what is the best fartlek?

pjb wrote:

The best fartlek is to throw down a surge whenever the urge strikes you. Make it as fast and long as you feel like. Repeat throughout the run as desired. Leave the watch at home.

For the most part, I totally agree with this post. For the experienced runner, you are running the faster parts to achieve some effect in the body. It requires knowledge and experience as well as some idea of what happens to the body at different paces.

For instance, if the focus is lactate threshold work to increase the ability to handle the blood acidity from using the anaerobic energy system, the fartlek workout might be approached something like this:

- After warming up well, gradually increase the pace faster than tempo run pace, and slower than interval pace.

- Maintain this pace until the desired amount of muscular weakness is achieved. This should be more weakness than is felt during a properly executed tempo run.

- Slow the pace down to distance run pace or slower to bring the musclular acidity back to a level typically felt during a distance run.

- Repeat as desired.

The two main advantages of this type of approach to "lactic threshold" work is that it involves faster running than a tempo run, and allows for a more acidic state during the fast parts, and more recovery during the slower parts. In other words, more stress-recovery training cycles.

The disadvantage to this type of workout is that it is very individualized, and not compatible in a team environment.

When I lived in Norway I was taught that fartlek was totally intuitive or instinctive. There was no set schedule other than starting off easier and picking up the pace with shorter quicker distances as you went. The determining factors were how you felt at the time along with the terrain and footing. The way I was coached you would determine the success of a particular fartlek training session by how you felt at the completion. You should feel invigorated and not exhausted. Obviously this is not something you learn overnight and I believe some people never learn how to take full advantage of what fartlek has to offer.

As a sidebar, I believe there is something lost in the English translation. In Norway and Sweden there was as much emphasis on "lek" or play, as there was on "fart", speed or motion. In Norwegian or Swedish, fart is a word used to describe motion, and it can be either slow, fast or any velocity in between. The word for "speed" in Norwegian is "hurtig" or "hurtighet". So to be correctly translated, from a running perspective, the English term should actually be "motion" or "velocity variation" play.

Hope this helps you discover a very enjoyable and beneficial way to train.

All the best. - Bartman

I've always been partial to 3 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy.

Makes it simple to know when to start and stop, and to keep track of the number of reps.

Thank you Bartman, that is an excellent explanation. The best I have ever read.

wellnow wrote:

pjb wrote:

The best fartlek is to throw down a surge whenever the urge strikes you. Make it as fast and long as you feel like. Repeat throughout the run as desired. Leave the watch at home.

'Correct. In fact you are the only poster so far who understands what a fartlek is.

Agreed, some of the posters here are just describing intervals or reps.

Brilliant post Bartman. Makes me want to go out and run right now.

Tanner wrote:

What is a good fartlek besides 1 on and 1 off?

The one that your body responds to the best.

I used Google for "Holmer +fartlek" and got some good hits. This site has some good info:

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/training_for_running/110900

Fartlek has been defined as "off-the-track interval training." This correctly conveys the notion that fartlek is change-of-pace running, though I think rigid routines like 3min on/2min off get pretty far from the spirit of fartlek. [Still, I think there's a place for both "go as you feel" and more structured fartlek. The former typically calls for a good amount of experience and self-knowledge, plus the self-discipline to make the session strenuous enough to be invigorating, but not so hard or prolonged as to be exhausting. Newcomers, especially, can probably benefit from more structure, to get the feel of the workout.] In any case, fartlek is *not* a steady distance run with the occasional pickup. That's a distance run. I used to object strenuously to Dellinger's use of "fartlek" as a synonym for "going out for a distance run."

One important point from the early days of fartlek is that it typically included varied terrain. You can get a good session without actually being on forest trails, but if you're running it on dead-flat surfaces you're not likely to get the full benefit. As an example:

"Here’s Holmer’s first developed Fartlek workout:

Warmup: easy running for 5 to 10 minutes.

Steady, hard speed for 1.5–2 km; like a long repetition.

Recovery: rapid walking for about 5 minutes.

Start of speed work: easy running interspersed with sprints of about 50–60 m, repeated until a little tired.

Easy running with three or four “quick steps” now and then (simulating suddenly speeding up to avoid being overtaken by another runner).

Full speed uphill for 175–200 m.

Fast pace for 1 minute.

