Forums >General Running>Semantics -- Interval or Tempo?
Suppose you do a 50-minute run that looks like this:
10 minute warmup + 15 minutes at 10k pace + 10 minutes easy + 15 minutes at 10k pace + 10 minute cooldown
Is that a tempo run or an interval run with two long intervals?
an amazing likeness
Call it what you want, it's your run.
However, since you've asked -- to me, that is not a tempo workout.
Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.
Call it what you will, but it seems to me the training effect is more like at typical tempo run rather than a typical interval workout.
And, technically, the "10 minutes easy" is the interval, but everyone calls the hard part the interval.
MTA: Hey Milktruck, don't post with the same "Call it what you will.." while I'm typing my post. It makes me look like I copied you.
MTA: Okay, the "will" and "want" are different. But I still didn't copy!
I would probably complicate the matter further by calling it a cruise interval workout, which is a type of tempo run.
(A typical cruise interval workout would be 15 minutes at tempo pace/ 2 min rest / 15 minutes at tempo pace)
I've got a fever...
Semantics indeed.
I consider that more of a tempo workout, because you're running long, continuous periods at 10k pace, which is considered tempo run pace in the classic sense (at or around lactate threshold (LT)). To me, intervals implies higher aerobic work, usually a mile at the longest (but often 400m~1200m) at 5k pace or better.
Or as dennrunner succintly put it:
+1
Though truth be told, if I were logging that workout, I'd call them tempo intervals. Because, well, they are long intervals at tempo pace.
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That's similar to what Pfitzinger calls a Lactate Threshold (LT) Interval, which he classifies as a tempo run. The rest interval I think is a bit longer than what Pfitz calls for, but as other have said, that looks like a tempo type workout to me.
Rule number one of a gunfight, bring a gun. Rule number two of a gunfight, bring friends with guns.
For me it would be logged as a Tempo.
This is where it gets kind of dumb though. Think about it...it is an "interval" workout but to me anything I would log as an interval workout is more a VO2 type workout than any sort of literal intervals. So maybe it makes the most sense (and i've seen lots of people do this) to log them as VO2, LT etc... Something that may even make more sense is to call them easy, medium and hard and eliminate any of the semantics altogether.
But for me
Steady = High aerobic, MPish
Tempo = LT
Interval = VO2, speed
I'd call it a set of two tempo intervals. In my mind, "interval" means periods of effort punctuated with periods of rest or recovery. Intervals can therefore be at different paces, sprint, speed, tempo (lactate threshold), whatever. The terms don't need to be mutually exclusive. However, I know the word "interval" in many people's minds = lung-busting 400s.
MTA: Here you go. An example from my log that I categorized as a "Tempo Interval" workout.
- Joe
We are fragile creatures on collision with our judgment day.
Eh, they are two work intervals with a recovery interval in between.
Which I would log as a tempo run, but mostly because I like seeing pink bars in my log. (lie: mostly because of the pace and the point of the workout)
Side note: if you are a faster 10k runner, those intervals may be somewhat faster than tempo pace.
Why is it sideways?
I called it tempo. But yeah -- it's tempo intervals.
I use "interval" for the faster, high number of reps stuff.
I called it tempo. But yeah -- it's tempo intervals. I use "interval" for the faster, high number of reps stuff.
jog a mile: 7:45
Heh. I still get a kick out of seeing recovery jogs that are more like my 5K pace.
Suppose you do a 50-minute run that looks like this: 10 minute warmup + 15 minutes at 10k pace + 10 minutes easy + 15 minutes at 10k pace + 10 minute cooldown Is that a tempo run or an interval run with two long intervals?
Why, that's a double-inverse pyramid progression interval, of course!
Feeling the growl again
Tempo or fartlek, depending on my mood or the phase of Venus.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
THis is also what I do in my log. If I do 3x2 miles at LAT pace, I will still call it a Tempo
If I do 5k or faster running - say 15x400 I would call it inteval.
If I ran 5-10 miles at MP, I would still call it a Tempo run. Anything slower than marathon pace I call easy.
Really I should set up my own labels
Recovery
Easy
Hill
LAT
CV
Vo2 Max (3k-5k)
Faster than Vo2 Max ( Faster tha 3k)
Trail
Long dead ... But my stench lingers !
Proboscis Colossus
I would probably complicate the matter further by calling it a cruise interval workout, which is a type of tempo run. (A typical cruise interval workout would be 15 minutes at tempo pace/ 2 min rest / 15 minutes at tempo pace)
"God guides us on our journey, but careful with those feet." - David Lee Roth, of all people