The first time I heard of tempo workouts was when I first got a running coach back in the late 80’s. I was struggling during the run of my triathlons and I knew there was a good runner inside of me. I ran in high school so I was very disappointed when I was barely moving at the end of a half Ironman. This running coach introduced me to tempo runs which were basically long hard efforts. I remember we did a 10 mile race pace effort once and it was absolutely murder. I thought this was going to help me on race day but it did not. I still struggled during the run at the half Ironman.
One typical question we get from MarkAllenOnline athletes is that the heart rate we give them for our tempo runs and rides is too low; particularly for the run. Mark’s tempo runs and rides are nowhere the intensity that I described above. Mark wants us to be aerobic and definitely not anaerobic. The challenge and thus the problem for your average triathlete is that if you have no aerobic fitness your aerobic pace is relatively slow. You have to slow down just to stay in the aerobic pace. So any aerobic workout becomes a similar effort. It does not matter if it is the long session or the tempo session. They all become a struggle were you are constantly watching the heart rate monitor in an effort to stay below the max number. Sometimes I would get back home all upset and wanted to toss the heart rate monitor in the garbage can.
Well I am here to tell you that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. When I started my training regimen last year I could not, for the life of me, run with any effort at an aerobic pace. My max aerobic heart rate is 141 and to stay below 141 I always had to slow down. Never mind if there was a hill. On those I had to shuffle to prevent the heart rate from shooting up. However, now I am becoming very fit aerobically. My long 2 hour run a couple of weeks ago had an average heart rate of 130 which is a full 11 beats below my max. The pace was a solid one. I did not feel like I wanted to go faster. Since I can run a good pace at 130 heart rate, it means that I can now do a tempo runs at a higher hear rate and still stay aerobic. I have this route from my house that last year used to take me 64 to 66 minutes. Even the best this year was 63 minutes. I did it twice this week and I clocked 59 minutes both times. I wanted to make sure this was not a fluke so I did it twice. My average heart rate was 135 and my max 140. I definitely felt like I was working hard. Now I know what a MarkAllenOnline tempo run is like.
Back when I was a younger and faster triathlete I would almost always negative split all workouts. That meant that in all my out and back sessions I came home faster that I went out. That was a good thing and helped me a great deal in racing. The problem back then was that to go faster on the way back I almost always went anaerobic and gave it a hard effort. Since I started the heart rate training under Mark’s rules it was impossible to negative split anything. The pace on the way back was almost always slower as the heart rate drifted higher and I had to slow down quite a bit. Again, I am back to negative splits but this time aerobic negative splits. In the one hour run I went out in 29:45 and came back in 29:15. I am really excited about that.