running challenges to try that aren’t a marathon and how can it help to improve your speed?

Fartlek – the Swedish word for ‘speed play’ – is one of the most common training sessions that I use with my athletes. The history of fartlek training dates back more than 80 years, when coaches and scientists began to experiment with different ways of improving fitness and adding variety to training. Of these innovators, it was Swedish coach Gösta Holmér who developed fartlek training as a way of combining speed and endurance Fartlek – the Swedish word for ‘speed play’ – is one of the most common.

But where do you start with fartlek sessions? Here’s what they are, how they’re different from other speed workouts, why you should add them to your training and how exactly to run them.

Fartlek, quite literally, means playing around with speeds – so, essentially, a fartlek is a form of unstructured speedwork. It involves a continuous run in which periods of faster running are mixed with periods of easy- or moderate-paced running, rather than periods of complete rest, as with interval training.

You can use time as the measurement for fartlek sessions. For example, you can run one minute at a faster effort, then three minutes at an easy effort. Alternatively, you can use distance – here, try running faster for half a mile, say, then easy for another half a mile.

Fartlek training leaves a lot of control to the runner, which is one of the reasons why it can be a great way of introducing speedwork into your training if you’re relatively new to the sport. While some specific fartlek workouts might require a bit more thought and planning, as a general training concept, fartlek sessions can be as simple as the runner wishes them to be.

It’s about finding what works for you – this could depend on things like the time that you have available, whether you’re training for a race and what that race distance might demand from your body at different stages. If you’re looking for some guidance on where to start with fartlek training, you can find five great suggestions for different fartlek workouts below.

Often, people cite a lack of time as a reason for not being able to fit in a run, but with fartlek training, it can be easier to squeeze shorter sessions into your day. It might be convenient, for example, to do a 20-minute fartlek session in your lunch break – and to save those longer, slower runs for the weekend. Ideally, to get faster and fitter, you’re going to want to vary the type of running sessions that you’re doing.

By now, you’ve probably heard about the benefits of the 80/20 method – where 80% of your training is performed at a lower intensity and 20% at a higher intensity. Well, fartlek training can help you to make up that 20%.

Tempo runs should feel ‘comfortably hard’. Unlike fartlek sessions, tempo sessions are run at a consistent pace and at a level of effort that you could sustain for an hour – this is typically about 20 to 45 seconds per mile slower than your 5K race pace. (To figure this out, use our Best wireless headphones.)

Intervals, meanwhile, are short, intense efforts followed by equal or slightly longer periods of recovery, which might involve slow jogging or stopping completely. A typical interval workout might be 8 x 400m at 5K pace, with recoveries lasting the duration of each repetition.

They’re a good stepping stone

Fartlek workouts are a great way to introduce faster or more intense running into your routine. Structured fartlek sessions can be particularly useful in the early weeks of a new training plan, to ease runners into the more physically and psychologically demanding sessions that they’ll tackle as they get closer to their goal race.

They offer a taste of the ‘real’

Although interval sessions are great, when the gun goes off in a race, you don’t get to stop and rest a short while later – you keep moving. Plus, races are rarely run at a consistent pace throughout. As such, fartlek runs can reflect the real demands of race day – you don’t get to fully rest and they train your body to get used to the natural variances in pace that you experience in races.

They put you in control

Having direction, clarity and being guided on a journey can keep you moving forward – but fartlek sessions are great for putting you back in control. You can make your sessions more responsive to how you feel on a given day. After all, on race day, you won’t have a coach telling you when you can push and when to ease back. Fartlek running can teach this.

They can be more fun

Fartlek runs can help to make training feel more enjoyable. Take a more unstructured approach, run over mixed terrain, opt for undulating routes and trust yourself to run to perceived effort instead of spending the whole session feeling the pressure of your GPS watch.

They improve your aerobic fitness

Many of you will probably be racing distances that are 5K Health & Injuries aerobic energy system. By forcing you to keep running during your ‘recovery’, fartlek sessions put a greater focus on your aerobic system and can help to teach your body to become good at reusing lactate as a fuel source.

With fartlek workouts, you’re not allowing your body those walking recoveries like you would in an interval session. So, while your body will be working hard (and your heart rate will increase), during the faster sections of your fartlek workout, the lower-intensity sections will keep your heart rate higher than passive recovery would. In turn, you’ll continue improving your aerobic fitness, lactate tolerance and overall endurance – putting you in great stead for any upcoming races.

