Explaining "tempo" pace to your athletes.

Early in my CC coaching career at Hughson, I was kind of forced to use Cruise Intervals because it is so hot early season that tempo runs are a not a possibility. We've used distances from 800 to 1 mile. I don't know that it really matters the distance of the rep as much as the ratio of work:rest. I mean, more advanced kids can focus for longer intervals, but physiologically, I think it's pretty close.

As an aside, my kids never seemed to end up running these workouts at true "threshold" pace as predicted by the calculators or vdot charts. They usually ended up running somewhere around CV. So, basically, I've just started calling the Cruise Interval workouts we used to do CV workouts and then trying to be specific on how much slower they should go when they are trying to do a continuous tempo effort.

I'm really trying to make continuous tempo efforts a focus of the summer because we can get our sessions in during the cooler morning hours. Once school starts, we'll probably have to wait until late September or early October until we can really get a good tempo run in again.

Citius5000:

I really like the idea of putting kids on a loop for CV workouts. I picked up a similar idea to yours at a clinic a couple of years ago. The one twist I could add is that the coach at the clinic (can't remember his name now, but he developed Luis Grijalva and some other pretty good runners at Armijo) was to put cones out every 50m around the track, then just have kids report the number of cones they reached.

They way I have implemented that concept: Start different groups at different cones, this way the slower kids aren't tempted to chase the faster kids. When each rep finishes, they have 1 minute of recovery to walk to the next cone. As they get more fit, they maybe have to jog 2-3 cones during the recovery. I just call out start and stop for intervals of 3-5 minutes and the kids will shout out to me how many cones they got on each rep as they come around. When we do reps for time, I have the kids use the pace chart laid out by minute (It's also linked on my blog). It is super helpful for individualizing of paces and keeping track of all of the individual results. I'm sure you've had experiences where 20 kids finish a 400 and you have 1 minute to try and write everyone's time down. This is much easier.

great stuff! not sure how much I can add (as your team is already very successful and as a coach you are definitely doing some great things), but I will tell you how I finally learned to do tempos right.

1) never worry about the pace of the first mile - I like to use it as a warm up....in fact, I didn't do a warm up. I just "tempoed" into the workout. Most coaches are never going to do this with their team because it is so different than what everyone has ever done, but my best workouts/tempos starting happening when I got rid of the old warm up routine and did the above stead. For me, my first mile might be 6:00-6:20 (but I was gradually getting faster that whole mile - so that by the end of it was getting close to the pace I would hold for the remainder of the workout. I might be around 5:40 pace by the end of the first mile and close to 5:20 by the middle of the 2nd mile. but I always started slower.

2) never worry about the pace of the tempo (this is hard to do for both coach and athlete). trying to follow a formula seems like a good idea, but actually isn't. a tempo should be done off feel. when done this way- the distance of the run should also not be predetermined because you need to adjust the length of the workout based on how you feel. I might plan an 8 mile tempo, but it could end up being 6 or 10. and I learned to not worry about the difference. when I went back and looked at my log of the best year I had, I noticed one tempo would be fantastic (pace wise) and the next could seem fairly pedestrian (ranging from 5:15-5:20 on a good tempo day to 5:40-5:45 on an off day). I think both runs have value, cause when you just aren't feeling it, you just aren't feeling it and should not try to push for a specified pace. Sometimes when not pushing for a set pace, I speed up later in the run - just because it later felt better (but faster is not really the goal)

I like to time my tempos, but not get overly concerned with each individual mile - I would only log the ave pace of the run - like 8 miles at 5:25 ave. the pace might actually vary and should if you are really listening to your body (where you are slightly speeding up or slowing down = usually it is slowing yourself down because we all tend to get going plenty fast on these type of runs).

