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garynolan
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Posted 2 Years, 3 Months ago #1
Group,

Where can I find some fairly easy-to-understand explanation of fartlek training?

I remember doing some in Cross Country practice back in High School (10+yrs ago) but I can't remember specifics.

Thanks In Advance,

Nathaniel Simpson
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eva12
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Posted 2 Years, 3 Months ago #2
Fartlek training is perhaps the easiest form of training to understand. The word itself means 'speed play' and that's basically all you have to do. Just mix in some speed into your normal runs and play around with it until you feel like you've got some speed work in. Make it fun.

To get you started try some of these suggestions. Pick an object somewhere in front of you like a tree, mailbox, bush, etc. and run hard to that point. Do it again whenever you're ready. Run on the sidewalks of a semi-busy street where the side streets aren't that busy. Race the cars through town or race them to the next stoplight as they are forced to slow down because of the traffic and stoplights. Race slow bicyclists. Race children. When someone pulls out if front of you or references Forrest Gump sprint after them. Or just pick up the pace every once in a while whenever you arbitrarily decide you want to.

Or if you want to be more structured, pick a sequence of hard/easy intervals and then go do that. Like 1 min hard, 1 easy, 3 hard, 2 easy, etc.

Finally, an interesting variation of fartlek training I used to do in junior high is an 'Indian Run'. This only works if you have a fairly large group. Basically you run in a line and when you reach the end of the line you sprint up to the front of the line. The next person that is then the last person in the line then sprints up to the front once you have reached the front. Supposedly Native Americans did this to somehow conserve energy when they ran long distances or something...

Just remember to have fun. Hopefully you'll get some decent speedwork in there at the same time.
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