Fitness
How Tempo Run Workouts Can Make You Faster
When you first get into running, your routine probably looks something like this: Lace up the best running shoes you own, hit a quick warmup, and then hit the road for a set time, distance, or route. Simply running a few times a week and intuitively speeding up and slowing down might be enough to improve your fitness—at least at first. Once you decide to graduate from a trot around your neighbourhood into the world of more serious training, you’ll need to approach your workouts with more intention and specificity.
One common training technique used by hobbyists and world-class runners alike is the tempo run, a protocol where you run at a near-maximal intensity. Using these workouts you’ll increase muscular and cardiovascular endurance, learn to maintain running mechanics at a faster clip, and teach your body to cycle through lactic acid (which is what causes that burning sensation) more efficiently.
We tapped Jes Woods, a Nike Running coach and the Head Trail & Ultra Coach at the Brooklyn Track Club, to school you on all things tempo runs so you can better understand how to implement tempo runs into your running routine. We can’t say you’ll be thanking us (at least mid-run)—but you may just become the fastest guy in your local run club.
What Is a Tempo Run?
According to Woods, a tempo run is a hard but controlled pace that can be run as intervals, or a steady run spanning one to 10 miles meant to make you a more efficient runner. Tempo runs should feel, ‘comfortably hard,’ according to Woods. ‘If your running buddy asked you a question while running your tempo run, you could answer them if you had to, but it would be pretty annoying.’
Woods says tempo runs can have a variety of loose definitions but, put most simply, they’re threshold runs meant to improve your lactate threshold. ‘That is, the tipping point between aerobic running (your body has sufficient oxygen) and anaerobic running (your body does not have sufficient oxygen to create the energy you are demanding),’ she says. ‘You want to run at that tipping point without crossing over.’
In short: A tempo run is not easy, and that’s by design. This type of workout is a training tool that pushes you to your limits to increase your cardiovascular capacity, help you acclimate to a faster race day speed, and improve your body’s ability to clear lactate.
How to Do a Tempo Run
Tempo runs are challenging, but they’re simple to execute. Woods says that a proper race programme (specifically for distances like marathons and half-marathons) should include one to two weekly speed sessions. The first is a straight speed or interval session and the second being what she calls ‘speed and strength,’ which consists of either a hill workout, Fartlek runs, or tempo runs. For her athletes, Woods programs one tempo run every other week on average.
Calculate Your Pace
There are a few ways to find your pace for a tempo run. The least scientific is to run at a pace at which you can no longer comfortably hold a conversation with another person. Woods says this should be between your 10-kilometre and 10-mile race pace.
You can also sustain a pace that keeps you between 75 to 85 percent of your max heart rate. The simplest way to do this is to subtract your age from 220 (although there are other more accurate methods, for most runners this will do). You’ll need a fitness tracker or heart rate monitor to use this method.
Lastly, Woods likes the VDOT calculator. ‘Simply plug in a recent race distance and time, and the calculator will best guess your equivalent race pace at any and all other distances (and hit the Training tab to see your predicted threshold pace),’ she explains.
Warmup
Dynamic Stretches
These types of movements will get your body primed for running better than static holds. ‘Hold each of these stretches for a few seconds before switching to the other side,’ says Woods. ‘You can even perform these while walking forward or I like to use those ‘stuck at stoplights moments’ for dynamic stretches instead of checking my phone or jogging in place.’
Stretches Woods likes: Knee hugs, quad pulls, hamstring scoops, table toppers, lateral lunges and air squats. Do five reps on each side of your body per movement.
Warmup Jog
Never jump straight into your tempo work, even if you’ve done some dynamic stretching.
‘Before any speed run, whether it’s fast intervals around the track or hill repeats in the park, an easy jog warm up is mission critical,’ says Woods. Run for 10 to 15 minutes at a conversational pace before diving into the workout.
Hit the Road
The classic tempo run is straightforward enough. After you warm up, you’ll aim to run for 20 to 30 minutes at your calculated pace. If you’re new to tempo workouts or at the beginning of a new training cycle, Woods suggests running at your tempo pace in intervals to work up to a longer unbroken run. Here are two interval methods:
Straight-Up Intervals
‘Start with five 5-minute intervals at your tempo run pace, with 90 second breaks after each,’ says Woods. ‘That’s 25 minutes of tempo work, but broken into smaller bite-sized chunks. You can gradually increase those tempo intervals over time until you’re holding your tempo pace for 10 minutes, 15 minutes and eventually 25 continuous minutes.’
Floating Intervals
Think of this approach as the next step up to a continuous tempo workout.
‘The float is an active recovery, but not an easy shuffle jog like you would on the track in order to run your next interval hard,’ explains Woods. ‘If you were to assign a pace to it, ‘float’ is around your marathon pace plus 15 seconds, so you’re trying to recover from your tempo interval at an easier but respectable pace. A specific example would be: three 3-kilometre intervals at your tempo run pace with a 1-kilometre recovery run between each interval.’
