Tempo runs will save us all.
This is not new information.
We’ve been told for years that tempo runs are great. That we need to incorporate them often. Yet we just don’t do them--or at least not the way we should. A lot of people treat them as “transitional” sessions, to get the body used to harder running when heading into a more intense phase of training. Or a group run might evolve into one when someone pushes the pace and everyone goes with it. But once a training cycle really gets underway, the inevitable takes place. The onslaught of hard intervals assumes command, and tempo runs take their gloomy walk of shame, straight to the back-burner. Now, I’m not saying that hard interval sessions are always bad. There is absolutely a time and place for them. But I am saying that a pathological overdependency on them does, indeed, exist. It is pervasive throughout collegiate programs, and spills over into other “serious” training groups as well. So why is this?
“It was hard training. And hard training meant it was honest work. Real work. The kind of work it took to get better. Sure, I was slowly declining in workout performances, and feeling worse all the time, and generally corroding in body and mind, but I was able to sleep at night knowing that I had run hard that day. ”
Why do we favor hard interval sessions over tempo work?
Two reasons:
Immediate gratification.
The “toughness” factor.
There’s no question that “VO2 max”-style interval sessions yield quick results.
When I was in college, I never really “felt fit” until I got a few such interval sessions in the books. These were hard, high-intensity wind-sucker workouts that left you super gassed, and you felt that way for at least a couple days. And the awesome thing about these was that, when we did another one the next week, I was suddenly faster! Noticeably so. And getting faster so quickly was a great feeling. A rush, even. But the problem was that this didn’t last long. After a few weeks, the linear improvements started to taper off. No more big jumps in fitness. So to remedy this, I’d run the next one harder. And the next one even harder. I’d repeat this to the point that I wasn’t actually getting better--I just felt exhausted all the time. Even throughout the day, when I wasn’t running. Yet I remained steadfast, and stayed the course. More hard sessions.
But why?? Why would I keep doing this when it clearly wasn’t working? I mean, I was a smart runner, and a generally cerebral guy. Why wouldn’t I have made a change? While it’s true that I had a coach telling me to do it, that doesn’t change the fact that I never once questioned this way of training. I knew it was correct. And the reason I knew this was because of point number 2:
The “toughness” factor.
It was hard training. And hard training meant it was honest work. Real work. The kind of work it took to get better. Sure, I was slowly declining in workout performances, and feeling worse all the time, and generally corroding in body and mind, but I was able to sleep at night knowing that I had run hard that day.
But it’s not merely our penchant for hard intervals that keeps us shunning the tempo work. We find tempo runs annoying in their own right, which makes them all the easier to skip.
Why you’re NOT doing tempo runs:
They’re tedious. Traditional tempo runs are equal parts monotonous and difficult. They evoke a unique brand of mental fatigue that attends efforts that are long and uninterrupted. Even though interval sessions are “harder” in terms of intensity, the psychological reprieve of rest periods takes a little load off the mind. Steady-pace tempo runs don’t allow for that.
Despite point 1 above, they ironically don’t seem “hard” enough. The allure of interval sessions is that, because they are so hard, they make you feel like you got in a “better” workout. You can also get a quicker fitness jump from them, which is quite the temptation. Because tempo runs aren’t as intense, they tend to yield less drastic fitness jumps in the short-term, and this is, by comparison, less enticing.
So why would anyone want to do them??
Though it doesn’t seem like it, I’m about to tell you why tempo runs are actually the superior vessel of fitness, and the most useful weapon in your training arsenal.
What exactly is a tempo run?
The running world is replete with terms that have multiple and confusing definitions. Chiefly among these is “tempo run”. Depending on who’s saying it, and what the context is, a tempo run can refer to anything from a “steady state” to a run performed at “lactate threshold” to a “marathon pace” run to a run that’s just some undefined magnitude of difficulty higher than an easy run. So let’s make things simple. A tempo run is all of these things. And to be practical, let’s form a definition:
A tempo session is a workout whose goal is to train the body to more effectively run at paces that are:
-noticeably faster than your default-easy pace
-slower than max-VO2 efforts
- challenging, but ALWAYS sub-maximal efforts
That’s it. If the workout checks all of these boxes, it’s a tempo session.
