ARTICLES, TIPS, TRAINING & GENERAL ADVICE

Tempo Running Vs. Intervals

by Lisa Sabin, December 30, 2007

Adding Speed Work To a Training Plan

As a runner and a coach I have used various methods of speed work to improve the performance of my runners and myself. I start people out developing a running base, after they have been running for 6 months or a year, I add speed work.

Typically, the speed work begins with fartlek running, picking up the pace for a short distance and then returning to normal pace. Then I add 400m, 800m and 1600m repeats with a 1:1 ratio of work to recovery. Finally, I add tempo running. Tempo running pace is 20 to 30 seconds slower than race pace. The runner warms up for 5 to 10 minutes before hitting the tempo pace, and continues running at that pace for about 20-30 minutes and cools down.

Tempo Running vs. Interval Training

I recently read an article about tempo running vs interval training. Basically, a test was conducted between two groups of runners. One group trained for 10 weeks, doing tempo runs at 70-80% VO2 max twice per week. Each work out was about 29 minutes, so altogether they put in 58 minutes of speed work. The other group trained for 10 weeks, doing interval training, which consisted of running 200m and 400m intervals at 90-100% VO2 max. The second group spent a total of 31 minutes of speed work.

The interval-trained runners gained considerably more physiological and competitive fitness. A key lesson to be learned here is that intensity is always the most-potent producer of fitness; it is a much-stronger stimulus for improvement than training volume and workout frequency.

When you conduct your intervals at 90 to 100 percent of VO2max (and at higher intensities, too), the amount of fitness gained per minute will always be greater, compared with the running capacity accrued at lower intensities. As you can see from Snell’s research, each minute of high-quality work can sometimes produce twice as much gain in fitness as double the amount of lower-quality exertion.

Twice the Benefit in Half the Time

Once you have to have the aerobic base that allows you to train hard on the track, it just stands to reason that training fast makes you faster. You can’t complain about getting twice the benefit in half the time!

• Owen Anderson, Running Research News

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