Building on our introduction back to the track, we’re going to play with interval and rest lengths using gliders (aka striders). Gliders can be done a myriad of different ways but the overall intent is to pick a section of the track where you’ll pick up the pace for 30-45 seconds and then rest until you encounter that section again. A typical session might glide the turns and rest on the straights or glide the straights with rests along the turns for 100m at about 15 seconds faster than 5K race pace (85-95% effort for Borg RPE and HR trainers) and then 100m active rest. Some more challenging variations are corners (200m x 100m), odds/evens (300m x 200m, 200m x 100m, 100m x 200m, 200m x 300m), and descenders (300m x 200m, 200m x 100m, 100m x 50m, 50m x 50m). In the spirit of fartlek, don’t get stuck in the rut of doing the same intervals over and over. Select the length of the next intervals, both running and rest, based on how you’re feeling … but as soon as you start slowing down, end the session. Beginners will want to aim for 8-10 repeats, more advanced runners will want to be doing 15-20. As the name implies, these should be smooth, controlled accelerations, exactly like the strides that you do for warmup or cooldown. Remember to lean forward slightly from the waste, rise up on your toes, and let your stride length automatically lengthen.
Warmup: 10-15′ clockwise – easy
Session: 10-15 gliders at 15-20 secs/mile faster than 5K race pace (~90% effort)
Cooldown: 10-15′ clockwise – easy
Post-cooldown: 5 x 100m strides, basic form drills (high knees, skipping, leg swings, butt flicks)
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