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Improve Your Speed Endurance: Short Tempo Runs

There are almost as many definitions of “tempo run” as they are runners. What I mean here are runs of 20 to 30 minutes somewhere between the pace you could hold for an hour to a half marathon. The point of these workouts, often called lactate threshold runs, is to improve your ability to hold a solid pace before having to slow. They do this by making you better at clearing lactate, a by-product of aerobic metabolism that forces you to slow when its presence in your blood becomes too high.

Running for 20 to 30 minutes at the pace you could for an hour to a half marathon is a fairly broad range, and that’s fine. The effort level you’re after here is what legendary coach Jack Daniels calls “comfortably hard.” You’re working and have to concentrate to keep the pace going, but you’re not under the sort of duress you feel during VO₂ max workouts. You should be able to speak in complete sentences on short tempo runs.

Brian Metzler

Tempo runs are fantastic at building that feeling of solid aerobic strength, where you feel on most runs you can keep going at a strong pace without having to slow. Race performance aside, it’s satisfying to know you can do more than run easily for sustained periods. That’s why I think even runners with no race plans should do regular tempo runs (and striders!).