Did you just Fartlek?

As a new runner, I came across several names for runs that were as foreign to me as the trying to speak Farsi. Now that I can officially say I am a seasoned Fartlek veteran, I'd like to share a little info on just what those runners are talking about.

Fartlek:  a Swedish-named run that means "speed play". Fartlek is an unstructured run that alternates moderate-to-hard effort intervals with easy intervals throughout. After a warm-up, you play with speed by sprinting for short distances (say from one telephone pole to the next) followed by an easy pace for recovery. Then at the next pole try running faster but not sprint-speed, followed by another easy pace. You can mix the pace and distance. These alternating unrestricted intervals help enhance your muscle fire timing and when integrated regularly into your work can help improve your overall pace and stamina.

Tempo:  Think of an Oreo cookie (yuuuum....cookies.....). Okay, think of a turkey on whole grain sandwich instead. The warm-up and cooldown are your bread, and the meat of the workout is a run at an effort that's at or slightly higher than your anaerobic threshold. It's is NOT comfortable and NOT easy, but NOT impossible. Think of this as one step beyond your comfort zone. You can hear your breathing, but you're not gasping for air. You can't talk easily, but if you can't talk at all you're pushing too hard. This is that level of "I'm pushing myself but not trying to win the race". Think of an effort where you can talk in broken words. Tempo runs increase your lactate threshold so in the long run you'll be able to run faster with easier effort. It's not a fun workout but a necessary one if you're training to PR or complete a longer run event.

Interval:  These are short, intense efforts followed by equal or longer recovery paces. For instance, run hard two minutes, the jog 2-3 minutes, then repeat. These efforts should be harder than tempo runs where you're fighting for air and counting the seconds until you can stop. The recovery jog is a blessed time to recouperate before the next antagonizing interval. Interval training improves your running form, endurance and your running economy.

Now, you're probably left with more questions than answers, like what is anaerobic threshold? What's a PR? We'll get there in time. After all, I've only been running for 8 months at this point and am by no means an expert yet. What I can tell you is that I Fartlek weekly and it definitely played a key part in my overall increase in pace in the autumn months. I personally hate trying to do interval work on the treadmill because of having to hit buttons whenever I want to switch it up, but once the weather warms up I'll be out there sprinting between telephone poles again and working on achieving a sub-30 5k time.