Long and Short Tempos

I don't know all the science behind it, but I've always though that during the base stage you are going to want to do longer tempos, anywhere from 6-8 miles works well for me. As you get closer to races, those from 3.5-4.5 miles should be utilized.

However, I think you can do either kind at any stage, but I personally prefer putting a much larger emphasis on one or the other depending how far into a season I am.

I was under the impression that all tempos are for the primary purpose of increasing the lactate threshold. What i don't understand (and I think I'm in the same boat as you on this one) is why Jack Daniels for instance recommends longer tempo runs to be at a slower pace. If one level of intensity represents the current lactate threshold for an athelete (and this intensity is decently slower than vV02max) why not just do all the tempos as long as say 45 minutes at that same intensityl level/pace. Is it solely because this would be too taxing on atheletes and compromise future workouts? You would think that since that pace does not cause the blood lactate level to rise at all over time, and does not maximally stress the aerobic system, it would make sense to hold the same intensity even for moderately longer tempo runs

McMillan wrote a great piece on the spectrum of lactate threshold paces in Running Times.

http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=21403

The gist? Running at a variety of different points along your threshold spectrum may better improve your performance than just running at the "20min tempo" pace.

"Threshold" tempos are supposed to be at half marathon pace. If you are doing 11-13 miles at half pace you are pretty much racing. The point of doing longer tempos (e.g. over 10 miles) is to stimulate other systems that increase lactate threshold without giving a race effort. That's why Solinsky's 18 mile tempos are beneficial: he does them at marathon pace.

VO2max pace is an ANaerobic pace. I'm not even sure if 20 min at 10k pace is aerobic.