3) and this is the really tough one - learn to adjust your pace as you run (slow down when you need to) I would tell myself if I ever start to feel like I couldn't hold my pace for much longer or if I was becoming agitated while running, I knew I needed to slow down - this is the hardest thing to learn to do (but also the most important). I would also occasionally get stopped by stoplight and thought this was very disruptive at the time....but actually this was a secret blessing because 1) if teaches you how to get back on pace when the light lets you go again and 2) sometime I really needed to quick break because it is so easy to get going too fast.

so overall I would say do it by "feel not formula"

even though the formula gives coaches confidence in what you are having them do, I don't think it teaches the real principle of learning to run by feel (and that is the real value of the tempo workout). If they can master this in practice, they will have an easier time mastering it in races. I did not learn how to do this until after college so your kids will be well ahead of the game.

another option you can do is just have them fartlek instead. Have kids alternate the lead and the kid in the lead dictates the pace. It would be good race prep workout too.

citius5000 wrote:

One thing i did last year was instead of doing 1600s or whatever at cruise interval pace i did 4-5x5:00(1:00). So everyone started at the same time and finished in different spots and you had 1;00 to get back to the start. I only used a 400m loop for this. Made keeping track of the kids paces a lot easier. I also changed my tempo to 25min so everyone finished at the same time instead of prescribing 3 or 4 miles. Made transitioning to the fast stuff afterwards easier.

Excellent...very smart.

CoachB wrote:

I've struggled for years to come up with a great way to explain tempo pace to my athletes. This summer I've been working on some of my own pace charts and ways of simplifying all of the different terminology that gets thrown around in books and on the internet.

Take a look and see what you think. I'm of course open to constructive criticism and willing to answer questions. Yes, I know that it's a big ask to expect kids to read through all of this stuff, but my best ones do read what I post then explain it to the other kids.

Using words like tempo, threshold, cv, etc. are bound to be confusing. You may as well tell them to run at paces described as happy, joyful, anxious, etc. How something feels is different to everyone and using lactate measurements as an example will be especially meaningless when you aren't actually checking everyone's lactate levels during workouts.

It is dramatically easier for everyone to understand if you use specific paces as defined by numbers. Then if you want to tie a word like tempo to that pace go ahead.

I like to use mile pace as the anchor. For instance:

Mile Pace +:30-:40 =~ 3 Mile Race Pace

Mile Pace +1:00 =~ Upper limit of Tempo

Mile Pace +1:30 =~ Lower limit of Tempo (start tempos at this pace)

Mile Pace +2:00-2:15 =~ Day-to-day steady mileage once warmed up, also cooldown pace

Mile Pace +2:30-3:00 =~ Second mile of warmup, upper limit of recovery day pace

Mile Pace +3:00-3:30 =~ First mile of warmup, lower limit of recovery day pace unless your name is Henry Rono

I don’t record their splits at all honestly besides making mental notes. I take their PRs and write down each person’s paces for the day. Really its only the threshold stuff they start together where race pace stuff its all broken up etc

another option you can do is just have them fartlek instead wrote:

another option you can do is just have them fartlek instead. Have kids alternate the lead and the kid in the lead dictates the pace. It would be good race prep workout too.

That is a good workout for a group where all the members are at similar levels.

If I may quote the famous Bob Schul:

"Can someone tell me WTF the word tempo means?"

Another type of tempo i rarely do is called a predator run. Where the slowest kid goes first and then the next staggered based on 5k times. Fastest kid goes last. So there maybe a few minute lead when the fastest kid goes. I usually just do three miles for this and ideally they dont race it and they all come together the last half mile. But i tell them when the kid behind them catches up not to let them pass. Again usually they end up racing it so i might do this once a year or not at all. But kids find it fun overall.

What age group is the team? Middle School, HS, college, club?

citius5000 wrote:

Another type of tempo i rarely do is called a predator run. Where the slowest kid goes first and then the next staggered based on 5k times. Fastest kid goes last. So there maybe a few minute lead when the fastest kid goes. I usually just do three miles for this and ideally they dont race it and they all come together the last half mile. But i tell them when the kid behind them catches up not to let them pass. Again usually they end up racing it so i might do this once a year or not at all. But kids find it fun overall.

Yeah this isn’t a tempo at all, but thanks for sharing a workout you do once every year or two.

"Hard, easy run"

Use phrases like:

“Comfortably Quick; strong, smooth rhythm. Pressing a little but sustainable for long periods and controlled”

“start conservative and ease into it over first few minutes (if continuous tempo) or first repeat if tempo repeats.”

