Fartlek (Read 922 times)

Do people do this anymore, This is a serious question At the club last night this was our session not done fartlek in a long time quite enjoyed it in a strange way. But i was wondering you don't see it in schedules anymore doesn't it have an importance anymore, because it can be as tough as you make it. I guess its all Intervals and tempo runs. Just wondering what others think of it or is it just an old raining method peeps don't do anymore

It's terminology. Call it intervals, striders or Fartlek. On the track intervals tend to be more formal with specific times and paces for recoveries. But when it's on a trail it might be striders or Fartlek with less regimen.

milerBonnie good going Thats what we did last night. 1,2,3 minutes then 3,2,1 minutes with half recoveries hen further 1 minute efforts It was good fun in a group. Oh yes i'll keep it going. definiely keep it at a once a week job

The best about fartlek i like is there is pratically no rules you make it up as you go along. Run hard to hat tree, or lamppost. I used to at times race boats on the river to a certain point - Fun

Yep, I do them and the schedule I used when learning the basics had them. They're a great way to get some increased cardio or leg speed when running in an unstructured environment - like trails.

Sounds interesting

my coach told us its German for speed training

Actually, fartlek is Swedish for 'speed play.' Yeah, I like doing fartleks. They're easy to do, regardless of where you're at. I like the unstructured style. It takes a lot of the pressure off of hitting a certain pace for a certain distance. When I'm on the track, I feel like I "have" to hit certain splits, because that's what my training schedule says I should run on that day. With fartlek, I can just run them by feel, which helps if I'm kind of tired that day, and can pretty much forget about the stopwatch. It doesn't tie me to the track, either. Sometimes, I'll do those on the roads, sometimes on the trails at the State Park, sometimes on the rivergreenway, just wherever I feel like running. I had never heard of Tabata intervals until today, but I have seen similar running programs. The rest interval was longer, but it was still the same idea. Hit it hard, shut it down before lactic acid has a chance to build up, short jog rest, repeat.

Thats what we did last night. 1,2,3 minutes then 3,2,1 minutes with half recoveries hen further 1 minute efforts It was good fun in a group.

Sorry to nitpick, but that's not really a fartlek, because it's so structured. That's a time-based interval session. The point of fartlek, as I understand it, is the randomness - the lack of structure. (Speed play) Run hard for a some undetermined amount. Recover for some random distance. Repeat for some unplanned number of times. Have fun with it. Try different paces. Go with the flow. I like the "run to the next streetlight" thing that someone mentioned. I used to run telephone poles back in the day. It's also fun to do farlek on a rolling hilly course. Blast the uphills. Recover on the downhills. Uptempo on the flats. Or just run randomly hard/easy and let the terrain do the work for you.