Is Fartlek Dead?

1-2 "true" fartleks per week (start running for 1-2 minutes, then each person alternates picking a random landmark to stop at, alternate calling the rest interval) plus 1-2 fast finish runs (8-12 mile progressive run with last 3-5 at 1/2 marathon pace-ish) per week is the classic washed post college guy workout schedule. Great for when you want to stay relatively fit and race 2-3 times per month without thinkng about periodization, training plans, splits, or "goal races".

Yes, I am aware that there are more efficient ways to train. But these runs are easy enough that you can (a) race a LOT, and (b) actually workout with guys that are a fair bit slower or faster than you. If you are just trying to race and be social, unstructured fartleks and randomly finishing runs fast simply can't be beat.

One of the greatest exercises any athlete can do. Perfect to do when you are going easy or going hard.

and that kind of uneducated training keeps your athletes from improving or worse yet, gets them injured.

8x 3:00 (1:30) fartlek "as you feel"

Vs.

8x 1km or 800m @ the appropriate pace with the correct rest ratio

"Pushing as hard as you feel" is just setting your athletes up for failure and making you look like an uneducated coach. It's not "anal" it is just science.

Fartlek training is just filler for “I don’t have a training plan.”

Why?

So what is the actual difference between a fartlek and an interval workout.

Is it fartleks are time based while intervals are distance based?
Is it fartleks have running rest while intervals have walking/standing rest?
Is it that the ratio between fast/recovery is higher for intervals and lower for fartleks?-

The original meaning of a fartlek was: a run with unstructured surges. You might be running along and then decide to run hard to the next light pole, then jog for a bit to recover and then run hard to the tree that's 300m in the distance, and so on.

But likely through a process of gradual misuse, the term has shifted to mean: timed intervals where you jog/float the timed recoveries.

There are purists (such as the one's on this board), that won't concede this. But it's very clearly demonstrated in the way the term is commonly used on this board and in the wider running community.

“Unstructured” is the problem with fartleks. Aka, undisciplined, unregulated, unmoderated. It’s not modern training; rather, it’s just exercise or play.

Nope. So many of you are missing the point, which is that by doing an unstructred workout, you aren't forcing yourself to complete each segment of fast running, because you are free to stop before you fatigue.

Self coached runners are more likely to understand the concept because they are free to think for themselves rather than being told what to do.

You ain’t using science if you’re not shoving lactate and heart rate monitors up your athletes’ asses.

I agree with this, but think it is the whole point and sometimes actually a good thing depending on the circumstances. Not everyone wants the optimized training they had in college. Fartleks are perfect for casually racing a lot and running with lots of buddies of varying ability levels.

In its original form the difference was that fartlek was based only on running as hard as you wanted to for as long as you wanted to and as often as you wanted to. An interval workout was where you planned to run hard for specific distances and for a specific number of repeats. It didn't matter if that was time based or distance based. Either was an interval workout. Over time many people decided that a repetition workout done away from the track over specific amounts of time was a fartlek session. I'm not going to get into semantics here. I'd suggest we call one variation "classical fartlek" and the other variation something like "timed fartlek."

I suggest the second type be called “notta fartlek”

Wow. I'm pretty offended by this. You are not nice.

I'm not uneducated and have had many successful (injury free) athletes. Multiple team and individual state champions and state records.

Wow, so much for an "elite running forum". 3 pages of explaining fartlek and most explainations are wrong, and the handful of correct-ish ones are dismissed out of retarded contrarianism "bUt tHat'S JuSt InTeRvAls"

Go on a jog with a 2-3 of your friends approximately the same level as you. Alternatively, each person in the group picks up the pace for the speed and distance/duration of their choosing. That's fartlek.

You can also do it alone in principle, but imo it loses its main benefits which are (1) to be fun, (2) to make you run at paces you probably wouldn't touch if you always chose the pace yourself.

Anything else isn't fartlek.

Yes. Fartlek, at least as it was originally defined (Homer fartlek), is spontaneous (hence the translation "speed play").

For example, if I decide to run "hard" (perceived exertion) to the third telephone pole down the road in the middle of a 10 miler, that's fartlek.

Or if I decide to sprint up the next hill in the middle of a long run, that's fartlek.

The meaning of the term has become less precise over the years, though, as often happens with any language.

I remember being surprised the first time I heard Kenyans refer to their weekly sessions of 10 x 2 min on/1 min off as fartlek sessions.

Note the use of the phrase "run fast when the instinct moved them" in the excerpt below from the Wikipedia entry for fartlek.

Someone else who doesn't understand fartlek.t.

I love it when Letsrun argues over something as stupid as what a Fartlek is.

I fart every day