“Better off start too slow than too fast”

I have also found it help to have them go right into it after warm-up rather than stopping. So if the workout is a 10 minute warm-up jog, 20 minute tempo run, then 10 minute cool-down, have them do it as 40 minutes continuous picking up the rhythm the middle 20 minutes. Seems to help them keep from starting off racing or too fast.

citius5000 wrote:

Another type of tempo i rarely do is called a predator run. Where the slowest kid goes first and then the next staggered based on 5k times. Fastest kid goes last. So there maybe a few minute lead when the fastest kid goes. I usually just do three miles for this and ideally they dont race it and they all come together the last half mile. But i tell them when the kid behind them catches up not to let them pass. Again usually they end up racing it so i might do this once a year or not at all. But kids find it fun overall.

I remember a college kid taking over when the coach was gone for the day and he had the team do this. I was

a freshman in my first year of XC. Guess who got to start out the run first? There are all kinds of swear words

one could use for this workout. Sure the fast kids will enjoy it. Maybe a few slow kids who started with a big

enough lead might like it. But some might drop out of XC or track if you do it. Your choice baby!

Having high school kids run a group tempo run is crazy. First of all, tempo pace is going to be different for each runner, so how do maintain the cohesiveness of the group? Secondly, whenever you have a group of h.s. boys running together, it will always turn competitive. Thirdly, for 95% of high school runners, ten miles should be an easy, conversational long run. NOT a tempo run.

I appreciate that there are probably 100 or so high schools in the country where you have the talent level to send a group out on a 10-mile tempo training run, but there are thousands of schools where this group run is totally inappropriate.

Nice write up!

Side question - can you share who in the team pic is the fastest on your team for XC?

Is is the same for mile/5k track?

Just curious, thx.

This is an example of a good thread. I hope we have many more.

I am not talking to one person specifically.

IF you do not want your kids to race why are you using a whistle to start them?

I do think that the 3 X Mile workout may be as good as it gets for XC. But let their

heart rates return to 120. If they are not down to that, they sit out one. Some coaches

have them go a half mile instead. Give some more time to recover. You want them to run

faster than their current race pace for each mile repeat.

What you want early in the season and all year long is to have them enjoy running.

The best way to do this is to have them run as a team.

Some coaches have done this on a track but you can use a park or any other facility.

First day have them start out on a 20 minute run. After a few minutes use that whistle or call out to them

to turn around and run the opposite way around the planned loop. This way the trailers become the leaders

and the leaders are trailing. Again after a few more minutes, have them turn around again. By the end

of the 20 minutes they will get the idea that it's not best to race because everyone finishes together anyway.

As the season goes on they learn to help each other and they enjoy running. Someone said that 70% of running

in XC is going to be easy anyway. The trick is to have them do a lot of it and go away wanting more because

it was fun. You can have sporadic competitions but they certainly should not be racing every day.

(If I were to coach a team for the first time I would use the 20 minute run the first day. Then after that

you can increase the time. Of course you can do other things. Slowly add intervals and speed development.)

Adding to my previous post since editing still isn’t possible on this forum.

As a coach you should have a good idea of the approximate pace you want the athletes to do for a tempo. Give them that pace and ensure they stick to it by using a loop or the track or somewhere you can monitor them. Then you ask them afterwards to reflect on the sensations they had at that pace. Have them write a few sentences describing what it felt like. There will be a variety of adjectives the team as a whole uses, with the better trained and more slow twitch dominant runners tending towards it feeling easier compared to the less fit and more fast twitch of the group.

Ultimately we learn how to describe tempo by actually running it many times. Our body is the teacher in this regard. As they say, you can’t tell somebody something they don’t already know and knowing something can only come from experience.

Who's who wrote:

Nice write up!

Side question - can you share who in the team pic is the fastest on your team for XC?

Is is the same for mile/5k track?

Just curious, thx.

The three on the right were the fastest. The kid on the far right was #1 on that day. It was his first time being #1 all year, unfortunately, he grew a bunch and developed the Osgood Schlater curse this past spring and only ended up going 4:56. The kid 2nd from the right was 2nd fastest that day. He ended up going 4:32/9:54 on the track. The 3rd from the right was almost always our #1 guy as a junior, but usually ran as our #2 man last year.

In that race, they finished 3, 4, 5. If you look up the times, they kind of slow because our League Finals course was 3.19 miles.