Doing fartlek where it is untimed and you don't run a set distance

Fartleks aren't supposed to be timed, set distance periods of fast running. The entire run is just supposed to be more or less random, to put it in simple terms. You run fast when you feel like it.

Yeah, I do it all the time. Near where I live there is a trail about 10 miles long of rolling hills and I usually surge by feel usually attacking the hills hard.

Early-season speed work. wrote:

Anyone ever did a fartlek workout, where it was untimed and not a set distance? Example, you ran hard for three light post and jogged for one.

That's what fartlek is.

Can you get faster with unstructured workouts?

Early-season speed work. wrote:

Anyone ever did a fartlek workout, where it was untimed and not a set distance? Example, you ran hard for three light post and jogged for one.

I agree with those above - if the workout is any more structured than you indicated, then it isn't a fartlek.

It's odd, but some people think that if you run, say, 6x2min hard with 2min easy, this is magically a fartlek only because the workout is not on a track. This would be a traditional interval workout, regardless of the surface (grassy park, flat road, hilly trail, etc.).

Fartleks should be fun - run hard as you like! Enjoy the feeling of running hard when you want, and resting as you like.

Faster than wrote:

Can you get faster with unstructured workouts?

Of course you can. Whether you'll get as fast as you would doing structured workouts is debatable but as long as you're running enough you can get faster on unstructured workouts. That's really all Gunder Hagg did and he was just above 4:00 for the mile and just under 14:00 for the 5,000. Would he have been faster if he'd had more structure? Again, maybe. But he also might have been faster if he'd done a lot more volume in addition to his fartlek sessions.

what you're describing is a true fartlek. Speed-play. What most people call fartleks are really just timed interval workouts. At it's core, the fartlek is kind of supposed to be spontaneous and adding structure to it defeats the purpose.

I love that the fartlek truthers are out in force for every fartlek thread. Language has meaning because we give it meaning. It doesn't really matter whether the word used to only encompass unstructured speed "play", that's not the case anymore.

AndyDufresne2 wrote:

I love that the fartlek truthers are out in force for every fartlek thread. Language has meaning because we give it meaning. It doesn't really matter whether the word used to only encompass unstructured speed "play", that's not the case anymore.

Ssshhh little boy. In a perfect dissection of your ramble: your words are just words and have no meaning to me.

Fartlek has a defined meaning. Idiot.

AndyDufresne2 wrote:

I love that the fartlek truthers are out in force for every fartlek thread. Language has meaning because we give it meaning. It doesn't really matter whether the word used to only encompass unstructured speed "play", that's not the case anymore.

Hhmmmm. It's a Swedish word. It means speed play. In running parlance it is an unstructured workout. Live with it. Idiot.

Ass handed. Lol.

@Andy, thankfully, it's not yours to redefine the Swedish word. Thanks for portraying the progressive for whom facts don't matter.

AndyDufresne2 wrote:

I love that the fartlek truthers are out in force for every fartlek thread. Language has meaning because we give it meaning. It doesn't really matter whether the word used to only encompass unstructured speed "play", that's not the case anymore.

Yes, language has meaning because we give it meaning. And part of the meaning we gave tot he word "fartlek" was that it's unstructured. That allows us to distinguish the sort of session the OP asked about from a session like 10 x 2 minutes with a one minute recovery.

AndyDufresne2 wrote:

I love that the fartlek truthers are out in force for every fartlek thread. Language has meaning because we give it meaning. It doesn't really matter whether the word used to only encompass unstructured speed "play", that's not the case anymore.

Should their and there become interchangeable now because that's how most people (incorrectly) use them in day to day life?

We have different words for different things so that we can differentiate them.

HRE wrote:

AndyDufresne2 wrote:

I love that the fartlek truthers are out in force for every fartlek thread. Language has meaning because we give it meaning. It doesn't really matter whether the word used to only encompass unstructured speed "play", that's not the case anymore.

Yes, language has meaning because we give it meaning. And part of the meaning we gave tot he word "fartlek" was that it's unstructured. That allows us to distinguish the sort of session the OP asked about from a session like 10 x 2 minutes with a one minute recovery.

I've seen nearly every top coach refer to a time structured workout as a fartlek.

If you guys want to fight this battle I'm not the one you need to convince to stop using the word in that way.

I can't help but lol at how seriously people take this word. I also don't think it's at all useful for prescribing a workout in it's original meaning. It's greatest use is riling up message board posters.

AndyDufresne2 wrote:

I can't help but lol at how seriously people take this word. I also don't think it's at all useful for prescribing a workout in it's original meaning.

I agree. I gotta go now, I'm off to do a tempo. I call it an interval session.

DietBacon wrote:

Should their and there become interchangeable now because that's how most people (incorrectly) use them in day to day life?

We have different words for different things so that we can differentiate them.

Do you honestly think most people confuse these words? Because I don't.

Coaches are as capable of using a word incorrectly as anyone else is. How would you distinguish between an unstructured session and a 10 x 2:00 minute one?

AndyDufresne2 wrote:

I've seen nearly every top coach refer to a time structured workout as a fartlek.

Can you provide an example of a "top coach" calling a time structured workout a fartlek? I'm not saying that they don't exist; I'm just surprised any top coach would use the term incorrectly.