Speed Play Gets You Fitter

If you have been following the training plan for the , you are well on your way to getting in shape. This week try increasing the intensity with fartlek intervals. Sounds like an intestinal disorder, doesn't it? Actually, fartlek is Swedish for speed play. Fartleks are an unstructured, fun way to introduce speed training into your workout. There are a variety of ways in which to do fartleks and you can do them almost anywhere.

Advantages of fartleks:

• Trains your body to work anaerobically (without oxygen).
• Prepares your legs to absorb and feel a variety of paces.
• Enhances your awareness of your ability to maintain varying paces at different distances.

To complete a fartlek workout you need to:

1. Warm up.
2. Work out at an easy training pace.
3. Interject bursts of speed for differing distances throughout your workout.
4. Speed should vary as well as burst times. Bursts should be maintained from 15 seconds to 3 minutes.
5. Pick out a landmark and run/walk your fartlek at a consistent pace until it is reached.
6. Recovery time should equal two-thirds of your burst time but needs to be faster than an easy recovery pace.
7. Repeat fartlek intervals throughout your workout.

Fartlek training is a great workout at any location in Benicia. Be creative and have fun while you get fitter. Try one of these workouts at your favorite local training spot:

Community Park – Use the ball fields and tree-lined pathways as interval markers.

Bay Trail – Use houses as your marker, increase your effort for five houses and recover for three houses.

Benicia State Park – Mile markers are an easy tool; mix it up by changing your distance for each interval.

Lake Herman – The benches on this trail make for easy markers of hard and easy intervals.

Training Tip:  Don’t forget the hard/easy principle when adding fartleks. If you have a hard training day, your next training day should be easy.