Favorite Workout: Long Run Fartlek
by GRP Runner Andrew Tario
Benefits:
This is a great workout for advanced runners who are looking for a little more challenge in their long runs.
This workout can be adapted to a variety of distances and paces. Playing around with the length of the intervals, as well as the length of rest, can create a wide array of different workouts within the long run.
This workout is great for learning to run fast on tired legs, which is valuable for distances from 10km up to the Marathon, and beyond!
The long run fartlek is something I like to incorporate into my training every few weeks of a training cycle. While I like to run long once a week, usually on Sundays, I don’t always make a conscious effort to include a fartlek or hard effort into the long run. Oftentimes, simply getting in a lot of time on the feet is sufficient for achieving the goals of the week’s long run. However, sometimes it feels appropriate to push my body a little bit harder on these weekly long runs, and that is where the long run fartlek comes in!
When I’m doing this workout, I usually structure my long run as follows (we will use an 18 mile long run as an example, as this is a common distance for me when I am in heavy training):
5-6 miles of normal, easy running. The first 1-2 are more of a warmup than anything, just to get the legs moving and the body waking up. The next 4-5 might be a little quicker, but still a casual, conversational pace.
8-10 miles of workout: My favorite way to structure this fartlek is to do a simple 1 mile hard, 1 mile easy workout. For the hard miles, I try to run about 60-80 seconds per mile faster than my normal long run pace. For example, if my normal long run pace is 6:40 per mile, I would try to run these hard miles anywhere from 5:20 to 5:40. I try to run the easy miles about 20-30 seconds per mile quicker than my normal long run pace. Using a normal pace of 6:40 per mile again, this would put the easy miles of the workout at 6:10-6:20 per mile. I try to repeat this mile hard/mile easy pattern 4-5 times, yielding 8-10 miles of fartlek workout.
2-5 miles of easy running: After the fartlek portion of the long run (and maybe a few minutes of standing recovery, drinking water, etc.), I like to finish off the long run with some easy miles, serving as both a cool down from the workout and giving my body further practice running while on tired legs.
Overall, this is a great workout for the more advanced runner who is looking to get a little bit more out of their long run. The intervals and rest can be adapted to whatever fits the runner’s needs: if running a hilly route, the runner can aim to run hard on the uphills and relax on the downhills, letting the topography of the route dictate the hard and easy efforts of the workout. For runners for which 1 mile is too long of an interval, the distance can easily be changed to 1 kilometer, half a mile, etc., as can the interval of rest. The intervals can also be based on time rather than distance: for example, 3 minutes hard followed by 90 seconds easy, repeated as many times as desired, would also serve as a great workout. If you are a more serious runner training for longer distances and are looking to get more out of your long runs, feel free to give this workout a try the next time you go long!