How To Progress Tempo Run Volume
Takeaways
- Tempo running is done to improve lactate threshold allowing you to run at faster speeds with less lactate buildup
- Starting your early tempo runs behind where your current fitness is nearly always better than starting slightly ahead and struggling with every session
- Establish new volumes with smaller reps and gradually put the pieces back together
- Each week doesn’t always need to be harder than the one before, but each month should absolutely see a step up in difficulty
- Paces will often naturally improve as the workouts progress. When building volume let that be a byproduct, not the goal
What is a Tempo Run?
In our program, a tempo run is a long, mostly continuous, bout of running at or near lactate threshold (LT). The goal of the session is to improve the body’s ability to clear out blood lactate more efficiently. Ultimately, we want to be able to run at faster speeds without accumulating additional lactate (and the acidity associated with it) or be able to run longer before lactate begins to climb. While you might use the term a little differently than what you see here, the principles of how we progress them should remain the same.
We do also keep our race distances in mind when we plan these sessions. For our collegiate men running 8k/10k races, we understand that they need to be able to handle the stresses and lactate profile of a roughly 25-33 minute race. For the women running 5k/6k we need to gear our sessions toward a race that is 17-23 minutes long. As much as we may want to follow the latest research to a T on what is best at improving LT, it isn’t always the best use of time to devise completely separate workouts that improve LT and others that prepare us for our race distance when both can be done efficiently at the same time.
This means that our men tend to see tempo runs mainly in the 5-6 mile range while our women spend the majority of their time closer to 4-5 miles. The total time spent running for each gender is fairly similar in either case.
Now that we’re all speaking the same language…
How do we Progress Tempo Run Volume?
A) Never done a tempo run or;
B) Has done at most a 3 mile tempo run
For a program like ours, we know the first order of business is getting an athlete to handle 4 miles of quality volume. This is important so that we can race without being right on the edge of our fitness level and to ensure we are fit enough to handle the other difficult sessions that we will see during a season.
Training to train is often a step before training to race.
This means we need to eventually get from running a 3 mile tempo to a 4 mile tempo. It can be a longer road if they have never done a tempo before, but here we’re going to focus on the path to reaching a 4 mile tempo run for the first time.
Where We Are… One Step Forward…
A 3 mile tempo is “where we are.” We lead off with this early in a season and start at a pace that we know we can handle. Most programs tempo too fast and we intentionally do the opposite. We want to see them nail 3 miles knowing they can go faster so that we have a safe baseline to work off of. Personally, I would always rather start a little behind out fitness and catch up to it along the way than start too far ahead and always struggle through our sessions.
This is our progression from where we are with just one step forward each time
1. 3 Mile Tempo
Step Forward: N/A
2. 4×1 Mile Tempo w/ 90s recovery
Step Forward: Total volume of the session increased from 3 miles to 4 miles
Here we see an increase in total workout volume. We have broken up the workout which may make the workout feel easier for some and more difficult for others. But, either way, we know this is an overload stimulus because the volume is greater than they’ve ever done in a tempo. A regular theme for us is not that one week is necessarily harder than the one before, but that enough small steps that progress something each time will end up leading to something that is obviously a improvement in fitness.
3. 2+1+1 Mile Tempo w/ 90s recovery
Step Forward: First rep distance increased to 2 miles and total rest in the workout dropped from 4:30 to 3:00
Volume has remained the same, but now there is a longer rep leading off the workout. This brings us back toward what tempos feel like now that there’s a moderately long rep in there. Most athletes find mile reps fairly easy to get through, getting past 2k usually shows cracks in the armor if someone is either running too fast or isn’t prepared yet for the harder session. Athletes that may have felt like 4×1 was actually easier than 3-straight are probably back to feeling like they are doing a harder session than before.
4. 2×2 Mile Tempo w/ 90s recovery
Step Forward: Combined another two smaller reps into one longer one and reduced the total recovery time of the workout from 3:00 to 1:30
By now our athletes should be more accustomed to the longer total volume. Similar to last week, this session is clearly a step forward from week 3 provided we are still maintaining consistent paces. This workout also gives the athlete a better chance to feel like they can handle the eventual 4 mile tempo, they’ve done both halves of it and only had a short break between them.
5. 3+1 Mile Tempo w/ 90s recovery
Step Forward: Running our longest rep with an additional mile added to it
This is always an important step to me, step 4 and 5 are very close in difficulty, but something interesting happens here. This is the first time that we revisit the original 3-mile rep distance, but this time we have another mile tacked on after it. It’s the most clear step forward that we’ve had, when we compare it to the original workout. I ultimately have no idea how any particular athlete will perceive one week to the next, but here we know that we are doing a harder effort than our first step. How could it not be when we have the exact same workout then have to do another mile after it?
6. 4 Mile Tempo
Step Forward: Single continuous rep; no recovery time within the workout
This is the culmination of all of our workouts. We are now running the same structure of workout as week 1, a continuous tempo, at the same paces but now for 33% longer. At this point, as long as the athlete has been operating at a similar effort level each week, you now know you’re not only fitter than before but can apply it in a way that is truly better than when we began. Even in the 3+1 tempo you still only have a rep as long as the original workout. Aside from the initial total volume increase, that is a completely unique rep that they have never done in training.
At this point, some coaches may want to stay around a 4-mile tempo to give their athletes time to fully absorb the new training load, others who are training for longer races (like a freshman in college training for 8k) may continue the progression but now with 5 miles of total volume broken up, and others may even consider restarting from 3 miles but with a faster tempo time. These can all make sense and may even be better for some athletes than others. Often times we see our longer distance athletes gravitate toward more volume while or faster twitch middle-distance athletes usually struggle with volume but respond well to dropping the pace down and restarting the cycle.
Any steps along the way can be repeated when an athlete isn’t adjusting as quickly and needs a refresher or they can be skipped entirely if they are clearly more advanced than the step they just finished. Training is rarely linear, but the progression we use should always march in a clear direction over time. Even with the ups and downs of performance the trend should always lean more up than down.
The biggest point I want to hammer home is that each week doesn’t 100% need to be harder than the week before. As long as weeks 4 and 5 are a step up from 1 and 2, you’re probably doing a great job as provided they are getting the time to recover and adapt along the way.