Workout of the Week: The Tired Tempo Run

A spin on the “Tempo Plus” and “Hills and a Steady Chill” workouts, this session starts with a set of shorter, quicker intervals and finishes with a tempo run at a steadier effort. It’s a great way for marathoners to keep a little turnover in the mix while also practicing some race-pace running on not-fresh legs. Here are the details:

What: 8-12 x 400m @ 5K effort with 60-75 seconds standing/walking recovery between reps, or 4-6 x 800m @ 10K effort with 2 minutes standing/walking recovery between reps, followed by a 4-10 mile tempo run at marathon effort. (Take 3-4 minutes walking/jogging recovery between the intervals and the tempo run.)

Warmup/Cooldown: Warm up before the workout with 15-30 minutes of easy running followed by a set of drills and 4-6 x 20-second strides (i.e., accelerate for 5 seconds, spend the next 10 seconds at near-top speed, and then gradually decelerate to a jog over the final 5 seconds. Catch your breath for 40-60 seconds and then repeat 3-5 more times). Cool down after the workout with 5-15 minutes of easy running.

Why: The intervals at the beginning of this workout get your legs turning over at a faster pace while they’re still relatively fresh. The tempo run at the end of the workout provides a nice aerobic stimulus and helps you to dial in your pacing and effort while you’re already feeling aerobically and muscularly taxed. This is a great way to build race-specific strength and confidence.

Where: The faster reps are best suited to the track while the tempo run is best done on the roads. That said, you can do all of it on the roads or treadmill if those options are more preferable to you. You can also maintain the spirit of the workout on the trails, focusing on pure effort over a prescribed pace.

When: I like using a version of this workout every 3-4 weeks throughout a training cycle. It can serve as a good benchmark workout and/or the final big workout 10-14 days out from a goal race to make sure we’ve got pacing and confidence dialed.

Variations: You can adjust this workout in a variety of ways depending on what you’re trying to get out of it. E.g. You can manipulate the length, pace, and number of the intervals to start the workout, and speed up, slow down, shorten, or stretch out the tempo portion to suit your needs.