what is the best fartlek?

1 minute on/30 seconds rest

2 minutes on/1 minute rest

3 minutes on/2 minutes rest

Repeat this cycle 4-6 times depending on fitness level and perform at 5k pace. Do thorough warm-up and cool-down.

Hope this helps

1 mile easy, 1 mile 10k pace. Repeat 5 times.

2 minutes on with a sprint in that last 15 seconds, 3 minutes off.

For what? 10 on - 2 off is great for 10k-half, but, not so good for the 800. Give us a frame of reference...and total weekly vols.

its for 5ks...i run about 55 miles a week

Depending on pace, 3 on - 2 off is good. I used to like doing sets of 2 on / 1 off. 1:1 ratio, especially that short, is not great for 5k, but, it depends on what you're trying to do. Just compare them to track workouts: 1 on/1 off could be 300/200 if you're in decent shape. What other track workouts work well for you. Round up, round down a bit. Another one I loved was 1/1 - 2/2 - 3/3 - 4/4 - 5/5 - 4/4 - 3/3 - 2/2 - 1/1. Lastly, 6-8 sets of 6/2 was a great 8-15k workouts.

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.

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.

Usually those greasy ones that just smell awful, like something crawled up & died inside you... the ones that peel wallpaper and wilt flowers... and you feel so much less bloated afterwards. Extra credit if it sounds like you stepped on a goose.

Oh crap, I think I mis-read your question's title... please disregard.

Sounds like you're suffering from Crab loading.

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.

another way to do it is to find a golf course and run the fairways hard and jog between the green and the next hole

upon reading this I in fact fartlecked hard much to the chagrin of the employee in the cubicle next to me.

dude, are you sitting next to me???

not sure, is there a smell of burnt rubber?

"Fartlek" seems to have evolved into something different for each runner. The English translation of "Fartlek" is "speed-play". The Swedes of the 1940s developed and practiced "fartlek" in their woods but it can be practiced anywhere. You can not have a "fartlek schedule" because that is a contradiction of terms. "Fartlek" is as various as the individual who uses it but done properly it is a hard and fast workout. Originally, to be done properly, "fartlek" had to be done on an unplanned, untimed basis.

From "New Views of Speed Training", "A Runner's World Booklet of the Month" published in October of 1971.

Correct about Fartlek being "speedplay". After a 20 year hiatus from the running scene, I come back to find guys doing "fartleks" like interval sessions but on the roads instead of on a track.

Intervals are intervals and fartleks are fartleks. C'mon people, loosen up!

John Warren gave me this one that I use when I am out of town on business and can't get to a track. 10 minute warm up, 15 X 30 seconds hard with 30 seconds recovery, 3 minute easy, 2 1/2 minutes hard, 10 minute warm down.

Sorry, that's Jon Warren.