fartlek
Noun: A method of athletic training, especially for runners, involving continuous exercise where periods of strenuous, fast-paced effort alternate with periods of slower, recovery-paced effort.
This word is a specific technical term used in the context of sports science, running, and athletic coaching. It describes a particular training regimen. - The coach incorporated fartlek into the team's weekly schedule to improve their speed endurance. - Many marathon runners use fartlek sessions to break the monotony of steady-paced long runs.
- As a modifier: The term can be used attributively to describe a type of session or run.
- We did a fartlek workout this morning.
- His training plan includes a weekly fartlek run.
- Interval Training (n): A broader category of training that includes structured periods of high-intensity work and rest. Fartlek is a less structured, more continuous form of interval training.
- Tempo Run (n): A sustained run at a "comfortably hard" pace, different from the varied pace of fartlek.
- Speed play (This is a direct translation from the original Swedish, from which the word "fartlek" is derived: "fart" meaning speed and "lek" meaning play.)
- Variable-pace training
The core concept is the unstructured, continuous alternation between fast and slow running, often based on how the athlete feels or on environmental cues (like running hard to the next tree or lamppost), rather than precisely timed intervals. It is designed to improve both aerobic and anaerobic systems.
- a method of athletic training (especially for runners) in which strenuous effort and normal effort alternate in a continuous exercise