Tempo Runs - No Clue Where to Begin!

tdigreg

Hello Everyone,

My name is Theresa and I am new to this discussion board. I am a new-ish/intermediate runner and have been a MFP member for a couple of years. I am hoping to learn from the more experienced runners and maybe share what I know with the really new peeps .

That said, I need some help with incorporating temp runs into my training. I am about 5 weeks out from a 10K, and to be honest all of my training has been straight runs. I would like to add in tempo runs to help work a bit on my speed, but I am having a hard time learning how to actually do them. I have never run a tempo run, and am really looking for a very remedial explanation of what is involved as well as recommendations on how to start off. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Carrieendar

You might want to try adding something like strides first.

http://strengthrunning.com/2012/10/what-are-strides/

That said, a tempo run involves a warm up to begin with, personally I like to warmup at least 2 miles before starting tempo pace. Then you run a set number of miles at tempo pace. I use a pace calculator to see where I should be based on a previous race and a goal time:

http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/

Once you are done, you then cool down a couple miles.

YOu are looking to improve stamina, so you have to watch that you are not running the tempo miles too fast, but they also are not an easy run. I look for about 80-85% heartrate maybe? I admit I have not done one this training cycle yet, but I think that is about right!

SonicDeathMonkey80

What I've done in the past is incorporate 5-15min of tempo pace (5k/10k) in the middle of a run. Build up slow to the pace, hammer it out, and gradually back off. There's a few variations of a tempo, but I think this is the widely accepted one. Also consider fast finish runs (or progressive runs, whatever).

schmenge55

As others have said, always warmup first and cool down as well. If you do not know the pace you need or have a HR monitor you can go by effort. The effort is: You can talk but do not want to. If you.....do..............talk you............have to gasp,,,,,,,,,for,,,,,,,,,,breath every few words. It is also a pace you could do "all out" for about an hour

astralweeks82

*psst, this is my sister guys*

CarsonRuns

Tempo runs are usually done at your Lactate Threshold Pace (LT). What is my LT, you ask? It can be loosely defined as the pace which you could sustain for one hour. For faster runners, this could be around HM pace, for slower runners, closer to 10K pace. In order to determine what your LT pace is, you should run an all out 5K race and use McMillan's calculator to see what your tempo/LT pace is.

http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/

How to do it? The legendary Jack Daniels tempo run is simply a warm up of 2 or more miles (depends on your level of fitness) and then 20 minutes at LT pace. I don't believe that, if you are training for a HM or shorter, that you need to run more than 20 minutes at LT pace in one run, nor more often than once per week.

Some variations on tempo runs are going longer but a little slower, but not slower than Aerobic Threshold pace, which is usually right around marathon pace for most runners. Sometimes we break the tempo up into sections with short rest periods between them, like 3 repeats of 1 mile at LT pace, with 60 to 90 seconds of slow jog recovery between each one.

Hope this helps.

ETA: Link to McMillan calculator

CallMeRuPaul

I like this thread!!!!

I just started doing tempo runs and will do my third this Sunday! I plan on doing a 3 mile warm up, then an 8 minute mile for miles 4-7, then a 3 mile cool down. I found out that I need to write down my times; otherwise, I won't hit my splits:

1 - 9:30
2 - 9:15
3 - 9:00
4-7: 8:00
8 - 9:00
9 - 9:15
10 - 9:30

Avg pace: 8:45

tdigreg

Thanks everyone! This has been super helpful. I really appreciates the tips and links!