10 mile tempo for 5k performance?

Tempo runs should be about 20-25 minutes in length.

Anne Aerobic wrote:

Tempo runs should be about 20-25 minutes in length.

really? so is there a benefit to doing 10 miles or no

coral runner wrote:

Anne Aerobic wrote:

Tempo runs should be about 20-25 minutes in length.

really? so is there a benefit to doing 10 miles or no

There is, but it is not a tempo. That is more like a steady state run.

Anne Aerobic wrote:

Tempo runs should be about 20-25 minutes in length.

Farah did 8 mile tempos regularly while training for 5 and 10k. Could he have been a lot better going for 20-25 minutes rather than 35-40? Eagerly awaiting your expert opinion

The arguments you are going to get in revolve around what the term 'tempo' means.

But yes, I think long hard effort such as that 10 miler are fantastic for endurance. The main problem is that they can be tough on you over time. Vary it up a bit. Maybe only run 7-8 milers @6:25-6:35 pace sometimes, or even run the last 1/3-1/2 of your long run at a quicker pace.

Air Obic wrote:

Anne Aerobic wrote:

Tempo runs should be about 20-25 minutes in length.

Farah did 8 mile tempos regularly while training for 5 and 10k. Could he have been a lot better going for 20-25 minutes rather than 35-40? Eagerly awaiting your expert opinion

I'm not the OP of that post but obviously a tempo in the context of 100+ mile week is going to be longer than a tempo in the context of a 35-40 mile week.

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

The arguments you are going to get in revolve around what the term 'tempo' means.

But yes, I think long hard effort such as that 10 miler are fantastic for endurance. The main problem is that they can be tough on you over time. Vary it up a bit. Maybe only run 7-8 milers @6:25-6:35 pace sometimes, or even run the last 1/3-1/2 of your long run at a quicker pace.

Thank you for the reply and I will vary it up a bit. During the season I will only be doing around 3-5 mile tempo runs and so I will try to get in those longer strength runs. I am in the habit of running the last mile of my long run faster, but not the last half or last 1/3rd. I will try to do that faster finish.. maybe something like last 3 miles of a 13 mile run at around 6:30 pace or faster.

tempo's have nothing to do with distance it's effort. A true tempo is close to what you can run all out for 20 to 25 mins.

what you did was slow the pace down, so your heart dropped to a lower zone. I would assume it was around your lactic threshold. This is a key component in training that you never touched before. It is at the effort were you body is producing and clearing lactic as the same pace. Any faster you'll start building it up and any slow you'll dip down into just cardio benefit. There is a benefit to both types of runs tempos and LTs. It just depends on what aspect of fitness you're wanting to force on and at what point of the season you're in. LTs are generally used during base building/ early season and are slowly exchanged for more specific pace or Vo2 type work in the late season as you get closer to championship racing. Tempo's make great race specific pace workouts and gauges for fitness.

Check Jack Daniel's out on YouTube, he was my first introduction to LT. I love his training philosophy

If your weekly mileage is sufficient and you can handle it, a 10 mile hard run is a tremendous workout, especially over hilly courses. You can either run steady the whole way, fartlek it (2 mi hard, 1 easy/moderate or something similar), crank the second five miles, or progress each mile and finish at or slightly under threshold pace. There was a thread a few days about the one workout people would do if they couldn't do any other, and a hilly hour run took the cake. That is essentially a hard 10-miler for most non-elite athletes. Make it a staple.

Runner3000 wrote:

A true tempo is close to what you can run all out for 20 to 25 mins.

I suggest you re-introduce yourself to Daniels. If you truley think a tempo is what you describe above, you are going to get hurt or burnt out rather quickly.

General rule of thumb: take your recent mile/1600 race time and add approximately 1 min. This is your estimated tempo pace give or take. If you are new, do 3x1600 with 1 min rest at this pace on the track to make sure you are running the correct pace. Don't trust bike trail mile markings or GPS. Do it on the track to learn what it feels like. Do that for a few weeks before you do a 20 min or three mile tempo run. Use a heart rate monitor too to help keep you on pace. Better to be slightly slower than too fast, especially the first half of the workout.

If your mile pr is 4:45, your tempo pace is going to be closer to 5:45-6:00. 6:30 is closer to marathon pace. 10 miles at that pace is a great workout, don't get me wrong, but it isn't your typical tempo run by most people's definition. A shorter run at the correct pace (5:45-6:00) will benefit you as well.

Temps are designed to suck but do wonders for your overall fitness .

10 is a litle long for a prep. I might try 8 at 6:15 and work yourself down to 6 min pace . If your not up for 8 do 6 especially during track season . Keep your mileage around 45-50 and watch your 1600 time or 5 k cross time plummet !

I´m surprised that most people on this thread know so little about running training. Long before anyone invented the term "tempo run" people ran hard 10-milers. Peter Snell did. Frank Shorter did, etc - but they had no idea they were doing "tempo runs".

This thread has degenerated into terminology jerk off and Jack Daniels jerk off.

well,, wrote:

I´m surprised that most people on this thread know so little about running training. Long before anyone invented the term "tempo run" people ran hard 10-milers. Peter Snell did. Frank Shorter did, etc - but they had no idea they were doing "tempo runs".

This thread has degenerated into terminology jerk off and Jack Daniels jerk off.

How is having a name for a specific type of run/workout a bad thing?

I'm not jack daniels fan in particular but your post seems to be the most unnecessary one on this thread

well,, wrote:

I´m surprised that most people on this thread know so little about running training. Long before anyone invented the term "tempo run" people ran hard 10-milers. Peter Snell did. Frank Shorter did, etc - but they had no idea they were doing "tempo runs".

This thread has degenerated into terminology jerk off and Jack Daniels jerk off.

Post of the day!