The term “tempo run”
is a commonly used term in the running world, but not
everyone knows what it means. It doesn’t just mean
to go out and run at a faster pace than you would on an
easy run — there are certain parameters that make
a training session a tempo run. The short way to calculate
your tempo pace is that it’s 15 to 18 seconds slower
per kilometre than your 5K race pace. This is a pace that
you can hold for an extended period of time, and although
it’s not easy, you’re not pushing yourself
to exhaustion, either.
How often should
I be doing a tempo run?
Under Armour runner David
Joseph says he doesn’t like to describe tempo runs
as “easy” or “hard.” Instead,
he says they have to be controlled.
“A tempo run on one
day can be different from another, effort-wise, so control
is what’s most important for me,” he says.
Joseph is a Montreal-based runner and the founder of the
YAMAJO Run Crew. “You can’t go out there and
fartlek it and have it be wild, you have to be in control
of your pace.” Joseph’s training schedule
varies from week to week, so he doesn’t have a set
number of tempo runs on his calendar.
The term “tempo run” is a
commonly used term in the running world, but not everyone
knows what it means. It doesn’t just mean to go
out and run at a faster pace than you would on an easy
run — there are certain parameters that make a training
session a tempo run. The short way to calculate your tempo
pace is that it’s 15 to 18 seconds slower per kilometre
than your 5K race pace. This is a pace that you can hold
for an extended period of time, and although it’s
not easy, you’re not pushing yourself to exhaustion,
either.
The 80/20 Rule
One way Joseph determines how many tempo
runs he’ll do each week is by employing the 80/20
rule. This rule says 80 per cent of an athlete’s
runs should be easy to moderate. The other 20 per cent
are hard or at a higher intensity.
“For me, when we talk about the
80/20 rule, it’s really about protecting your body,
protecting your next workout, protecting your next race,”
Joseph says. Joseph’s words are echoed by fellow
Under Armour trainer Rich Hesketh.
“One of the biggest mistakes people
make is going hard, hard, hard and they get nothing but
breakdown and no recovery,” Hesketh, a former Canadian
national decathlon champion, says. “You’re
done if you start breaking down as a distance runner.”
Hesketh says the majority of elite runners follow the
80/20 rule, and recreational runners should as well.
“Physiologically, someone who’s
just starting is not much different than an elite runner,”
Hesketh adds. “The difference is in their capacity
and their speed. The fact that it works best to go 80/20
doesn’t change just because you’re elite or
just because you’re recreational.”
Joseph admits that it can be tough to
rein yourself in on days when you feel fast and strong,
but it’s important to follow your training and go
slow and steady when you’re supposed to and to save
the fast stuff for the 20 per cent of runs that can be
high-intensity.
“You might feel good today, but
if you push too much, it’s the next workout that’s
going to suffer,” Joseph says. “It’s
about giving yourself your best chance of peaking on race
day. That’s the goal, that’s why you’re
training. You’re not training to PB during your
long run or workout, so trust that 80/20 per cent.”
Joseph’s weekly schedule may vary
quite a bit, but he says he plans each week of training
with the 80/20 rule in mind. If more than 20 per cent
of his schedule is fast-paced, high-intensity work, he
knows he has to edit it and balance the scales better.
As written in the MapMyRun blog, “Polarize your
training with the principle of keeping your easy days
[at a lower intensity] and your hard days [at a higher
intensity]. Avoid running the same mileage and the same
pace, day in and day out.”
Tempo workouts for beginners to
running veterans
Both Joseph and Hesketh say tempo workouts
generally remain the same for all runners, regardless
of their levels of experience. Both recommend a 20-minute
tempo workout with 10 minutes of warming up and cooling
down on either end of the main set. Hesketh says the longest
tempo he would suggest for an athlete would be a 25-minute
stretch.
“I wouldn’t want to go much
more than that,” he says. “It makes a manageable
block. ‘Can I hold this pace for 25 minutes?’”
What will change as an athlete progresses, Hesketh says,
is the duration of the workout. Although he wouldn’t
recommend going more than 25 minutes at a time for a tempo,
he says as athletes improve, their warmups and cooldowns
should get longer.
Joseph notes another change that will
occur as a runner improves: pacing.
“That will automatically change
as you move along,” he says, “because what
was once your 60 per cent effort is now easier for you,
so you have to pick it up.” It’s not the workout
itself that will change much, just the speed at which
you run (remember to stick around 15 to 18 seconds off
of your 5K pace) and the length of time you’re running
overall.
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