Speed play is the English translation of the Swedish term fartlek.
Fartlek was developed by the Swedish coach, Gosta Holmer. Mr. Holmer was an Olympian in
1912 and 1920.
In the thirties, Gosta Holmer was given the task of fixing the poor finishes of the Swedish cross-country team.
Fartlek can be as creative as you want, and I loved Fartlek during my college training.
Today is pretty simple, but it can be quite complicated or quite haphazard.
Hyperion Max, photo courtesy of Brooks Running
Your workout today:
Warmup slowly,
60 minute fartlek, moderate,
10 minutes moderate pace, 40 minutes of 5 minutes hard, five minutes easy, 4 times, 10 minutes moderate to easy pace,
slow cooldown,
hydrate,
get out of wet clothes
recover
Larry’s Deep Thoughts: Fartlek and hill workouts can get you in great shape. You can do fartlek anywhere, in a park or trail. I loved doing them around baseball fields or soccer pitches.
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys.
