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Are tempo runs necessary for 5K training?

Train your speed endurance by working on short intervals with short active rest

Tempo runs are useful to increase your endurance and stamina, but are they necessary for someone training for a 5K? The point of a tempo run is to improve your ability to sustain a harder race pace for a longer period. But how much endurance do you need for a 5K race?

Photo: Inge Johnson CRS.

Using tempo runs for building distance and endurance is still important, but you can also build endurance on comfortable easy runs mixed in with high-repetition interval training. Celebrated running coach Jack Daniels notes in Running Formula: Volume II that 5K runners need to train their anaerobic level to achieve a personal best. There are two kilometres in a 5K that are important; the first kilometre and last kilometre. You can’t achieve your goal in the first kilometre of the race, but you can certainly lose it.

Can you race a 10K with no training?

The approach is to learn and train to get out at your goal pace, and focusing on interval training will not only build up your comfort level at the start of the race but help shift into your top anaerobic gear in the last kilometre. 

An interval workout every runner should do

A key workout for determining your 5K potential is being able to do five times one kilometre with one-minute rest. The idea with interval training is to keep the effort hard and the rest short. Runners can use tempo pace on intervals early in their training plan to gain aerobic fitness, but the pace isn’t as useful as you think in improving your 5K time.

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