FARTLEK FOR SPARTA (spartan training starts nigh)

The Fartlek - not only is it fun to say outloud but they're fun to run. Yup, fun to run. I said that and I don't enjoy running. When it comes to building stamina for running, nothing beats a good Fartlek! (giggle...Fartlek)

Developed by Swedish trainer Gosta Holme way back in 1937, the Fartlek "speed play" (you can stop giggling now) is unstructured and it alternates moderate-to-hard efforts with easy throughout. After a warmup, you play with speed by running at faster efforts for short periods of time (to that tree, to the sign) followed by easy-effort running to recover. I read somewhere that his technique is based on children's games and the way they mix up their play. Rather than running round at one constant speed, slowly plodding along, kids tend to move in fits and spurts building stamina by running, then walking, then running around some more. As a mother I can see the benefits in play and we all need to do more of it.

Happiness is the interval between periods of unhappiness – Don Marquis

That's why I signed up for yet another Spartan Race.  5K of muddy fun, paid for and waiting for me next year. This time I'm actually going to do the dreaded running thing.  All I need is 5K, no more, not interested in 6 or 7 just 5 but I want it to be fast. I mean really fast. Zoom fast! So I thought, what better way to develop speed in something I don't enjoy than with "speed play".  So I'll be trying this technique in my trail runs and by varying my speed when training I hope to build up the aerobic stamina quicker and more effectively than solid one speed running. It's brilliant...How do you ensure a pleasant interval of running? Put it in-between two intensely unpleasant intervals of running. It’s all relative at times. So far I've enjoyed it.  I pretend I'm stalking someone when I see them then run by and say hello...scares the heck out of them.  Fun. 

For all you Spartan wannabe's, get out their and Fartlek (enough giggling).  I'll be dragging my husband out and clients who are training for the Spartan race and we'll Fartlek together. All of us Fartlekking as a group.  It's great fun in a group setting,  you can alternate the leader and mix up the pace and time. In doing so, you reap the mental benefits of being pushed by your buddies through an unpredictable workout. The goal is to keep it free-flowing so you’re not bound to your watch or some plan, and to run at harder efforts but not a specific pace while having fun.  Enjoy running, impossible right?  Nope.  Get out there and run for fun, like a kid. You can even giggle every time you say Fartlek, like a kid too.

Gonna be a great day for a pyramid Fartlek run:
2 min hard
1 min jog
4 min hard
2 min jog
6 min hard
3 min jog
4 min hard
2 min jog
2 min hard
1 min jog
Repeat this as many times as needed. Hard = 5k race pace...Screw it!  I'm gonna run for 20 or 25 minutes, however the hell I feel like it. Chase a squirrel, look at a frog, run faster through breeze, slow down a bit etc.

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