Tempo/Threshold effort

As above it really helps. I prefer doing half marathons at 10k pace it's really good to feel the burn.

All seriousness I find threshold runs are most effective I don't feel tempo running gives me a lot more than just a normal steady run

Vigil does that stuff. Mile pace + 35-40 sec = “anaerobic threshold” as he defines it. Ends up being tempos at like 10k pace.

I think it’s too hard. But, Adam’s State, Big Bear Track Club, and Sean Brosnan have all gotten use out of it. I think if you prefer to go to that intensity you have to make sure recovery is very good and also look at what your other workouts in the week are going to be —to avoid excessive fatigue.

A good compromise is cutdown style tempos. Where you start at where your tempo is “supposed” to be and then go underneath it towards the end. That way you have the confidence of faster running, without much of the downside of potential overtraining. Plus, the slower part of the cutdown lets you see how that day’s session will go before working into it.

I thought tempo and threshold were the same thing.

We’d run 5k at 10k occasionally - very difficult but it gets you fit fast and prepares you for a race

My 3.5 - 4 mile tempo pace is usually 25-30 seconds per mile slower than 5k race pace on average. I usually run the first mile a bit slower and gradually pick up throughout the run. So my first mile might be 40 seconds slower than 5k pace and my last is 20-25 seconds slower.

I don't like to go faster than that for tempo runs. I sometimes run 5k at 10k pace, but that's a totally different type of workout.

Sometimes I’ll work into 8k/10k pace for shorter tempos, but we are talking more like when coach asks me to run 3x1k or 10 minutes at threshold before some faster stuff.

Very rarely I’ll do about 20 minutes at roughly 10k pace. It’s a good workout, but slow it down 15 seconds a mile and now you only need one day of regular mileage to recover instead of a down day and a regular day after that.

You want to be careful with that stuff, because If youre in not as good of shape as you think you are, it’s like racing every week in pre season which might help a lot now but hurt later on.

If you're training right, it should be pretty difficult to push 8k/10k pace for a 6k tempo. You may as well race at that point. It also depends how long your tempos are. Some people run 3-4 mile tempos. I think there's not enough volume there. If you're getting in 30:00-40:00 on tired legs, you're not going to be able to hit 8k/10k pace. I like doing faster reps after tempo runs for leg turnover. That's an easy way to touch on a little speed rather than taking the session too hard.

Lmao if you can run a 20 minute tempo at 5k pace you're a hobbyjogger who can't break 20 :)

If anything I've seen more success from running more volume but broken up. For example 3-4x10' with 2-3mins rest instead of 20-30' straight through. Doing 40' at 1hr race pace would get rather close to being a race but 4x10' is fine. Doing tempos straight through might be better for building mental toughness but that's also what racing is for...

Thanks for the replies, I probably should’ve been more specific. Last year I was stuck around 5:50-40ish on 4-5 mile tempos. Started my base training in December and started doing workouts right away.

My personal best is only 16:30 in the 5k. I’ve been having a great base buildup. I recently ran a 4 mile tempo and came through 5k at 16:45. I started a bit fast and let my training partners push me along, it was all by feel.

I’ve been experimenting with training and who knows maybe I’m fit, I’d hope so! Ran a hard 9:44 3000m not that long ago too.

That's not a tempo run, unless you're actually in sub 15:30 shape. The thing you are doing sound much more like a time trial than a tempo run.

Running tempos too fast increases risk of injury or burn out(where you may not be injured but aren't recovered for race effort).

Save the hard effort for race day. No need to be a workout hero.

As another poster mentioned, this isn't a tempo run.

Obviously the term "tempo run" has been bastardized, but the common definition used to be; a continuous run at one's Lactate Threshold. Your lactate threshold is roughly the pace you could hold, all out, for about an hour.

If you run these so called "tempos" as basically an all-out effort, you aren't getting the intended training effect, which is to lower your lactate threshold pace.

You're also significantly raising your risk of injury, and I imagine your form goes to sh*t during these efforts. You might as well just go and do a bunch of races, before you burn yourself out, rather than wasting such hard efforts in training.