Tempo

We've been working on tempo pace the past few weeks...and I like it! Much better than hills, intervals and repeats. They say tempo pace should feel "comfortably hard." It's that "comfortable" part I like so much. It's pace that lets me open up my stride and pick up the speed, but that doesn't burn and that I can maintain for a while. This Runner's World article is pretty interesting, and it explains all the science behind the tempo run. Something about getting your muscles used to lactic acid so they don't fatigue as easily. It turns out that lactic acid is actually fuel for your muscles, but the muscles need to be trained to burn that fuel more efficiently. This actually newer thinking about lactic acid - once, it was thought that lactic acid was just bad and inhibited oxygen use in the muscle, as this (2006 - not so new, I guess) NY Times article explains. Anyway, here's a cool picture of a mitochondrion - muscle's energy generator. So scientific of me, I know.

Don't know you're tempo pace? This is the BEST pace calculator. Just enter a time from a recent race, and presto - all your training paces appear!