Understanding Fartlek workouts

RoyalMoose11
RoyalMoose11 Posts: 211 Member
edited November 14 in Fitness and Exercise
I'm having some trouble following a plan in relation to Fartlek. Sometimes the instructions for tempo or Fartlek runs trip me up. The plan recommends the following:
3-5 miles Fartlek, with 6-8 x 30 second + 1-2 minute recover. (from Women's Running, March 2013).
Their definition of Fartlek also states (after introducing the definition) that the runner should
"start with a 1-2 mile warm up before diving into your first interval. After each harder effort, jog/walk the minutes indicated for recovery. Finish the workout with another easy 1-2 miles to cool down and get in the total miles listed"

Does this mean I should run between 3-5 miles and then I would finish with 6-8 Fartlek for 30 seconds with the recovery period?

Thanks!



Replies

  • AllanMisner
    AllanMisner Posts: 4,140 Member
    A Fartlek is an interval training method designed to help you increase your speed.

    So, you’ll run 1 - 2 miles at your regular training pace,

    then you go at a faster pace (usually a target race pace, which is 10 - 20% faster than your training pace) for 30 seconds, slow to a jog for a minute or two to recover,

    then run 5 - 7 additional intervals just like the one above.

    You’ll close out your training with a 1 - 2 mile run.

    Does that make more sense?
  • paintedbison
    paintedbison Posts: 8 Member
    Fartlek just means playing with speed. So, all kinds of different speed workouts can be "fartlek". So, my understanding of the above would be warm up 1 mile, run 30 seconds fast, run 2 minutes slowly, repeat that 6-8 times. Then, cool down for a mile. If you want to make it a 5 mile run, do a 2 mile warm up, the 30 seconds fast and 2 minutes slow 8 times. Then do a 2 mile cool down. That should put you close to 5 miles or a bit over.

    You can also just do a fast finish or a bit of fast running in the middle of your run without keeping careful track of timing.
  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
    http://healthandrunning.com/running/run-faster-formula

    Goes through tempos, intervals, Fartleks, and Yasso's. Good luck.
  • RoyalMoose11
    RoyalMoose11 Posts: 211 Member
    This is all very helpful. Thanks for the feedback. This is the first time I'm training for improved time rather than training for volume.
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