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Training Guide: Foundational Tempo Runs

Writer's picture: Dylan BellesDylan Belles

Updated: Jan 23

Foundational Tempo Runs, also known as Fundamental Tempos, Steady-States, or Aerobic threshold runs, are a core component of training for just about any endurance distance - especially for the marathon. There are a lot of different names for it, but for the most part, it's the same (or close to it).


I prefer the term Foundational Tempo because I believe these efforts serve to lay the "foundation" for more strenuous work to come. These runs help improve your overall aerobic capacity, clear lactate accumulated in the blood, improve fat utilization and spare glycogen usage and provide mechanical stress to your system that doesn't have a substantial cost as would long marathon or threshold-based tempo runs. Improving on any of these areas net a positive effect on your performance, so why not get em all.


I use 3 layers of Foundational Tempo paces. I call them Foundational Tempo 1, 2, and 3.


Foundational Tempo 1 - is 80% of Marathon Pace or Effort

Foundational Tempo 2 - is 85% of Marathon Pace or Effort

Foundational Tempo 3 - is 90% of Marathon Pace or effort


If you're familiar with Coach Renato Canova, the intention and paces of these tempo runs aren't too different from what he prescribes to his athletes. I'm acknowledging this because my goal isn't to rewrite or reinvent the training philosophy, but rather, to apply and teach it helpfully and understandably for everyone.


There's much to learn from some of the best to do it!


When I have the time to build up an athlete to prepare for a marathon, Foundational Tempos play a huge role early in the process.


For many, 80% of Marathon Pace is a piece of cake. A lot of runners run this pace every day. In some cases, I would say that's fitting, but in others, it can be problematic. What's important is that you're not running these paces every day - constantly running a pace between easy and hard. In time this can cause stunting of performance gains and lead to injuries due to inadequate recovery period between key sessions.


85% and 90% of marathon pace require more focus and effort. If you've been training for a while, you usually won't run out of bed at this pace.


How do we apply these sessions?


In an ideal scenario, given minimal time constraints, you would build these sessions in your long runs, nearly every week for 8-10 weeks. Nate Jenkins does a phenomenal job providing a progression example in this blog post and I would mostly agree with this. I will add that this progression is extreme and tailored toward runners like himself who were putting in mega miles (140+ miles per week) and training like an animal for a decade plus. I'll add though that even if you haven't run 2:15 (pre super shoes) for the marathon, you can apply this strategy to help elevate your marathon-specific pace-work that you will do during the last 2-4 months of training.


For fun, I'll provide a hypothetical breakdown. Do note that when I do a tempo of this nature, I will usually have easy miles booking these days, so the numbers listed here are more focused on the middle (faster) part.


Week 1 - 90 minutes at FT1

Week 2- 60 minutes at FT2

Week 3 - 75 minutes FT2

Week 4 - 90 minutes at FT2

Week 5 - 105 minutes at FT3

Week 6 - Easy

Week 7 - 60 minutes FT3

Week 8 -  75 minutes FT3

Week 9 - 90 minutes at FT3

Week 10 - 105 minutes at FT3


During these 10 weeks, you should still be doing a healthy variety of other sessions to elevate your training.


While this seems overly specific and dialed in, most runners I coach naturally run close to these zones without instruction. When you're preparing for a marathon and gradually increasing your long runs, it's not uncommon for those runs to feel better and get faster (and/or longer) each week.


The last part I will add is that during your marathon training cycle, it's good to include or revisit long Foundational Tempo days from time to time. During marathon training, you won't always do straight marathon tempo runs (or I'd argue you shouldn't).


One of the ways I love to do marathon-specific work is to break it up into chunks (like 2, 3, or 4-mile reps) with a period of recovery between .5 mile and 1 mile. When you're really strong, you can do your recovery period at FT2 or FT3 pace. I've always known I'm in a strong spot when my recovery speed increases.


Why not go straight tempos for the marathon? You can and you should, but not all the time as those big days can take a lot out of the body and have a much greater recovery cost. I prefer to do roughly the same amount of total work but include recovery breaks so that you never end up tying up or turning a training day into a race. I've seen too many runners lose their race in training while trying to run too many straight marathon tempos. Breaking the session up and including a Foundational Tempo pace between helps you target the specificties of the distance, but helps prevent you from overrunning your marathon pace.


The other way you include these runs during the height of your prep is to throw in a long run at FT2 or 3 every few weeks. Because you can get more volume at this speed without breaking down, but still tax your metabolic and muscular system, and in reality, it's not too far off marathon pace, and the benefits are pretty darn close, it's worthwhile putting up to 20-24 miles at this pace just to get that high-end effort that won't have an insane recovery cost to it.


Conclusion


Foundational Tempo Runs, play a crucial role in marathon training, laying the groundwork for the heavy-hitting weeks leading into race day. By progressively incorporating three layers of Foundational Tempos, you can improve your aerobic capacity, lactate clearance rate, fat utilization, and glycogen-sparing abilities.


And if you're one of my athletes, you now have a better idea of what the heck a Foundational Tempo is!







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