seconds on flat ground. You tend to accelerate up into them a bit slower than you would a max out sprint and to slow down more gradually. Very often people do not get up to their top speed in strides. I assume they have been around as long as running competitively has existed. I imagine in the mid 19th century when kids first played Hare and Hounds some of those kids were doing short acceleration and sprints before the actually game started to get ready. They are a ubiquitous part of almost all warm ups and have been a part of almost every major coaches program since before Paavo Nurmi started tearing up the track and trails.
Why are they so common and so wide spread? Two simple reasons. Simplicity and effectiveness. They are so basic and yet they can be used in so many ways to have so many positive impacts on our training outcomes.
You probably already do strides before your workouts and races. You should continue to do this. They are an integral part of a good warm up. Many of you probably do a few in the days before a major race, this too is good. I would simply suggest that you need to do them even MORE often.
In his seminal article "Anatomy of a Medal", where he discusses the training that brought Deena Kastor (Drossin) from a solid but not super start All American runner to an Olympic podium, Joe Vigil talks about how they did something for speed basically every single day for years. See the article here: http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_1/the-anatomy-of-a-medal.shtml Strides were a big part of how they did that. Recently after winning the Boston marathon Meb Keflezghi said in multiple interviews that one of the things he was doing now that he was older was making sure he did strides EVERY day as he couldn't do some of the speed workouts he used to without getting hurt or robbing himself of some of the longer workouts he needed for marathon success. Meb is coached by Bob Larson who is one of the finest distance coaches in American history. He is the quintessential "nobody's fool" If Bob has his athletes do something it is because it works. Flat out.
So when should you do strides. I would suggest that if you are really trying to get the best out of yourself as a middle or long distance runner you should be doing strides in one form or an other every single day if you can. Now we all have days when we are banged up or when the goal to get something done doesn't happen but that should be the goal. It is also wise to point out at this point that if you currently do about 5 strides a week and you go out and do 5 to 10 every day next week you are going to be very very sore and if you keep that up another week you are likely going to be very hurt. Use some common sense whenever adding something into your training program and build up sensibly.
How to use strides. First after your regular runs trying to mix in 2 to 10 strides is a great idea. They may not all be great efforts but they really go a long way in preventing injury. Improving and maintaining basic speed and building great muscular endurance and efficiency. I am for 'at least 4' after every regular run. Which means I do exactly 4 like 99% of the time. Don't judge I'm very tired before I start the run, never mind after!
Next up you can use strides as a muscular workout. 30x100m at 800m to mile pace with full recovery or near full recovery is an easy session that can help in a big way. When I set my 1500m PB I had not done any intervals or hard repeats. I had done some tempos and I had been consistently running 30x100m in 15 seconds each week and I got in a 1500 and was SHOCKED to run that time. It was a season opener and I was far from in the best shape but here was a PR and a time that compared well with my mile best. Thing is though out the race I felt strong and mechanically in control. Why? I had specifically trained the muscles through strides.
Another famous session is diagonals which are very similar and another great way to build up the speed. If you focus on a short event 800m to 3k or if you are a young runner making sure you are doing a session like one of the two above year round pretty much every week is going to be one of the best things you can ever do for your running.
Strides two most important contributions to your training are first that they teach the single most important skill in effective distance racing. Relaxed fast running. If you aren't relaxed you won't be going to long and you will always get beat by anyone who is relaxed who has built a similar sized engine. It is like if two people build car engines that have the same horsepower and one of them burns more gas than the other. That one will lose in any sort of longer race because it will run out of fuel. Second strides are a great way to sneak in a large volume of quick to very fast running over the course of a week and this builds muscular strength that helps you hold your form together and stay efficient in the later stages of races when you are getting fatigued.
Strides have some other side benefits, increased stroke volume from your heart, better access to energy stored in the alatic system, improved form, to name a few but they two above are the ones that you will notice the most. Best part is they are so simply you almost can't screw them up and as long as you do them often and in decent volume you will get all the benefits including the ones you aren't even targeting!
So suck it up and do your strides. Like brushing your teeth once they are part of the routine they are easy enough and man do they make life.. err running better!
For the uninitiated strides are simply short sprints of 10 to 20 seconds on flat ground. You tend to accelerate up into them a bit slower than you would a max out sprint and to slow down more gradually. Very often people do not get up to their top speed in strides. I assume they have been around as long as running competitively has existed. I imagine in the mid 19th century when kids first played Hare and Hounds some of those kids were doing short acceleration and sprints before the actually game started to get ready. They are a ubiquitous part of almost all warm ups and have been a part of almost every major coaches program since before Paavo Nurmi started tearing up the track and trails.