That gives us a pretty wide pace-range to work with. It also gives us a lot of different workout structures to choose from. Any of the following count as tempo sessions:
Continuous runs: could be just a couple of miles, to many miles, depending on the purpose of the run, and/or the event of focus.
Fartlek: still a continuous run, but where you mix up the paces from faster to slower throughout. This could be anything from 1 minute FAST, 1 minute SLOW for 30 minutes, to 16 miles with each mile alternating between EASY pace and GOAL MARATHON pace.
Interval-style: this would be structured like a VO2-max interval session, but with less intense paces and relatively shorter rests. Something like mile repeats at half-marathon pace w/ 60 seconds rest between each is an example.
So why are tempo sessions good?
They make you faster in multiple ways
You can do them year-round
They don’t wear you out like VO2 max stuff
The available variety of workouts and paces allow you to mix things up and keep progressing in fitness
Tempo sessions improve your fitness in a variety of ways, both physically and mentally. From a physiological standpoint, they force you to sustain a faster-than-normal pace for an extended--and usually uninterrupted--period of time. This makes them (depending on event) more similar to racing, given that you don’t get to take rest breaks during a race. This also produces a useful psychological component. Having to maintain a particular pace for longer durations trains your mind to remain focused on the task at hand, and allows you to practice patience and self-communication. These runs also dial in the skill of pacing itself. In time, you’ll find that you’re able to arrive at a specific pace without aid of your watch, or of constant checking of splits. You’ll come to internalize effort-levels associated with specific paces.
But what I want to focus on mostly is the fact that you can--and indeed should--safely and effectively run these workouts YEAR-ROUND.
This is going to challenge a traditional training paradigm, so let’s get into it.
“This requires a change in perspective. You have to think about training as something that’s getting you fitter ALL THE TIME, and not just for short-but-super-hard stints during a racing season. ”
Most of us who come from scholastic running backgrounds have basically been taught that the purpose of your “base phase” is to build up to max weekly mileage, and that these miles ought to be run at an easy and relatively uniform pace. This period also serves as a de facto “rest” period that’s free from the really hard workouts and races that you just finished doing in track season, and that you’ll resume doing in cross country in the fall. And you sure as hell better be “rested” after the summer, cuz buddy, once that season hits, it’s nose to the grindstone and on to the intervals.
Part of why school runners train this way is because they’re locked into a rigid seasonal racing schedule. It’s cross country in the fall, indoor in the winter, outdoor in the spring, and you’ve got to be race-ready all along the way. But once you’re done with the school running and you’re calling your own shots, there is no reason you need to continue training this way. At that point, it’s time to buck the system and train in a way that--in the LONG term--is MORE effective, will make you FEEL BETTER, and will MINIMIZE your likelihood of injury.
For those of us who aren’t genetic freaks (and that’s the VAST majority of us), we have to be pretty mindful of how we train if we wish to perform well and not get injured. And it is unto us, my friends, that the gift of tempo runs has been given! If you’re properly integrating tempo runs into your training, you will be able to do them almost EVERY WEEK, regardless of what training phase you’re in, and this will gain you more fitness all the time, with a low-risk of injury, and without feeling burnt out. This requires a change in perspective. You have to think about training as something that’s getting you fitter ALL THE TIME, and not just for short-but-super-hard stints during a racing season.
So how do you actually do this?
