Fartlek

Fartlek (pronounced fahrt-lek)

(1) A training technique, used especially by runners, consisting of bursts of intense effort loosely alternating with less strenuous activity.

(2) In sports, an alternative name for interval training (alternating high & low intensity sessions).

1952: A borrowing from Modern Swedish, the construct being fart (speed) + lek (play; child’s play) and thus literally “speed play” although some meaning is lost in translation and when used in English, fartlek remains a foreign word.  The Swedish fart was cognate with Old Norse fara (to go, move) and was ultimately from the primitive Indo-European per (to go through; to carry forth, fare).  Lek was cognate with Old Norse leika (play) and ultimately from the primitive Indo-European leyg- (“to jump around, run around; to frolic, play; to dance; to jitter, shake”).  Fart was cognate with the English verb fare (in the sense of “to go, travel”) and it’s speculated lek may have some link with the English lark (in the sense of “a carefree adventure; to have fun” (often expressed in the phrases “lark about” or “a bit of a lark”) but a more familiar relative, known around the world, is Lego (usually as LEGO), the brand of interlocking plastic bricks dating from 1934, the name from the Danish leg godt (to play well).  Although the form isn’t documented, were one exhausted after a session of fartlekking, one could collapse in a corner and announce “I’m fartleked”.  Fartlek & fartlekking are nouns; the noun plural is plural fartleks.

The earliest known mention of fartlek in English was in an article which appeared in 1952 in the periodical Scholastic Coach (1930-2015).  The training technique was developed during the 1930s by Swedish national cross-country coach Gösta Holmér (1891-1983) who had become a coach after an athletic career which included competing in the decathlon at the 1912 & 1920 Olympic Games.  Holmér was inspired to innovate because the Swedish team’s sub-standard performance in the cross-country events which had come to be dominated by Finland.  Although the discipline rarely involves sprinting, his concept involved runners training by running for brief spurts at a pace much faster than they would adopt in competition, alternating with much less strenuous sessions, all combined in the one continuous workout.  The theory was the regime simultaneously would train athletes to hone both their speed and endurance but it was only after the system had been in use for some time it became clear another benefit was mental strengthening, the distance runners being challenged in a way they’d not before encountered in a sport which revolved around maintaining a constant speed for extended periods; what fartlek did was focus on effort rather than pace or distance.

High (left) & low (right) intensity training: Lindsay Lohan fartlekking. 

Conducted in brief, explosive bursts, fartlek also had the advantage of being able to be conducted without the need for the marked track usually required and the “fun” element (inherent in the “lek” element) came from the variety of activities which could be interpolated between the speed (the “fart” element”) sessions, ensuring the boredom often associated with the monotony of repetitive training regimens was less likely.  Although the origin of fartlek was hardly scientific and developed wholly by means of trial and error, the efficacy of its outcomes has impressed many and what is now called “interval training” is widely practiced and so simple and flexible is the concept (high intensity alternating with low intensity) that various sports have adapted it in literally dozens of ways and most of those using fartlek are involved in cross-county or any form of distance running.