Why are they so common and so wide spread? Two simple reasons. Simplicity and effectiveness. They are so basic and yet they can be used in so many ways to have so many positive impacts on our training outcomes.
You probably already do strides before your workouts and races. You should continue to do this. They are an integral part of a good warm up. Many of you probably do a few in the days before a major race, this too is good. I would simply suggest that you need to do them even MORE often.
In his seminal article "Anatomy of a Medal", where he discusses the training that brought Deena Kastor (Drossin) from a solid but not super start All American runner to an Olympic podium, Joe Vigil talks about how they did something for speed basically every single day for years. See the article here: http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_1/the-anatomy-of-a-medal.shtml Strides were a big part of how they did that. Recently after winning the Boston marathon Meb Keflezghi said in multiple interviews that one of the things he was doing now that he was older was making sure he did strides EVERY day as he couldn't do some of the speed workouts he used to without getting hurt or robbing himself of some of the longer workouts he needed for marathon success. Meb is coached by Bob Larson who is one of the finest distance coaches in American history. He is the quintessential "nobody's fool" If Bob has his athletes do something it is because it works. Flat out.
So when should you do strides. I would suggest that if you are really trying to get the best out of yourself as a middle or long distance runner you should be doing strides in one form or an other every single day if you can. Now we all have days when we are banged up or when the goal to get something done doesn't happen but that should be the goal. It is also wise to point out at this point that if you currently do about 5 strides a week and you go out and do 5 to 10 every day next week you are going to be very very sore and if you keep that up another week you are likely going to be very hurt. Use some common sense whenever adding something into your training program and build up sensibly.
How to use strides. First after your regular runs trying to mix in 2 to 10 strides is a great idea. They may not all be great efforts but they really go a long way in preventing injury. Improving and maintaining basic speed and building great muscular endurance and efficiency. I am for 'at least 4' after every regular run. Which means I do exactly 4 like 99% of the time. Don't judge I'm very tired before I start the run, never mind after!
Next up you can use strides as a muscular workout. 30x100m at 800m to mile pace with full recovery or near full recovery is an easy session that can help in a big way. When I set my 1500m PB I had not done any intervals or hard repeats. I had done some tempos and I had been consistently running 30x100m in 15 seconds each week and I got in a 1500 and was SHOCKED to run that time. It was a season opener and I was far from in the best shape but here was a PR and a time that compared well with my mile best. Thing is though out the race I felt strong and mechanically in control. Why? I had specifically trained the muscles through strides.
Another famous session is diagonals which are very similar and another great way to build up the speed. If you focus on a short event 800m to 3k or if you are a young runner making sure you are doing a session like one of the two above year round pretty much every week is going to be one of the best things you can ever do for your running.
Strides two most important contributions to your training are first that they teach the single most important skill in effective distance racing. Relaxed fast running. If you aren't relaxed you won't be going to long and you will always get beat by anyone who is relaxed who has built a similar sized engine. It is like if two people build car engines that have the same horsepower and one of them burns more gas than the other. That one will lose in any sort of longer race because it will run out of fuel. Second strides are a great way to sneak in a large volume of quick to very fast running over the course of a week and this builds muscular strength that helps you hold your form together and stay efficient in the later stages of races when you are getting fatigued.
Strides have some other side benefits, increased stroke volume from your heart, better access to energy stored in the alatic system, improved form, to name a few but they two above are the ones that you will notice the most. Best part is they are so simply you almost can't screw them up and as long as you do them often and in decent volume you will get all the benefits including the ones you aren't even targeting!
So suck it up and do your strides. Like brushing your teeth once they are part of the routine they are easy enough and man do they make life.. err running better!
Monday, January 12, 2015
Tempo Tuesday Portuguese Surge
Portugal is a very small nation but in spite of that they have a pretty amazing history of great distance runners. Their greatest legend has to be Carlos Lopes, Olympic champ and world record holder, but his 2:07:12 marathon best is no longer even the national record also it should be remembered that for much of his career many would have argued he was not the best of his contemporaries in Portugal. I don't know that this particular workout was ever part of Lopes training but I do know I got it from some training schedules of Portuguese marathoners. I also know I have since seen it in some schedules of top Spanish and Brazilian athletes.
