Tempo Miles

Tempo runs are an essential part of any training program.  (Have I begun a "training program?"  I guess so.)   Some runners call a tempo run an AT or anaerobic threshold run, or a lactate-threshold run.  Runners World listed several definitions:

Jack Daniels:  "A tempo run is nothing more than 20 minutes of steady running at threshold pace."  Daniels states that this pace is, for most people, about 25 to 30 seconds per mile slower than current 5K race pace.

Pete Pfitzinger adds: "For very fit runners, the pace is between 15K and half-marathon race pace." For those fond of using heart rate monitors, Daniels notes that tempo runs are done at 90% of maximum.

Team Oregon running club:  "One fourth to one third of race distance at race pace."

The Bad Runner’s Bible":  "A type of training run based on time instead of distance. Tempo runs are good for when you have no idea how long a trail is."

 Matt Carpenter: "Four-mile tempo run on a hill at approximately 12% grade."

As for me, I have my own definition, and it is based on the marathon training program devised by Runners World Bart Yasso many years ago which I have used successfully for most of my marathons.  Tempo runs are an integral part of that program.  Yasso advises warming up (and cooling down at the end) and running steady, uninterrupted miles at your Marathon Goal Pace.  His program gradually intensifies over the course of 16 weeks until the final tempo runs are completed in weeks 10 and 11, back to back - a mile warm-up, 8 miles at MGP, and a mile cool-down.

In marathon training in the past, I have found these runs to be exhilarating.  Of course, early on in the program, you think to yourself, "Jeez, I can never hold this pace for 26.2 miles!"  But toward the end, you realize that you are running gracefully, effortlessly, perhaps even holding back just a little.  And you are starting to think that it just might be possible to hold steady, to persevere. They are confidence builders.  They familiarize you so completely with your goal pace that when you fall into it on race day, it feels comfortable, like a favorite pair of shoes that you've broken in.  Mile after mile after mile.

I have determined that my marathon goal pace (should I ever choose to run another marathon) would be 9:30 per mile.  That would give me a finish time of a little under 4 hours and 10 minutes.  So it was a confidence builder for me to run three tempo miles today in 9:23, 9:20, and 9:40. 

And now I'm tired.  I don't even want to think about 23 more miles at that pace.