With seven weeks to go, you should be feeling a bit fitter and by now you should also be getting comfortably into a regular jogging routine. So, now we want to maintain the routine but it is time to get uncomfortable again:
In the next three weeks we will focus on increasing our speed and conditioning by introducing the fartlek into the program, along with three important techniques for increasing your speed and overall performance.
The second stage of this program is very important because if we continue to walk and jog as we have been doing over the initial stage of the training program, Our bodies will get used to a fairly sedate aerobic routine that will ultimately lead to us developing fairly slow running techniques.
By varying our speed throughout this second stage of the program, we will work both the aerobic and anaerobic systems. This variation is called fartlek, (what we used to call interval training when I was a kid).
Muscles trained under anaerobic conditions develop differently to those trained under aerobic conditions (such as jogging), leading to greater performance in short duration, high intensity activities. By introducing anaerobic work, such as sprints, we can develop more speed and better prepare ourselves for variable conditions that we will find on the day of the big run.
———————
Update April 2013
My City2Surf Training Program is now an eBook
‘How to Break Your Fitness Slump and Comfortably Finish a Fun Run’
My full City2Surf training program is now available as an eBook from all leading online bookstores and contains a link to download the training schedule as an iCal file, so you can import it into your calendar.
Also, feel free to join my free Facebook training group the City2Surf 100 day Challenge.