Fartlek – A Training Method with Multiple Valences

Types of fartlek

Although the sensation was primarily important in the beginning, this method has developed over time in three directions: it started with the usual, free fartlek, passed through the semi-coded (semi-programmed) exercise and arrived at the perfectly planned running (Gaillard, 2016).

In variant 1 (free fartlek), the best known and most used one, the running pace and duration are not predetermined. Exercise is performed in full freedom, as the athlete feels: uphill, downhill, on flat ground, over short and fast distances or over long but slower distances. The runner can use the relief or can integrate running exercises (with knees up, with heels to the buttocks), jumps, steps, everything being left to their will. The focus is less on the amount of effort and more on its intensity.

The playful nature of this variant ensures uniqueness to the preparation of leisure runners. Free fartlek perfectly fits the skilled athletes who want to make the transition to interval training, or who resume their training after an injury or a poor shape period. It has the advantage of a rapid progress in the knowledge of one’s physical potential, but also the disadvantage that it does not stimulate specific work towards reaching the established performance goal.

In variant 2 (semi-programmed fartlek), the amount and toughness of physical exercise are largely predetermined. Even if the runner is not limited to a certain speed, the proposed running time implicitly gives indications on intensity and sets the objective of the training session. However, the perception of exercise intensity is a sense that the athlete must improve.

This variant not only allows, but even requires working at an appropriate intensity to reach the proposed objective. It has the disadvantage of claiming a certain level of experience, because the athlete often tends to use a wrong pace (generally, too fast), which leads to difficulties in performing the next sessions.

The third variant (perfectly planned fartlek) is the least playful training method, similar to track training. This is the situation where the name does not match the content, the athlete’s sensations losing their importance, because everything is dosed in advance. The athlete must cope with many constraints: exercise timeframe, recovery time, intensity that has to be reached and maintained.

The feature of this type of training is the perfectly planned route, supported by a watch that displays real-time heart rate (running intensity). Using workouts based on percentages of heart rate is recommended when the routes are difficult (slopes or surfaces of different consistencies) or after training interruptions (either voluntary ones or caused by injuries).

The perfectly planned fartlek has the advantage of encouraging specific training in running events, with a low margin of error relative to the target. Among its disadvantages, we remind the necessary logistics (watch/GPS phone, heart rate tracker, possibility to measure the covered route) and the fact that it is too little playful, putting the athlete in the position to focus more on the watch than on his/her own sensations.

Although it is a flexible training method, minimum organization is required to successfully approach this type of training:

• fartlek is always practiced after appropriate warm-up (for about 20 minutes);

• athletes should not get blindly involved in this type of training, but should start with a period of adaptation, during which they have to build landmarks;

• it is compulsory to comply with the principle of progressivity. If 5-6 accelerations are enough for the first sessions, their number can gradually increase to 10-12 after 3-4 training lessons, until the total working time reaches about 60 minutes;

• for runners, the heart rate tracker is a plus, because it helps them not to exceed the ideal 90% of maximum HR and to resume exercise when HR drops to 80% or even 75%. If needed, the athlete may include walking sequences;

• this type of training is recommended to leisure runners, but also those with tendon problems resulting from the numerous workouts performed on the track (Newsholme, Leech, & Duester, 1998).

Fartlek sessions

Fartlek is often used by occasional (leisure) runners because they can structure the session as they like, being free to run with the speed they want and when they want, to accelerate and decelerate, to sprint and recover using mild running or walking.

The objectives pursued by fartlek runners are similar to those of the joggers: preventing the effects of a sedentary lifestyle and combating stress by leaving the daily routine.

For a non-athlete, a typical session is structured as follows:

• warm-up for 15-20 minutes;

• selection of a landmark (for instance, a tree or a public lighting pole) to which the athlete runs with the proposed speed (for example, 75% of maximum speed), then the intensity (speed) is reduced to that used in the recovery jogging;

• the runner will then choose another landmark to which they run with another predetermined speed (for instance, 90% of maximum speed), and this alternation of pace continues until completing the training with the proposed speed.

