Anatomy Of A Fartlek Run
Today I ran my first fartlek run. Fartlek is a funny word and it originates from Sweden. It literally means “speedplay”. The goal of a Fartlek run is not unlike the goal of a tempo run. It is meant to improve lactate threshold. While the tempo run is meant to be a gradual steady incline in heart rate to lactate threshold levels fartlek runs are supposed to be random and they should be run as you see fit. Just randomly vary your speed from slow jogging to downright sprinting. You should also vary the duration of each segment. Just pick a building or a telephone pole in the distance and run to it at a set pace. Then pick another point and run to that with a different pace. Just keep alternating faster and slower or even faster run segments as your heart dictates it.
Well today I just ran my first one of these fun runs. I started out pretty quick down the hill and up the hill in my neighborhood so I got my heart rate up to working rate fairly quick. Then I slowed down and kept bouncing up and down as I felt it. All in all I ran for 30 minutes and I put in 3.7 miles.
As you can see my speed was all over the map. I ran as slow as a 10:35/mile and as fast as 5:00/mile. My heart rate closely followed my pace while lagging a bit behind. I have tapped into my lactate threshold level several times during the run, any time you see the blue line go above 83% and stay below 88% I was in my lactate threshold level. But what’s really interesting is that while my current run’s chart looks nothing like my tempo run’s chart from two days ago my averages as very close to each other.
On Thursday I have averaged 80% HRR for the entire run, today I averaged 80% HRR as well. On Thursday my average pace for the run was 8:32/mile today it was 8:36/mile. The two are almost the same. So as you can see they were two vastly different runs which felt vastly different while running but they accomplished the same thing. They got my heart rate up in the lactate threshold zone so I could keep on improving my lactate threshold level. My training plan calls for one tempo and one fartlek run per week for the next 11 weeks so I’ll be doing a lot more of these in the near future but I probably won’t bore you with their details.