What exactly is a Fartlek Workout?
Fartlek is Swedish for speed play and is actually one of the best workouts around. Less structured than a repeat workout, a fartlek can be done anywhere because it is not based on distance. In simple language it is running fast for a certain amount of time and then slow for a certain amount of time. You can set those times beforehand, for example, and run for 20-30 minutes with 3 minutes hard, followed by two minutes easy, or you can just go where the wind takes you and run around the neighborhood or the park and pick out lightposts or landmarks and run hard until you get to them and then take it easy again until the next one and continue that pattern.
