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Fartlek, Running At Various Speeds During A Training Session
Fartlek, what the heck!!!
Not a swear word, actually a method of training whereby you play with speed. There are variations of this training method, but here are some guidelines to develop your own.
An informal session can go something like this, warm up for a kilometer or so and then vary your pace over distances from 100m to 1km.
Doing this with other runners works well as each person takes chances to take the lead and sets the pace for the rest, then drops back and the next person takes over.
A formal session would look something like this, run 2-3km warm up, repeat a series of one minute hard runs, followed by a 3min easy jog and then 2-3km to warm down again.
You should incorporate this into your training, it's a break from running at the same pace all the time and a good way to develop that kick at the end of a race.
Here's a short video that explains this training method as well.