Fartlek Training

Friday Fartlek Run: Special K’s – Race Pace 5ks

Doing 1km reps is very popular with triathletes and runners to improve speed. This is a perfect session for runners and triathletes running 5km races. Doing it ~10 days prior to an important 5km is a great session.

Each week I will be posting the Friday Fartlek Run Sessions that you can do to enhance your running. Fartlek is a Swedish term that runners often use and it means speed-play. See a previous post about training intensity (levels) to know how hard to work.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to cover a number of variations of 1km repeats. The inspiration for these workouts comes from an article by Mario Fraioli. That article can be found here.

Special K’s – Race Pace 5Ks

  • 10min WU Level II;
  • 5x 1km Level V, 1min Level II RI;
  • 10min CD Level II;
  • 10min Stretching

The Warm Up (WU) should be done at an intensity that is steady, but not overconsuming at Level II for ten minutes.

The main set is made up of five, one-kilometer reps. These reps are done at your 5km race pace, which will be Level V. After each rep take a one-minute Rest Interval (RI) jogging at Level II.

The Cool Down (CD) is at a low intensity, jogging (Level II) for a minimum of ten minutes.

Finish with 10 minutes of stretching to assist with the recovery.

If you would like further advice feel free to contact me.

I am the Head Coach & Director of Qwik Kiwi – Endurance Sports Consultant.

I specialise in assisting first-timers and recreational athletes to achieve their sporting goals. I can be contacted at coachray@coachray.nz and 021 348 729.

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Download the Garmin (.FIT) files for this workout for FREE

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If you enjoyed this workout, here is a similar session I published.

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