Do you need to add some variety to your running but don’t like the idea of overly structured workouts? Do you want to improve your speed and endurance but aren’t sure where to start? Are you having trouble finding the ‘right’ workouts to add to your training calendar? You may need to let loose some fartleks. I’ll show you how this simple workout pays huge dividends to your conditioning with little effort or planning.
Your Training Feels Stale or Plateaued
If you’re following a structured training plan, whether it’s something you downloaded or created yourself, it can feel stale at times. You may be at a plateau, not making gains in your conditioning. Maybe you simply cannot face doing another 4×800 or mile repeat workout. Fartleks can be the solution you didn’t know you needed. Let me show you how.
First, What’s a Fartlek?
Fartlek is a Swedish word meaning “speed play”. The basic idea is to mix in fast and slow running periods into your workout session without a rigid structure. You can, and should, vary the distance and pace of each working segment to fit the terrain or your mood.
Where Did Fartleks Come From?
In the late 1930s Gosta Holmer, coach of the Swedish cross country team, coined the term ‘Fartlek’ with a capital F. He was looking for methods to make his team more competitive. His original workouts for his team consisted of “faster-than-race-pace, simultaneous speed/endurance training”.
His original workouts for the team consisted of a total of 12 kilometers running, with up to 5,000 meters being at faster than race pace. The 5,000 meters was a combination of efforts ranging from 40 meters to 2,400 meters at an up tempo pace with a rolling recovery between each. The fartlek started to appear in the US around 1940 and started to become more popular in university settings in the 1960s.
Endurance and Speed Benefits
Mixing fartleks into one of your weekly runs will improve your overall aerobic capacity and running efficiency. This will allow you to run at faster paces for longer periods of time at the same perceived effort level.
- Strength
- Metabolic improvement in fat burning
- Race Day Simulation
- Cardiovascular endurance
- Running Mechanics
- Easily Adaptable
Cautions
Workouts of this type place greater stresses on your muscles and joints than steady-state efforts so you should be thoroughly warmed up before starting. Like other tempo or interval workouts, fartleks shouldn’t be implemented unless you have several weeks of injury-free training with increasing volume and/or intensity behind you. Save these for after you have a solid foundation to work from.
How To
After you have done a thorough warm-up, pick a tree, pole, sign, or rock not far away and run at a faster pace than normal until you reach it. Run a pace that is challenging but allows you to complete the distance without slowing. After you reach your goal, drop back to a jog. Let your breathing and heart rate settle back to their normal running levels. Then do it again. Maybe farther this time, or shorter and a bit faster. Whatever feels right to you. Then rest again. Walk if you need more recovery.
Complete three or four of these fast efforts, mixing up the distance and pace of each. After your last fast interval do a good cool-down to clear any residual lactate from your muscles before you stop moving.
As A Stand-alone workout
Warm up thoroughly – 10-20 minutes
Run a fast interval – 30 seconds to 2 minutes
Recover – 1-3x the length of the fast interval
Repeat 2 or 3 more times
Within a longer run
just mix some faster intervals with recovery sessions into the middle of the run somewhere – after you’re warmed up but before you’re too tired to put in some strong efforts. Finish the long run normally then cool down.
Progression
Fartleks are a good way for a relatively new runner to start to introduce speed workouts into their regular training. Generally, new runners will run x miles at y pace with little variation, other than maybe a short warm up and/or cool down. This workout can be easily implemented and doesn’t require much knowledge to gain some of its benefits.
If you’re a new runner, you should limit the number of repeats to three or four when doing fartleks for the first few times. And limit this workout to once a week or once every other week. Once you’re more fit, increase the number of intervals. You may also choose to do more than one of these sessions in a week but you may benefit more from other types of workouts. You can even mix fartleks into a long run to break up the session, making it more interesting.
What Works for me
I find myself doing fartleks when I’ve had a stressful day and don’t have the mental capacity to complete whatever structured workout might be on the training plan. I’ve done fartleks on the track, road, trail, and even on a treadmill. It isn’t a good substitute for a long run, and won’t take the place of harder interval training but sometimes it’s what you have in the tank or what you’re capable of for the day. It’s better than skipping a workout and may spark your joy so your next workout will be better.
So, let loose with a fartlek! Let me know how it goes.