what the heck are Fartleks ?

FARTLEKS - FARTLEKS - FARTLEKS I just love saying the word FARTLEK! Fartleks are the key to speed and endurance during the race. We can all go out and run for an hour and cover 5 miles but how many of us can cover 9 miles in one hour? If you want to cover more ground in a shorter period of time during your next race then start the FARTLEKS!A Fartlek is a Scandinavian word that means "speed play". Simply playing with your speed during a training session not only breaks up the run and helps the time go by quickly but it will improve your speed and recovery during the race. I would suggest a Fartlek run at least once a week.A fartlek is simply a change in speed for a short period of time. So during your next run after you have warmed up for about 8 minutes at an easy jog turn up the tempo. Run the next minute at a level that makes it had to talk. After the minute of hard running, slow your pace back down to an easy jog for about 3 minutes. Repeat the one minute on and three minutes off for 4 times. Make sure you cool down for about 8 minutes after your last hard effort.Over time you should slowly increase the length of each interval. Maybe run hard for two minutes and jog for 2 minutes. We have some athletes that will run hard for 10-12 minutes with only a 1-2 minute recovery jog between. The goal is to slowly increase the length of time you can run hard and decrease the amount of time it takes you to recover.In no time you will be able to put the hammer down and leave the other teams in the dust!

see you on the trails!

4th at Momar.

Momar, Mo- Fun! What a great way to spend a Saturday in Squamish. First time for The Momar race to come to Sqaumish, and what a route ! Momar race route was decided by Jen Seggar -Gigg a world-class racer for Dart-Nuun. Jen gave me the heads up on a few trails that might be in the race. I would be racing solo beacuse Chris Clark torn his knee apart, about a month ago. When racing solo- adventure races it's you and you only. No one is there to back up your navigational choices. The race started with a good 10 km trek/run with some very tricky checkpoints. Going on to the first bike leg I really had no idea where I was in the race. A Kiwi in the crowd told me I was right up there. Yippee! Now for some fun hogging! The trail was in great shape, made it over to the famous POWERHOUSE PLUNGE. The steep technical switchbacks of the Plunge will have your eyeballs a popping. A few racers will have to check their shorts at the end of the ride. A quick rip over to the rappel line and then off to the finish line. Using this a "C" race (training race) was great and hitting the finish line in 4th was great. I am very happy, there were some big name racers from all over the states. So the competition was there. If you ever would like to try a MOMAR also for full results. Up next The KNEEKNACKER JULY 14TH, bring on the pain !