The Swedish 🇸🇪 secret to running fast 🏃⚡️
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When we talked about interval and step training, we mentioned that it's more convenient to do this type of training on a track, as it's easier to time the intervals. For example, 50x200 or 20x800.
At the time, Sweden didn't have many running tracks, and the national team lagged behind neighboring Finland in athlete training. Then, Swedish athlete and coach Gustaf Holmer developed a new training system.
This training could be done anywhere:
on the beach, on the road, on a golf course or football field, in a stadium, in the forest, and even on rough terrain, where Holmer trained his athletes for cross-country running. Thanks to this versatility, this method became widely used.
As a result, athletes under Holmer's guidance set world records in all distances from 1.5 to 10 km.
One athlete, Gunder Hegg, participated in seven different competitions over three months and set ten world records in distances ranging from 1,500 meters to 5,000 meters.
Gustav Holmér called this type of training "Speed Game," or Fartlek in Swedish.
One famous American athlete said, "Ask 10 people what Fartlek is, and you'll get ten different answers."
This is indeed true. The composition of a Fartlek workout depends on many factors: your level of fitness, your running specialty, the location of your run, and even your mood.
Ninety years have passed since Holmér's first Fartlek workouts, and today there are many Fartlek variations.
Some athletes say that Fartlek is freedom. Indeed, for this type of training, you don't need to track anything: not the number of runs, not the time, not the distance. By understanding your body and having a good sense of your intensity zones, you can run entirely by feel, without bogging down your head with numbers and calculations.
This is the Swedish secret to fast running!
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