Exercise intensity will gradually increase. The runner must end the sessions without experiencing excessive fatigue; they will give up accelerating as soon as the effort becomes difficult and will continue in a sub-moderate regime until they feel ready to resume it. Exercise parameters (intensity, amount, toughness) may differ from one session to another, and the variety of training field will enable progress through the adaptation to diversity.

From the coach’s perspective, creating a fartlek session pursues two objectives:

• contributing to the runner’s physical development;

• providing the runners a friendly environment, different from the classical one, during a quality workout.

By their very nature, athletes often use overtraining, and when/if they do not reach the proposed target in a training session, they may resort to an exaggerated increase in intensity. It is here that fartlek intervenes as a solution that, taking into account the athletes’ sensations, provides them the necessary break.

A timeframe can be set for the training session (for example, 45 minutes), during which all energy systems used by endurance runners (the anaerobic, aerobic and mixed ones) will be engaged. For this, running can be performed on uneven ground (field, park, forest, hill, sawdust track, road) and/or in difficult conditions (snow, soft ground) and will consist of 50 m uphill sprinting, sustained repetitions over the distance of 1,000 m, downhill running with large strides, all of them interspersed with jogging or even walking (Țifrea, 2002).

Fartlek training was intended to be a non-structured phenomenon, but coaches gradually gave up this approach and developed specific programs, such as those presented below.

Gilles Dorval, a French cross-country coach, replaced the landmarks with time sequences. In this case, the content of a session is the following:

• 20’ warm-up running at 70-75% of maximum HR;

• 3 accelerations of 30” each at 95-100% of maximum aerobic speed, with 1’ of slow jogging between them;

• 3 accelerations of 1’ each at 95% of maximum aerobic speed, fragmented by 1’30” of slow jogging (or more, if necessary);

• 3 accelerations of 2’ each at 90-95% of maximum aerobic speed, with 2’ of slow jogging (or more, if necessary) between them;

• 3 accelerations of 1’ each at 95% of maximum aerobic speed, fragmented by 1’30” of slow jogging (or more, if necessary);

• 3 accelerations of 30” each at 95-100% of maximum aerobic speed, with 1’ of slow jogging between them;

• 15’ of slow jogging at 75% of maximum HR (Dorval, 2016).

• The fartlek used by Steve Moneghetti (a marathon runner, multiple medallist at major competitions) consists of:

• 2x90 seconds at a slightly faster pace, with 90 seconds of mild running between series;

• 4x60 seconds, with 60 seconds of mild running between series;

• 4 x30 seconds, with 30 seconds of mild running between series;

• 4x15 seconds, with 15 seconds of mild running between series (4Run, 2016).

The fartlek recommended by Jack Daniels (the world’s best running coach, according to Runner’s World magazine, in 2005) does not use distance or time, but strides. It involves a pyramid that starts with 10 fast strides, 10 slow strides, continuing with 20 fast strides, 20 slow strides, 30-30… until 100 fast strides, 100 slow strides, and then decreasing by 10 until the starting series is reached (Daniels, 2013).

The fartlek with halved recovery time consists of faster running sets and rest periods representing half of the running time.

Fartlek for the development of maximum aerobic speed:

• variant 1:

  • 10x45” of high-speed repetitions alternating with 1’15” of rest, slow jogging (Yadav & Yadav, 2013)

• variant 2:

  • 30 seconds fast / 30 seconds slow

  • 1 minute fast / 1 minute slow

  • 1 minute and 30 seconds fast / 1 minute slow

  • 2 minutes fast / 1 minute slow

  • 2 minutes fast / 1 minute slow

  • 1 minute and 30 seconds fast / 1 minute slow

  • 1 minute fast / 1 minute slow

  • 30 seconds fast / 30 seconds slow (Dorval, 2015)

Although the purpose of training is to run fast in short sequences, fartlek is not a very easy training method. It is estimated that the efficiency of training sessions is maximum when they discipline the athletes, helping/forcing them to exceed their limits. If correctly used, fartlek can become a valuable part of training.