this is just a question out of curiosity. what would be bad about not doing tempo and only speed work besides maybe lack of endurence? iv tried doing searchs but havent come up with anything. thanks
I’ve been thinking about the importance of tempo sessions, i think the main benefit is that they are active recovery, i.e. it will pump nutrient rich blood through the muslces, loosen the muscles, and generally aid in recovery but is this anything that massage can’t do?
The other benefits of tempo are aerobic/cardiovascular training, will improve capillerization in the muscles over time, and can be used to manage body weight/fat.
Tempo work will help you the most if you are doing many events in a day. You will be less tired from running 100m and be able to do a better 200 or pop off a decent TJ because of your lovely amount of tempo work. Don’t neglect it otherwise you will be only good for about 2 events. I have seen this with many of my buddy sprinters. They can do good 100, but their jumps and 200 are subpar in the begining of the season when they haven’t had much tempo done.
Tempo helps on so many more levels than just flushing through nutrients. It aids recovery by also increasing the capillary supply to the muscle allowing more oxygen, and nutrients to reach the muscle as well as clearing waste product faster, as well as increasing the efficency of the aerobic compontent of the muscle, which continues to break down pyruvate and converts lactate back into glycogen. Aerobic fittness has also been shown to improve neural efficiency and improve co-ordination. At a biomechanical level, if correct posture is used through out tempo work outs stabilizing muscles will be worked in a manner specific to a running action. Theres a reason all top sprinters perform tempo work at some point in their training.
You’d be leaving alot on the table if you ignore tempo.
Aerobic fittness has also been shown to improve neural efficiency
Do you mean lowering the electrical resistance and thus the firing threshold? Is there any direct evidence that supports this or is it all indirect?
Try a session of Electronic Muscle Stim. If you already have, you’ll know that the contractions get stronger after 2 or 3 reps of 10sec on 50 sec rest even though the settings have not changed (more effect from the same input due to more heat)
Yeah Charlie I didnt mean to sound negative in my previous post at all. I am familiar with all the real world reasoning you give and agree with it. But it is always nice to see scientific evidence to support real world results and theories - Especially when trying to explain things to people who will argue unless you can throw a multitude of studies at them 
I havn’t run across any scientific support for this theory- it’s just my take on it, at this point.
what research do you need…
If you’re talking to me- none. It’s just that I’m going a little farther than I prob should, trying to explain an observation rather than just making it.