As a high school coach, a common complaint about the continuous tempo is that "high schoolers can't pace it right. They race it. etc..."
While that is true, I don't think that is an excuse to not include them. That is the point of coaching is teaching the athlete how to pace, maintain, and focus for a longer duration. To not do a type of workout because a kid might "mess it up" i think is a poor reason to not do it. Use the practice as an opportunity to try it and get better at it over months and years.
I use both broken up and continuous tempos so I see the pros and cons of both. My high school coach was only a continuous guy, college coach never let us go over 20 minutes. I find myself somewhere in the middle oftentimes.
I also feel like our athletes need to be able to get out smart, run steady, and finish fast on race day. If we never model that in practice and always keep things broken up I think it hurts the potential for that happening. In a race it isn't broken up it is continuous so training should be continuous often enough to help with that both physically and mentally.
A lot of coaches are lazy. Continuous tempos are hard to coach and make sure they stay on pace and do it right, so they don’t do it. Also the fear of failure. I love them for my team and it’s an important piece of our success.
Nowadays, it's alot easier to stay on pace with Garmin watches.
Another way to keep young HS runners on pace is to have an experienced runner keep the pace. A recovery pace for your varsity runner could be a tempo for a lesser runner. Or a tempo for one might be a race pace for another. They can run together but train differently on a given day. In a dual meet I had one runner keep a 6:40 pace, cross the finish line and run another mile while he paced a few novices to personal bests.
Im getting back into running. Former PR of 16:30 in high school, now 30 (in decent shape). I recently ran a 4 mile race with an average pace of 6:30 per mile. I'm looking to do my first 5k in ages this November and am curious what I should target.
I think I have a lot of room for improvement with proper training over that period and one of my current main goals is ramping up my mileage without getting injured. I had been getting a bit of soreness in my ankles and knee so I off the gas a little bit and supplement some of my runs with some time on an exercise bike.
Im currently running about 30 miles a week with most of it being around a 6:00 to 7:30 mile pace. I'm curious what a realistic pace target for this 5k would be, what kind of interval workouts would be a good place to start and what my priorities should be training over the next month or two (i.e. should I just focus on getting my mileage up or should I work on getting my average pace a little quicker).
A lot of coaches are lazy. Continuous tempos are hard to coach and make sure they stay on pace and do it right, so they don’t do it. Also the fear of failure. I love them for my team and it’s an important piece of our success.
Nowadays, it's alot easier to stay on pace with Garmin watches.
Another way to keep young HS runners on pace is to have an experienced runner keep the pace. A recovery pace for your varsity runner could be a tempo for a lesser runner. Or a tempo for one might be a race pace for another. They can run together but train differently on a given day. In a dual meet I had one runner keep a 6:40 pace, cross the finish line and run another mile while he paced a few novices to personal bests.
I agree with you but not all HS coaches are willing to tell their team to get a GPS. Also some coaches won’t hold them accountable when they either race their tempo or go out too fast.
Nerd rage means that continuous tempo run will never die. Girlfriend broke up with you? Bad grade on an exam? Kids driving you insane? Time to lace up your running shoes and blow off some steam with an impromptu continuous tempo run!
Continuous tempo running isn’t out of fashion—it’s still great for building endurance and improving lactate threshold. While interval running is popular, both methods have unique benefits for improving performance.
You're running too fast most of the time. I'd guess you're in high 18's shape; I'd be doing easy runs and long runs slower than 8 min/mile pace. Threshold work would be 6:45 pace with vo2 max sessions at or slightly faster than 5k pace (6:05-6:10) for 400m, 600m or 800m repeats. I'd also do strides at sub 6 pace after 1-2 easy runs per week or even after threshold workouts.
For 5k training I'd do a broken threshold session (4xmile at hmp) a vo2max session (could be track repeats but could be 6x1min hill repeats) and a long run of 90 mins every week, then fill in with easy miles over 8 min pace.
Nowadays, it's alot easier to stay on pace with Garmin watches.
Another way to keep young HS runners on pace is to have an experienced runner keep the pace. A recovery pace for your varsity runner could be a tempo for a lesser runner. Or a tempo for one might be a race pace for another. They can run together but train differently on a given day. In a dual meet I had one runner keep a 6:40 pace, cross the finish line and run another mile while he paced a few novices to personal bests.
Most HS runners aren't wearing fitness watches because they and their parents can't afford them or won't spend the money on them. If your experience says otherwise, you live and coach in an affluent area. The Garmin argument is a non-starter here.
Nowadays, it's alot easier to stay on pace with Garmin watches.
