So I have run 8 marathons in the past, but never did a tempo. I never had GPS before so just finished the distance with no clue on time. This year I got a watch.
Last 3 weeks I have been doing 10.5 mile tempo runs at 9:30-9:39 My long runs have been around 9:50-9:55 (I'm up to 17. and will do 18,20,22,16 for long runs. Are tempos supposed to be run at MP? Another part of me always runs faster on race day than training any distance so I do wonder should I slow down my tempos. or try to speed up on my mps?
There are a variety of runs that can be called 'tempo' runs, but the traditional tempo run is 20-40 minutes at your 1-hour race pace (so probably just slightly slower than your 10K pace)
There's some debate about how much running at or around MP you should do (some plans have a lot of MP running, some plans have very little) but MP runs are usually considered to be different from tempo runs.
Not sure what you are asking for the second part of your question-- what do you mean by speeding up on your MPs?
The most common training paces are: easy, marathon, tempo, and interval. There are others but another time for those.
A person with a 10k personal best of 50:00 would run their easy pace at 10:11, marathon pace at 8:46, tempo pace at 8:12, and intervals at 7:33.
A person with a 5k personal best of 23:00 would run their easy pace at 9:48, marathon pace at 8:25, tempo pace at 7:52, and intervals at 7:16.
These paces drop or increase according to an established race time for any one individual, but they are pretty accurate in terms of what you should be running.
Tempo runs should be run at tempo pace, there might be plans that mix marathon pace and tempo pace, but those are not true tempo runs. Those are usually some sort of marathon training runs.
For most of us recreational (read slow) runners, tempo pace is somewhere in the neighborhood of your 10k pace. You would most likely then not run at 10k pace for an hour, unless that was your 10k pace.
There are many variations of tempo runs, (tempo mile repeats, 5 X 1200's at tempo pace, steady state tempo runs etc.) but it is rare to see them exceed 6 miles for weekend warriors.
When I trained for marathons on the past, my typical daily run was 6.5, and on Saturday I did what my long run called for all without a watch so I never knew what those times were previously.
Now I have a GPS watch and can time my outdoor runs. Talking to friends, reading some stuff here and there I decided to add 10 mile runs in the middle of the week, in addition to long runs at the end. Right now I am only focusing on 26.2 so don't care about other race times as I may 2 fulls, and 1 half over the next 4 months.
Anyway in my running club I am getting mixed answers on how fast my 10 miler should be. If my long run (up to 17 now) has been averaging 9:50, and my 10 miler 9:30 should I try to keep both at these respective paces if my goal is just doing okay at 26.2? Sorry about mixing up the terms.
The traditional purpose of a tempo run is to improve your body's ability to process lactate. As with all physiological systems, you have to stress it to prompt the adaptation and improvement. On your normal easy runs or even on your long runs, you don't stress that system. However, if you run too fast, the lactate builds rapidly and you are forced to slow down. Yes, you stressed the system but only for a brief period of time and that brief period of time won't prompt much adaptation to the stress. So, you want to stress that system but, for obvious reasons, you don't want to flat out race.
As it turns out, you can spend the most time stressing that system if you run at a pace that's just about the pace at which you could race for an hour. For elite runners, that means HM pace. For mid-pack runners, it's more like 10K pace. (A 10K run in exactly 1 hour is a 9:39 pace). For folks like me with a 1:30ish HM and a 40ish 10K, it's somewhere in between. You want to run at that speed for a sufficiently long time to prompt adaptation but you don't want to run as hard as you would in a race. Therefore, your pace is about that 1 hour race pace but you only do it for 20-40 minutes. That is the traditional tempo run.
Most describe the effort as "comfortably hard." I find that a stupid term as "hard" never = "comfortable." I think of it as an effort at which I have to maintain constant focus to keep up the pace and I should start feeling some fatigue in about 15-20 minutes. I shouldn't be hurting at that point as that would be more like 10K effort but I should be feeling the effects of the effort. I contrast that with a marathon pace run when I don't start feeling the fatigue from the effort until about 45-60 minutes in or an easy pace when I don't start feeling fatigued until 90-120 minutes.
The term has some ambiguity as many use the term to describe marathon pace runs of 60-90 minutes in duration.
