Fartlek – No, It’s NOT a Dirty Word
Fartlek.
I KNOW, I KNOW!!
It sounds like a dirty word, doesn’t it? LOL
Well, I hate to ruin your fun, but it’s actually a Swedish word that means “Speed Play“. And it’s an effective way of increasing your running speed or improving your endurance.
Fartlek is a form of interval training but with some differences.
The basic concept of interval training is to do short bursts of fast running alternating with slower bouts of mild jogging or “recovery” intervals. The thing that makes Fartlek different than conventional interval training is that there is no set format for times or distances of the intervals, it is completely unstructured.
Another difference is that Fartlek is intended for road, path or trail “distance” running (as opposed to going back and forth over the same part of a path over and over, as is the case in most forms of interval training).
Fartlek training is a great way to increase both your aerobic and anaerobic capabilities as well as your lactic thresholds. And, it’s a very flexible way of incorporating interval training into distance running.
However, Fartlek is mostly intended for advanced runners.
In Fartlek training, the runner increases or decreases their running speed for short amounts of time. However, determining when they should increase or decrease speeds is decided solely by the runner themselves, in the moment.
This allows the runner to be more in touch with their own feelings and responses to the harder intervals and decide for themselves when it is time to take a slower interval. The runner is also in charge of when they’ve had enough ‘recovery’ and should start a harder, fast run interval again.
Fartlek is intended mostly for advanced runners because as mentioned, there is no set format to follow so this requires total honesty and committment by the runner to ensure they’re actually getting a hard workout.
There’s no timer telling the runner to go fast or slow … no coach or specified distance that determines the speed changes, only the runner determines it for themselves as they go.
Another interesting thing about Fartlek is that it allows for more experimentation than traditional timed intervals. The runner can change their pace whenever they feel like it, which allows for much more freedom with trying intervals of varying lengths and speeds.
But just because Fartlek is designed for advanced runners doesn’t mean that the average runner can’t take advantage of this technique.
An average runner can incorporate Fartlek into their routines by choosing random items along their path as ‘goal-posts’ where they promise themselves they will change their pace.
The runner might choose a tree that’s up in the distance or a bend in the road, or another jogger up ahead and tell themselves “When I reach that marker, I will increase my pace until I hit that next marker, then I can go slow again“, and continue choosing markers along their path as they go (this eliminates the need for the “total honesty” that advanced runners must have when they’re doing Fartlek without markers).
As well, average runners can use this technique to become more in touch with themselves as a runner.
Because it allows for so much experimentation, doing Fartlek can help less advanced runners become aware of things like how long it takes their breathing to become more difficult at faster paces, or how much faster their pace needs to be in order to get a harder cardiovascular workout.
The runner can also experiment and learn things like how wide their stride is at certain paces as well as other physical changes that occur at different speeds, lengths of intervals, etc.
This new-found knowledge can then help them become more advanced runners.
Fartlek training is a fun and easy way to incorporate interval training into your running routines as well as getting you a harder and more beneficial workout on your regular long endurance runs.
I do it all the time and always have a great time pushing myself and testing my limits to see how much faster, stronger and better I can be from one session to the next.
So get out there and start testing yourself, too!
Have a fit, fun and fantastic day.
Girlwithnoname
7693
June 23rd, 2010 at 12:12 pm
fartlek is even more fun if you run with a friend. one decides the pace and duration (and route) and the other has to follow :) And then you get revenge.,.. I mean … you know… switch.
June 23rd, 2010 at 12:21 pm
I love the Fartlek training method. Thanks for the excellent write-up about it.
In high school cross-country, we used to do Fartleks while literally running across the fields and woods in our neighborhood. We would sometimes choose to sprint up the hills and sometimes choose to sprint down the hills — using the peak or valley as a goal. It does require motivation, honesty and commitment as GWNN describes — probably more motivation, honesty and commitment than the average high school student has. I don’t think that our stopping and eating of wild Concord grapes is part of the technique. ;D
(Although, that did come in handy. When I ran the original Marathon from Marathon, Greece to the Acropolis in Athens, I sustained myself during the day by eating the grapes growing along the roadside.)
June 23rd, 2010 at 4:12 pm
LOL Wazzup, that sounds like a fine idea to me!
David, thanks as always for sharing your experiences!!
June 24th, 2010 at 11:48 am
Fantastic post. I love to use Fartlek when I run. Otherwise I get bored out of my mind. It works on the treadmill. In the summer months, it’s too hot and humid here to run outside.