Fartleks - help needed

[R4inbow]

Hey lovely forum. As you've answered my other questions whenever I try and start something new, I'm hoping you can point me in the right direction again on this.

My running normally consists of one of two speeds. I have a 5k speed, where I push myself (these runs aren't always 5k, but that's how I think of it) and a long run speed where it's more about getting the distance up and I run about 1 min 30 sec per km slower. So I thought time to try something a little different and reading about fartleks seemed like something that may help me, or at the least give me something to think about.

I would like to do it by time rather than distance and I want the total run to be about 40 minutes (including warm up/cool down jogs), so any idea how I should split up the rest?

Thanks!

[roseabi Ultramarathon]

The idea of fartlek ("speed play" in Swedish) is that it's unstructured. So after your warmup you mix up faster running with slower running (and/or walking if you want) as you feel. It's helpful to use landmarks, for example you decide to sprint between that bin and that lamp post, then slow down between the lamp post and that car, etc. You can also vary the intensity of the intervals.

Have fun xx

[Biddy62 Half Marathon]

I’ve used a free app called JogRunSprint. It includes a warm up, a break in the middle after a few speed sessions, then a cool down. I think to can set up your own training session on it. Good luck

[Decker Ultramarathon]

Our run group does intervals once a week where we just run around a block at different speeds. Ie fast vs slow per each of the 4 sides x a certain number of sets. Usually 4-5 sets. The idea being to just have your heart rate move from slow to fast and slow again. Also we work at a nearby school track and have timed sessions. Ie 2min fast 1min slow x 4-5 sets, or whatever works best for people.

[R4inbow Ultramarathon]

Thanks all, I did some intervals last night, think I needed something a little more structured to keep me going!

[UpTheStanley Half Marathon]

With apologies to those who saw this on one of the other forums recently, my approach to intervals goes something like this:

Warm up for 5 mins or so at an easy jog;

5 (maybe) reps of 30 secs slow jog: 20 secs parkrun/5k pace: 10 secs eyeballs out sprint;

2 mins easy jog;

5 reps as before;

Warm down at an easy jog.

That's done in 25 minutes or so; two more sets of 5 would take you to 40 minutes but just two sets have always been enough for me. I run the sprints hard enough to make me use most of the following jog phase just getting my breath back, with the first few paces not much more than a stumbling walk! The benefit comes, I believe, from really pushing the sprints which qualifies the exercise as HIIT (high intensity interval training). I reckon a set of 3 hard sprints is better than 5 half-hearted ones.

The JogRunSprint app mentioned by Biddy62 will beep at you at appropriate moments, and I think has the above pattern as its default, but I just do it by checking the elapsed time display on my watch - which I can't see when I'm sprinting, but I know I can't sprint all out for more than 10 secs, so I just hang on as long as possible in that phase.

Good luck!!

[R4inbow Ultramarathon in reply to UpTheStanley]

That's great, thanks for sharing and sorry I should have thought of checking other forums to see if there was something there to follow. I might give this a go next Monday 😀