How to Increase Your Running Speed with Tempo Running

Want to increase your running speed? Then you need to start doing some tempo running. Tempo running is one of the most effective methods for building up your speed during a race. It will train your body as well as your mind for a faster race. From expert trainers to elite athletes, all consider tempo running as an essential step to increase running speed and get more success. A tempo run will effectively help your body get used to moving at a constant higher rate for a period of time. This article covers the basics about what a tempo running is and how to do tempo running most effectively. What Is Tempo Running?When you are running at a speed which is just above your usual running comfort, but is lower than your maximum capacity, you are running at tempo pace. To put simply, it is a run in which you put your 75 % effort. This aerobatic workout will gradually increase your ability to run at a greater speed. Scientifically, during the tempo run you are performing at your lactate threshold capacity. At, not above. How Can Tempo Running Help You?When you are running at your lactate threshold capacity, you do not build up lactic acid in your legs. When you build up lactic acid in your legs, your legs get heavy. You will want to run at a pace just below that level. This type of training will help increase your lactate threshold. This means that, over time, you can run faster without getting heavy legs. So, do your tempo runs and this will help you increase your running speed. Tempo runs also help you get ready for race conditions in which you will usually run faster. They will help you mentally accept the fact that you are going to run at a faster speed over a specified distance during a race. Doing tempo run means you are running at a controlled pace. It pushes your comfort levels up a bit and this allows you to gradually adjust yourself to running races.How To Do Tempo RunningIf you want to get most out of your tempo running, you should follow a few running tips and pointers. First of all, it is important you do a warm up. This does not necessarily mean running stretches, but a nice and gentle easy running pace for 5 - 10 minutes. When your legs are warm, you are ready to start your tempo runs.Second, when you first start off during tempo runs you will want to keep the tempo intervals fairly short. If you just come out of a base building period which would have consisted of mostly slow easy runs, tempo runs can be pretty tough. So ease into them. E.g. start off with 4 x 5 minutes of tempo runs with 2-3 minutes easy jogs in between. Over a number of weeks you can then build this up to 2 x 20 minutes of tempo running with 5 minutes jog in between, which is my standard weekly tempo running workout. When you first start doing tempo runs it is a good idea to run with a heart rate monitor so you can keep an eye on your speed. It is easy to turn these runs into intervals, which is not the aim. Repeating myself, but it is very important: as soon as your legs start feeling heavy you have to slow down. Your tempo runs are meant to not build up lactic acid in your legs.Last of all, you should not take your tempo running to the extreme. So run at a still comfortable level without pushing yourself to exhaustion. It is also best to avoid hills. Your goal is to run at a very steady pace/effort for the length of the tempo run, which is simply a lot tougher when you have to battle hills.When you want to increase your running speed and get ready for running races, there is almost no better workout than tempo runs. They are a very effective way of increasing your lactate threshold so you are able to sustain faster running for a longer period of time.