The key is in the workout variation, and the sequencing. Let’s say you’re a fairly experienced competitive runner (ran cross country and track at the high school, or even college level), and now you’re out of school, doing your own thing. You’re wanting to prepare for a “season” of fast 5ks or 10ks. You’re gonna want to embark on a base, or STRENGTH phase, during which time you’ll build up your mileage. But you’re not just gonna do the same mono-effort easy runs the whole phase. You’re gonna incorporate tempo work every week, and you’re not gonna be afraid to do it. You’re going to approach it intelligently, you’re NOT going to burn out, and you’re NOT going to put yourself at high risk of injury.
Though every runner is a little different, the following is a general guideline of how to PROPERLY INTEGRATE tempo runs into your base/strength phase:
Begin phase with a mileage volume that is definitely manageable. This will vary from person to person, so you’ll have to make this call on your own.
Plan to increase total weekly volume by a reasonably moderate amount each week, or every other week--whichever you prefer.
While I do also recommend doing other types of runs during this Strength phase--ie, hills, strides, long runs--the focus of this article is on tempo runs.
If it’s been a minute since you’ve trained seriously, you might want to put in about 2 weeks of just easy running, to get back into the swing of things.
Begin a tempo schedule like the following. Always include a warmup and cooldown before and after the tempo session:
Week1
Wed: 3 mi straight at a pace that is about 1 minute per mile or 20% SLOWER than recent 5k speed. Go with whichever is slower. We’ll call this TEMPO pace. If you’re estimating this, err on the slower side.
Sat: 8 x 2 min ON, 1 min OFF. The ON sections are at PERCEIVED 10k effort (not a rigid pace; go by feel). The OFF sections are as easy as desired.
Week 2
Wed: 2 x 2 mi @ TEMPO pace w/ 90s stand/walk rest between each.
Sat: 5 mi straight at a pace that’s 10-20 seconds per mile slower than TEMPO pace. We’ll call this SUB-TEMPO, or ST pace.
Week 3
Wed: 3.5 mi straight @ TEMPO pace.
Sat: 8 x 2 min ON, 1 min OFF. The ON sections are @ 10k effort. The OFF sections are as easy as desired.
Week 4
Wed: 4 x1 mi @ 5 seconds per mile FASTER than TEMPO pace. Let’s call this FAST TEMPO, or FT pace. Take 60s stand/walk rest between each.
Sat: 5.5 mi straight @ ST pace.
*NEW PACE CYCLE*
Week 5
Wed: 3.5 mi straight @ new TEMPO pace (whatever your FT pace was the previous week).
Sat: 8 x 2 min ON, 1 min OFF. The ON sections are @ 10k effort. The OFF sections are as easy as desired.
Week 6
Wed: 3 x 1.5 mi @ TEMPO pace, w/ 60s stand/walk rest between each.
Sat: 6 mi straight @ new ST pace (5-10s per mile FASTER than previous ST pace)
Week 7
Wed: 4 mi straight @ TEMPO pace.
Sat: 8 x 2 min ON, 1 min OFF. The ON sections are @ 10k effort. The OFF sections are as easy as desired.
Week 8
Wed: 4 x 1 mi @ FT pace w/ 60s stand/walk rest between each. Remember, this is now 5s per mile FASTER than your most recent TEMPO pace.
Sat: 7 mi straight @ ST pace.
That’s a solid 8 weeks of how to properly carry out a tempo run schedule, and this is all while you’re continuing to increase weekly mileage by 10% every week, or every other week. Once the racing season began, you would make some modifications to incorporate workouts that are more race-specific, but you would certainly continue to include similar tempo sessions throughout the racing phase as well. Even if you didn’t have any particular race goals in mind, but wanted to improve your cruising speed and overall fitness, you could feasibly repeat such a tempo cycle for a long time and continue to see improvements. In other words, the versatility and efficacy of such an approach to tempo training cannot be overstated. It’s the most decisive tool at your disposal in the quest to building continuous, long-term fitness.
Hopefully this serves as a helpful starting point toward greatness, but click here if you’re ready to take things to the next level.
