Fartlek

Isn’t fartlek such a funny word? According to Wikipedia it means “speed play” in Swedish. Still, I get a good chuckle when every I see it.

I’ve seen the term fartlek mentioned here and there around the running world, but never really understood the break down of what it meant. I’m still a ‘newbie’ runner (celebrating my 2 year anniversary this month!), so when it comes to breaking plans down and the terms associated with it I get kind of loss.

Luckily Coach Megan (I hope she doesn’t mind if I call her coach) was happy enough to break down the mumbo jumbo you see below for today’s fartlek training run.

Here is how our g-chat conversation went

• Me: Question. What’s a pick up?
• Megan: ohh…sort of like a stride
               you just "pick-up" the pace
               so for the fartlek, you run slightly faster than 5k race pace
               but not necessarily your fastest 5k ever
               keep it at what your current 5k race pace is
               I recommend going by the pace calculator for it
• Me:  So, u run for a min at 5k pace, recover for a min, & repeat 8-10 times?
• Megan: yup
              but jogging during the recovery
              so you can do it during a normal run
              just speed up for 1 minute then back to jogging
              I usually do all my weekday runs on the treadmill
              If my warm-up was 20 mins, I’d push it to 9.0 at 19:55
              back down to like 6.0 or 6.5 at 21:00
          

I love how Megan breaks everything down for me. It just makes sense. Did it make sense to you?

This morning I headed to the good ole treadmill to do my first Fartlek.

Here is the breakdown of my treadmill work out.

• 0:00 – 15:00     6.0
• 15:00 – 16:00  8.5
• 16:00 – 17:00  6.0
• 17:00 – 18:00  8.5
• 18:00 – 19:00  6.0
• 19:00 – 20:00  8.5
• 20:00 – 21:00  6.0
• 21:00 – 22:00  8.5
• 22:00 – 23:00  6.0
• 23:00 – 24:00  8.5
• 24:00 – 25:00  6.0
• 25:00 – 26:00  8.5
• 26:00 – 27:00  6.0
• 27:00 – 28:00  8.5
• 28:00 – 28:00  6.0
• 29:00 – 30:00  8.5
• 30:00 – 40:00  6.0

I was actually sweating pretty profusely by the end. I could really feel my legs flying.

After a good stretch and shower I pulled out the breakfast cookie that was waiting for me in the fridge.

The Fitnessista inspired cookie contained

• 1/2 cup Oats
• Pumpkin
• Almond Butter
• Raisins
• Flax Seeds

All combined last night, flattened, and placed in the fridge over night.

This morning I topped the cookie with some plain yogurt, apple, and cinnamon.

I was a little light on the almond butter with this one. Next time I’ll remember having a heavy hand with the almond butter is never a bad thing.

Running plans and terms that come with them are not the only ones that confuse me. When ever I see a fellow blogger post their weight training work outs its as if they posted a whole other language.  Maybe, I’ll try tackling that new challenge in the summer?