Tempo Run

I completed another hard run this evening.  I struggled to want to start, but I have my goals and my MDA team and partners depending on me.

As part of the training for the Chicago marathon, coach Barbara adjusted the training for a couple members of the team to include harder workouts focused on achieving time goals.  

Tonight's run was called a tempo run and the time goal was 15 minutes for two interval at a tempo pace with 5 minutes of slow pace in between.  For my family members and other supporters, a tempo also referred to as anaerobic threshold (AT) run or lactate-threshold run is defined with amazing imagery by Runner's World in the following paragraphs.

The fact of the matter, according to the Runner's World article, What is a Tempo Run?, "doing a tempo run incorrectly greatly compromises its training benefits."  Well what is a tempo run then... and hopefully I did it correctly!

The term "tempo run" is to distance running in the ’90s what Studio 54 was to ’70s decadence: Tossing it around separates the wannabes from the in-crowd. 

Wannabes - not using the lingo correctly.

Now, it sounds serious!  But what is threshold pace and how does one find it?

The tempo pace is the effort level just below which the body’s ability to clear lactate, a by-product of carbohydrate metabolism, can no longer keep up with lactate production. 

Jack Daniels, Ph.D. made the tempo run popular  in Daniels’ Running Formula (Human Kinetics).  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. 

Thank goodness!  I did it correctly!!