How To Do A Tempo Run Without Doing A Tempo Run

I am someone that dislikes the typical "Tempo Run." I think a lot of people, including myself, start off too fast and tend to gradually die towards the end of them. Ideally, they're supposed to be done at a moderately hard effort all the way through, but I think most people will get through the first mile or two of a tempo run, then start hurting pretty quickly and finish as if they had been racing. Doing this turns the session into too hard of a workout and sometimes takes more than a couple days to recover from. For those of you that this sounds familiar to, you should try ALTERNATING PACE RUNS.


How To Do An Alternating Paced Run

The goal of a regular tempo run is to increase the length of time you can hold a certain pace, specifically your anaerobic threshold which is the point in which you're starting to accumulate a fair amount of lactic acid. If you were measuring blood lactate, it would be around 4 mmol/L of blood. We can manipulate a workout to achieve the same 4 mmol/L reading without actually doing a straight through effort. This is nothing new and has been used by coaches such as Renato Canova and Steve Magness. If you haven't tried it, it's probably worth your time and you'll get a different perspective on training.

Example of an Alternating Paced Run:
4 miles of alternating 0.5 miles @ 5k effort / 0.5 miles @ marathon effort or slightly slower.

The fast portion will give you a nice little injection of lactate into the bloodstream, and the slower effort will let you clear it to get ready for the next fast segment. Also, mentally, it's easier to be able to crank out a half mile hard and you know there's some easy running coming directly after it rather than trying to hold on for 3 miles straight. It's also more similar to what you would experience in a race situation with pace changes and hills in which you have varying paces.


How To Progress An Alternating Paced Run Over Several Weeks:

Always start on the easy end of things and gradually build your workouts into more difficult sessions. You can also be creative and not necessarily follow this, but here's an example:

- 3 miles of alternating 400m @ 5k effort/ 1200m @ marathon effort

- 3 miles of alternating 600m @ 5k effort/ 1000m @ marathon effort

- 3 miles of alternating 800m @ 5k effort/ 800m @ slightly slower than marathon effort

- 3 miles of alternating 1000m @ 10k effort/ 600m @ slightly slower than marathon effort

- 3 miles of alternating 1200m @ 10k effort/ 400m @ jogging pace

I would recommend doing this type of workout every 10 to 14 days on your schedule and work on building the length of the fast segment and shortening the easier effort as you go.

Betsy after successfully completing her Alternation Workout.