The tempo run

A tempo run, or threshold run, is run at a « comfortably hard » pace: you can say a few words but not chat. It is roughly the pace you could hold for an hour in a race.

• A typical session: 15 minutes of warm-up, 20 to 30 minutes at tempo (or 3 × 10 min), then a cool-down.
• It teaches you to hold a fast pace for longer, useful from 10 km to the marathon.

It is a hard session: no more than one a week on top of intervals, and never the day after another hard one.