“Fartlek by feel” is a return to running’s roots: a quality workout where intensity isn’t dictated by the clock, but by listening to your own breath, to learn how to manage effort and rediscover freedom.
- Stop the slavery: Running while staring at your pace per mile every 10 seconds creates anxiety and disconnects you from your actual feelings.
- Speed play: Fartlek means “speed play.” It was born to be free, anarchic, and fun, not caged in rigid spreadsheets.
- Your speedometer: Use your breath. Nose = Easy. Mouth/Rhythmic = Medium. Gasping/Impossible to talk = Hard.
- The workout: Free warm-up, then sight-based variations (run hard to that streetlight/tree/curve), recovery by feel.
- The goal: Learn to feel race pace instead of reading it, developing a sensitivity that will serve you well when technology (or your battery) fails you.
We Are Slaves to Pace per Mile. It’s Time to Break Free.
Admit it. You go out for a run and, before you’ve even gone a hundred yards, you’ve already looked at your watch three times. “Am I too slow?” “Is my average pace right?” “Is my heart rate in the correct zone?”
We’ve transformed a natural and liberating act into an accounting exercise. We’ve become “running accountants.” And we’ve lost a runner’s most important skill: **proprioception of effort**. We can no longer say “how we feel” unless a display tells us.
Today I propose a challenge. A quality workout, hard and training-effective, but with one ironclad rule: **never look at the stopwatch**. In fact, if you have the guts, leave it at home or cover the screen with a piece of tape.
The Original Fartlek: Getting Back to Playing With Speed
The term Fartlek is Swedish and literally means “speed play.” It was invented in the 1930s for exactly this reason: to break the monotony of long runs and insert pace variations naturally, using the terrain.
Today, unfortunately, we’ve ruined this too. We’ve turned the game into Excel spreadsheets: “Do 2 minutes at 7:15 pace and 1 minute at 8:00 pace.” Sherlock would say “boooooooored.”
True Fartlek is controlled anarchy. It is freedom. It’s seeing a hill and deciding to attack it. It’s seeing a tree in the distance and deciding to sprint to it.
How to Use Your Breath as a Speedometer (Nose, Mouth, Gasping)
Without a watch, how do you know if you’re going fast or slow? Simple: you listen to the engine. And the sound of your engine is your breath. It is the most honest and immediate feedback you have, much more precise than heart rate (which always has a lag).
Here is your new pace “chart”:
- Easy pace (Zone 1-2): You can breathe almost and primarily only through your nose. If you are with someone, you can hold a complete conversation about the meaning of life without gasping.
- Medium pace (Zone 3 – marathon/tempo pace): Breathing becomes deeper and more rhythmic. You use your mouth. You can say a few phrases (“Everything’s good,” “What a beautiful day”), but you can’t make a speech. You are focused, but in control.
- Hard pace (Zone 4-5 – threshold and beyond): Gasping. Breathing is frequent and loud. Talking is impossible; at most, you can grunt a “Yes” or a “No.” Your mind is focused solely on putting one foot in front of the other.
The “Free Spirit” Workout
Here is how to structure your outing. You don’t need distances; you just need a route (ideally varied, with some ups and downs or in a park).
Free Warm-Up
Start running. Slow. How slow? Until your breathing is totally calm, silent. Don’t worry if it feels like walking. Listen to your body waking up. Do 10-15 minutes like this, enjoying the scenery instead of the numbers.
Sight-Based Variations (“The Game”)
Now the fun begins. Look around. Pick a landmark: a streetlight, a bench, the end of the avenue, the top of a small hill.
That is your finish line.
Decide to reach it at a hard or medium pace.
Go. Push. Feel your breathing change, feel your legs turning over. Get to the point.
Recovery by Feel
Once you reach the target, slow down. Return to easy pace.
How long does the recovery last? Here’s the beauty of it: it lasts until you’ve recovered.
Not “one minute.” Listen to your breath. When it comes back under control, when you feel ready to go again, pick a new landmark and go.
Repeat this game for 20, 30 minutes. Alternate short sprints (high intensity) with longer medium segments. Follow the inspiration of the moment.
Learn to Run, Not to Watch a Clock
The first time will feel weird. Naked. You’ll be tempted to peek at your wrist. Resist.
At the end of the workout, you’ll realize something: you worked hard (oh, did you ever), but the time flew. You didn’t endure the workout; you created it, moment by moment.
This type of work teaches you to manage energy better than any algorithm. It teaches you to understand when you’re overdoing it and when you can give more. And on race day, when technology might fail or the GPS loses signal, you won’t panic. Because you’ll know exactly what to do: listen to your breath and run.