The whole routine is then repeated until the total time prescribed on the training schedule has elapsed."

From:

http://www.joggerslife.com/2009/fartlekkkkkkscuse-me/

Of course, on this board the notion that a session could include walking is anathema to many people, even though rapid walking (as in the example above) is probably a more "natural" human movement than dead-slow recovery jogging is. If you can break away from the "must run every single step" mindset, you can incorporate other useful activity in a fartlek session, such as moving sideways with carioca or slidestep; backward running; and skipping and bounding. (Try high-knees skipping uphill for 100m or so, and see whether you've gotten some useful conditioning!) In a good fartlek session, the essential thing is to be playful and creative.

I tried one of those 'spontaneous fartleks' on a run today.

I usually head off way too fast and find it hard to slow down, but i did about 1k fast 4 times during a 10k run.

Felt good. Cheers guys!

Is fartlek training on the road a more specific race preparation stimulus ( for road racing ) than say running intervals on a flat track?

For instance, if I run based on feel and do 8 x 3 minutes strong / 2 minutes easy as part of a 90 minute run on the roads am I training more specifically for road races because of the surface and hills, etc on the roads?

Wouldn't fartlek ( i.e. whistle drills, etc. ) on a golf course or wooded loop also be more specific for cross country training than mile repeats on the track?

I realize the 3 / 2 example is not "true" fartlek but I wanted to see what others felt on this issue.

2 on 1 off

4 on 2 off

6 on 3 off

8 on 4 off

6 on 3 off

4 on 2 off

2 on 1 off

MHSXCRUNNER wrote:

The workout our coach usually has us do and I do by myself is 60 minutes in total, 4 minutes off 1 minute on at basically a sprint pace. The key is to keep the recovery parts as fast as you can.

I prefer to go .4 miles off and .1 on.

Does it bother any of you that so many people incorrectly described what a fartlek is?

Tanner wrote:

What is a good fartlek besides 1 on and 1 off?

I like doing 50 x (20 seconds on/ 20 seconds off)

"On" is a slight uptick in pace, "off" is regular easy pace. At first, it's easy, but after halfway, the accumulation of lactic acid becomes noticeable.

I'm no expert, but I think this workout is a threshold type of run - mostly about using lactate as fuel during the very short recoveries

15 x alternating 2 minutes at 4:30 pace and 2 minutes at 6 minute pace. That gets you about 11 miles in 60 minutes.

Disko Eric wrote:

Does it bother any of you that so many people incorrectly described what a fartlek is?

The definition of the term has morphed and fartlek doesn't mean what it used to mean.

consider this wrote:

Disko Eric wrote:

Does it bother any of you that so many people incorrectly described what a fartlek is?

The definition of the term has morphed and fartlek doesn't mean what it used to mean.

What is yuur definition?

I used to run a kind of fartlek that I called tempo intervals but that was modeled on the Mono fartlek (named after Steve Moneghetti). I did it on a stretch of empty country road that gave me a straight three-mile stretch.

I'd set my Garmin to alarm at .25 mile intervals. I'd alternate hard quarters and float-to-tempo quarters. The hard intervals would be about 3K pace--faster than the 5K pace I was hoping to run, certainly, and as fast as 1500 meter pace. Definitely into Vo2max territory by the end, but smooth.

The float-to-tempo quarters would begin fairly slow, somewhere in easy-pace territory, with an eye on HR, but the moment my HR came down to 85% or so, I'd stabilize and then slowly pick it up, working that sub-threshold territory until it was time for the next hard interval.

I'd alternate like that for 2.5 miles. The final float-to-tempo interval, from 2.25 to 2.5 miles, would then be followed by a hard final .5 miles at a pace more like 5K pace--a bit slower than the hard intervals, but still hard--and held for a full half mile.

This workout didn't just give a great training stimulus somewhat different from, and complementary to, a regular 3 mile tempo run over the same course, but that final half mile gave me a chance to stabilize, when tired, at a 5K race pace that felt like ACTUAL 5K race pace, then hold it all the way through to the finish. Great race prep, in other words. Callusing the mind.

Here's the Mono fartlek that I (very) freely adapted my workout from:

https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/training/change-up-your-run-with-the-moneghetti-fartlek/

Repeat 1600s out in lane 3, really try to turn over and get that SPEED going so you can feel in in the race.