There is no ‘right’ way to run fartleks – and that’s the beauty of them. However, here are a few guidelines to help you get started.

Keep running

One of the key differences between fartlek training and interval training is that a fartlek should be treated as a continuous run. If you find yourself needing to stop or walk between your faster efforts when doing fartlek sessions, you’re probably doing them too hard. Ease off and make sure that your primary focus is being able to still run on your ‘recovery’.

Trust the feel

Fartleks are best run on feel and not by relying on your GPS watch or heart rate. Imagine a scale of 0-10. Run your ‘on’ efforts from 7-9 out of 10 and your ‘off’ efforts from 4-6 out of 10.

Give it time

We all like structure and certainty and it can feel uncomfortable to remove that. So, when you first start doing fartlek sessions, you might get them wrong. You’ll go too hard and need to rest, or include too few or too many efforts. Fartlek training can be a learning process, so be sure to stick at it. Keep a training diary and note down what worked and what didn’t, as this will help to shape your approach over time.

Use your environment

Make your environment part of the session. For example, go hard to the top of that hill, then stay strong to the next lamppost, then float to the gate. Use that environment to structure your sessions. Going off-road and onto undulating routes can also help you to focus on effort, rather than your GPS.

Be goal-focused

There are lots of different ways to go about fartlek training. Shorter, faster efforts over 30 and 60 seconds can be mixed with longer periods of easy, steady or threshold running – or, mix longer efforts over five, 10 or even 20 minutes with shorter recoveries. Think about the demands of your race. If it’s a marathon, you might try to include longer, faster efforts closer to your goal race pace. If you are early in your plan or training for shorter races, a good mix of efforts between 30 seconds and four minutes could serve you well.

‘Float’ for a harder session

Consider the recovery sections to be as important as the harder efforts. If you want to make your fartlek sessions harder, try ‘float’ recoveries. These involve running at a moderate or steady effort between the faster efforts, rather than an easy jog. Making the recovery harder will create a different stress.

Respect recovery

Even though fartlek sessions can be more relaxed in terms of their structure, they are still a hard session in your training week and need to be treated with respect. Give yourself at least one easy day between your harder sessions and bear in mind that most runners will respond better to two or even three easy days between such sessions.

1. Free fartlek

This is a natural and often the most effective way to include fartlek sessions in your training. Pick a route over mixed terrain and include around 10-25 harder efforts lasting between 15 seconds and four minutes, or use lampposts, hills and so on as targets. Run at an easy or steady pace during the recoveries.

2. Bridging sessions

This is a great one to do early on in a training plan as a bridge to specific interval sessions. Complete 10-15 repetitions of 30 seconds hard, then 90 seconds steady, building over time to one minute hard, then one minute steady. Make sure that you do a good warm-up beforehand and cool down properly afterward.

3. ‘Mona’ fartlek

A session used by Australian distance runner Steve Moneghetti, this is a versatile 42-minutes session. If your focus is on shorter distances, slow the ‘off’ paces a little and speed up the ‘on’ paces. If you’re racing longer distances, run steady on the ‘off’ sections.

• 10-minute warm-up
• 90 seconds ‘on’, 90 seconds ‘off’ x 2
• 60 seconds ‘on’, 60 seconds ‘off’ x 4
• 30 seconds ‘on’, 60 seconds ‘off’ x 4
• 15 seconds ‘on’, 15 seconds ‘off’ x 4
• 10-minute cool-down
  

4. Mixed paces

Are time trials the best way to benchmark fitness cross-country races. Complete efforts of 6 minutes, 5 minutes, 4 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes and 1 minute, getting faster as you go through with 90 seconds of easy or steady running in between. Or, do four sets of 3 minutes, 2 minutes and 1 minute, with 60-90 seconds ‘off’ between the efforts and sets.

5. Marathon-focused

Not strictly ‘fartlek’, but useful preparation for the final 10K of a marathon. Complete 4-5 sets of 4km at marathon effort, with 1km of steady running between each effort. Or, run for 75-90 minutes, where, for 60 minutes or this, you alternate between three minutes slightly slower than marathon pace and three minutes a little faster than marathon pace.

Tom Craggs is Road Running Manager for England Athletics.