This workout can be done with a huge amount of variety but it is very simple at its heart all the same. The workout is broken into two distinct halves. The first half is run very quickly from marathon pace to right around 95% marathon pace, if you are a 5k runner you can go for 85% to 80% 5k pace. Then at half way you make a huge surge and push the second half as fast as you can.
Basically you are making one big killing drive to the finish. This workout works great from 2k to 10k in total distance. The amazing thing is that you will often run the second half faster than you can manage for a time trial for that distance with nothing before it. Don't ask me why. I don't understand it but I know I have run the 2nd half of a 2 mile like this in 4:18 and my fastest mile time trial in a workout is 4:17. The fastest 1k I have ever done in a workout was the 2nd half of a Portuguese surge and I have read about other runners having the same experience.
I think this workout is best from 3k to 6k. It is long enough that you really do get a great aerobic session but short enough that you are able to really let yourself go in the second half.
The only trick to this session is that it is a SURGE at half way. You want to accelerate quickly and then try to keep that surging/accelerating feeling going all the way to the end. It is key to maintain that feel. It will keep you loose and FAST. If you do that you got it right. You may not always run great in the second half but when you are hitting it don't limit yourself the idea of this session is to just go as fast as you can.
This isn't a session I do a lot but it serves two great purposes. One it is a great tempo workout during your specific phase. You touch on relaxed tempo running and then get to hammer at race pace or faster for a long way. A great way to simulate the closing mile of a 5k or last 3k of a 10k.
The other thing it is great for is to break your tempos out of a rut or get past a seeming plateau. When I was coming back from mono in early 2007 I wanted to get my fitness back to where it had been prior to sickness, the goal I set out for the first half of the year was to run a tempo 8k to 10k on the track at 3:00 per k. I started with some slower stuff and repeats but pretty soon I did a 3k in 9mins and started building up. Then I got stuck at 5k to 6k for a month or more. I just couldn't seem to extend past that. So I did a run where I ran 5k in 16:00 and shifted for 3k. I ran 8:54 for the last 3k and felt STRONG. Sure enough two weeks later when I again attempted my regular tempo at 3:00 per k I rolled by 5k and 6k easily and was able to run 8k in 23:56. There is a huge difference between the fitness it takes to run a tempo 5k in 15:00 and that it takes to run 8k in 24:00. I was floored. It is still one of the best tempos I have ever done.
Now I'm not promising breakthroughs like that every time you use this session. In that case it was the perfect session at the perfect time. There are other times I have done and and not seen much more impact than any other session gives. It is a tool for the tool box but if you are trying to learn to be a powerful finisher over the closing miles 5k to half marathons or if your tempos have been stuck in a rut this workout may just be the key to unlock your next breakthrough.
This workout can be done with a huge amount of variety but it is very simple at its heart all the same. The workout is broken into two distinct halves. The first half is run very quickly from marathon pace to right around 95% marathon pace, if you are a 5k runner you can go for 85% to 80% 5k pace. Then at half way you make a huge surge and push the second half as fast as you can.
Basically you are making one big killing drive to the finish. This workout works great from 2k to 10k in total distance. The amazing thing is that you will often run the second half faster than you can manage for a time trial for that distance with nothing before it. Don't ask me why. I don't understand it but I know I have run the 2nd half of a 2 mile like this in 4:18 and my fastest mile time trial in a workout is 4:17. The fastest 1k I have ever done in a workout was the 2nd half of a Portuguese surge and I have read about other runners having the same experience.
I think this workout is best from 3k to 6k. It is long enough that you really do get a great aerobic session but short enough that you are able to really let yourself go in the second half.
The only trick to this session is that it is a SURGE at half way. You want to accelerate quickly and then try to keep that surging/accelerating feeling going all the way to the end. It is key to maintain that feel. It will keep you loose and FAST. If you do that you got it right. You may not always run great in the second half but when you are hitting it don't limit yourself the idea of this session is to just go as fast as you can.
This isn't a session I do a lot but it serves two great purposes. One it is a great tempo workout during your specific phase. You touch on relaxed tempo running and then get to hammer at race pace or faster for a long way. A great way to simulate the closing mile of a 5k or last 3k of a 10k.