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
Healed Hammy
Tempo runs will always be at a pace faster than MP. They are designed to be a shorter but more intense workout, to take you to the level of lactate threshold and hopefully push it slightly back each time.
I tend to run many of my easy runs at or closer to MP (8:46 for me) but that is a common problem. I run my tempo's as 7:50 and they really do make my easy runs easier. I feel less tired, slower breathing and more comfortable couple days after a 20-30 min semi-intense tempo run.
Do them, you will definitely feel the results rather quickly.
It might help to say that my 10 mile runs start at the first of the Boston Marathon Newton hills and are out and back. My long runs go a little past Heartbreak Hill, and back the same way. So I am trying to get good hill work on both.
No more marathons
Go here: http://www.electricblues.com/html/runpro.html
and download the excel spreadsheet that is a compilation of many coaching plans - primarily Jack Daniels (the coach, not the whisky).
Once you plug in your data (there is a seperate sheet that includes instructions) it provides some good information for pacing of different types of workouts. Daniels description of a Tempo is a 20 minute run at your pace you could hold for 60 minutes. He provides adjusted paces if you want to add more time to your run.
For instance, this past weekend, for my "long run" I decided to throw a tempo in the middle. My long run right now is about 9.5 miles, so I did a 2 mile easy, then 2.6 miles at just over 10K pace, and then ran easy for the next 5 or so. Good way to get two types of workouts in in one day.
Boston 2014 - a 33 year journey
Lordy, I hope there are tapes.
He's a leaker!
Here is my argument about the "pace at which you could race for one hour" description. Raise your hand if you have ever run a 1 hour race. Bueller? Anyone? That's what I thought. Nor am I a big fan of "comfortably hard" as I find that oxymoronic. I prefer the focus on when you start to feel the effects of the effort.
Easy run: 90-120 minutes
Marathon pace: 45-60 minutes
Tempo: 15-20 minutes
Interval: 90-120 seconds
Speed reps: 45-60 seconds
Note the ginormous gap between tempo and interval efforts. Shoot, I have never noticed that until just now. That tells me that most plans are missing something and that is a workout in which you feel the effort around 5-7 minutes. Hmmmmm.
Are we there, yet?
Raises hand , though I haven't seen an open one hour run in decades. I've seen a few set up in the last 20 years for record attempts by elite runners but nothing open to the general running population. I also used to race 10M in roughly an hour give a take a couple minutes. Now I race 10K in about an hour.
Also the range for intervals should extent to 5-6 minutes.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
Mike, I've always kept things very clear and simple for myself by following the McMillan paces http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/
If you enter a time of 2:02 for a half-marathon, it will give you a 9:48 pace for the marathon, along with all the training paces you will need in training. It has always worked great for me.
If you aim for a 9:50 marathon pace, you should try to hit 8:41/8:59 for tempo pace. Start with 4 miles at first and work your way up to 7. That's the way I learned with Pfitz.
PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013
Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013
18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010
Mike, I've always kept things very clear and simple for myself by following the McMillan paces http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/ If you enter a time of 2:02 for a half-marathon, it will give you a 9:48 pace for the marathon, along with all the training paces you will need in training. It has always worked great for me. If you aim for a 9:50 marathon pace, you should try to hit 8:41/8:59 for tempo pace. Start with 4 miles at first and work your way up to 7. That's the way I learned with Pfitz.
This is great!! A friend of mine predicted my mile time last week based on a 5k using this web site but I never looked at it until now. Thanks everyone for your advice.
Cyber-bro
You may want to find a flat stretch of road/path/sidewalk for tempo runs. Hills make it hard to maintain the consistent effort you need for them to be effective.
DON'T BRO ME IF YOU DON'T KNOW ME
I'm running a hilly marathon in 5 weeks. The more hills I can do the better so have been doing the Boston ones twice a week. I screwed up the tempo definition. I do my flat course runs along the Charles River, and need to make them tempos.
Also raising hand for 1-hr race (can't find emoticon). It wasn't timed as such, but I've had several races that are in the 55 to 65ish min range (and a bunch more if we go out to 1:15), which is probably closer than many people's 10ks. The distances ranged from 2.2 mi (2000ft uphill) to 5 mi (rolling xc course) and included 5k on soft snow at -30F. This is the beauty of using times to describe efforts.