What's the difference between a 'Tempo' and a 'Steady State'? I've heard both of them tossed around as seemingly the same thing. Are the essential the same? If not, what's the difference?
What's the difference between a 'Tempo' and a 'Steady State'? I've heard both of them tossed around as seemingly the same thing. Are the essential the same? If not, what's the difference?
Tempo is about 30 sec/mile above 5k pace, or about 1/2 marathon pace.
Steady state is slower then that, maybe 1:30-2:00 above 5k pace. They are very different
Roy Benson in this month's RT says:
SS=75-80% effort. HM pace. 30-45 seconds per mile slower than long run.
T=80-85% effort. 20-30 spm faster than steady state.
It depends on who you talk to as there's no set terminology. Generally tempo runs are fast and somewhat hard runs where steady state runs are usually longer and at a moderate effort.
Don't worry too much about it as you'll find a lot of different terms to describe very similar (if not identical) types of workouts. It's not about the name of the workout; it's about what it accomplishes.
Katy Lied wrote:
Roy Benson in this month's RT says:
SS=75-80% effort. HM pace. 30-45 seconds per mile slower than long run.
T=80-85% effort. 20-30 spm faster than steady state.
This doesn't make sense. "HM pace. 30-45 seconds per mile slower than long run." I don't know of anybody who does their long run 30-45 seconds faster than their half-marathon pace, in fact, it doesn't seem possible unless your definition of long is different from mine. Was that meant to say "30-45 seconds faster"?
Wow, many time trying understnd Steady Pace concept....
"Tempo" refers to pace or cadence.
"Steady state" refers to metabolic indicators and to sensation of effort.
A run which is done at a basically constant pace and with a generally consistent (or with only a slowly increasing) effort (or heart rate or respiratory rate, etc.) can be classified as both a tempo run and a steady state effort.
Go:
http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm
They will give you you Tempo and you Steady pace
A common term in the 1970s was "high steady state," which meant a longish run (10 miles or longer) at an effort that would leave you "pleasantly tired" or "exhilarated" at the end. It is a moderate effort that allows you to talk in complete sentences, although you wouldn't want to string together several complete sentences without pausing to catch your breath.
A tempo run is about 25 minutes in duration, and the effort is comfortably hard. If you were to talk at all, it would be no more than a few words at a time, with long pauses in between. But at the halfway point, you should still feel relaxed enough to know that you could complete the second half slightly faster than the first. You shouldn't feel any burning in the legs or lungs until near the end. That tells you that your effort was at or just below threshold.
I consider a tempo just at LT and is usually longer like 6 to 12 miles. I consider a steady state like 20 to 25 minutes and you try to run exact splits or speed up during the run but still aim for close splits.
CO--runner wrote:
I consider a tempo just at LT and is usually longer like 6 to 12 miles. I consider a steady state like 20 to 25 minutes and you try to run exact splits or speed up during the run but still aim for close splits.
I think you have them reversed. A typical tempo run should last 20 to 30 minutes, and a steady state run would be a "long tempo" run (i.e., longer and necessarily slower).
Most people that say they did an "8 mile tempo run" most likely ran an 8 mile steady state run...
CO--runner wrote:
I consider a tempo just at LT and is usually longer like 6 to 12 miles. I consider a steady state like 20 to 25 minutes and you try to run exact splits or speed up during the run but still aim for close splits.
LT pace can be maintained for about an hour. Do you run 12 miles in an hour as a workout?
Steady State = Aerobic Threshold
Tempo = Anaerobic Threshold
Here is a good explanation of steady state. Basically it is marathon pace while tempo is more like 10k-half marathon pace.
would help if included the link:
Another interpretation:
In my own running effort levels are drawn up this way:
Easy: by effort, really anything from 6:20-7:20
Steady State: by effort, somewhat stressing, 6:20 to down 5:50
Marathon Pace: by time, hitting a set pace usually anywhere from 5:40-50.
Progression Run: by effort, starting at a steady effort and moving down to a tempo effort or even much faster in the last mile to a near dead sprint.
Tempo Run: by time, hitting a set pace usually anywhere from 5:20-30
10k effort
5k effort
3k effort
sprinting
Alan
Unfortunately both terms are viewed differently by different people. Steady state can refer to a very wide range of efforts. As you sit at the computer you are usually in a steady state, as are you when asleep at night (or in the day for that matter, just to avoid someone from asking if it can only happen at night). So any intensity of physical effort, that if kept up for some minutes or longer, will result in the same sub-max VO2 and same sub-max heart-rate response, and not a steady increase in blood-lactate concentration, nor ventilatory response, can be identified as steady state. Tempo is not so easy to provide a definition for as some associate that term with a specific intensity of effort and others refer to progression-type runs as tempo runs. Ask 5 people and get 2 or 3 different definitions.
With all due respect to Coach Benson, whose writings I've enjoyed for years: his percentages of max HR are just plain wrong.
My max HR, ascertained repeatedly over the past several years, is 199-200, with ONE case in which I hit 204 in the final stretch in a hot humid 5K. But 200 is a fair bet, and 198 would be safer; I've had an extremely hard time cracking 200.
I'm 49 years old.
I just ran a half marathon wearing my Garmin at an average HR of 180, or 90%. In general, I'd have said that my LT was 177-178. So call it 180 if you want, or say that I ran most of the HM just below threshold and then pushed above threshold in the final few miles.
So 90%, or thereabouts, is my tempo run HR. That's what I run 3 mile tempo runs at.
My steady state, ascertained through a great deal of trial and error, is right around 170. 168-170. That's 85%. (I ran my marathon PR in an average HR of 173.) Last weekend I ran the last 6 miles of a 15 mile long run as a steady-state / "slow tempo" run, at an average HR of 171.
80%, for me, is a HR of 160. Coach Benson calls this steady state. For me, it's significantly below steady-state. It's a medium aerobic pace--"steady," as the phrase goes, rather than "easy," and not a pace I start off at. But noticeably below steady state, which is 170/85%. Steady-state for me is the fastest purely aerobic pace where I'm completely relaxed and not nudging my LT point.