A tempo run you say. Do I require music for this? Should I be trying to run at a similar tempo to the tunes blasting out from my iPod? And would Aerosmith, Arctic Monkeys or the latest musings of Britney Spears be the most suitable? (all embarrassingly artistst on regular rotation on my nano).

Thank goodness for the likes of Google and Wikipedia for saving me from the embarrassment of attempting a jog-dance hybrid through the bussier-than-usual streets of Wimbledon last night (yes the tennis set – and match – has decended).

I’ve learnt that a tempo run, in lazy girl terms, means running a bit faster than you’d ideally like. It can also, confusingly be referred to as a ‘threshold run’ or even ‘lactate threshold run’. The theory behind them is that they train you to run faster in races by… well… making you run faster in training. Bonkers!

Obviously there’s a lot more science to it than that but that’s far too confusing for me to attempt to explain. All I know is that they’ve been hailed by many who understand all the sciencey bits as one of the most important training runs you can do.

Last night my training plan called for:

“Tempo Run, 5 miles, including warm-up, 3 miles @9:22, cool-down”.

Which translates to “run for a mile as slow as you like, then run for 3 miles at a speed of 9.22 minutes per mile, and then run for another mile as slow as you like”.

These figures were all magically calculated for me by the Runners’ World Smart Coach as part of my training plan. I definitely felt like I was pushing myself but managed to get to the end of the faster 3-mile bit. And that, apparently, is the key – tempo runs should feel “comfortably hard”… and that means you should feel “comfortably smug” that you’ve completed it.