What Is A Tempo Run?

Tempo runs are an important part of a running training programme for every distance from 5km to a marathon. Here’s everything you need to know about tempo runs.

A tempo run is a moderately fast paced run which you hold for a sustained amount of time – usually 15 to 60 minutes (or more). It should still be a challenging effort, but a controlled one (in other words, it should be difficult but you shouldn’t be gasping for breath at the end as if you’ve just sprinted 100m).

Tempo runs differ from intervals or threshold workouts in that a tempo pace is slower and sustained for longer compared to shorter, faster intervals. We cover tempo runs vs intervals and tempo runs vs threshold runs below.

A tempo run should have a perceived effort of 6-7 out of 10 (where 3-4 is your easy pace and 9 is a fast interval effort).

WHY SHOULD YOU DO TEMPO RUNS?

Doing regular tempo runs helps your body to use energy and oxygen more efficiently, and to more effectively remove metabolic by-products like lactate which can slow you down. And that means you can run faster for longer.

As tempo runs are sustained for a longer period of time, they help to improve your aerobic capacity and endurance, which comes from improving the way your body utilises oxygen as a fuel.

Also, whenever we run, our body produces something called lactate. Basically, the body takes glucose and breaks it down to use as energy, with lactate a waste metabolic by-product of that energy production.

The body is able to effectively clear lactate from our muscles when running slowly, but the harder we run, the more lactate we produce and the body can’t remove it quickly enough, so it accumulates. If it accumulates beyond our lactate threshold, then it really slows us down. By doing tempo runs we can gradually increase our capacity to use energy and clear lactate.

Whether we’re running 5km or a marathon, we can benefit from the improved performance we get from tempo runs.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU DO TEMPO RUNS?

Many training plans will have a tempo run every week or two. The tempo run fits with other faster runs like intervals and threshold workouts.

However, some runners find they benefit more from longer tempo runs than shorter interval runs, so it could be something you do twice a week.

As you approach a longer race like a half marathon or marathon, then you might introduce tempo blocks into a long run. For example, if you’re doing a 30km long run in marathon training you could do 2 x 30 minute tempo blocks in the middle of the run.

WHAT IS MY TEMPO RUN PACE?

Your pace will be different based on your fitness, so it’s easier to think about the perceived effort which should be 6-7 out of 10. It should be a pace which you could hold for 60 minutes where you aren’t gasping for breath at the end. For many non-elite runners this will be somewhere around half marathon pace (with 10-15 secs per mile/km either way depending on the effort).

You want to ensure that you can run a consistent pace for a tempo run – don’t start too quickly and then find yourself struggling or running much slower in the second half.

As an example of a suggested pace, here’s what the Jack Daniels VDOT calculator recommends for someone who runs a four hour marathon. Here the threshold pace is very similar to the tempo pace and it will be a range, so it’s not an exact to-the-second pace: add 10-15 seconds either side and that’s a good indication of pace.

WHAT’S A GOOD TEMPO RUN WORKOUT?

At the beginning of a training programme, you might do shorter tempo runs. These could be as simple as running 10 minutes easy, 10 minutes faster, then 10 minutes easy.

As you progress in your training, you’ll want to increase the time or distance of the tempo runs. Many tempo workouts will progress to around an hour of tempo running in total.

You could try the following tempo run workouts:

10-15 minutes easy, 2 x 10 minute tempo with 2-5 minutes easy in between
15 minutes easy, 30 minute tempo, 15 minutes easy
10 minutes easy, 2 x 20 minutes tempo with 2-5 minutes easy between, 10 minutes easy
5-10 minutes easy, 60 minutes tempo, 5 minutes easy
A 30km long run workout: 10km easy, 2 x 30 minutes tempo with 5-10 minutes easy between, then easy pace until you reach 30km

HOW AND WHERE CAN YOU DO TEMPO RUNS?

The great thing about tempo runs is that you can do them anywhere!

And because they are run to effort or feel rather than a set pace, they can be adjusted to the terrain, meaning you can run them on a flat road or an undulating trail, so while the paces will be different, the training effect can be the same.

TEMPO RUN VS INTERVAL RUN?

Interval training typically involves short intervals or ‘reps’ (short for repetitions) where you are trying to run at close to the maximum pace you can sustain for the duration of that rep.

Shorter intervals could range from 30 seconds to two minutes (or 100m-400m). You try to sustain an effort of around 9 out of 10 for each rep, and you’ll often do numerous reps (for example: 8 x 400m with a walk or jog in between). You should be out of breath at the end of each rep.

If you run reps longer than three minutes or 800m, then for most runners that’s going to be more of a threshold pace or effort, or a VO2 Max workout.

TEMPO RUN VS THRESHOLD RUN?

Tempo and threshold often get confused, mostly because they overlap a little and have a similar purpose of increasing fitness.

Threshold runs are more technical and specific than a tempo run and they aim to be just below your personal lactate threshold (that’s the point where your body produces more lactate than it can clear).

Most threshold workouts will involve reps from 2-15 minutes, or one longer effort of 20-30 minutes (but usually not going beyond 30 minutes of threshold running in one workout). They are typically shorter reps than a tempo run, and run at a slightly harder effort (7-8 out of 10). Example threshold workouts would be: 6 x 5 minutes threshold pace, or 3 x 10 minutes.

The difference between a 20-minute tempo run and threshold run is that the threshold run will be slightly faster and you’ll finish a threshold workout more out of breath.

ALL THE BENEFITS OF TEMPO RUNS

They help you increase your cardio fitness and endurance by improving how your body uses oxygen and removes lactate
They help to condition your body for longer sustained runs which is great for race day
They improve your mental strength as you have to work as a challenging pace for an extended amount of time
They can be a great alternative form of speed training for runners who struggle with shorter, faster intervals, and they are less stressful on the body overall compared to short, fast intervals

Do you do tempo runs as part of your training? Do you have a favourite tempo workout?

Image Red Bull Content Pool / Philipp Carl Riedl

What Is A Tempo Run?