Ever heard of fartlek training? Ever tried it? If not then now is your chance to find out something about it and give it a try. I was introduced to fartlek when I joined Arthur Bruce’s training group in January 1992. Like anything new, it was hard work, plus I’d just come back from an injury lay-off so I was completely unfit. But even when I got fit again it was still hard work, because you make it hard work. Despite being hard work, many Saturday afternoons we’d return to the Belgrave changing rooms absolutely cream crackered, I loved it. Mind you I do have a tendency to love hard training sessions.
I always had an idea about the origins of fartlek but never the full story so for the sake of accuracy I did a little research, I didn’t spend a lot of time on it so it may still be slightly inaccurate, but it makes a good story. Fartlek, which means ‘speed play’ in Swedish, though I’m no linguist so perhaps my Swedish reader might have a different interpretation, is supposed to be an unstructured session of varying length and varying speed repetitions, in effect you are playing with the variants to make the training hard for your body. It was created in 1937 by Swedish coach, Gosta Holmer (apologies for inaccuracy here due to using an English keyboard). Apparently the Swedes had become a bit cheesed off by being beaten by the Finns throughout the 1920s so designed this programme of training to help them improve. Arthur told me that when he started training with fartlek, the more established runners at Belgrave asked him why he kept stopping and starting.
That’s the history lesson over, the rest is about my fartlek experiences. I prefer a more structured approach to fartlek, I’m a planner by nature and want to know where I’m going, however I can see the benefit of the unstructured approach too.
Our group ran 4 different fartlek sessions. The original, and best, was the one we used to run on a Sunday morning (later switched to Saturday afternoon), which went from the clubhouse, onto Wimbledon Common (where the first two repetitions took place), then across to Richmond Park (where a further five repetitions took place), back onto Wimbledon Common (for the final two repetitions) and back to the club house. It was a total distance of 10-11 miles and repetitions ranged from about 45m to 1 mile. The first repetition was run more as a build up and the last one was either a flat out sprint or, if you were too knackered, a half effort. All the other repetitions were taken flat out.
The repetitions were a mixture of uphill, flat and downhill and were all on the grass, except one which was on a compacted gravel path. Just after the mid point, both in distance and repetition number, was the long one, we called it the White House as it finished at the White Lodge. I guess we could have called it the White Lodge but that would have failed to inspire our creativity. This one was feared by some but I loved it and made it my own. It had all the elements, up, down and flat and the aim was to complete it in under 5 minutes, it was the only repetition we timed. Not many people managed the sub 5 clocking but I had a collection of sub 5 timings and held the training group record of 4:50, I was helped along by a herd of stampeding deer on that day.
At the end of the fartlek we’d go back to the club house, shattered, have a shower, a cup of tea and a slice of cake. It’s at this point that we would plot our future races and the old boys would tell us tales of how it used to be in the 1950s. I often nodded off, not from boredom as these boys had many an inspirational tale, but from a tiredness induced by the run. It was the perfect end to a training run, though I suspect crashing out in a comfy chair by a log fire with a pint of bitter would come close.
In the winter we’d do a fartlek session around Tooting Common on a Thursday evening, but after a while we switched to Battersea Park, I can’t remember why perhaps it was the interference of the prostitutes who would hang around the Tooting course. In the Summer we’d do a shorter version around Wimbledon Common, in the Thursday evening slot.
They were all fun and got you fit, you were encouraged, by each other, to give your all in each repetition and it certainly got you fit. With the odd exception, the fact that they were based on effort and not time meant you didn’t have any negativity comparing times week against week. You knew you’d always given it your best, and if not, then there was usually a good reason for it.
I haven’t done a fartlek for many years, but as I trained in Tatton Park
This weekend I contested the Lymm 5k, another race put on by those lovely lot at Spectrum Striders. I’d never done this one before but heard it was a tough course, so I wasn’t expecting a particularly fast time and set my sights on a sub 17 clocking. I set off to get there about an hour before the start, but misjudged how easy it was and ended up one and three quarter hours before the off. Luckily, when I’m in race mode I don’t get bored. I was also experimenting, Ray had given me a couple of caffeine shots to try. I’ve never taken any before and wasn’t sure what benefit I’d get. I tried my first one on this week’s treadmill session and I flew, but would I have flown anyway? So I took the shot before the start. I’m still undecided what effect it had on me but I surprisingly found myself in the lead by the first turn, I’m not entirely sure how that happened but I wasn’t going to hold back on a downhill section, unlike my younger, faster, competitors, who seemed to be asleep. I reached 1k in 2:57, was that the caffeine? I knew it was a little fast but hey, nothing ventured. Then people started to overtake me, but only 6. It was a hilly course, but not that bad, in fact I really enjoyed the race. I was slower than recent times, but so were three of the guys in front, who also did Hollins Green, and my older competitors Graham MacNeil and Mike Hatton. It was a 16:48 clocking, nothing to write home about but I was 7th in the race and 1st M45 again. Unfortunately we couldn’t hang around for the presentations so missed seeing the various friends getting their overall prizes, My mate Louise Blizzard had another good run to come in 1st lady, she was also slower than at Hollins Green so I think I justify my time. We had an evening do to go to, an Abba Tribute night at Cottons Hotel.
Well that was fun, Carole is a big Abba fan so I thought I’d treat her, and it was a good laugh, the food was excellent and they served a good pint of draught Thwaites bitter. There was a hen night there so you can imagine what fun it was. A late night and then an early morning the next day as I fitted in a 9 mile run before a day out at a charity event with my parents. Another good meal and the generous portions took me back to a time when I used to compete against James Ryle and Bruce Barton to see who could eat the most servings without gaining any weight. Happy memories.
Also on Sunday, Katy was running the Stone 10k and set a new pb, 44:02.
Written by Roger Alsop
http://www.rogeralsop.co.uk/
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