Landscape Fartlek: The Terrain Calls the Change

A fartlek in the original Swedish style, with no set times: pace changes are triggered by features of a park or the school's green area (a tree, a bench, a lamppost, a hill). Students learn to play with speed naturally and to read their surroundings while running.

How to play

1. The teacher walks the group around a 600–800 meter route and they agree on signals: "tree to tree, fast," "hill, short and firm steps," "bench to fountain, jog" (5 min).
2. First guided lap in a tight group, using the agreed signals (5 min).
3. In groups of four or five, each group runs the route twice; on each lap a different member picks a new landscape feature as a fast section (10 min).
4. Easy regroup jog and discussion: which sections were hardest and why (3 min).
5. Each group sketches on the ground or describes its favorite lap to repeat another day (2 min).

Rules

• Fast sections never last more than 30–40 seconds and are always followed by a jog.
• Stay on paths, never in areas with traffic or outside the agreed boundary.
• Groups stay together: a fast section ends where the last runner is waiting.
• At the whistle, all groups return to the meeting point.

Variations

Adaptations

• Low fitness: on fast sections goes from walking to jogging instead of from jogging to running.
• Visual impairment: runs with a guide who announces the landscape feature and the approximate distance to the change.
• Autism: gets the list of signals in writing, and the group keeps the same order of leaders.

Learning goals

• Experience fartlek as a game of pace changes without a stopwatch.
• Use the natural or urban environment as a resource for endurance training.
• Make group decisions about the intensity of each section.

Equipment for a class of 25

• whistle: 1

Teacher tip

Before leaving school grounds, check permissions and supervision ratios; if that's not possible, use the school perimeter with goals, hoops and trees as landmarks.

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