The Benefits of Tempo Runs
No one will argue that tempo runs work when it comes to making you faster (and tougher). That said, details matter, so here are three specific ways this tried-and-true running protocol makes you better.
Better Endurance
Running is a volume game. Typically, you’ll become a better runner by, well, running—more specifically, by accumulating more mileage and progressively running at a faster pace. Tempo runs help bolster your cardiovascular capacity by forcing you to sustain a relatively intense pace for a moderate amount of time.
‘Improving your tempo pace or improving your lactate threshold is like improving your miles per gallon on your car,’ Woods says. ‘You want to be able to travel (run) farther on the same tank of gas (the same energy).’
Any form of running is going to improve your VO2 max, which is a measure of how much oxygen you can utilise during intense exercise. Naturally, a tempo run, an intentionally strenuous running workout, will improve your VO2 max and, therefore, your ability to run faster for longer.
More specifically, your heart rate should be beating between 80 to 90 percent of your max (putting you in what are considered heart rate Zones 3 and 4), which are associated with improving your anaerobic and aerobic capacities. Having endurance in both zones is imperative for running at a high intensity.
Improved Lactate Threshold
Once you enter Zone 4 in your workout, which you’re all but guaranteed to do during a hard run or race, your body taps into your anaerobic system, where it utilises glycogen and ATP (adenosine triphosphate) for energy. Lactic acid, a byproduct of that process, will begin to accumulate inside your muscles—and it’s responsible for the burning sensation anyone who has sprinted or performed 20-rep squats knows all too well.
You cannot stop the production of lactic acid, which can hinder you during a run—but you can acclimate to the burning sensation and, as you get fitter, clear the lactate more quickly. Because tempo runs put you into that anaerobic training zone, it’s a great way to train through lactic acid build-up and mimic what you will feel like come race day.
‘You are pushing that lactate threshold pace to be a little bit faster with it still feeling like the same effort,’ explains Woods. ‘By raising that threshold, everything is getting faster—your marathon pace, the easy runs—as you become a more efficient runner.’
Andrew Gutman is a journalist with a decade of experience covering fitness and nutrition. His work has been published in Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, Muscle & Fitness, and Gear Patrol. Outside of writing, Andrew trains in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, helps coach his gym’s kickboxing team, and enjoys reading and cooking.
Jes Woods is a running coach in New York City who serves as a Nike run coach, the Brooklyn Track Club Ultra and Trail head coach, and a Chaski Endurance coach.
It never feels like there’s enough time in the day – after prioritising your kids, work and other commitments, simply finding an opportunity to get in the gym can prove tricky. But instead of obsessing over gym sessions, Lawrence Price – former professional rugby player, coach and recent guest on MH’s Built for Life podcast – says busy dads should instead prioritise three weekly pillars.
These pillars are less about creating a perfect environment and more about building consistency that works with your life. The idea is that if life gets hectic and one pillar drops off temporarily, the other two pillars keep progress moving.
‘If pillar one is out the window because we can’t train for a couple of weeks, we can still manipulate things by making sure we’re hit hitting pillar one and three by getting those things on point,’ Price tells MH.
The 3 Pillars Every Busy Dad Should Follow
1. Increase Your Daily Movement
Price is a big proponent of increasing your NEAT – non-exercise activity thermogenesis – which is the energy your body uses for daily, non-structured exercises. These include things like walking more, taking the stairs instead of the lift or escalators, and moving during phone calls.
‘If your training window for the day has gone, then the reality is you can still take phone calls on your feet, you can take the stairs. It’s just boring to talk about – it’s unsexy, it’s uncool. But if you get people into that mindset where, whatever your life looks like, you’re prioritising that need. It’s 15% of your total daily expenditure or more,’ Price says.
‘Even even when your training window is put on the back burner, because the hierarchy of needs outside of your own health needs is obviously undulating and sometimes it pulls us away, whatever circumstance you have during the week, just moving more is something you can go towards.’
2. Strength Training
There’s no such thing as training too little – if you’ve only got time for one gym session a week, then make the most of that time and incorporate some strength training. Compound movements help to stimulate muscle growth efficiently.
‘Resistance training is the second pillar. Even if you only get one or two sessions in a week and it’s a really targeted, simple, basic functional hypertrophy routine, you know that when you’re sitting at your desk or when you’re doing the school run, your body is trying to adapt to that stimulus.’
‘If pillars one and two are the energy output pillars, pillar three is the energy input pillar,’ Price concludes.
‘If we have a rough idea of eating in alignment with our energetic needs and body composition goals, even if the environment changes we can still embody the habits and actions that align with our goals and and our visions.’
This is crucial for when you might not have time to train as much as you’d like – adapting your nutrition will still keep you on track with your goals, even if you’re expending less daily energy.
