By Teemu Virtanen

Quotes from Runner’s World

In our training related article series we have been putting focus on various training methods for long distance skiing and endurance sports in general. This week, we published two articles about endurance training; one about heart rate zones and another about LSD; long, short distance training. We now continue with pace or tempo training, which is a very important part of your training program if you are aiming for any kind of results or improving your performance level.

What is tempo training then? It is simply the effort level at which your body is able to clear as much lactate (a byproduct of burning carbohydrates) as it produces. Your body’s lactate clearance is at the same level as its lactate production, meaning the dreaded dead-leg or dead-arm sensation doesn’t set in.

The key difference between a race and a tempo pace is that when you are racing, going all out, your body bypasses this limit and fatigue kicks in quite rapidly. While in a tempo training, you can keep the same pace steadily for at least 20-30 minutes, and preferably much longer. It may not be that comfortable, but you are skiing or running slower than your normal race pace. If you train by heart rate this is the Zone 4, 85-90 % of your maximum heart rate. However, many Zone 3 workouts can often be placed in this category as well, particularly if your speed increases towards the end of your workout.

According to running coach Jack Daniels, Ph.D., “a tempo run—also known as an anaerobic threshold or lactate-threshold run—is a pace about 25 to 30 seconds per mile slower than your current 5K race pace.” For us Europeans who are more used to the good old metric system, that means about 15-20 seconds slower per kilometer. Keep in mind that Mr. Daniels talks about running, which doesn’t quite correlate to skiing, but his quote works as a good benchmark for skiers, too.

Why should we do tempo training and who really benefits from these types of workouts. Naturally, all long distance athletes need to do these exercises on a regular basis. Exercise physiologist and coach Pete Pfitzinger says that runners who aim to do well in distances longer than 15 K get the most benefit, and as we know in cross-country skiing most distances are longer than that.

“Athletes racing longer than 15 K benefit because the physiological adaptations are most specific to the demands of those races. An improvement in lactate threshold is only a small benefit for a 5K race, because it’s run well above lactate-threshold pace. In longer distances, however, your performance is determined primarily by your lactate-threshold pace. So, tempo runs provide a direct benefit in longer races for beginners and elites alike.”

Based on this quote and various studies about the matter, tempo training is extremely crucial for all Visma Ski Classics pro, elite and semi-competitive skiers. But it may not be that easy to figure out what kind of workouts you should do to get the best possible results.

Of course, the length, workload and pace of your tempo exercise depend on your performance level and overall capacity. Many pro skiers can even maintain a tempo pace from 60 to 90 minutes. Regardless the length of your tempo workout, you should always have warm-up and cool-off periods before the actual tempo training or you can start much slower first and speed up after about 20-30 minutes of skiing, running or roller-skiing.

If you are a beginner in the world of tempo training, you should start carefully. Naturally, to reach this level you must have done a lot of long, slow distance training, which we talked about on Monday’s article, and your base or aerobic foundation must be strong enough for this more demanding level. Many running websites recommend a typical 20-minute warm-up, 20-minute tempo training and 20-minute cool-off formula.

Here is a more detailed example of a good tempo workout for a “rookie”. You can do your warm-up for about 20 minutes, which means you go your normal LSD pace (long, slow distance), then start your tempo training with about 30 seconds per kilometer slower than your so-called race speed and go for about 10 minutes, the next 10 minutes you can go 25 seconds slower than your race pace and the final 10 about 20 seconds slower than your race pace. Basically, you increase your speed every 10 minutes, but only the last 10 minutes are done in the tempo training speed as defined above (a mix of Zone 3 & 4). If you feel that you have enough energy left at the end of the workout, you can go for a short period with your race pace or a little slower (Zone 4).

Another good tempo exercise example is what the experts call “cruise intervals”. Rather than focusing on a certain pace for a certain amount of time, cruise intervals are tempo runs, skiing or roller-skiing interspersed at regular intervals by 30 to 60-second rest periods. This pattern diminishes the psychological difficulty of the workout while preserving the aerobic benefits, allows greater volume and may help guard against excessive speed, which can lead to overuse injury or burnout.

For more experienced skiers I would recommend “tempo training with sprints or intervals”. This is a very hard workout but needed for raising your performance level in ski racing. Basically, you do your regular tempo training and add some short sprints or longer intervals; for example, a 60-minute tempo workout where you have several three to five minute intervals or sprints that are shorter than 60 seconds.

Finally, how often should you do tempo training? That is a good question and once again, it depends on your performance level and capacity. But a useful rule of thumb is to do a tempo workout at least once a week and twice is even better, but your aerobic base needs to be strong enough for tempo training.

Also, you should remember that you need sufficient recovery from these trainings and never do these if you feel tired or out of sorts. And for a beginner, you need to do tempo training for some time before you can start implementing Zone 5 workouts. When you reach a level where tempo training is not too taxing for you anymore, you can move on to the hardest kind of training; intervals and race pace training to raise your Vo2max level.