The Tempo Run: What, Why, When, and How

I was recently asked when, why, and HOW to do a tempo run, so I figured I’d take the time today to help you all understand the importance of tempo runs in your training plan, no matter what distance you are training for!First, let’s talk about WHAT exactly is a tempo run.  A tempo run can also sometimes be called a threshold run.  These runs are hard in effort, but they are not completed quite as fast as a race pace run or an interval run.  Basically, the goal of a tempo run is to increase your lactate threshold.  So, you are going to run at your lactate threshold pace for a certain period of time or number of intervals in order to help increase that.  This is considered a speed endurance workout as it’s going to help you increase your speed as well as your endurance since these workouts are longer in nature.OK, so I threw out the word lactate threshold and some of you might be going, “What the HELL is she talking about?!”  I was a 400m runner in high school. We talked all the time about getting “booty lock” at the end of a hard 400m race.  What we were experiencing is the buildup of lactic acid in our muscles. Most people mistake lactic acid as what makes you sore, but lactic acid is really what causes your muscle to fatigue during hard efforts of work.  The faster you go out, the more lactic acid that is going to build up. Your lactate threshold is the state at which you can hold a certain speed without reaching that fatigue state from lactic acid in your muscles.The whole point of a tempo or threshold workout is to increase the lactate threshold to allow you to run FASTER for longer periods of time.There are so many variations of tempo runs, but they are a necessary component of ANY training plan, no matter what distance you are training for.  If you are trying to hit a certain time in your upcoming race, you NEED to include tempo runs in your training program.And the best news about training runs, you can start doing them from the beginning of your training plan!  The only difference is that your tempo runs or tempo/cruise intervals might be shorter or less to begin with and will gradually increase as you get closer to the peak of your training.And now the JUICY details - HOW to do a tempo run!There are 3 different types of tempo runs:  tempo runs, tempo intervals, and cruise intervals.  Each of these serve the same purpose - to increase your lactate threshold - but are performed differently.Tempo runs can range anywhere from 15 minutes to 40 minutes in length.  If you are going for a shorter race distance, you’ll obviously probably keep your tempo runs on the shorter end, and marathoners will probably keep theirs on the longer end.  Either way, you are going to perform the tempo the exact same way: find your lactate threshold pace using a recent race or time trial, then hold that pace for the duration of your tempo (after a warm-up, of course).  This will be SLOWER than race pace, so you should be able to hold that pace fairly comfortably fast for 15 to 40 minutes.Tempo Intervals are similar to tempo runs except they are broken up into smaller segments and separated by a rest period.  You are running these intervals slightly faster than your lactate threshold pace, but still within a comfortable range. These intervals range anywhere from 1 mile to 3 miles, and the number of intervals you do depends on your goals + race distance.  For a 5K runner like myself, I keep my tempo intervals to 6 miles total (3-6 x 1 mile, 2-3 x 2 miles, 2 x 3 miles). However, a marathoner might add in more repetitions, or change them up. There are a TON of variations of tempo intervals, so feel free to get creative.Cruise intervals are the last type of tempo workout that you can perform.  These are extremely similar to tempo intervals; however, cruise intervals are shorter and a bit more intense.  These are NOT interval workouts, so you should not be running them nearly as fast as a track workout. These are run slightly faster than your lactate threshold - or an easy way to determine what pace to run these is using your 5K race pace.