Resource for more information or explanation on Fartleks?

bigDaddyRoy wrote:

I know the word is often misused, but I am talking about the modern definition of what many believe a fartlek is today. Something like 20 x 2 hard:1 Easy.

What I am looking for is a resource that lays out the different purposes and stimulus created by different fartlek workouts.

For example - 15 x 1 hard:1 easy is a very different stimulus than 15 x 1 hard: 1 steady and you would progress them differently. Is there anywhere I can find this discussed more comprehensively?

I think fartleks are one of the most underutilized training methods in Western Training. Many people have this idea that if it is a Fartlek, it is an "easier" workout, which is most definitely not true.

Early in the season, think about workouts you would typically do on a track or measured course. Convert the rest and and running efforts to time and just go run it by effort.

Allows you to run by effort and get fit without limits or constraints and allows your to run on varied courses.

bigDaddyRoy wrote:

I know the word is often misused, but I am talking about the modern definition of what many believe a fartlek is today. Something like 20 x 2 hard:1 Easy.

What I am looking for is a resource that lays out the different purposes and stimulus created by different fartlek workouts.

For example - 15 x 1 hard:1 easy is a very different stimulus than 15 x 1 hard: 1 steady and you would progress them differently. Is there anywhere I can find this discussed more comprehensively?

Fartlek literally translates to "speed play". Don't over-complicate it. When you feel like running fast, you run fast, and when you don't feel like running fast anymore, you slow down. There shouldn't be any number associated with it, just pick up the pace, hold it for however long you want, and slow back down. They can be different efforts/durations for each rep. Its not supposed to be an organized workout, its supposed to be fun. That's how I've always viewed them anyway.

stick man wrote:

Fartlek literally translates to "speed play". Don't over-complicate it. When you feel like running fast, you run fast, and when you don't feel like running fast anymore, you slow down. There shouldn't be any number associated with it, just pick up the pace, hold it for however long you want, and slow back down. They can be different efforts/durations for each rep. Its not supposed to be an organized workout, its supposed to be fun. That's how I've always viewed them anyway.

+1. Well explained. It is not an organized workout in any way.

Sometimes tempo runs that aren't working out for me on that particular day become fartleks for the rest of the run. :)

lollerama wrote:

stick man wrote:

Fartlek literally translates to "speed play". Don't over-complicate it. When you feel like running fast, you run fast, and when you don't feel like running fast anymore, you slow down. There shouldn't be any number associated with it, just pick up the pace, hold it for however long you want, and slow back down. They can be different efforts/durations for each rep. Its not supposed to be an organized workout, its supposed to be fun. That's how I've always viewed them anyway.

+1. Well explained. It is not an organized workout in any way.

Sometimes tempo runs that aren't working out for me on that particular day become fartleks for the rest of the run. :)

ha, have definitely done the same thing. Some easy runs have turned into fartleks too. Running isn't complicated.

Two kinds of fartlek runs:

Finnish type where you surge by feel and Kenyan type where it is basically just timed intervals.

Libertarian vegan wrote:

Two kinds of fartlek runs:

Finnish type where you surge by feel and Kenyan type where it is basically just timed intervals.

Disagree only the first is a "fartlek". Let's find a Kenyan word for what they do an use it.

What we need is less confusion about terms, not more.

I was referring to what people in Kenya/ most people today call a fartlek runs. People today believe it is timed intervals. When the original workout that was called a fartlek run was just surging be feel. Today what people call fartlek runs are just timed intervals.

You can do all types of fartleks. Run 8 miles on a rolling country road and run all the downhills fast recovering on the uphills. The next week, run the uphills hard. If you listen to music, run hard for one song and recover for another. (Be careful during those 8 minute songs!) If you are in a town, run hard for 3 driveways and recover the next 3 driveways. Run hard for a bit every time you see a white car. There are an infinite number of possibilities.

People are talking about two types of fartleks here.

Calling a fartlek "time intervals" and saying it is not a fartlek, is like saying vegetable lasagna is not lasagna because the original was made with meat.

Both are fartleks. One is the original, the "pure fartlek". The other is a "structured fartlek".

You can do all the speed play you want in the second type, especially when running on hilly ground. All you do is control the time you will be spending running fast and nott so fast.

OP, fartleks can serve a number of purposes.

Some types have already been mentioned here. Peter Coe, for example, suggests a type of hill workout done as a fartlek, where you run on undulating/hilly ground and speed up on the uphills. This can have short hills where you go all out and long hills, where you must pace yourself.

You can, for example, do a fartlek on top of tempo pace. If you are a runner who competes for place, running at tempo pace and then doing 30s-1min surges (coming back to tempo pace for "recovery") will prepare you to surge and to respond to surges in races.

You can do 10x1min very fast and jog the recoveries and you will be doing almost the same as a 300m+ track workout.

You can do 3x8min for tempo work.

The great thing about fartlek is that you can be very creative.

But you have to be honest with yourself and run hard. Like the other post said, fartleks are not supposed to be easy workouts.

Read anything by Percy Cerutty who based his training around the fartlek principle because he did not believe that any coach could lay down in advance what an athlete should do for training that day. The emphasis in the training varied from which period of training was being undertaken "conditioning", "race practice" or the racing season but the basic idea remained the same; run hard when you feel like it, run easy when you feel you need to. But as he said "mostly we feel like running hard"!

"Structured fartlek" is like saying "married bachelor".