Tempo Runs: Training Tip with Carrie

Today, our National Fitness Director, Olympian Carrie Tollefson, shares about tempo training. The goal during a tempo run is to maintain a challenging pace that is comfortably hard but sustainable for a prolonged period. It should be a pace that feels “controlled discomfort.” You’re pushing yourself but are still able to maintain good form while speaking in short answers. Listen in!

Hi, everybody. I’m Olympian Carrie Tollefson and also your National Fitness Director at Moms on the Run. And today’s Tuesday training tip, let’s talk about tempos.

Okay, so what’s a tempo? Well, a tempo run is anything that’s done around 75 to 80% of your max heart rate. I like to think of it on a scale of one to 10 on our RPE scale, maybe around a seven.

Or, if you need to even go a little bit more simplified, the way I like to explain a tempo is short answer pace. If I were out there with you running or on a bike or walking with you, you would be able to talk back to me, but only in short answers. So like, I’m doing great. I’m fine. I’m trying to work hard here. Those kinds of answers. So, tempo runs are anything from 10 minutes in length to two by seven minutes or 40 minutes.

You can do long tempo runs. You can do short tempo runs. But, a tempo run is short answer pace. Don’t go any faster.