The Mona

Heading down to the track tonight to coach the weekly threshold session down there for the Stadium Tri Club. It will be interesting to see just how many people turn up as today we have had all sorts of awful weather. It is clearing now, but in my experience people tend to be turned off by bad weather no matter when during the day it occurs.

Hopefully people come along though because I think we have a bit of a good session planned. On the agenda for tonight is the classic Mona Fartlek.

The Mona Fartlek is becoming a bit of an institution among running groups, becoming a staple session in many countries around the world. The session is named after famous Australian Marathon runner Steve Moneghetti and the story goes it was devised with his coach as a training session to help him combat pace surges in a marathon. As with all fartlek sessions the core of the session is based on changes of pace, with the Mona Fartlek these pace changes come at ever decreasing intervals. The session is made up of

• 2 x 90 seconds on/90 seconds off
• 4 x 60 seconds on/60 seconds off
• 4 x 30 seconds on/30 seconds off
• 4 x 15 seconds on/15 seconds off

Whenever you see it written down it never looks that bad, after all it is only 20 minutes long. However, when done at full intensity it can be very, very tough. 

I say full intensity because that is one of the nice things about this session, it can really be whatever you need it to be. If you are fully flying fit and in race form then the ons can be a bit above threshold and the offs are a bit below. When done this way the session is a great threshold workout, ticking all the boxes for helping improve anaerobic threshold. However, this session is also nicely adaptable. If you are new to running, or returning to fitness then the ons can be around tempo and the offs can be pretty steady. Really the session can be whatever people need it to be. 

I introduced the session to the Stadium Tri group a few months ago and at the time most of them had never heard of the Mona Fartlek. Tonight will be our second time through the session and hopefully it is as popular this time as it was last when people really enjoyed the challenge of the tough 20 minute session. I am also hoping that people will remember how the last Mona went so they can use that session as a bit of a benchmark. The Mona is a great session for judging progress as you will travel further the fitter and quicker you become, which is exactly how Moneghetti used to use it. 

All up it is going to be a tough night of running, with some miserable weather to go with it. However, for those that come down and make the effort, hopefully we can provide them with an enjoyable and rewarding experience.