Chapter 4: Fartlek Training Method
It is completely achievable to rapidly improve long-distance running results in a short time, as long as there is a certain foundation, combined with a suitable rhythm, and most importantly, the skills.
Chen Jun has a height of one meter eighty-nine, and his two long legs are his greatest advantage.
Combined with the fact that military academy students undergo certain training during school, and after joining Seventh Company for four months, his body already has a certain foundation.
His own conditions have no problems at all.
Chen Jun’s previous running results were very poor, mainly because his ability to endure hardship was insufficient, secondly he didn’t have the resolve to push himself hard, and on top of that, he was running blindly without skills.
This series of input factors stacked up, turning him into a pole that couldn’t run.
And as an ace special forces instructor in his previous life, Chen Jun’s soldiers were all special forces soldiers, and what he was least short of were various training skills.
In order to achieve a reversal within a week, Chen Jun, while running out to warm up, mentally drafted a schedule for himself.
Precisely specifying what to train at what time each day, to maximize the training effect.
It was already past nine o’clock in the morning today, so Chen Jun formally began his reversal from negative one to positive one according to the scheduled timetable.
First, he ran three kilometers under the sun, completing the most basic warm-up movements.
Then he went to the equipment training ground to start strength training.
At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be much connection between running and strength training, but in fact, strength training is especially key to improving training results.
If leg strength and stamina are insufficient, it’s easy to get leg fatigue, making it impossible to exert force and run.
Only through effective strength training, making the leg strength sufficiently robust and the stamina endurance time sufficiently long, can it support high-speed running.
Chen Jun has mature technology on how to train leg strength.
Frog jumps, stair stepping, duck walks, load squats, sit-ups…
Don’t think these are all very basic movements, nothing fancy, but as long as practiced persistently in sets every day, they greatly improve leg strength.
In order to catch up his physical fitness, Chen Jun turned into a desperate effort guy, training everything at double the training volume.
After two hours of physical training, Chen Jun’s clothes were soaked enough to wring out water, his calves trembled when walking, and every toe was aching.
Especially doing physical training under the sun, making his whole skin throb with pain.
In the army, if training doesn’t shed a layer of skin, it’s not called training.
Chen Jun didn’t take it seriously.
Only those who endure the greatest hardships become the top people, and this is even more evident in the army.
At lunchtime, he returned to the barracks area to eat, while other warriors went back to the dormitory for a nap, Chen Jun had no intention of resting and dove headfirst back into the training ground.
Gan Xiao Ning and a group of veteran soldiers saw this scene but didn’t realize the seriousness of the matter.
Still laughing and joking in the dormitory, betting that with this training intensity and desperate effort practice, Chen Jun definitely wouldn’t last two days, his body would get injured, and he’d have to admit defeat early.
With an air of certain victory, they had no intention of training along.
But Wu Liu Yi didn’t join in the chat, his expression even more serious than in the morning.
Chen Jun’s training looked very intense, like he was going all out regardless of life, not taking his own body seriously, trading health for results.
In fact, Chen Jun had a scientific ratio, with a high probability of not injuring his body.
However.
The training process was very painful, that’s for sure.
He had already trained leg strength for two hours in the morning, so continuing in the afternoon would definitely be too much for the body, so Chen Jun switched to skill training.
Among the techniques for quickly improving running results, there is one that is particularly painful but also particularly effective.
It is the “Fartlek Training”!
This is a training method named in Swedish, which translates to “training game”.
Simply put, this training method improves the runner’s speed and stamina by actively changing running speed and rhythm, achieving maximum conversion efficiency.
That is, using less stamina than others to run farther distances than others.
This is efficiency!
Fartlek Training includes various forms such as acceleration runs, deceleration runs, and interval runs.
Normal running emphasizes maintaining a steady rhythm, not letting it get disrupted during the process, and keeping your own pace going.
This way, it saves the most energy and maintains the highest pace continuously.
But Fartlek Training is the opposite, requiring as much disruption to the rhythm as possible during the run, which equals deliberately wasting more energy.
By consuming more energy over shorter distances, it improves the runner’s physical fitness and stamina.
It’s like a different kind of forced growth; as long as you can persist with Fartlek Training, stamina and speed will inevitably grow in constant torment.
From the initial two-cylinder engine, evolving continuously to four-cylinder, eight-cylinder.
Once trained to a certain effect, returning to normal long-distance running, with an eight-cylinder engine in the body, running will naturally be lightning-fast.
Of course.
Good training effect comes with a cost.
Chen Jun’s body hadn’t trained like this before; after an afternoon of Fartlek Training, sweat aside, even his underwear was soaked.
Mainly, every muscle in those legs was surging with waves of soreness.
The specific pain is indescribable.
It could only be said that when going to the canteen for dinner, Chen Jun turned into a rusty-legged robot, shuffling in step by step under the strange gazes of the crowd.
Just when Wu Liu Yi, Gan Xiao Ning, and other veteran soldiers thought Chen Jun had trained himself into this sorry state, he would definitely return to the dormitory to rest at night.
Chen Jun showed them for the first time what a true tough guy is.
Following the dual tough guy principles of “if it doesn’t kill you in training, train to the death” and “young people are full of energy, no such thing as tired”.
Chen Jun still didn’t rest at night and continued following the scheduled itinerary.
Of course.
Tough is tough, but can’t be reckless.
Scientific training is the baseline.
Morning had enough strength training, afternoon had four hours of skill training, body intensity training was maxed out, body state had entered the limit.
Continuing with major strength or major physical training, the body might collapse and get injured.
So the training subjects Chen Jun arranged for the evening were much milder than daytime, mainly allowing body recovery during the training process.
Thus, training was divided into three sections—
Breathing skill training, running posture correction training, and cardiopulmonary function training.
Anyone who has run knows that breathing method and rhythm are crucial for running; good breathing and poor breathing are two different worlds.
When to use mouth, when to use nose, when to inhale, when to exhale, etc.
All have skills!
Controlling breathing increases oxygen intake; with more oxygen in the body, it can burst out more energy, making running more enduring.
Actually similar to engine principles.
Chen Jun needed to form muscle memory and habits through sustained jogging, consciously controlling breathing rhythm during jogging.
This way, in long-distance running, it can greatly improve stamina, giving him stronger endurance ability.
Cardiopulmonary function training together with breathing training means completing cardiopulmonary function training synchronously during breathing rhythm training.
Running posture training, once proficient, can also be done together with the above two.
But before proficiency, paying attention to correcting running posture while also minding breathing rhythm would lead to neglecting one for the other.
Chen Jun wanted the best training effect, so he decided to train them separately for the first two days.
The sweaty night training thus kicked off.
