I hope this message finds you all healthy. As I'm sure you have all heard, DCSD has officially closed all of its facilities in accordance with the statewide "stay at home" order. As a result, we will not be able use the track for any workouts for the time being.
Nevertheless, training can (and will) go on like normal! Fartlek style training is a great approach for runners who can not access a track, and there are many professional training groups who do have track access who choose to use primarily Fartlek style anyways. For those who are unfamiliar with the term Fartlek (yes, a funny name but it is actually the Swedish word for "Speed Play"), it basically means timed intervals that are run at a specific effort, for a pre-determined amount of time. An example of this would be, instead of doing 5 x 1 K repeats on the track in 3:00 with one minute rest, you would find a long path (Plum Creek Trail, Pine Cliff, etc.) or a continuous loop, and run for 3 minutes at a certain effort. For a little bit of inspiration, I've linked a couple of videos of high level training groups doing fartlek training
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF3Gh4553Jw
In this one ^^ this group of NAU athletes go on to win the NCAA D1 XC title that fall. Notice how the coach (Eric Heins) mentions that he feels getting away from the track actually has performance and psychological benefits!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv6FMtvRVcU
In this one ^^ the Portland women's team, another top NCAA D1 program, use a grass loop around a park to complete their time based Fartlek workout.
As a side note, both of these workouts are from a series called "Workout Wednesday" from a track and field site called Flotrack. For those of you sitting around with a lot of extra time looking for something entertaining/ motivating, I highly encourage you browse through some of their videos! I watched these often as a high schooler myself, and I can tell you the quality of the videos has improved quite a bit from back then.
Lastly, I want to leave you all with some encouragement, and to let you know that I am proud of your continued efforts in these uncertain times. Dealing with such drastic lifestyle change in such a brief period of time, as well as disappointment of having something that you worked hard for being postponed indefinitely, is very hard. Still, with how many of you I know are still training and time trialing as hard as ever, I have to say I am impressed. While the status of the season is obviously unknown, the current date of re-start (4/18) is what we have to work with. All we can do is our daily work, and be prepared to compete when we are finally given the chance. Keep up the great work, and as always, please reach out about any questions, struggles, or successes you encounter.
-Coach Marshall