The other thing it is great for is to break your tempos out of a rut or get past a seeming plateau. When I was coming back from mono in early 2007 I wanted to get my fitness back to where it had been prior to sickness, the goal I set out for the first half of the year was to run a tempo 8k to 10k on the track at 3:00 per k. I started with some slower stuff and repeats but pretty soon I did a 3k in 9mins and started building up. Then I got stuck at 5k to 6k for a month or more. I just couldn't seem to extend past that. So I did a run where I ran 5k in 16:00 and shifted for 3k. I ran 8:54 for the last 3k and felt STRONG. Sure enough two weeks later when I again attempted my regular tempo at 3:00 per k I rolled by 5k and 6k easily and was able to run 8k in 23:56. There is a huge difference between the fitness it takes to run a tempo 5k in 15:00 and that it takes to run 8k in 24:00. I was floored. It is still one of the best tempos I have ever done.
Now I'm not promising breakthroughs like that every time you use this session. In that case it was the perfect session at the perfect time. There are other times I have done and and not seen much more impact than any other session gives. It is a tool for the tool box but if you are trying to learn to be a powerful finisher over the closing miles 5k to half marathons or if your tempos have been stuck in a rut this workout may just be the key to unlock your next breakthrough.
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Weekly Training Blog January 5 to 11, 2015
Monday
AM Dale road 4 with Uta, the dog, it was icy. 29:48 tot. 4
PM Road 9, 61:01, first 4 with Uta, 28:27, very cold wind chill was 2. 4 strides when I finished tot. 9.5
XT Whartons, YTI
Tuesday
PM 2 warm up on roads in lowell before Ruben talked me into doing the workout on the treadmill. short car ride and then 2 miles warm up on treadmill at Ruben's gym. Then 4 miles at 5:12 per mile, 1/2 mile at 3:00, 3 miles at 5:10 per mile, half mile at 3:00, 1 mile in 5:07 then jumped off for an emergency bathroom break, was back on the 'mill before ruben finished the 2nd mile of that stretch so I did .2 at 3:00 pace to get back in the swing and then a half mile at 5:07 pace, half mile at 3:00, 2 miles at 5:04 pace, 1/2 mile at 3:00, 1 mile at 5:02. No cool down. all at 1% incline. It was disappointing to have to jump in the bathroom and break the rhythm up. Ruben was able to do the whole session and cover 15 miles in 1:18 with no breaks. I had a 9 mile and 5 mile that both averaged under 5:20. Thing is it is hard to be disappointed as in the fall I lost coordination on a 6 mile tempo on the 'mill so this is a huge step forward. Also it is great to be doing these kind of paces this far out from a potential goal marathon. Obviously this is perfectly flat so it is really only comparable to running a berlin or rotterdam type course but still it is very good work. tot. 18
XT whartons
Wednesday
PM road 9.2, 64:44, first 4.2 with Uta and Melissa, 30:28, rest solo, cold, I was very tired tot. 9.2
XT Whartons, YTI
Thursday
AM Dale road 5 solo, -5 degrees windchill -25 degrees too cold for Uta, 36:46 tot. 5
PM with Ruben, 15 degrees, 5 degree windchill, 2 mile warm up, 15mins light exercises, 10 mile moderate progression run over my regular 10 mile loop, pretty hilly, 55:33 with the last mile in 5:01, Ruben was 4:59 for the last mile and a couple ticks up at the finish as well. tot. 12+
XT whartons, YTI
Friday
PM Road 9, 62:15, first 5 with Uta in 35:50. It was cold so Uta wasn't happy to be out there and was going pretty slow, except the sidewalks were snow covered which she LOVED, so on the slippery sidewalks we hammered and on the nice clean roads we shuffled. The dog is lucky she is so lovable or I would have killed her… rest solo, no strides was in need of a bathroom and with the cold I locked up pretty good during that time… tot. 9
XT whartons, YTI
Saturday
AM supposed to do a Dos Santos, but I screwed it up. It turned into something between a good fundamental tempo to a good specific tempo. Tough to judge. Very happy with it but it wasn't the session I intended to get. My plan was 13 miles at 80% goal mp about 6:07 to 6:10 pace. I ended up using a very hilly loop which I generally regard as 20secs per mile slower than the track. So I should have targeted 6:20 to 6:30 per mile for this, then from 13 to 16 I was supposed to run mp, now I was going to target 5:20 on this stretch as I have tried to run mp on it before and well that is about as fast as I can go, again very hilly. Finally I would then do 6x400 on the road in front of our townhouse. It is uphill one way just a bit and downhill a bit the other. Anyway I was in a stubborn mood and decided to target 6:00 to 6:10 for the first 13 despite the hills. This alone was probably ok but it was very cold and I dressed very heavily, over 6 pounds of clothes not including my shoes. Then I ended up going faster than planed. My slowest mile was 5:56 and I covered the 13 miles in 1:15:58. I