Fartlek Training Explained With Workouts And Expert Tips

“It gives people the freedom to enjoy their workout without the pressure of having to hit certain splits or distances,” says Moses.

It also helps you keep your heart rate elevated throughout a session, enabling you to build endurance while hitting speeds that are usually higher than your threshold pace. “You get multiple benefits from the same session,” says Moses.

It is also an effective way of judging your pacing better and learning how to speed up and when to slow down, particularly for longer runs on trails with variable terrain.

“Inexperienced runners will often go out too fast on Fartlek sessions and then they struggle to finish the session or they slow down or walk. It trains you to manage your pace better—slow down in the first half so you can finish strong—and get into good habits so you are more likely to execute a better race plan,” says Moses.

Fartleks are similar to interval running sessions because there is speed work involved, but they can be less structured and often involve continuous running rather than resting breaks.

“A lot of interval sessions are structured in a way that they have a certain rep time or rep distance, and then you have a set recovery time within that,” says Moses.

An interval session on a running track could be 400m hard efforts, with a two minute rest in between, repeated six times.

“With a Fartlek run, the fun thing is that you have the license to play around with it,” says Moses. “That’s why I really like it as a concept for training. There is some element of repetition, but you can play around with the speed, terrain and recovery time and you are not aiming to put in the same effort with every repetition.”

Often the recovery periods during Fartlek training will be at an easy pace rather than standing still, known as active recovery. So even if you have run a hard rep you will keep running once it is complete, just at a much lower intensity.

“Interval sessions tend to have a lot more passive recovery, where people stand around letting their heart rate drop back down, whereas with a Fartlek you get that nice aerobic stimulus from that continuous effort,” says Moses.

If you’re entirely new to running, don’t start with Fartlek. Begin with a couch to 5K plan and then, once you have an aerobic base from running regularly, start to mix up your training.

Fartlek can be incorporated into a running training plan as a high-intensity session every two to three weeks, assuming there are hill sprints and interval sessions in the program as well.

“For recreational runners, I’d look to get a Fartlek, an interval or a tempo type session into a plan at least once a week once they have built a base, and are comfortable and confident with doing the session,” says Moses. “But you shouldn’t be trying to do all these types of sessions in seven days.”

It’s also important not to make the session too long or too intense. If you are used to running continuously for 40 minutes then a Fartlek session should be no longer than this, including a 10-minute warm-up and 10-minute warm-down.

“Look at the volume you’ve been doing and then try to piece together a Fartlek that has a similar amount of volume, aiming to progress that over time,” says Moses.

But the most important thing, he says, is to have fun with it. “That’s the beauty of it. It’s a really good way to mix up your training as, let’s be honest, sometimes continuous running is quite boring. And people running on a treadmill also benefit from doing Fartleks because it makes the time go quicker.”