Fartlek Session

Friday Fartlek Run: Special K’s – Alternating K’s

Doing 1km reps is very popular with triathletes and runners to improve speed. This is a perfect session for runners and triathletes running events up to Half marathons in distance.

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 – Alternating K’s

  • 10min WU Level II;
  • 3-4x
    • 1km Level III, 1min RI Level II;
    • 1km Level IV, 2min RI Level II;
    • 1km Level V, 3min RI Level II;
  • 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 three or four sets of three one kilometre reps. The first rep of each set is done at Level III (Half Marathon Pace) with only a one-minute Rest Interval (RI) jogging at Level II prior to the second rep.

The second rep is done at Level IV (10km Pace) with two minutes of Rest Interval (RI) jogging at Level II prior to the third rep.

The third rep is done at your 5km race pace, which will be Level V. After this rep take a three-minute Rest Interval (RI) jogging at Level II before doing your second or subsequent set.

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.

Join over 2,884 people who have already signed up to be kept up to date with great workouts and training information in my informative newsletter.

Share this post so your friends can benefit as well.

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

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

To improve your 5km Time by over 2:30 in ONLY 5 Weeks get my most popular run programme here. Results Guaranteed. Use discount code CR30 to get a 30% discount.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.