could tell I was pushing pretty good on the climbs but I was having delusions of grandeur and just kept rocking it out. It is easy enough to do this as it isn't like a killer effort it is just that I was supposed to be running a much easier one. At 13 I shifted gears to get after marathon pace. I had to start on a big uphill and I knew I was in trouble when I was at the top of the hill and I saw my pace according to my garmin was 6:14. I didn't expect to see 5:10 on the climb but I did expect sub 6:00. It was more than a 500m climb so I now was way off pace and didn't have a ton of ground to make it up. I ended up running 5:40 for that mile and about the same for the next two, 17:02 for the 3 miles. It was a hard effort but it wasn't nearly as fast as I had hoped for. so 1:33:00 for 16 miles a 5:48 average. Then a 100 jog and a hard 400, this first one is the uphill way but as I started it I realized it was into the fairly strong wind that had been beating me up for long stretches on the road already. I ran 78. I decided I was done and I would do 1 more 400 back and call it. I did my 100 jog and took off for the last 400. I somehow missed the lap button which is too bad. I was working hard so I stopped the watch at the finish and stopped. I wasn't able to do the math in my head, again very tired. If I had I would have realized after a 46 second jog I had run 70 for this 400. Had I hit the watch properly and seen that split I would have kept going. Instead I packed it in.
Now if you say that conditions mean nothing and that running on the hills with the extra clothes in the cold and wind should result in the same pace as on the flat in good weather and shorts and a t-shirt I respectfully disagree but even so at this point in my training cycle I would be quite happy with a 5:48 per mile average for 16 miles. Thing is I feel the hills, wind, clothes, conditions do have an impact and that the effort I put out was far better than a 5:48 a mile effort and that makes me very happy and excited moving forward. tot. 17
XT whartons, YTI, ankle drills
Sunday
Noon (slept late and dog training in the morning, you would not believe the stuff Melissa and this dog trainer have taught Uta to do!) road 7.5 solo in 46:47, tried out a different pair of gloves and they were not as warm as I expect and my hands were very cold for this run. As such that is pretty much all I thought about for the whole thing. tot. 7.5
PM 45mins on curve treadmill, covered 6.8 miles, then did four 15 second strides with minute breaks upped it to 7.5 miles in 50mins. tot. 7.5
XT whartons, YTI, Pull ups on assisted machine
Summary
100 miles for the week. 3 great endurance workouts. Did not get in strides everyday. Fighting the weather and my stomach on that one. I'm really feeling very fit and I'm responding in a huge way to the long hard efforts. After my first fundamental tempo of 20k at 5:50 pace a month or so ago I was wrecked for days and now I did three sessions that were vastly better than that one and I recovered quickly and nicely from each one. I'm feeling very excited and quite confidant that I'm going to be making my comeback to the marathon. So much so that I'm setting about picking and trying to get into a race. Hopefully I'll have some info on that next week. I hope you have had a great week!
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Sunday Long Run- The 'Dos Santos'
This long run is named after two time New York City marathon champion and 2:06:34/59:33 man Marilson Gomes dos Santos, who I stole it from.
Top notch marathon performance isn't just about being very fit there are some complexities involved in it. This means there are many places that have very good running traditions where the marathon success is not on the same level. It also means there are pockets that consistently produce great marathoners. Everyone knows about Kenya and Ethiopia. Obviously they are on top of all the distance world. Many people are aware of Japan, a nation who has a 10k national record that wouldn't crack the top 10 all time in the USA but they have produced well over a hundred sub 2:10 marathoners compared with 16 americans under the same mark. There are however other smaller groups that fly under the collective radar of most of even the astute american marathon fans. One of these groups are the Brazilians. Within Brazil because of conditions and terrain there are really no fast marathons so unless an athlete gets out into international competition they are not going to produce a time that will make people jump up and take notice. Still with a fair bit of consistency over the last 20 years some of those athletes have been breaking out. In 1998 Ronaldo Da Costa set a than world record of 2:06:05. Another example Vanderlei de Lima was very famously attacked en route to winning the bronze medal at the 2004 Olympic marathon. Less well known is that he also ran 2:08:31 and won the Tokyo and Hamburg marathons. Dos Santos is another in this line of Brazilian greats.
