When you’ve been following operating traits currently, you might need seen that steady tempo runs—as soon as a staple in lots of coaching packages 5 years in the past—are slowly changing into extinct. As a substitute, broken-up intervals like one-kilometre or mile repeats dominate the packages of athletes at each stage, from highschool to the professionals. This shift to threshold coaching has been closely influenced by the famed Norwegian coaching methodology of the Ingebrigtsen brothers, who’ve discovered large success with this method. Is that this shift to shorter threshold intervals the definitive future of coaching, or do steady tempo runs nonetheless have a spot and goal?
What are steady tempo runs?
Prior to now, steady tempo runs had been the go-to exercise for runners aiming to enhance their 10K or half-marathon instances. The strategy was easy: run at a tempo tempo (roughly 75-85 per cent of your max 5K effort) for a set distance or time, whereas progressively rising quantity every week as your health improves. These tempo periods had been designed to enhance power and stack mileage to push the physique to adapt to operating sooner for longer.
Not too long ago, extra runners have been gravitating towards broken-up tempo periods, usually structured as 1km or mile repeats at a threshold tempo with brief relaxation intervals. The pondering behind swapping tempo runs for thresholds is to interrupt up the tempo, which can enable for much less muscle rigidity, making the exercise much less nerve-racking on the physique whereas nonetheless getting the psychological and physiological advantages from the exercise.
For instance, if one runner is doing a 5 km tempo session and the opposite runner is doing 5×1 km intervals at a tempo tempo with a brief, one-minute jog relaxation, the periods aren’t so totally different. With the interval session, you’re nonetheless getting the required work in, however the remainder intervals make it simpler to hit your purpose paces with out accumulating as a lot fatigue. As compared, a steady tempo run leaves little room for error in sustaining your purpose tempo. The shorter intervals (on the similar or related tempo) enable your physique to get well extra shortly, making it simpler to bounce again in your subsequent session.
What’s lacking from tempo runs?
Although some have turned away from steady tempo runs, they haven’t solely misplaced their relevance—particularly for athletes coaching for longer distances, such because the half-marathon and marathon. A exercise of 10×1 mile will problem your cardiovascular system, nevertheless it gained’t totally mimic the calls for of a race, the place your physique has to carry the tempo with out relaxation. For that motive, many long-distance athletes nonetheless think about steady tempos important.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s most up-to-date half-marathon debut in Copenhagen is proof of that. Many, together with myself, anticipated the 24-year-old to threaten/problem the world document, however as a substitute, he went out too quick and struggled to keep up the tempo. Ingebrigtsen revealed after the race that his 21.1 km race effort was the longest steady run of his profession.
The purpose is, when getting ready for longer races, relying solely on broken-up intervals might depart athletes unprepared to deal with the pressure of operating at race tempo for a chronic distance; subsequently, it’s useful so as to add a number of longer tempo periods into your coaching construct.
Jakob Ingebritsen commenting his race in #cphhalf pic.twitter.com/Kx8ynolcmF
— Alberto Stretti (@albertostretti) September 15, 2024
One other key factor of steady tempo runs is psychological. These longer efforts train you ways to deal with discomfort over time, constructing the psychological toughness essential for races. When you’re solely used to damaged intervals, you would possibly wrestle when confronted with the strain of steady racing.
The best method lies find a steadiness between interval-based threshold coaching and steady efforts. Whereas broken-up intervals could enable for sooner restoration and higher pacing, steady runs train your physique—and thoughts—to deal with sustained effort and not using a break. Steady tempo runs could also be much less fashionable than they was, however they’re removed from useless.
