Thursday Virtual Speed Development – Moneghetti Fartlek
15 March 2021 - By Jodee Mayer
Hello everyone,
As will come as little surprise to anyone that has been a member of WRC since I joined the coaching team, the session I have chosen is the Moneghetti Fartlek.
It is a poorly kept secret that this is my favourite speed development session and, as I have always said, it isn’t just because it is only 20 minutes long…!
After suffering an injury in the run up to the London Marathon 2019, I swerved speed sessions for a while. One warm evening in June, I took the oh so long journey (300 yards) from my front door to the track at Rickstones Academy for my first Thursday session back.
It was a session I had never heard of before and, in all honesty, I am pretty sure I chose to come back that Thursday because Scott mentioned the session was only 20 minutes long. But this session holds a special place for me because it was essentially my come back session after (that) injury, I really enjoyed being back at Thursday sessions and pushing the pace after a break, I survived it, and it was my first ever session running on a track since I left school.
This session is suitable for all, just make sure you adapt the paces and recoveries appropriately. If anyone needs any guidance, the McMillan pace calculator (linked in the Training tab) is really helpful for this or just drop a message in the Facebook group and one of us will assist.
The session
Warm up –
Warm up jog, advise 1 – 2 miles, but at least 10 minutes please!
At the end of the jog, complete some dynamic warm up moves as you would usually in the club sessions. I usually do:
- Grapevines
- Walking lunges
- Heel flicks
- High knees
- “Chicken sweep” hamstring stretches
- Hip opening and closing
Make sure you warm up any areas of your own body that you know are niggly.
Workout –
The workout is as follows:
- 2 x 90 seconds effort / 90 seconds recovery
- 4 x 60 seconds effort / 60 seconds recovery
- 4 x 30 seconds effort / 30 seconds recovery
- 4 x 15 seconds effort / 15 seconds recovery
The effort pace should be at around 5k pace (though if you are returning to speed development sessions after a break, aim for between 5k and 10k pace) and the aim is to maintain the same pace or progress to a faster pace on the shorter efforts if you are able to.
The guided recovery pace is a floating recovery but please choose your recovery pace in order to dictate the intensity of the workout from the following (1 being the hardest):
1. Floating Recovery – slightly slower than 5k pace (between 5m and 10k pace)
2. Race pace recovery – Half marathon pace or marathon pace
3. Jogging recovery – easy jogging
4. Walking recovery – if you are going to aim to walk the recoveries, I would suggest jogging the last 5s of each recovery to lead into the effort, and jog the whole recovery between the 15s intervals, as they come quickly.
If you want to programme it into your watch, it will look a little like this:
Cool down –
Cool down jog (suggest 1-2 miles, but at least 10 minutes please)
After the jog, please complete some stretching (please seeing stretching guide in the Training tab for guidance).
I really hope you enjoy this session, its quick but its fun, and those intervals seem to fly by as you get towards the end!
Jodee
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