I have found training info on this group, as a person who doesn't speak spanish or portuguese, is difficult. Their training seems to come from the Portuguese system, which has produced its own string of shockingly effective marathoners. Also most of Brazils successful runners have come from one or two small groups. One of the small pieces of info I have found over the years is this gem of a long run that is a regular part of Dos Santos training plan.
This long run is definitely a good marathon workout that can be done early in the marathon phase but also in the specific phase. This is also a good workout for a half marathoner or even 10k racer who is looking to build the ability to really move late in race when their legs are heavy and tired.
For the Dos Santos long run you run 12 to 16 miles at a moderate effort. The high end of your training pace, roughly 80% of marathon pace or 75% of half marathon pace. Without a break you shift gears and run 3 miles at around marathon goal pace, this is obviously not easy to do particularly the first time you try it so if you aren't used to shifting gears like this you may end up running as much as 5% slower than marathon pace. Don't worry about it. After you do this type of long run a couple times you will find that you can shift gears without issue. It teaches that lesson very well.
After 3 miles at marathon pace you again have to up the pace now for 6x400m aiming for about 5k pace with a steady 100m jog rest. You can do this on the track but I honestly end up doing it on the road most of the time. I have wheeled off a 400m straight and 50m out and back on either end for the breaks. Now in my current hometown of North Andover I haven't found anything close to 400m of flat in a row. There are no real beastly hills here but also no flats just a lot of lightly rolling and not so lightly rolling hills. So there are some small variations in my 400m and it is faster in one direction than the other but not in a big way. I try to go directly from marathon pace into the first 400m but if you are hurting you can start with a 100m jog.
The great thing about the 100m jog is that if you keep it paced reasonably and don't shuffle it you end up averaging around marathon pace for the 2900m to 3k, depending on if you start with a 100 jog or not, that you cover including the rest during the 400's.
This workout teaches the ability to run fast when your legs are very tired. It builds great aerobic power and helps make you more efficient in terms of the fuel you burn at faster speeds. IE it helps your body learn to burn more fat in place of glycogen even when running fast.
Progressing the workout. Generally I start with only 12 or 13 miles at the moderate pace and as I do the workout more I increase the volume at that pace up to 16 or more miles. So if the first time you run 12 miles moderate 3 miles at mp and the 6x400 you end up with a total volume of about 17 miles. If you build up to 16 miles moderate you will have a total of about 21 miles. Also this session is a great bridge to some of the very difficult specific long runs that Canova prescribes for the marathon specific phase.
Adjusting the workout. Now you may be looking at this workout and thinking that volume it just too much or you are 5k to half marathon racer or a high school or college athlete who has a lower general volume. You still want to be able to run fast when your tired and your legs are heavy and this can still be a great workout for you. You could easily drop it to 3 to 10 miles of moderate running before getting to the faster paced running.
There you have it a great workout from one of the great marathon groups in the world.
Top notch marathon performance isn't just about being very fit there are some complexities involved in it. This means there are many places that have very good running traditions where the marathon success is not on the same level. It also means there are pockets that consistently produce great marathoners. Everyone knows about Kenya and Ethiopia. Obviously they are on top of all the distance world. Many people are aware of Japan, a nation who has a 10k national record that wouldn't crack the top 10 all time in the USA but they have produced well over a hundred sub 2:10 marathoners compared with 16 americans under the same mark. There are however other smaller groups that fly under the collective radar of most of even the astute american marathon fans. One of these groups are the Brazilians. Within Brazil because of conditions and terrain there are really no fast marathons so unless an athlete gets out into international competition they are not going to produce a time that will make people jump up and take notice. Still with a fair bit of consistency over the last 20 years some of those athletes have been breaking out. In 1998 Ronaldo Da Costa set a than world record of 2:06:05. Another example Vanderlei de Lima was very famously attacked en route to winning the bronze medal at the 2004 Olympic marathon. Less well known is that he also ran 2:08:31 and won the Tokyo and Hamburg marathons. Dos Santos is another in this line of Brazilian greats.
I have found training info on this group, as a person who doesn't speak spanish or portuguese, is difficult. Their training seems to come from the Portuguese system, which has produced its own string of shockingly effective marathoners. Also most of Brazils successful runners have come from one or two small groups. One of the small pieces of info I have found over the years is this gem of a long run that is a regular part of Dos Santos training plan.
This long run is definitely a good marathon workout that can be done early in the marathon phase but also in the specific phase. This is also a good workout for a half marathoner or even 10k racer who is looking to build the ability to really move late in race when their legs are heavy and tired.
