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.
No, the problem is you have a lot of old pompous jackasses here, most of whom don’t even run who get hung up on silly semantics.
Like we don’t know the origin of the Fartlek as “speed play.”
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.
No, the problem is you have a lot of old pompous jackasses here, most of whom don’t even run who get hung up on silly semantics.
Like we don’t know the origin of the Fartlek as “speed play.”
Stop whinin. You just demonstrated that you don't understand it.
I still make my team do fartleks, especially off season and early season. I see them as a great way to let athletes push themselves as hard as they feel they are ready for while being a great stimulus for aerobic development.
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.
Found the chode who read a paragraph one time on training theories and now knows everything.
No, the problem is you have a lot of old pompous jackasses here, most of whom don’t even run who get hung up on silly semantics.
Like we don’t know the origin of the Fartlek as “speed play.”
Stop whinin. You just demonstrated that you don't understand it.
I just spoke to Steve Monaghetti. He has read this thread and has decided to change the name of his Fartlek to “The Monaghetti Something Other Than a Fartlek.”
I'd argue that among recreational running groups, they're still the most popular type of workout.
And when I mean fartlek, I'm not talking about the original kind of fartlek (random surges in the middle of a steady run), but rather what the term fartlek has morphed into.
Most groups will still do fast repetitions to time, followed by a timed recovery of easy to steady running. e.g. 10 x 2 minutes fast with a 1 minute float recovery, etc.
That’s not fartlek, that’s an interval workout. Fartlek hasn’t “morphed” it’s been misused/misnamed by ignorant coaches. You can say the same for interval workouts. We need to stop trying to reinvent the wheel.
If you do any intervals with a jogging rest, then you are doing a form of fartlek.
is this satire or do you really have 3 wrong segments in one sentence?
Since another poster used Wikipedia to explain a fartlek, I will also do so. Here is what the first three paragraphs say. They appear to say what I am saying.
Fartlek is a middle and long-distance runner's training approach developed in the late 1930s by Swedish Olympian Gösta Holmér.[1] It has been described as a relatively unscientific blending of continuous training (e.g., long slow distance training), with its steady pace of moderate-high intensity aerobic intensity,[2] and interval training, with its “spacing of more intense exercise and rest intervals.”[3][4] Simply stated, in its widely adapted contemporary forms, Fartlek training is alternating periods of faster and slower running, often over natural terrain, including both “level and hilly terrain.”[3][5][6] While Fartlek training is generally associated with running, it can be incorporated into almost any kind of exercise. The variable intensities and the continuous nature of the exercise stresses both the aerobic and anaerobic parts of the runner's physiology. It differs from traditional interval training by being less structured.[7][8][9] An example of its more modern manifestations in the training of serious runners is found in Mona Fartlek, named for Australian distance runner Steve Moneghetti, devised by Olympian Chris Wardlaw. This training style injects speed into a 20 minute session, pairing alternating periods of effort and recovery: 90 seconds on, 90 seconds off (performed twice), then 60 seconds on-then-off, and 30 seconds on-then-off, and 15 seconds on-then-off (each of these performed four times), generally, with intensity (pace) increasing as the effort period shortens, with the specifics determined by coach and athlete.
The bolded parts agree with what I am saying. They are LESS structured, meaning there is some form of structure. Further, one version has specific times as the rates for each alternating segment, which is exactly what I said.
Stop whinin. You just demonstrated that you don't understand it.
I just spoke to Steve Monaghetti. He has read this thread and has decided to change the name of his Fartlek to “The Monaghetti Something Other Than a Fartlek.”
Well you should tell him that's unnecessary because, as the Wiki article notes, the term "Mona fartlek" is already used to refer to his brand of fartlek.
I just spoke to Steve Monaghetti. He has read this thread and has decided to change the name of his Fartlek to “The Monaghetti Something Other Than a Fartlek.”
Well you should tell him that's unnecessary because, as the Wiki article notes, the term "Mona fartlek" is already used to refer to his brand of fartlek.
Since another poster used Wikipedia to explain a fartlek, I will also do so. Here is what the first three paragraphs say. They appear to say what I am saying.
Fartlek is a middle and long-distance runner's training approach developed in the late 1930s by Swedish Olympian Gösta Holmér.[1] It has been described as a relatively unscientific blending of continuous training (e.g., long slow distance training), with its steady pace of moderate-high intensity aerobic intensity,[2] and interval training, with its “spacing of more intense exercise and rest intervals.”[3][4] Simply stated, in its widely adapted contemporary forms, Fartlek training is alternating periods of faster and slower running, often over natural terrain, including both “level and hilly terrain.”[3][5][6] While Fartlek training is generally associated with running, it can be incorporated into almost any kind of exercise. The variable intensities and the continuous nature of the exercise stresses both the aerobic and anaerobic parts of the runner's physiology. It differs from traditional interval training by being less structured.[7][8][9] An example of its more modern manifestations in the training of serious runners is found in Mona Fartlek, named for Australian distance runner Steve Moneghetti, devised by Olympian Chris Wardlaw. This training style injects speed into a 20 minute session, pairing alternating periods of effort and recovery: 90 seconds on, 90 seconds off (performed twice), then 60 seconds on-then-off, and 30 seconds on-then-off, and 15 seconds on-then-off (each of these performed four times), generally, with intensity (pace) increasing as the effort period shortens, with the specifics determined by coach and athlete.
The bolded parts agree with what I am saying. They are LESS structured, meaning there is some form of structure. Further, one version has specific times as the rates for each alternating segment, which is exactly what I said.
Blah, blah, blah...
Try leaving your watch at home and doing a real Fartlek session.
Well you should tell him that's unnecessary because, as the Wiki article notes, the term "Mona fartlek" is already used to refer to his brand of fartlek.
But Mona fartlek isn't Fartlek
This is correct. If there’s a watch involved, then it’s not a Fartlek.