If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.
Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.
Ryan is a Senior Writer at Men’s Health UK with a passion for storytelling, health and fitness. Having graduated from Cardiff University in 2020, and later obtaining his NCTJ qualification, Ryan started his career as a Trainee News Writer for sports titles Golf Monthly, Cycling Weekly and Rugby World before progressing to Staff Writer and subsequently Senior Writer with football magazine FourFourTwo.
During his two-and-a-half years there he wrote news stories for the website and features for the magazine, while he also interviewed names such as Les Ferdinand, Ally McCoist, Jamie Redknapp and Antonio Rudiger, among many others. His standout memory, though, came when getting the opportunity to speak to then-Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher as the club won League One in 2023.
Having grown up a keen footballer and playing for his boyhood side until the age of 16, Ryan got the opportunity to represent Northern Ireland national futsal team eight times, scoring three goals against England, Scotland and Gibraltar. Now past his peak, Ryan prefers to mix weightlifting with running – he achieved a marathon PB of 3:31:49 at Manchester in April 2025, but credits the heat for failing to get below the coveted 3:30 mark…
You can follow Ryan on Instagram or on X
Fitness
Lawlor: It’s a fitness exercise, but there were lots of positives – Fleetwood Town Football Club
Skip to content
The latest NHS exercise guidance reinforces what we’ve been preaching for years: hitting that 150-minute weekly movement target isn’t necessarily a get-out-of-jail-free card. It states that prolonged sedentary time is independently harmful, even for those of us who diligently carve out time for the gym. Verbatim, it says ‘prolonged sitting is harmful, even in people who achieve the recommended levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity’.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty has been especially vocal about how detrimental it could be, highlighting hybrid working as a potential health hazard. ‘Without wanting to exaggerate, I think it’s important people think through, for example, hybrid working means quite a lot of people could very easily do very little other than leave their homes, where previously people would be routinely going to work, and that often meant at least some physical [activity],’ he said at a briefing.
I understand his logic, but it’s pretty reductive. Working from home isn’t the villain here – working from one chair is.
When we label remote work as “bad for your health”, we risk throwing the baby out with the bath water. In reality, for many – certainly the whole of the Women’s Health office, but also my less-fitness-conscious sister and stepdad, plus my entire friendship group – working from home often means being more active. It means more time to fit in a lunchtime run, to get some steps in before work, or to run some errands on a quick break.
On the other hand, plenty of office workers are more sedentary than they are at home. They sit at a desk for nine hours straight before driving home, whether to be seen to work tirelessly in front of their manager, or simply because they’re pulled from pillar to post in an office setting. For those who do have an office commute, eliminating that often stressful period of the day allows for better sleep, and more time for the movement breaks we need to break up the dreaded sedentary time. Not to mention that many commutes are almost entirely sedentary on a train/tube/bus.
The potential problem, the advice suggests, is the lack of incidental movement – the walk to the train, the stroll to a meeting room, or heading out for lunch – that’s naturally baked into your day when you’re in the “official” office. Without a commute or a day in the office, the onus is on you to manufacture movement in.
Regular stretching counts as a movement break
Without sounding evangelical, I’ve made this a non-negotiable part of my day. On WFH days, I work out or walk every single morning before I log on, and walk again every evening, even if just a lap around the block. During the day, I have a personal rule: if I’m downstairs, I use the upstairs toilet (and vice versa). Sounds excessive, but it forces me to activate my muscles and add to my step count every few hours.
Beyond that, the options are endless if you’re intentional. Use a standing desk or put your laptop on a kitchen worktop during calls. Take every phone meeting on foot, pacing your hallway if necessary. Set a timer to stand up every 30 mins to stretch, grab a glass of water, or do a quick load of laundry.
We don’t need to return to the office to be healthy; we need to bring movement back into our homes. The goal: to stop being professional sitters.
As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.
After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!
Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.
She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.
-
Dallas, TX2 minutes agoDallas weather: Widespread thunderstorms bring flash flood risks and brief heat relief
-
Miami, FL5 minutes agoWhy I’m Not Worried About Giannis in Miami
-
Boston, MA10 minutes agoGallery: Tall ships display their splendor at Sail Boston
-
Seattle, WA15 minutes agoSeattle Weather: Cooler Sunday to close out weekend
-
Denver, CO17 minutes agoColorado Court of Appeals reverses sanction against Denver DA for pattern of discovery violations
-
San Diego, CA25 minutes agoRecord campaign cash was spent in San Diego’s City Council primaries. Did it pay off?
-
Milwaukee, WI32 minutes agoMilwaukee Brewers vs Pittsburgh Pirates Live Stream: How to Watch MLB
-
Atlanta, GA35 minutes agoFire’s hot shooting leads to 102-92 win over Dream with Angel Reese injured