For the Dos Santos long run you run 12 to 16 miles at a moderate effort. The high end of your training pace, roughly 80% of marathon pace or 75% of half marathon pace. Without a break you shift gears and run 3 miles at around marathon goal pace, this is obviously not easy to do particularly the first time you try it so if you aren't used to shifting gears like this you may end up running as much as 5% slower than marathon pace. Don't worry about it. After you do this type of long run a couple times you will find that you can shift gears without issue. It teaches that lesson very well.
After 3 miles at marathon pace you again have to up the pace now for 6x400m aiming for about 5k pace with a steady 100m jog rest. You can do this on the track but I honestly end up doing it on the road most of the time. I have wheeled off a 400m straight and 50m out and back on either end for the breaks. Now in my current hometown of North Andover I haven't found anything close to 400m of flat in a row. There are no real beastly hills here but also no flats just a lot of lightly rolling and not so lightly rolling hills. So there are some small variations in my 400m and it is faster in one direction than the other but not in a big way. I try to go directly from marathon pace into the first 400m but if you are hurting you can start with a 100m jog.
The great thing about the 100m jog is that if you keep it paced reasonably and don't shuffle it you end up averaging around marathon pace for the 2900m to 3k, depending on if you start with a 100 jog or not, that you cover including the rest during the 400's.
This workout teaches the ability to run fast when your legs are very tired. It builds great aerobic power and helps make you more efficient in terms of the fuel you burn at faster speeds. IE it helps your body learn to burn more fat in place of glycogen even when running fast.
Progressing the workout. Generally I start with only 12 or 13 miles at the moderate pace and as I do the workout more I increase the volume at that pace up to 16 or more miles. So if the first time you run 12 miles moderate 3 miles at mp and the 6x400 you end up with a total volume of about 17 miles. If you build up to 16 miles moderate you will have a total of about 21 miles. Also this session is a great bridge to some of the very difficult specific long runs that Canova prescribes for the marathon specific phase.
Adjusting the workout. Now you may be looking at this workout and thinking that volume it just too much or you are 5k to half marathon racer or a high school or college athlete who has a lower general volume. You still want to be able to run fast when your tired and your legs are heavy and this can still be a great workout for you. You could easily drop it to 3 to 10 miles of moderate running before getting to the faster paced running.
There you have it a great workout from one of the great marathon groups in the world.
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Moneghetti Fartlek
Steve Moneghetti, for whom the Moneghetti Fartlek is named, is an Australian distance runner who came very directly from great tradition that started with the Pat Clohessy coached group that produced other australian distance legends like Rob de Castella, Shaun Creighton and Simon Doyle. Steve himself was coached by the great Chris Wardlaw, a 2:11 marathoner. Steve invented this fartlek and did it pretty much every week for years, in fact he still does. Steve was a bronze medalist at the 1997 IAAF World championships in the marathon. He competed in 4 Olympic Marathons with 3 top 10 finishes and a best of 5th. His marathon PB is 2:08:16, he ran a half marathon best of 1:00:06. He is in many ways most notable for his incredible longevity at a very high level. He came onto the seen as an Australian junior national champion in 1982 and soon had his first world class performance, a bronze medal at the 1986 commonwealth games in 2:11:18 and then remained consistently among the worlds best through his 10th place finish at the 2000 Olympic marathon. He first broke 29:00 for 10k when he was 19 years old and last did it when he was 42! In between there was never a year where he failed to best the mark at least once on the road or track. Recently he ran a 1:09:43 half marathon which compared to the rest of this may not seem to impressive until you realize the man is now 52 years old!
The Moneghetti Fartlek itself is at once simple to perform and yet beautifully complex in how many systems it stresses and improves. It takes a mere 20mins to perform and yet it can be one of the hardest all around sessions you do.
You run 2x90seconds, 4x60seconds, 4x30seconds, 4x15 seconds. Each hard effort is followed by a QUICK recovery jog of the same time. You should run the 90 second reps at about 5k effort and as the reps get shorter try to run them a bit faster so that by the 15 second reps you are ATTEMPTING to sprint at near max. The max will be easy but making that a sprint is a real job.
The real key to the workout, and the real devil of the workout, is that the recoveries are a QUICK jog. The quick jog means that in addition to the benefits of a normal anaerobic interval workout, i.e. increased latic tolerance, improved vo2max, increased efficiency at quicker speeds and greater muscular power this workout is also a GREAT aerobic tempo workout. In fact because you have to flush out the acid from the faster reps there is some evidence that this workout and others like it do more to improve your latic threshold, the single most important marker of fitness for races of 5k to marathon, than regular tempo runs or any other type of training.
