Being newish to running (ran my 7 kms race yesterday, 45 mins yay me!) I am reading as much as I can about training and stuff and I am very interested in something called **Tempo Running **.
It seems simple, but I don’t get how to do it? I feel dumb, but am I supposed to run full out? Almost full out? For how long?
please can someone explain a la “Tempo Running For Dummies”? and help me out?
Really I am usually smarter but I am just not grasping it?
I’m a cyclist, not a runner, but we use the term “tempo” as well.
Basically, it’s an effort just below your lactate threshold. For me, I was able to estimate my LT by by averaging my heart rate over the last 20 minutes of a 30 minute time trial. A more accurate test would be on a treadmill or ergocycle at a lab.
Knowing my LTHR (168), I used a table out of Joe Friel’s “Cyclist’s Training Bible” to determine my training zones. He defines the Tempo zone to be 89-93% of LTHR, or in my case, 151-156bpm.
I wouldn’t call tempo pace “almost full out” by any means. The best description I have is where you want to stop/slow down but you don’t have to (actually, that better describes the subthreshold zone (94-100% of LTHR), but it’s pretty close).
If you have a heart rate monitor and can do an equivalent test to find your LTHR for running, you should be able to use it to find your tempo pace.
Can I do it without a HR monitor?
I know it won’t be as accurate?
There is a 20 point “Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion” scale that was used before HR monitors became widespread. In CTB, the table goes:
Purpose Rating Exertion
Recovery 6
Recovery 7 Very, Very Light
Recovery 8
Recovery 9 Very Light
Aerobic Development 10
Aerobic Development 11 Fairly Light
Aerobic Development 12
Tempo Development 13 Somewhat Hard
Tempo Development 14
Subthreshold Development 15 Hard
Subthreshold Development 16
Superthreshold Development 17 Very Hard
Aerobic Capacity Development 18
Aerobic Capacity Development 19 Very, Very Hard
Aerobic Capacity Development 20
The trick will be mapping your level of exertion to the above scale.
Not necessarily. I’ve been training for about a year, and I now “know” (with a reasonable amount of certainty) what my HR will be for a given level of effort. In a way, avoiding being a slave to your HR monitor is a good thing, as RPE helps account for variables like dehydration and cardiac drift that might artificially effect HR. You also won’t be lost on race day if the HR monitor konks out and you can’t find CR2032 batteries anywhere.
So then if you are doing a tempo run you should be training at a 13 or 14 RPE?
So it should feel difficult but not impossible?
How long do you do this for?
Tempo is one hour race pace for 20 min. In your case that would be about 10:30-10:45 per mile for 20 min.
Excellent calculator here.
Estimates your performances at different distances as well as paces for different workouts.
You can do this by measuring perceived exertion by singing or talking to yourself. Someone else will probably correct me, but my recollection is that in the recovery and aerobic zones, you can speak easily. Tempo is when it’s hard to speak continuously. Subthreshold is when you can speak a phrase at most, and at max, you can gasp out a word.
SuperNelson, that’s kind of the rationale I’d use.
I’ve never owned a HR monitor, but did speed work and tempo runs from time to time. If you think big picture, the point is to push yourself beyond what’s comfortable, so that in time what was once “too fast” becomes not so hard.
So if you don’t want to screw around with stop watches, HRMonitors, etc, you start running, surge for a bit, slow down for a bit, lather, rinse repeat. You’re still going to get a benefit, and it doesn’t feel as confusing or anal.
Not that I’m not anal retentive in other areas of my life, this was just one where I didn’t feel the need to be super scientific.
Here’s the thing. . .since you’re a beginning runner, the worst thing you can do is fall into a rut. It eventually becomes easy to settle into a nice pace (might be 8:30 or 9:00 for you, whatever) and keep that pace for a long time.
Your body becomes efficient at it. It learns your routes.
My advice to you is that you just want to “shock” your runs.
Tempo is one way to do that. Find a pace where your breathing and heart rate have picked up, you’re unable to talk without large breaths of air (“you know <gasp> what I saw <gasp> last night? <gasp>”), and hold it for 20 minutes. I sort of like to get about 2.5 miles from home, and just kick my own ass all the way back. Not like I’m sprinting, but a hard pace with a cool down at the end. If I run by a person, they can tell I’m working, and not just out jogging.
But, for now, since you’re sort of a beginner, I’d say don’t be too technical about it. If you’re running 5 days a week, I’d pick one day for sprints, one day for something like tempo, one day for a nice recovery, and two days for your “jog”.
Sprints: do a couple/few miles, then find a hill, and sprint up it, walk down it, and sprint up it some more. Some people like longer sprints where they get totally anaerobic and hold it. Some people like short sprints before they get real anaerobic. People debate the merits of each, or the exact definition of “tempo” and it tends to get silly.
I have a theory that there are so many training methods because they all work. You just need a method. You just need something to keep your ass working. . .do a wicked long run, do a short very fast run, do a run with hills/sprints in it. **Just do anything – every week – that is harder than your normal run at your normal pace. **
I know too many cyclists/swimmers/runners that get into their exact heartrates, power output, etc. But, I think it’s really simple: just go work.
Thanks all.
This is exactly what I was looking for - I want to keep improving. I just have that “Sky’s the limit” feeling because when I first started, 7 K seemed so * long* I just wanted to finish and not push.
Now I want to push and see what I can get 
While looking for backup on determining cardiovascular zone by breath, I found this article on Runner’s World: Tempo Runs Done Right
Nah, don’t mess around with them HR monitors. Unless that’s your style, of course. They can be real useful things but sometimes there’s a tendency to pay more attention to the HR monitor than to your run. As Trunk put it so well, just go to work.
Tempo runs you base it off your race pace minus however much depending on what kind of thing you’re doing. When I was a big runner I did a minute off my mile time for 20-30 minutes, then for the cool down find a ditch to go crawl in and die. The next day do a good easy-but-not-lazy run. Check out the scenery and enjoy yourself.