Konstantin Ovchinnikov has already shared useful fitness tips with Life Hacker readers. This time his guest post will tell you about the differences of fartlek, tempo and interval training, as well as the advantages of each of them. This article will be especially interesting for novice runners.
Recently on Runnersworld.com there was an outrageously simple, but at the same time very useful article for novice runners. One of the readers of the portal asked about the difference between fartlek, tempo and interval training. And that's what the experts of the publication answered her.
Fartlek is not only funny to pronounce, but also fun to run. Fartlek means "speed game" in Swedish. And the name here fully conveys the essence of the training.
Unlike tempo and interval training, fartlek does not have a clear plan: throughout its entire length, you alternate segments of medium and heavy work with light restorative ones. After warming up, you start playing at a speed, accelerating for a few seconds (to the next pillar or to that tree over there). Such accelerations are followed by calm recovery periods. Fartlek is fun to run in company, constantly overtaking each other and arranging mini-competitions at each acceleration.
Running fartleki with friends, you, competing, get an additional incentive. Fartlek is best to run without paying attention to your watch or smartphone, without any plan, just doing different acceleration rates and duration.
The main advantages of the fartlek: psychologically relaxed training that improves understanding of your body, psychological stability and endurance.
Tempo training is like Oreo cookies. Warming up and hitching is the cookie itself, and running at the level of the anaerobic threshold or slightly higher is a cream filling.
The required level of effort begins after leaving the comfort zone, and you begin to hear your breathing, but you are not yet gasping for air. If you can easily talk, it means that you are not yet in the zone of pace running. If you can't speak at all, it means that you are no longer in the zone of pace running.
During the same pace running, you can say individual words. At the same time, you should not focus on the pace as such, because it depends on many factors, such as wind, air temperature, terrain, and the general condition of your body.
The main advantages of tempo training: an increase in the anaerobic threshold (and this, in turn, helps to run faster with less effort). Concentration also improves and psychological stability increases. Competitions are simulated.
Interval training consists of short intensive intervals alternating with the same or slightly longer segments of recovery running. For example, after warming up, you run for 2 minutes at maximum effort, then for 2-3 minutes switch to jogging or a step to restore breathing.
Unlike tempo training, in interval training you run at the limit of your strength, counting the seconds remaining until the end of the interval. These intervals are followed by light recovery areas.
The whole point of such training is recovery, the segments of which should not be shortened or too fast. Observing this condition, you will be able to run steadily through all the intervals and by the end of the workout you will be tired, but not squeezed out like a lemon. Your body adapts to the load and becomes stronger precisely at the moments of recovery.
Benefits of interval training: your running form improves, endurance increases, you understand your body better, motivation increases and fats are actively burned.
