I have used jump rope as part of a tempo day and felt I got better work done jumping with no shoes. Any significance to this? Maybe its just the angles? Any thoughts?
TIMEOUT FOR A SECOND!
Each time I looked at the name of this thread I thought something seemed wrong! I finally figured it out!! No disrespect mj but jump roping doesnt make any sense!! shouldnt it be JUMPING ROPE!?
haha thats funny. i would never have caught that. i have heard people refer to it as both actually…:sing:
I would start with 3 sets x 1 minute with fast double foot contacts when starting. Add a set everything third workout 
When I jump (not very often) I like to do it as sets of 25 - 50 doubles. Doubles are when you jump up and the rope passes under you two times. This forces you to generate significant forces (to get high enough so the rope can go under twice) in a short amount of time (since the rope will get caught on your feet if you stay on the ground too long.)
This is probably a bit too intense for tempo, so it may be a good GPP exercise or for variety, but its not a mainstay of my program.
You can also experiment with different foot movement patterns, such as slalom (hopping side-to-side), scissor (alternating the forward foot), single-leg hops, and forward-back-left-right patterns. This will help break the monotony and might prevent overuse injuries associated with repeating the same movement pattern.
I like jumping rope and I used to do 6x3min. with 1 min rest, keeping a pace of 120-150 rpm. Technnique is key - I got to the point where I could do the workout above without ever breathing through my mouth. I might think about reintroducing it to my program in low volumes.