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TEMPO TRAINING – short'n'fast but with good judgement

© Clive Maxwell Prestt

Introduction

After talking about longs slow distance runs in my last article, and repetitions in the article prior to that, both aimed at building up your aerobic resistance, and the article before that looked at medium paced long runs to develop aerobic power, here is the icing on the cake for your aerobic power. Going back to the article about maximum oxygen uptake (max VO2) tempo runs bring an improvement in this. So this also works towards developing that vital ability to sustain your maximum pace to the end of the race instead of falling away, slowing down, and 'dying'. This is not like a long slow run that you can do as a recovery training session the day after a hard training session. This a hard training session of up to 30 minutes at your fastest possible pace you can maintain steadily, to be exploited with wisdom when you are in your best physical condition i.e. wyou'veu've rested. It's very specific. Very demanding. But it packs a large amount of conditioning into a short space of time. So it is a type of training to be done when you are fit, when you have matured as a runner and know what you can and can't do.

Post Question: How long should you run for in a tempo training run? How springy and light should your legs be feeling before you set off on a tempo run?

The key: balance pace and mileage

Focus Question: Should you do tempo runs when you are not fully fit? If you introduce tempo runs into your training schedule should you increase, decrease or leave your mileage as it is?

Inserting tempo runs into your training when your are fit means that you need less track work and fewer miles on the road. This avoids getting slower from doing too much long slow distance, and injured from too much track work.

The key is to balance pace and mileage. The axiom that if you run slowly you'll race slowly may hold true, but this does not mean that if you train swiftly, you'll race swiftly. Pace is more subtle than that: speed carries the risk of stress and burnout. You must have an overall balance in your training program, that runner's heaven of being in the safe zone between too fast and too slow that leads to steady improvement.

The critical point about a tempo run is that the recovery period is eliminated and so your body is stressed consistently over the whole workout. Towards the end of the session you will get into oxygen debt. Lactic acid forms in your legs. It may not. But you don't want to build a big oxygen debt.