What a tempo run is
About 20 minutes at a comfortably hard pace, the effort you could hold for an hour in a race. It raises the pace you can sustain. Jack Daniels calls it threshold (T) running. Run-R uses both names for the same pace.
Your threshold pace comes from your VDOT, the fitness score from Daniels' Running Formula. In the engine it is the speed that costs 88% of your VDOT, which lands within a couple of seconds per km of Daniels' published tables.
How a tempo run should feel
- Breathing
- Deep and steady, not ragged. You can say a few words, not hold a conversation.
- Effort
- Comfortably hard: about the effort you could race for an hour.
- Pace
- Even from start to finish. If the last few minutes are your quickest by much, the first ones were too slow; if you fade, they were too fast.
The most common mistake is running it too fast. Threshold work is meant to be controlled, so you are ready for the next session. Quicker is not better here: it turns the run into a different session.
On hills, in wind or in heat, run by effort and let the pace slip. The heat pace calculator shows how much.
The sessions Run-R plans use
Plans start with short blocks and build up through the training block. The order for most runners is: 3 × 5 min threshold, 4 × 5 min threshold, 20 min tempo, 3 × 8 min threshold, 2 × 12 min threshold, 3 × 10 min threshold, 2 × 15 min threshold, 4 × 8 min threshold, 3 × 12 min threshold, 4 × 10 min threshold. Runners who chose the lowest volume step up more gently: 3 × 5 min threshold, 4 × 5 min threshold, 3 × 6 min threshold, 3 × 8 min threshold, 2 × 10 min threshold, 20 min tempo, 2 × 12 min threshold, 3 × 10 min threshold.
The 20 min tempo is the classic tempo run. The others split the same pace into blocks with a short jog, which Daniels calls cruise intervals. Threshold running in blocks of 5 to 15 minutes, with a minute's easy jog for every 5 minutes of running. The same benefit as a tempo run, easier to hold.
How much threshold running
Daniels caps threshold running at about 10% of the week's running, and Run-R plans follow that, with a floor of 10 minutes so even a small week has a real session. One threshold session a week is enough for most runners, alongside easy runs and a long run.
Threshold pace by 5K time
| 5K time | Per km | Per mile |
|---|---|---|
| 18:00 | 3:52 | 6:13 |
| 20:00 | 4:16 | 6:52 |
| 22:00 | 4:40 | 7:31 |
| 25:00 | 5:16 | 8:29 |
| 28:00 | 5:52 | 9:27 |
| 30:00 | 6:16 | 10:05 |
| 35:00 | 7:15 | 11:41 |
For every 5K time from 15:00 to 40:00, see the training paces table. For all five paces from any race, use the VDOT calculator.
Sources
- Jack Daniels, Daniels' Running Formula (Human Kinetics, 3rd and 4th editions): VDOT, threshold pace, tempo runs, cruise intervals and the weekly limit.
- Run-R's own engine: how Run-R builds plans.