2024 RunBlogRun Winter Training, Week 4, Day 4, introducing some speed play (in Swedish, that is called ‘fartlek’)

This is Thursday, January 25, 2024.

This is day 4 for the fourth week.

On Thursdays, we will introduce speed play.

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.

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.