Fartlek ...? ... Fart what? Lick who?

Fartlek, which means "speed play" in Swedish, is a form of conditioning that puts stress on the whole aerobic energy system, due to the continuous nature of the exercise. The difference between this type of training and continuous training is that the intensity or speed of the exercise varies, meaning that aerobic and anaerobic systems can be put under stress.

Ok, now that we got Wikipedia’s definition out of the way ...

Basically, it’s about varying your speed during a specific run. It can be done as part of your regular, weekly running schedule (each mile at a progressively faster pace), or during track workouts, where it’s done during shorter distances with a greater variance of speed.  “Why?,” you may ask? Fartleks build your endurance, speed (during training and for race day) and, ultimately, your overall aerobic capacity.

As part of your training with Peak, we’ll send a Fartlek schedule for you to do as part of your weekly running schedule, if you like.

Get over yourself!

When training for a race, we all pile on the miles, pseudo-attempting to watch what we eat, drink, and do to “get the most” out of our training, avoid injury, and make it to the marathon to finish in our own personal PR.

However, if we think about it, to get the most out of running we have to have a relationship with running. No, I am not recommending you take your Dri-Fit fabrics and favorite running shoes out on a date, but instead, stop being selfish! Oh yeah, that’s right, I just went there!

It’s true and I am somewhat sorry (yet honest) if that hurt your feelings. But, the short truth is--you truly have to give without expected reciprocation to get the most out of running. And, in the end, you will truly be amazed at the results. Like any relationship, if you go into it without giving freely of yourself and keep using “I” (I want this, I want that, I, I, I …) then pretty soon, that selfish behavior ruins the relationship. In running, if you listen to yourself and keep hearing “I will start eating right tomorrow, I don’t feel like running today, etc.,” then how could you expect to get anything back?

In your running, and in your life, if you give freely, and with everything you have; you will truly be amazed at the result. As Steve Prefontaine said “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” Where in that statement do you hear anything about what he expected in return?

Is it worth trying? Well, chances are you don’t feel like you’re getting everything you want and need out of running right now. And frankly, that’s a pretty selfish place to be. So, what do you have to lose? Give more to your relationship with running than you expect, and see what you get back. Like the title of this post says, get over yourself. If you do, I promise you’ll be amazed!

What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?

What’s the what? Huh? Hey, who’s that Kenneth guy anyway?

So, there is indeed a story about “Kenneth” and the frequency he’s looking for, but I digress.

The reason for this post is an obvious one, and yet one most people don’t give much thought to as how it actually affects our running. The fact is, most of us run with music reverberating through our ear-buds that the person running next to you could hear, if their iPod wasn’t cranked up so high too!

See, music is written and recorded in BPM (beats per minute). Those BPM actually affect our pace either in a good way, or a bad way. See, to get the ideal benefit from listening to music when we run, we need to be listening to music at approximately 5 BPM over our target heart rate and pace. Now, having said that, it has also been documented that any music that is listened to over 145 BPM while running (or performing any other exercise) is actually detrimental to our workout. Now you can see the difference between listening to Nelly or James Blunt on a run. Fact is, your body will adjust to the BPM, and affect your heart rate and pace. And remember—we race at the pace we train.

Now, your next question is: Who is this Nelly character?! (just kidding—I assume most of us know who he is) But more like: “How do I know the BPM of the songs on my playlist?” Well, there are a couple of ways to figure that out.

1. I personally use a Metronome application on my computer to figure it out. It’s free, and I am happy to give you the link if you want…..and own a MAC.
2. You can listen to the song, and count the number of times for the kick drum in a 30 second period, and double it. This will give you a very, very close BPM without any equipment.

When training for a race, and working on distance and pace, it’s a good time to take stock of our music, and make sure it’s helping us get to where we want to be.

You want fries with that?

OK, ok…..it’s not a post about fast food, or the secret location of the Valley’s best burger! Anyway, we all know where to find those, right?!

This post is about salt, and how it affects/helps our running here in the desert, especially in the summer. So many of us are told that too much salt is bad for us, you don’t need extra salt on anything, or even worse; it will make you retain all that water you’re drinking, and how on earth are you going to fit into those skinny jeans if you’re retaining water, right?! Well, let’s just remember that these are the same people that taught us to tie our shoes so tight it cut off the circulation!!

Question: have you ever gone for a run, and afterwards felt (or even seen) the salt from your sweat crusting on your skin or your running clothes? Well my friend the human salt lick, that’s your body sweating out all of that salt, along with that hydration you were so diligent about drinking.

Now, does that mean you have to start eating foods high in sodium, taking salt pills, and downing thousands of milligrams of salt to keep up? Nope! We’re not extremists, and believe that there is a happy middle ground. The fact is; there is a good amount of sodium in what we eat on a daily basis, and for most of the year, it’s plenty for our exercise and running efforts to keep up with us. That being said, the summers in the valley are when we need to augment our intake, and give it a little boost. During the heat of the summer, we tend to lose more salt, and with it key hydration. And, although we get a good amount of salt (sodium) in our diet, if we add to it, we will benefit. By taking 210 milligrams of salt before we run, and then about every hour as we run or exercise, that additional sodium will help significantly in our ability to retain the needed hydration, and keep us cooler as a result. Getting that added sodium can come from “salt sticks/tablets” or things like Shot Blocks Margarita flavor (this flavor has the added sodium just for this reason).

The good news? Summer in the valley is almost over, and our opportunities to walk around feeling the sweat crust to our bodies is dwindling (until next year). In the meantime, adding a bit of sodium will make a big difference.

Now, get out there and run!