Do you consider this the proper way to do a tempo workout?

My favorite way to do them is to arrive at target pace progressively.

In my view, people call a "tempo" run anything this days that isn't split into parts, from racing a 5k to running an hour at marathon pace.

I do tempos ranging from threshold pace (a tad slower than half marathon pace or hmp if you are close to 1:10 HM) to marathon pace.

Ideally I'd run 20-25min easy, do 6 strides and then go start the tempo run but I don't feel good doing it like that, it feels too hard for me to just go out of the gun and I end not feeling smooth.

So the way I do my tempo runs is I just turn them into progressions. I'll start my run easy and steady accelerate the pace during the first 5k or so to target pace, I skip strides. I feel much better this way and I find it's much easier for me to feel the right pace and not go too fast since I will know how I feel across the range of paces that I go through and not go over

Yeah it makes sense not to do strides before a tempo. You don’t want run a tempo too fast and with strides in your legs you’re more likely to do just that. Instead I like to add strides after the tempo is over to work on turnover when slightly fatigued.

Back in College wrote:

The first few years in college I ran tempos like that. I raced very poorly. Then I started to train at appropriate paces and I had big jumps in my PR's and became an all-american.

Some examples of tempo paces. If you're training for 5k and you run around 15 flat (4:50 ish pace) I think you should be able to do a 4 mile tempo at 5:05-5:10 pace. If you're training for 8k in college and running around 25 flat (about 5:00 pace) you should be able to handle a 5 mile tempo at around 5:10-5:15 pace.

You're the All-American, but that sounds absurdly fast to me. When I was in 15:00 shape, 5:05-5:10 was just race pace on a day when I wasn't going all out. Not tempo pace. Tempo pace was maybe 5:20 or 5:30 for me.

webby wrote:

Back in College wrote:

The first few years in college I ran tempos like that. I raced very poorly. Then I started to train at appropriate paces and I had big jumps in my PR's and became an all-american.

Some examples of tempo paces. If you're training for 5k and you run around 15 flat (4:50 ish pace) I think you should be able to do a 4 mile tempo at 5:05-5:10 pace. If you're training for 8k in college and running around 25 flat (about 5:00 pace) you should be able to handle a 5 mile tempo at around 5:10-5:15 pace.

You're the All-American, but that sounds absurdly fast to me. When I was in 15:00 shape, 5:05-5:10 was just race pace on a day when I wasn't going all out. Not tempo pace. Tempo pace was maybe 5:20 or 5:30 for me.

It depends upon how tempo is defined. If it is one hour pace (Anaerobic threshold) then it is about 5:15.

If it is Aerobic threshold, about 5:30-5:35.

I certainly wouldn't try 5 miles at my Anaerobic threshold, except nearing a race. That's very hard work.

Yep. Most athletes overestimate their threshold and run closer to 10k pace.

Easy way to tell if you're doing a tempo correct is HR. If you're at the right effort the HR stays pretty level over the course of a 20-30' tempo.

If you see a steadily rising HR...too hard.