Many runners want to get faster and improve their race times, but aren’t quite sure how to go about it. Tempo runs are a great way to increase speed and gain confidence. These are runs that are done with consistent effort, usually a little slower than your 10K pace. Read on to find out how to do these tempo runs.
Tempo runs should be done once a week. They will help you increase your fitness level. Tempo runs also train you mentally by giving you the feeling of running faster, which will help build confidence for your road runs.
When starting out, you want to start with an easy warm-up. Most runners will run slowly for 10-15 minutes (I usually do 1 mile of easy running). Then you want to increase your speed until you are running about 15 seconds slower than your 10K speed. If you don’t know what that is, run at a speed that takes a lot of effort. You can judge this using the speech test. If you’re having trouble speaking, but you’re not short of breath, then you’re probably in the right rhythm.
You want to continue at this pace for 15 to 20 minutes. Don’t worry if you can’t run as fast at that pace when you’re starting to run with the pace. Try it for 5 minutes, then each week build up to more running. Some runners will also break it up into sprint chunks. 5 minutes of brisk running, followed by a minute or two of walking, then another 5 minutes of pace, etc. Whatever works for you is great; it is important that you do.
After your fastest paced runs, you’ll want to make sure to cool down. A nice easy 10 minutes (or an easy mile) and then you’re done! Make sure you are doing your warm up and cool down as it is critical to your performance.
Also, be sure to enter your tempo runs in your training log. Take notes on your pace, how you felt, weather conditions, etc. This will help you with your careers in the future.
20 minutes of steady pace running each week will make you a stronger runner. However, if you’re training for a longer distance race, you’ll want to increase your race pace to 30-40 minutes for each workout.