Good Fartlek Workouts LOOK

Hard the easy time in ( )

10 (5) 8 (4) 6 (3) 5 (2) 4 (2) 3 (1) 2 (1) 1 .

Long, good effort. Almost 40 minutes worth of quality.

Mono-fartlek - 20 minutes of running alternating between marathon pace and 5k pace.

2 X (1:30 hard, 1:30 float)

4 X (1:00 hard, 1:00 float)

4 X (:30 hard, :30 float)

4 X (:15 hard, :15 float)

float = Marathon pace (or equivalant)

hard = 5k pace

Sounds easy, but you will be gasping for air during those final :15 seconds bursts (assuming you keep your float at a decent pace).

Aren't set workouts exactly what fartlek is not? Those workouts are intervals that you do not run on a track.

no more cocoa wrote:

Aren't set workouts exactly what fartlek is not? Those workouts are intervals that you do not run on a track.

What this guy said. My favorite is run fast for as long or far as I want, then run easy/slow for as long or far as I want. Repeat as many times as I want.

Precisely.It's amazing how people still ignore the difference. I think many runners are almost intimidated by the thought of freely running how they want and/or feel.It's like freeing captive animal only to see it crawl back in its prison for fear of the wilderness.There was one character in Wings of Freedom who was kinda like that once the term expired and he was free to go.

no more cocoa wrote:

Aren't set workouts exactly what fartlek is not? Those workouts are intervals that you do not run on a track.

Well maybe he didn't label the thread correctly, but since he gave an example of what he was looking for, I think the thread can still be useful. I mean a true fartlek thread is kinda pointless isn't it?

I run fast, then slow, then fast. repeat until you don't.

no more cocoa wrote:

Aren't set workouts exactly what fartlek is not? Those workouts are intervals that you do not run on a track.

Bang on

4x(2 hard, 2 reg pace, 2x1 hard, 1 reg pace, 4x30 hard, 30 reg pace)

1 hard, 2 easy, 2 hard, 3 easy, 3 hard, 4 easy, 4 hard, 3 easy, 3 hard, 2 easy, 2 hard, 1 easy, 1 hard

no more cocoa wrote:

Aren't set workouts exactly what fartlek is not? Those workouts are intervals that you do not run on a track.

Well yeah but you really didn't expect any common sense on the board did you?

my favorite fartlek that we did in college was along a canal bank next to a busy road. we would run with the flow of traffic so we could not see the cars until they passed us. we would then pick a color. when a car that color passed we had to run hard hard. we would then run easy we another car of that same color passed us. we would keep repeating, sometimes picking new colors.

this "workout" was usually done in the off season just to break up the monotony.

Of course the thread is useful. It's about running interesting workouts. Nobody said the contrary.

It might be even good for the OP to get his definitions straightened out. Especially in light of wanting to be specific about something while misnaming it. Cool.

Neither anger nor denigration here.

Maybe there's a difference between "structured fartlek" and "unstructured fartlek."

yes again.

As it means "speed play" if that's the way you like to play (decide beforehand the whole workout in minutes) that's still a fartlek.

But i am arguing against myself as an anti-assholism exercise that should be practiced more by the general population.

What likely captures the true essence of a farlek is more closely resembled incorporating random motivational elements, for example like the poster described with the automobile color scheme. It should be unpredictable and improvizational. As in "lets run to that tree", no "to the lake", "for the first three lines of somewhere over the rainbow" suddenyl to the right at medium speed, down the hill slow, for 5 traffic lights sprint and then start again at the fountain, run in lane 5 fast, then in lane three slow when i blow the whistle, across the grass for 15 seconds...ect ect, alne or in a group playing tag...decided right there and then...

That should be a fartlek.

I guess if you decide it before hand it could still be a fartlek but its like going to a sunday blues neigborhood jam session and deciding everything you are going to play before hand.

The emphasis should be on play.

Fartlek is like trolling at its very best.

no more cocoa wrote:Aren't set workouts exactly what fartlek is not? Those workouts are intervals that you do not run on a track.

Wrong. The term "interval" refers to a rest period. There is no rest during a fartlek session. Class dismissed.

Someone is going to have to break it to the Kenyans that they are doing their fartlek all "wrong."

When I was doing fartleks this past winter, the big change I made was hitting the recoveries fairly hard. I think that made a huge difference, as opposed to the slow jog that I used to do. It allowed my fast intervals to be faster, and I got some great extended efforts out of it. I agree with what people say about the whole fartlek thing being spontaneous, but fartleks are supposed to be done with other people, and it's hard to coordinate a huge group (such as the kind on my team, where workout groups can reach 10-15 people) with, 'let's stop at that tree!' In this case, intervals are really nice because don't require that everyone know what's going on exactly.

You might want to ask Henry Rono about that.

Officer Notta Jag wrote:

Someone is going to have to break it to the Kenyans that they are doing their fartlek all "wrong."