Fartlek Training

Probably the worst thing you can say about fartlek training is that it kind of has a funny name, which probably still gets giggles at high schools everywhere. It’s appeal to lowbrow humor not withstanding, incorporating fartlek training is probably one of the best things you could do for your running training.

Fartlek is a Swedish word meaning speed play, and the basic idea is to intersperse periods of different running speeds into your running. This isn’t quite the same as interval work, although the basic idea is similar; you want train your muscles in new ways to increase your overall speed.

The average runner, someone who runs to keep fit and maybe does the occasional race, usually trains by doing a warmup, a run at a fairly steady pace, followed by a cooldown. This is an effective way to train up to a point, but you will reach a plateau fairly quickly where you are going to need more to increase your speed.

By incorporating the fartlek concept, you are exposing your body to new stresses to cause it to adapt, and you do this by incorporating a variety of running speeds into your run, rather than just holding a steady pace.

The word play in the translated title is actually the key to making this system work the way it’s supposed to. Think of kids who are out playing, who will walk, run and jog at seeming random intervals. This is what you are trying to emulate.

So at one session you might spend ten minutes running at a steady pace, then sprint for a minute, then walk for a minute, then sprint again, and so on. The idea is keep the shifting speeds random and unpredictable. If you feel like running fast do it,, if you don’t, walk for a while.

There are a couple of reasons this works. One of the big ones is that your body basically has two energy systems, the aerobic and the anaerobic, and fartlek training helps you train then both. A lot of runners only focus on developing their aerobic energy system, which leaves them using only part of what their bodies are capable of.

Another way that it helps is the related concept of muscle fibers. Your body has slow twitch muscle fibers, which are more endurance oriented, and fast twitch fibers, which are more power and speed oriented. If you want to maximize your speed and continue to improve, you absolutely need to make sure you develop both of them.

Of course, subjecting your body to new things is also just plain good for you. Your body is unimaginably complex, and every bit of novelty is going to cause some kind of adaptation that will work to your benefit,, even beyond the big energy systems and muscle fiber benefits.

And fartlek training is just fun. Bounding and sprinting, setting mini challenges for yourself like running a certain number of telephone poles’ distance full title before slowing down, makes even a route you’ve run a thousand times seem like a brand new world.