Now is a good time to start building your speed endurance, and what better way to do that than with a tempo run? I wrote a blog about this a while back (https://stickmanjames.wordpress.com/2019/02/20/tempo-time/), which goes into more detail than I'll include here. Briefly, the goal of tempos runs is to develop your ability to run fast with good technique for sustained periods, providing significant physiological and psychological benefits.
Warmup: A common mistake with these runs is to start out at your target pace. A much better approach is to build up to it gradually, as part of a 10 minute warmup that should also include some drills such as high knees and heel flicks.
Session: Flatter routes (e.g. the Severn Bridge) are easy to maintain a consistent effort, which is the purpose of this session. There are many variations of tempo runs, but sometimes simplicity is best. Once you've built up to your target effort, hold it for 20-30 minutes (20 is plenty if you're just starting out with this type of run). There are a number of ways to gauge your effort, my personal favourite being the 'talk test' - you should be able to talk in short sentences. If you can only gasp out a couple of words you're going too fast! This is a much better approach than using pace, which is obviously affected by the terrain, although roughly we're talking a 10k effort. Heart rate is also a good option if you have it. Ensure you have a 10 min jog cooldown after the session.
Technical points: While this is a hard effort, it's very important to maintain good form throughout the run, otherwise you're training yourself to run with poor technique. I'd suggest using a reminder for yourself as you start to get tired, such as 'run tall', as a common response to fatigue is to slouch forward. This is a 'comfortably hard' session, and you should finish feeling strong.
Coach James
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