Running Program – Week 6

Dr. Shawn Talbott (Ph.D., CNS, LDN, FACSM, FACN, FAIS) has gone from triathlon struggler to gut-brain guru! With a Ph.D. in Nutritional Biochemistry, he's on a mission to boost everyday human performance through the power of natural solutions and the gut-brain axis.

Hi Runners – into WEEK 6 we go! (2 weeks left)

This past week, I introduced you to the concept of Fartleks (speed play). I hope you enjoyed these unstructured intervals because we’re going to use the same concept this week – but for HILLS!

Your goal this week is to do 3 runs made up of “Hill Fartleks” – basically a “tempo” run with a handful of hard hill intervals sprinkled in as the terrain and your motivation allows.

Do a good 10-min warmup and then start with 2-3 “medium hard” hills (7-ish on the RPE scale) – then progress to 2-3 “hard” hills in the middle of your workout (8-ish RPE) – and then finish the workout with 2-3 “very hard” efforts (near sprints at 9-ish RPE, but keeping fast feet and good form). Cool down with another 10min of easy jogging.

  • remember “RPE” stands for Rating of Perceived Exertion and equates to your feeling of how difficult the intensity is on a scale of 1 (almost resting) to 10 (all-out).

This will end up giving you about 6-9 hill intervals of varying lengths 9anywhere from 30-90 seconds depending on the terrain and the route you’re running), but the workout “feels” different than a structured session of hill repeats.

As with last week, if you have the time and motivation to workout on additional days, then do something OTHER than running.

We are 3 weeks away from our “race” on October 28 – so please send Shawn and Julie any questions?

About the Author

Exercise physiologist (MS, UMass Amherst) and Nutritional Biochemist (PhD, Rutgers) who studies how lifestyle influences our biochemistry, psychology and behavior - which kind of makes me a "Psycho-Nutritionist"?!?!

  • For those folks that need the mileage, should I have them replace one of these with a longer run? We had quite a few people as beginners or shorter-distance runners that needed to add about a mile per week to get to where they need to be for the race..

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