My Workouts | Fartleks And 5ks

#5kaday

I set a goal in July to complete a 5k each day. This can be done through a run or a walk but the point is that I carve out at least 30 minutes every day to deliberately exercise. Most days I run, but on rest days I walk, usually with my girlfriend, son, one of our dogs, or all of them!

Fartleks and Interval Training

Sometimes I run for distance, but that can get boring. I like to mix it up with fartleks. Fartlek is Swedish for "speed play." Basically, it's fast runs mixed with slower runs during one continuous run. This helps keep things interesting and keeps your body from getting used to the same old runs. Any change of pace will work. You can walk and jog, or jog and sprint. You can even use different methods to track your changes. Alternate walking a block and running a block, Walk for a minute, run for 30 seconds. walk a quarter mile, jog a half mile. Whatever you want! Pick your cadence and your distance or time frame and go. It's that easy! Here are some examples of the interval runs that I use from the Runkeeper app. (I'm not affiliated with Asics or Runkeeper. I happened to download this app many years ago and have used it to track runs ever since. Also, the target times listed are based on my 25 minute/5k baseline. Feel free to simply use the targets to get an idea of the speed difference for each interval.)