Regardless of what distance you are training for, if you use a Power Meter you need to be doing regular testing to ensure you are training in the correct Power Zones for your current fitness. If you don’t have a Power Meter a 30min Time Trial is a great threshold workout with benefits for your fitness especially if training for 10km or longer.
Each week I will be posting the Friday Fartlek Run Sessions that you can do to enhance your running. Fartlek is a Swedish term that runners often use and it means speed-play. See a previous post about training intensity (levels) to know how hard to work.
30min Power Test
- 15min WU Level II;
- 30min Level IV TT;
- 15min CD Level II;
- 10min Stretching
The warm-up (WU) should be done at an intensity that is steady but not overconsuming at Level II for fifteen minutes.
The main set is made up of a single 30min best effort on a flat road or track.
The Cool Down (CD) is at low-intensity jogging (Level II) for a minimum of fifteen minutes.
Finish with 10 minutes of stretching to assist with the recovery.
Once you’ve completed the session downloads your power data and take the average power for the last 20 minutes of the 30min Time Trial (TT). This is your running Functional Threshold Power (rFTPw). I’m doing this test a little later today and will update this post once done to include my data. For more details on how to run with power jump over to my www.RunWithPower.info blog series.
This test was developed by Joe Friel and reported in Jim Vance’s book Run with Power.
If you would like further advice feel free to contact me.
I am the Head Coach & Director of Qwik Kiwi – Endurance Sports Consultant.
I specialise in assisting first-timers and recreational athletes to achieve their sporting goals. I can be contacted at coachray@coachray.nz and 021 348 729.
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Download the Garmin (.FIT) files for this workout for FREE
If you enjoyed this workout, here is a similar session I published 12 months ago.
Friday Fartlek: Split 800’s
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