What pace is a tempo run?

Roughly your one hour race pace, which for most runners is close to half marathon pace and a little slower than 10K pace. It should feel comfortably hard and controlled.

How long should a tempo run be?

20 to 40 minutes of threshold running per session. Beginners start at 15 to 20; the upper end is for experienced runners and is usually broken into intervals.

How often should I do threshold work?

Once a week through most of a block, occasionally twice for half marathon specialists. It is the session to keep when you have to drop something.

Is threshold the same as lactate threshold?

Close enough for training purposes. Physiologists distinguish several thresholds and testing protocols disagree with each other. The training intensity that matters is the one you can hold for about an hour, and that is reachable from a race result without a lab.

Guide

Threshold running, properly

If you could only do one type of hard session, it should be this one. Threshold running raises the pace you can sustain, which is the thing that actually determines your race times from 10K to the marathon.

What threshold means

Threshold pace is roughly the fastest pace you could hold for about an hour in a race. For most trained runners that is close to their 10 mile to half marathon race pace, and it corresponds to the point where lactate begins to accumulate faster than it can be cleared.

Training at or just under that point raises it. The practical effect is that every pace below your threshold becomes more comfortable, which is why threshold work improves your 10K, your half and your marathon simultaneously.

Tempo and threshold are not quite the same thing

The words get used interchangeably and it causes real confusion. In common usage, a tempo run is a continuous sustained effort, usually 20 to 40 minutes, at roughly threshold pace. Threshold describes the physiological intensity, which can be delivered continuously or broken into intervals.

The distinction matters because broken threshold, sometimes called cruise intervals, lets you accumulate more time at the intensity than a continuous run allows. 4 x 8 minutes with 90 seconds jog is 32 minutes at threshold; most runners cannot hold 32 minutes continuously at the same pace.

The sessions

Total threshold volume in a session usually lands between 20 and 40 minutes. Beyond about 40 the returns fall off and the recovery cost climbs.

Continuous tempo. 20 to 30 minutes at threshold pace, with a proper warm-up and cool-down either side. The simplest version and the one to start with.
Cruise intervals. 4 x 8 minutes, 3 x 10 minutes, or 5 x 6 minutes, with 60 to 90 seconds easy jog between. The recovery is deliberately short: it is there to let you accumulate volume, not to let you recover fully.
Progression run. 8 miles easy building to the last 3 at threshold. Teaches you to hold pace on tired legs, which is exactly the marathon skill.
Threshold inside a long run. 14 miles with 2 x 15 minutes at threshold in the middle. Advanced, effective, and expensive in recovery. Once every two or three weeks at most.

Roughly where threshold sits

Approximate threshold paces by 5K time. These are close enough to train from; a VDOT calculation off a recent race is more precise.

5K time	Threshold pace / mile	Threshold pace / km
18:00	6:16	3:54
20:00	6:53	4:17
22:00	7:31	4:40
25:00	8:29	5:16
28:00	9:26	5:52
31:00	10:24	6:28

Frequently asked

What pace is a tempo run?: Roughly your one hour race pace, which for most runners is close to half marathon pace and a little slower than 10K pace. It should feel comfortably hard and controlled.
How long should a tempo run be?: 20 to 40 minutes of threshold running per session. Beginners start at 15 to 20; the upper end is for experienced runners and is usually broken into intervals.
How often should I do threshold work?: Once a week through most of a block, occasionally twice for half marathon specialists. It is the session to keep when you have to drop something.
Is threshold the same as lactate threshold?: Close enough for training purposes. Physiologists distinguish several thresholds and testing protocols disagree with each other. The training intensity that matters is the one you can hold for about an hour, and that is reachable from a race result without a lab.

Stop reading. Start training.

This is the theory. Shed is the schedule.

Knowing what a threshold run is for does not tell you which Tuesday to run one, or how fast, or what to do when you miss it. Shed writes every session of your race block and adjusts it as you train. Ask it where a number came from and it will tell you.

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