Foreword
Interval workouts is a training method that solicits a lot the heart, before you try, it is very strongly recommended to talk to your doctor and maybe schedule a visit to a cardiologist. Especially if you are over 40 years old.
Whether to lose weight, increase your capacities or improve your running capabilities, inverval training is indicated, but it's challenging and generates oxidative stress, to counter free radicals and discomfort that can create ischemia and reperfusion (digestive pain, diarrhea), it is essential to adapt your nutrition.
Headaches can happen sometimes during intense training and especially when it's hot and sunny within hours of the end of the session.
What is Fartlek ?
Fartlek is a kind of workout invented in Sweden by trainer Gösta Holmer in the 1930s. It means "speed game" and consists of an alternation of fast running and slow running.
In practice, the athlete decides the durations of effort and recovery and paces according to his desires and the course. For example, I run at a steady pace to the next tree, then I recover until the next turn.
The goal is to have the feeling, at the end of the session, of having done a stimulating but not exhausting training.
This type of training is more suitable for beginners compared to the classic interval training.
Fartleck's advantages
- - Muscle strengthening thanks to the work on hilly terrain.
- - Variation of the sessions.
- - Flexibility depending on the form of the day.
- - Proprioception work.
- - Training taking care of physical feeling.
Method to pratice Fartleck
Obviously remember to warm up before and cool down afterwards.
If you are a beginner, limit yourself to efforts between 15 and 30 seconds with at least the same recovery time.
If you are using a heart rate monitor, note your heart rate at the end of the warm-up and after each effort at brisk pace, wait until your heart rate drops almost to that heart rate before starting again to run at brisk pace.
If you don't have a heart rate monitor, trust your feelings and don't start the brisk pace until it seems you have recovered.
When you'll be familiar with this type of workout, you can gradually increase the time from 1 minute to 15 minutes.
The objective is to run faster during the effort part than on the recovery part while maintaining the same speed from the start to the end of the repetitions.
There is no obligation on the number of repetitions but at the beginning allow a time of 15 minutes during which you will make your pace variations. Little by little you will increase this time up to 30 minutes.
Try as much as possible during recovery phases to run slowly rather than walk. If it's really too hard for you at first, try alternating walking and running.
To go further
The fartlek can obviously be done on hilly or mountainous terrain, if you are a trail player this will make you progress.
Like the classic interval workout, it's important to vary. For this you can for example:
-
- Run uphill and recover downhill.
- Run uphill and recover uphill.
- Run downhill and recover downhill.
- Run downhill and recover uphill.
Once you have progressed, the fartlek alone will not allow you to progress more, you will need to add or change the workouts with classic interval workout.