Steve says that he normally would end up averaging around 3:05 per kilometer, 4:57 mile pace, for this session. Roughly around his marathon pace. That is with the rest included, obviously. It should be noted that this was mixed in to regular 130 mile weeks with 3 OTHER hard efforts. He also said that his fastest performance he covered exactly 7 kilometers in the 20 minutes. That is 4:35 mile pace with the RECOVERIES INCLUDED! My personal best session for this so far is averaging 4:55 per mile. I generally run between 5:00 and 5:10 per mile when I do it.
Why do this workout? It improves your latic threshold greatly which makes it a super session for general fitness for everyone from the miler to the marathoner. It is quick, simple and can be done anywhere; this is my staple workout when I am traveling. It touches on a number of paces and effort levels which means it really covers a lot in just one session. It is not so anaerobic that it will break you down or increase the risk of illness or injury if done regularly. Most importantly it teaches you to recover at a quick pace which in my experience is the single most important thing to teach your body in order to be a fast distance runner.
When to do this workout? Whenever! This is one of the few sessions you can be well justified in doing in any and all phases of your training. It is a jack of all trades workout that fits as well in a base phase as a specific phase and does wonders for the high school runner working towards a mile best or the Olympic hopeful looking to keep his latic threshold and muscular efficiency up well prepping for a 2:12 marathon.
So the next time you need a great workout to improve your threshold and your efficiency at pretty much all your racing speeds and perhaps time is tight do yourself a favor and dive into a Moneghetti Fartlek. It won't be the easiest session you ever do but it will likely be one of the best.
 |
| Steve Moneghetti running on the 6k "Moneghetti Track" around the Lake that he so regularly used for his famous fartlek. |
The Moneghetti Fartlek itself is at once simple to perform and yet beautifully complex in how many systems it stresses and improves. It takes a mere 20mins to perform and yet it can be one of the hardest all around sessions you do.
You run 2x90seconds, 4x60seconds, 4x30seconds, 4x15 seconds. Each hard effort is followed by a QUICK recovery jog of the same time. You should run the 90 second reps at about 5k effort and as the reps get shorter try to run them a bit faster so that by the 15 second reps you are ATTEMPTING to sprint at near max. The max will be easy but making that a sprint is a real job.
The real key to the workout, and the real devil of the workout, is that the recoveries are a QUICK jog. The quick jog means that in addition to the benefits of a normal anaerobic interval workout, i.e. increased latic tolerance, improved vo2max, increased efficiency at quicker speeds and greater muscular power this workout is also a GREAT aerobic tempo workout. In fact because you have to flush out the acid from the faster reps there is some evidence that this workout and others like it do more to improve your latic threshold, the single most important marker of fitness for races of 5k to marathon, than regular tempo runs or any other type of training.
Steve says that he normally would end up averaging around 3:05 per kilometer, 4:57 mile pace, for this session. Roughly around his marathon pace. That is with the rest included, obviously. It should be noted that this was mixed in to regular 130 mile weeks with 3 OTHER hard efforts. He also said that his fastest performance he covered exactly 7 kilometers in the 20 minutes. That is 4:35 mile pace with the RECOVERIES INCLUDED! My personal best session for this so far is averaging 4:55 per mile. I generally run between 5:00 and 5:10 per mile when I do it.
Why do this workout? It improves your latic threshold greatly which makes it a super session for general fitness for everyone from the miler to the marathoner. It is quick, simple and can be done anywhere; this is my staple workout when I am traveling. It touches on a number of paces and effort levels which means it really covers a lot in just one session. It is not so anaerobic that it will break you down or increase the risk of illness or injury if done regularly. Most importantly it teaches you to recover at a quick pace which in my experience is the single most important thing to teach your body in order to be a fast distance runner.
When to do this workout? Whenever! This is one of the few sessions you can be well justified in doing in any and all phases of your training. It is a jack of all trades workout that fits as well in a base phase as a specific phase and does wonders for the high school runner working towards a mile best or the Olympic hopeful looking to keep his latic threshold and muscular efficiency up well prepping for a 2:12 marathon.
So the next time you need a great workout to improve your threshold and your efficiency at pretty much all your racing speeds and perhaps time is tight do yourself a favor and dive into a Moneghetti Fartlek. It won't be the easiest session you ever do but it will likely be one of the best.
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