GTN's Tempo Run Training Guide | Everything You Need To Know

There is one workout that any endurance runner or triathlete should be doing, and it’s the tempo run! There is a good reason for this, you get the biggest training gains from your time.

To explain what a tempo run is we, need to get a little sciency. Lactate Threshold is the point where you produce too much lactic acid for your body to flush it away effectively. If you run too fast and go over this point you will start slow down. So, when we talk about ‘tempo’, we’re meaning a pace that is at or near to our lactate threshold. The idea of this, is that running at this pace will gradually bump our threshold up.

Simply put, we’re aiming at a pace that is comfortably hard to start with, but over time it will start to bite. In real terms this is the maximum pace you can sustain for around an hour. A good alternative to an hour long run TT is to work out your 10km pace and add around 10-20 seconds per kilometre. If you’re working by heart rate; it’s roughly 80-90% of your maximum HR. And, on a perceived effort scale of 1-10, it’s about a 7 out of 10.

In terms of the structure of the session, the intervals tend to be quite long. So today, Mark and Lawrence are doing 2 x 15 minutes at tempo, with 2mins jog recovery between. You can do a tempo run wherever you like, but in our experience it’s a session that you want to dial in to your pace with, so a route and terrain that allows you to crack on without disruptions is best.

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[zoehaighton]

I love that their resting jog is faster than my fast run

[Wavygravvy]

I love the tempo run, never really easy especially when you don’t really have flatter terrain. Hilly tempo’s, if you can accept a few seconds slower per mile, the strength gains are awesome.

[alec]

Great video! I’d love to see a video about a post run/exercise stretching routine

[estlacoob]

This whole time I’ve been trying to figure out what musical tempo I should run.

[vidradicevic]

I like your short and effective videos! 🤩

[barryfield]

You need to have some idea of your max HR. My tempo run is between 80-85% of my max HR(168bpm) for 60:00 minutes which is done on a treadmill for 60:00 minutes (1.5% incline) since I don't have a training partner. Warm up for about 10 minutes and then let it reap.

[parttroll]

I've built up to run a tempo run of 800m with a 400m recovery and repeating 5 times for a good session. Hoping to nudge up to increase the distance at tempo 1200m in preparation for a 10km event later this year.

[barryfield]

Tempo run, nicely explained and demonstrated by Mark & Lawrence! Tempo runs with a partner of equal/close ability is the way to go if possible, i.e. Lawrence & Mark. Thanks guys, GTN rocks!

[karmafarmer]

Not that anybody asked but I tried it and it’s tiring asf

[kmonnier]

I tried the pool leash swimming hack and it works great! I am definitely going to do this too.

[cristinac]

Thanks for the very informative and inspiring video; later I will do a tempo run

[Skateboardfreakist]

My temporun is 8km and 4:40min/km. It takes me about 40mins + 2km warmup and 2km cooldown

[FordyRuns]

Great video and nicely explained guys. Tempo runs are so important to any plan 👍🏼well played

[eddolous]

What about the warming up and cooling down?

[bentomio]

I don't understand why you have a recovery period in the middle?
From my understanding since the tempo run is under your lactic threshold & is something you should be able to do for an hour shouldn't you just be able to do it for 30mins straight?

[coleabrahams]

Ethiopians do up to 5 tempo runs a week. Remember that they run twice a day

[benjaminpetersen]

It might be helpful to explain that there are in fact two lactate thresholds: LT1 and LT2. Many people would call what you describe as a tempo run to be a threshold run, which is targeted to increase LT2.

Whereas a tempo run is what many people refer to as the pace just around LT1, which is the aerobic threshold.

There is so much inter-mixing of terms that it becomes confusing to the audience if not clearly specified.

[NathanBudd]

Should my running cadence be lower for a tempo run?

[aseale]

I had some remarks but I'll see you in the race

[Bumiround]

I only do tempo, simply because its fun. Not as boring as easy run, and not as hard as interval