Best type of fartlek for middle distance runners?

30 second to 2 minute "ON" reps / jogging "OFF" reps duration at your discretion. Usually do that for 20 to 40 minutes.

I like to do them on hilly terrain so the pace isn't the main focus, the feeling is. My goal with a fartlek is to get an endurance workout that's less taxing than a structured one as I dont't have to worry about the pace, recovery or next rep. They're usually 7/10 difficulty.

I agree that shorter reps is better, generally I would say:

Roughly half an hour in length

Reps of 30 seconds up to 5 minutes, mostly in the 1-2 minute range

Rest of less or equal time than the previous rep

Longer reps at roughly 8k/10k pace, shorter reps at roughly 3k/5k pace

An example:

3x(3-2-1) fartlek of 3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 1 off, 1 on, 3 off, then repeat the cycle two more times (skip the last off. 33 minutes of running, 18 on, 15 off. A 4:00 miler should average ~5:20 for the entire workout.

Yesune wrote:

Wich type of fartlek is better for middle distance "

Gosta Homer was about speed during the run.

His fartlek simulates race conditions, to an extent, because the fast paces are followed by slower paces that still require effort while the body recovers from the faster paces.

The surprise is that one's time for distance when running Homer fartlek, e.g. 5 miles, is much faster than almost any other type of training the person does for that distance, but doesn't feel as draining because of the recovery during the slow periods.

The speeding up with short bursts, then slowing as a fast way to run was credited to Lewis "Deerfoot" Bennett, whose racing strategy was followed by Paavo Nurmi.

Therefore, any type of fartlek with speed surges will help, especially short bursts of 50m - 150m, as long as the bursts are persistent through much of the run.

What our HS coach called "Lydiard" fartlek was sustained builds, which we typically did for about 600m, and then held the speed for about 200m more. By my senior year, the CC team was so strong and so fast from the previous track season that we would run at 5:30 pace for less than 1/4 mile, because by the 1/4 mile we were sub 5 pace and four of us would sustain this for 3/4 of a mile, then slow for the 1/4 mile, and then 3/4 mile, etc, for 4 miles within a 7 mile run. We had another runner who was just a few strides behind us. The other varsity (not top 5) were more like 6 min to 5:30 pace in 1/4 of a mile, then sustain 5:30 pace for about 3/4 mile.

That was just before the CC season, and we already had 5 guys who could break 15 minutes for 3 miles.

Perhaps you will find a combination of Homer Fartlek and Lydiard Fartlek as the best path toward your racing goals.

Can be used for TT as well. For example, in HS the dual meets were on Tuesdays, and the bigger meets were typically on Friday evenings or Saturdays. So Tuesday duel meets were used for training. My junior year, a teammate and I (he was a senior and a 9:02 2-miler) ran 90 seconds for a 600m, then floated for 600m, then kicked the last 400m (I just broke 60 seconds on the last 400m, and he was about 61). My time was 4:29 for the mile, faster than a lot of HS runners, especially for a dual meet.

The Gerry Lindgren fartlek is my favorite.

Sprint the first mile all out

Sprint the middle miles

Sprint the last half -mile as if it were the last 100

Keep the pace good on the inbetween miles

This workout spans for 10 miles.

Good Luck

I do this fartlek to punish myself when I go two days in a row without running.

Holmer

big fan of the mono fartlek

2x90

4x60

4x30

4x15

all with equal "float" rest. not a slow trot, but trying to keep pace up

Yesune wrote:

Wich type of fartlek is better for middle distance "

One of my favorites is 2x2 mintes, 4x60 seconds and 6x30 seconds with equal rest. I also like 1.5 minutes on 2.5 minutes off with the off being a little quicker than usual to simulate races. I always run the on rolling hills.

My advice would be ; don`t do Fartlek! Why? Because it contains a lot of guesses....no exact training that tells you precisely where you are when it comes to shape.My runners , the Africans,

use only Fartlek when they have to, due to heavy rains that makes track running impossible.

If you insist on doing Fartlek the structured one is the best .....

76chine wrote:

Yesune wrote:

Wich type of fartlek is better for middle distance "

Gosta Homer was about speed during the run.

His fartlek simulates race conditions, to an extent, because the fast paces are followed by slower paces that still require effort while the body recovers from the faster paces.

.

Homer is the supposed author of the greek epics, Gösta Holmér is the Swedish runner and "inventor" of the fartlek running session.

va runnr wrote:

big fan of the mono fartlek

2x90

4x60

4x30

4x15

all with equal "float" rest. not a slow trot, but trying to keep pace up

+1

Blixten wrote:

76chine wrote:

Gosta Homer was about speed during the run.

His fartlek simulates race conditions, to an extent, because the fast paces are followed by slower paces that still require effort while the body recovers from the faster paces.

.

Homer is the supposed author of the greek epics, Gösta Holmér is the Swedish runner and "inventor" of the fartlek running session.

Many thanks.

Try Daniels' 100-step workout

I think maybe you are all missing the point on what fartlek is. It's speed play. It's meant to be unstructured. You go by feel. If you are timing parts and doing it all in a routine with jog inbetween it is a rep session.

Fartlek is for distance runners.