Fartlek Workouts for Runners — Simple Sessions To Make You Faster
Do you fartlek? The Kenyans, including Eluid Kipchoge, certainly do.
But let me back up a bit, maybe it’s best if I explain a little first …
Fartlek is a Swedish term that means “speed play” and was popularized by Swedish Olympian and master-coach Gosta Holmer. Holmer coached Gundar Hagg and Arne Andersson to within less than 2 seconds of the magical 4-minute mile as far back as the 1940s. Both set world mile records, with Hagg’s being the fastest at 4:01.4 until Roger Bannister’s recording-breaking run in 1954. Fartlek is a way of training that involves mixing in a variety of speeds within a single continuous run.
The original idea was to make speed training more enjoyable for runners. Instead of grinding away lap after lap on the track, they could go off on a relaxed run through the Swedish forests and essentially make up the pace changes as they went along. After an easy start to warm up, they might charge up a hill, run a few sprints, ease off on the pace for a while, or even add in 2–3km at a steady pace before easing back down. The potential variety was endless and helped keep runners from getting stale or overtrained.
Hagg and Andersson had tremendous success with it and soon others began to pick up the idea, including the legendary Arthur Lydiard…