Another way to keep young HS runners on pace is to have an experienced runner keep the pace. A recovery pace for your varsity runner could be a tempo for a lesser runner. Or a tempo for one might be a race pace for another. They can run together but train differently on a given day. In a dual meet I had one runner keep a 6:40 pace, cross the finish line and run another mile while he paced a few novices to personal bests.
Most HS runners aren't wearing fitness watches because they and their parents can't afford them or won't spend the money on them. If your experience says otherwise, you live and coach in an affluent area. The Garmin argument is a non-starter here.
True, at my last school none had them. I help out a program now consisting of a mixed bunch of NYC kids. The "varsity" kids wear them, so that's about 6 out of 30.
But as I stated earlier a varsity runner could tempo a weekday minor race helping others set personal bets and or help them learn to pace. Even a simple timex Ironman or stopwatch could teach young runners pace judgment.
A successful (armory hall of fame) coach I know used to give his stopwatches to his athletes for their tempos around the Central Park reservoir.
3:15 down to 2:56-3:05 (depending on which group). They broke the groups up at rep 10-11 or so (of 16 total).
Cool seeing them do blood lactate measurements in real time with the strips/meters and keeping everyone at 2.5mmoL/L or whatever it was and being very strict about it, very scientific.
16x1k adapted for hobbyjoggers sounds like too much, of course, but one could probably adapt it to 16x3mins at sub-threshold [time versus distance] and provided they work up to it first, ie. 10x3, then 12x3, etc.
I wouldnt really say "dead" i have old highschool teammates at bradley, and and UNM who do a weekly tempo, i also follow KU athletes on strava and they do a weekly tempo aswell. So i wouldnt say dead but its definitely being phased out.
I wouldn't go that far. I think the majority of his problem was that he had probably just been in his competition phase for too long and his aerobic system had degraded too much to put together a proper half marathon. But the think another issue is that his long runs are fairly short (by modern standards).
In his base phase he would have run a much better half. However, I think he could still probably struggle a bit in the last kilometers because his long runs are like 20k/12.4 miles. Most other elites are doing 30k or longer long runs
I don't understand why this post is getting such bad reviews.
Because it is utterly stupid. No one is looking for breaks. During a threshold interval session I'm not looking for breaks, I take them because that's what the session is. And during a race I'm not thinking about breaks - because guess what, I'm fckin racing. I've done nothing but interval workouts for the past year, it hasn't affected my mentality during races one bit.
I don't think it's utterly stupid, but rather not as precisely worded as it could be.
Possibly, what the poster meant is that a continuous tempo forces the runner to sit in that uncomfortable spot for an extended time rather than 3-6 minutes. I think that can be really helpful physically and mentally.
My 5k pace is 5:30 so it would be 6:30. I did a lot of 5-7 mile runs at 6:30-6:50 and it never seemed to improve my fitness
Yeah, that’s because “a lot of 5-7 mile runs” at that pace was too much for you. Or I should say, not enough volume, and too fast. I coach girls who run that pace for 5k and they tempo at 6:15-6:45, once a week. Easy runs 8-9min a mile.
because that's significantly slower than your theoretical M pace. It kinda falls into the gray zone. Try 6:15-6:20 for 30-60 mins
Agreed. 6:30 is probably okay, but slower than that and you're not going to be in your aerobic threshold at all.
A good test that works for most is to pay attention to when your breathing gets faster. For most athletes, as you work your way up through your easy pace, your respiration rate is constant, but you just take deeper and deeper breaths. When you stop breathing deeper and start breathing a bit faster (usually you've switched to a 2/2 pattern, with two steps per inhale, 2 per exhale), then you've entered your aerobic threshold zone.
3:15 down to 2:56-3:05 (depending on which group). They broke the groups up at rep 10-11 or so (of 16 total).
Cool seeing them do blood lactate measurements in real time with the strips/meters and keeping everyone at 2.5mmoL/L or whatever it was and being very strict about it, very scientific.
16x1k adapted for hobbyjoggers sounds like too much, of course, but one could probably adapt it to 16x3mins at sub-threshold [time versus distance] and provided they work up to it first, ie. 10x3, then 12x3, etc.
The whole point of this workout is that it’s not a brutal workout. 75-80% of it is very chill
3:15 down to 2:56-3:05 (depending on which group). They broke the groups up at rep 10-11 or so (of 16 total).
Cool seeing them do blood lactate measurements in real time with the strips/meters and keeping everyone at 2.5mmoL/L or whatever it was and being very strict about it, very scientific.
16x1k adapted for hobbyjoggers sounds like too much, of course, but one could probably adapt it to 16x3mins at sub-threshold [time versus distance] and provided they work up to it first, ie. 10x3, then 12x3, etc.
The whole point of this workout is that it’s not a brutal workout. 75-80% of it is very chill
Fair, to me those seem brutal but to them they are easy lol
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