TEMPO TRAINING

TEMPO TRAINING
A good form of speed play during training is called TEMPO RUN. Witch consists of a single, continuous surge in the midst of a medium distance run. Is a type of training where you gradually push your pace to a high degree of difficulty and hold it there before relaxing and finally cruising home.
Charting your pace on a graph, you would have a line resembling the classic bell curve that rises, hits a plateau, then declines. The plateau is where the peak training occurs and also where you reach your lactate threshold. This can be defined as the deflection point -the mythical dotted line around 90 percent of maximum heart rate (MHR) where body systems begin to deteriorate. If you run above that dotted line, say at 91 percent, lactic acid begins to accumulate in your muscles and inevitably causes you to crash. But run just below that dotted line, say at your 89 percent, and all sorts of marvelous things happen to your level of conditioning.


TEMPO TIPS
Here are some tips for boosting your anaerobic power with tempo runs.

1. HANG LOOSE. Structure your tempo runs according to experience, not formulas. Formulas can offer only broad guidelines. Begin by taking a period of time to warm up, and at the end of your workout, take a nearly equal period of time to cool down. In between is the heart of your workout, which should be 20 to 40 minutes.
2. RUN TOUGH. Pick a pace that is comfortably hard. A common recommendation is a pace that is 15 seconds per mile slower than your best 10K time; about 20 to 30 seconds per mile slower than your best 5K time.
3. RUN SOLO. You may have difficulty finding another runner whose anaerobic threshold matches yours. Even when you can, you should be cautious and run according to your ability. It’s to easy to become competitive and push the pace too hard, even in noncompetitive situations.
4. FORGET TIME. Don’t measure your level of intensity by your watch. It’s too easy to fool yourself into thinking you’re improving because you did this weeks wind run faster than last week’s. The overload principle works with some forms of training, but not here. It’s too easy to cheat by running the warm-ups progressively faster, which defeats the purpose of the workout. By jogging easy at both the beginning and end of each tempo run, you eliminate any danger of comparing one workout to another.
5. RUN ANYWHERE. The road. The track. The woods. Even on a treadmill. The important factor is intensity, not how (or where) that intensity is achieved.
6. STAY SMOOTH. Maintain a steady effort, not a steady speed. If you run out into a headwind, you’ll find yourself with the wind at your back. Your actual pace should increase, but not your effort. The same is true on hilly courses, where your pulse actually may rise or drop depending whether you are going uphill or downhill.
7. CONCENTRATE. You’ll find you are able to run more effectively if you focus on what you are doing. Because of the speed at which you will be moving, tempo runs offer a good opportunity to pay attention to how you can maintain good running form. The body awareness will help you improve your race later.