[Closed] Running. Fartleks advice. Sorry

How are fartleks supposed to be different to intervals??

More random, plus you get to say fartlek.
You do know that you're meant to shout FARTLEK!! at the start of each fast bit don't you?

Fartleks are meant to be unstructured, unlike intervals. You just run how you feel. Pick a point in the distance, a tree or lap post, run at a pace until you get there, then pick another mark and change pace (maybe faster, maybe a jog, maybe a walk, all depends on how you feel.) All sounds good to me.

FARTLEK!

I'm going to shout it everytime I go from lying down to hobling about the house.

Emsz... there is no such thing as 'shit' training as long as you don't injure yourself. Do the same thing again (shouting fartlek this time) and instead of actually stopping just walk as fast as you can.

Sounds more like intervals to me. I do fartleks sometimes but tend to vary the pace between 8% and 30% slower than my 10K race pace.

I'm NOT shouting Fartlek, got some funny looks just singing along the other night!

Yeti I worry about just doing junk miles, I just run, I don't know what I'm doing half the time.

djglover, how do you measure it so accurately, is between 8% and 30% specifically important?

I dont track it really, I just look at the pace on my garmin, I know its rare on 10 mile run that I'd go above 6:30 min mile or below 8:00 thats all, there is no real structure, just go a bit faster when I feel like it

Also Junk miles is balls, you can get pretty fast with a high volume of 'junk miles' and then tune up with some intervals a couple of times a week

Emsz, can recommend you pick up a copy of "the competitive runners handbook". Bit of a bible of running. As for intervals and junk miles and stuff like that, get a good base of steady miles in the legs before doing any serious interval training, or you'll very likely get injured (the odd FARTLEK is cool though). I know what you mean about junk miles, if you are properly training then every mile you run should have a purpose and you should know what that is. Training plan is what you need 🙂

One of the training sessions I ever did was like fartlek poker. Four of us took it in turns to call the next effort, how long, how fast, how much rest. You never knew what was coming next.

I know what you mean about junk miles, if you are properly training then every mile you run should have a purpose and you should know what that is

Spot on!

One of the training sessions I ever did was like fartlek poker. Four of us took it in turns to call the next effort, how long, how fast, how much rest. You never knew what was coming next.

Done that myself the trick is ensuring the others are not too fast meaning you cant keep up or complete the session and also ensuring your fast is not too slow for them.

Also Junk miles is balls, you can get pretty fast with a high volume of 'junk miles

Define "junk miles"

right well training plan says 3 miles at a couple of mins slower than 10k time, so not junk miles right?

FARTlek
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right well training plan says 3 miles at a couple of mins slower than 10k time, so not junk miles right?

Nope, you have a plan and it has structure so not junk miles.

Remember if you don't shout FARTlek it just becomes a junk fartlek.

so much that I had to stop to catch my breath for a minute before jogging for a bit,

During a fartlek session it shouldnt be neccessary to stop but just to slow. Intervals tend to be fixed time or distance and more intensive. A good piece of advice I was given is that after Farlek you should feel tired but not exhausted. Interval sessions often culminate in near exhaustion!!!

I did a runny fartlek once. 🙁

I had to slow down in my last race for fear of doing that 🙂
I was impressed how full the lav bowl was afterwards though. I mean I know I'm full of the stuff, but I couldn't quite believe how much could come out if it wants to.

I shartleked at Glastonbury

Surfer, thanks, that's better, right, I did intervals last night. I had a plan of where I would go from and to, and I give it loads, and was shattered at the end, so I did intervals, right?

I know what it is, everything I've done, there's a right and wrong way, gymnastics, ballet, guitar, either right or wrong, when some-one says make up you're running as you want, I can't do it!! I just think automatically "Oh, I must be doing it wrong"

so run fast and slow for how ever long I want, right?

edit: which is better? intervals or fartlek?

which is better? intervals or fartlek?

(Strictly speaking fartlek is a type of interval, but lets not confuse things) 😉

Neither is better or worse, they serve different purposes.

At a simplified level fartlek improves the ability to handle changes in pace and to recover form turns of speed while still running.
While intervals normally work on your speed and ability to maintain that speed over prolonged periods.

Intervals need to be more structured, not just for an individual session but also across all sessions in a given time frame. ie. this week we did; 4x1k(90sec rest), 4x60m(jog back) repeat all.

Fartlek sessions are supposed to be on the whole unstructured. Though you might work some loose structure in to them, for example next week we have a training set which is; 15 mins of hills & 15 mins at a good pace worked into a 60 min steady run. How that is worked into the 60mins is not important.

hope that helps.

Phil is largely right. Athletes tend to do intervals either on a track or up and down (or around) a set course, timing each one as they go with a specific recovery period. The benefits of intense efforts with short recoveries has been proved as the most effective way to improve performance.
Intervals form the backbone of a competitive distance runners training. Some top athletes over the years did nothing but intervals (Zatopek) although thats unusual.
Most athletes (middle/long distance) would do maybe 2 sessions a week with a long run and maybe a hill session. The rest of the running week is "padding" as an ex coach of mine used to say.
In my experience Fartlek sessions are fun, interval sessions are torture.