Tempo Runs as a Miler??

Tempo Runs are a great way to develop aerobic capacity and efficiency. With Tempo Runs its better to focus on duration rather than speed, because capacity is developed off of duration and utilization/power is built on speed.

Base Training should be focused on three things. Getting fit, Getting Strong, and Getting Fast

-Fitness comes mileage, long runs, and longer runs at a good clip

-Strength comes from Long Tempos, High Volume LT workouts, Hilly runs, and Hill repeats

-Fast in this context means raw speed, stride power, and efficiency. This comes from short strides, hill sprints/repeats, lots of drills, and pure speed workouts

I would structure your winter as such...

Do a 2400m TT to determine your vVo2 pace (you can even do 2x5x200 at a fun but fast pace with a 200m jog after if you want to make it a workout day).

You're weekly structure should be as follows.

Mon-EZ or Off

Tues-Long Tempo

Wed-EZ w/Strides

Thurs-Hilly Run/Hill Fartlek

Fri-EZ w/Strides

Saturday-Broken Tempo

Sunday-Long Run

Workout Details:

Wokout #1-Long Tempo

30-50 minutes at 70-75% of vVo2 pace (This means about 1:40-1:10 per mile slower than your 2400m TT pace per mile)

*I would imagine for you that this means 6:20-5:50 pace for you at this point*

The goal for this workout is to be able to run 50 minutes at 1:10 slower than your TT pace. Progress the workout weekly, first extending the duration and then the speed. But start with what you can do. Lets say you run 7:05 for you 2400m TT. That might mean you can run 30 minutes at 6:25 pace or 50 minutes at 6:25 pace depending on your current conditioning. Whenever you reach 50 minutes at 6:25 then the next week run 30 minutes at 6:10, then 40 at 6:10, and then 50 at 6:10. Once again, after you reach 50 minutes at 6:10 then run 30 minutes at 5:55, 40 at 5:55, and finally 50 minutes at 5:55. If your starting with 30 at 6:25 this only takes 9 weeks to progress to 50 at 5:55. After you've reached 50 minutes at 1:10 slower than your TT pace, retest your vVo2 by running another 2400m TT.

Workout #2-Broken Tempo

This workout will alternate every other week between a higher volume session with short recovery and a lower volume session with short recovery.

#1-6-8xMile w/90 seconds rest at 40-35 seconds per mile slower than TT

#2-6-8x1000 w/90 seconds rest at 25-20 seconds per mile slower than TT

The first workouts for this will be 6xMile and 6x1000. You will progress these two workouts by increasing the total volume of the session by either 1 mile or 1 kilometer everytime that your Long Tempo workout increases in pace.

Workout #3-Hilly Run/Hilly Fartlek

Pretty straight forward on this one. The first month of training simply do a EZ/Moderate run over a Hilly course. After a month you will keep the pace EZ on the flats and downhills but you will run fast and strong on the uphill focusing on form and not breaking down. It's a continuous run, hence the Fartlek

Workout #4-Long Run

Alternate weeks of running a Hilly route and flat route. The pace should be EZ to Moderate, with the main goal of just getting time in on feet

Any questions?

So one workout a week of 200/400 reps (for speed) and longer reps like 800s for stamina?

Hey,

a friend of Eamonn Coghlan (the Irish 3:49 indoor miler!!) told me that 400m reps for speed and 800m reps for strength were key to his success. So in place of the tempo (which do build endurance), do some 800m repeats. They build stamina as well. Stick to some 400m reps for speed. And like you said, just fill the rest of your week with easy runs/road runs. Take it easy on these days because ya need to recover!

Best of luck, I hope you hit 4:20!!

BlackBeltRunningCoach447 wrote:

your Anaerobic Threshold Pace should be 50-60 sec. slower than your CURRENT Mile Fitness and should not exceed 4 miles/25 minutes, and your Aerobic Threshold Pace should be 1:20-1:30 slower than your CURRENT Mile Fitness and should be anywhere from 30-60 minutes. I would build gradually towards both of those and incorporate them regularly, particularly right now when not a lot of Racing is Going on. Ive got some detailed videos of these types of things on my YouTube Channel (name of channel is BlackBeltRunningCoach447) if you are interested in more detail. Hope this helps!

Jason

I'm in similar shape to OP's target. Would likely be somewhere in the 4:20's for a mile. Running for an hour in the 5:40's would be harder than threshold effort for me and I'm not even a miler, I'm a 5K/10K guy. I think that's too quick for a miler. I'd personally say if you're doing an hour it should be more like 6:00 or even 6:10 if you're not built for the longer stuff.

so how did you end up? did you end up getting those PRs?

Hey thank you for the chart. I am trying to use it for my own training. So lets say I completed 1750m in the 6 minutes. How would I apply this for training paces such as 1k threshold reps, 2k, 400m etc.