This short series of articles looks at a type of training called interval training, which is not to be confused with repetition running (See http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/trai... It requires a lot of explanation, so you will need to bear with me and read all of the series, possibly twice! Like all training types it needs to be carried out properly and with the right doses of stress and fatigue for it to do you good. And there is the progressive insertion of this training session into your training schedule, that is, the transition through the weeks so that your body adapts and adjusts to the increasing stress.
But first I would like to spend a few moments looking at how training affects the heart, just a reminder of the physiological training benefit of training.
The heart muscle
Here are some facts about the human heart of all people, including all those who don't go running. This information comes from a free newspaper on the buses where I live in Leeds called 'The Metro' published on Tuesday June 29, 2004.
'The adult heart beats about 40 million times a year. In an hour it works hard enough to produce enough energy to raise a 1 ton weight 3 ft from the ground. Even at rest, the heart muscle works twice as hard as the leg muscles of a sprinter. The heart pumps about 1 million barrels of blood in a lifetime.'
Questions
1. If you are going to run a long distance, how strong does your heart muscle need to be?
2. If your heart muscle is only strong enough to pump blood strongly and effectively for only half the race distance, what will happen to it during the second half of the race?
3. Looking back over all the articles on training types written on the webs site so far, which ones, if not all, have as a fundamental aim, the training and strengthening of the heart muscle?
So the training methods I have outlined so far in this series of articles build up your stamina - ability to keep your pace going for a long distance without the heart getting tired.
But now that you are fit and developed a nice strong heart and cardio-vascular system, what if you want to run well in championship races which tend to come in a concentrated period, for example, from January to March (8 to 10 weeks) there are cross-country championship races? Or there are two or three races in the space of a few weeks which you want to run well in? How can you prepare your body to peak? Fartlek is one method you can use, hill work is another, and interval running.
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