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AnswersWhat is threshold pace?
Threshold pace is roughly the fastest pace you could hold for about an hour in a race — hard, but controlled. Physiologically it sits near the point where lactate starts accumulating faster than the body clears it. It is one of the most productive paces to train at: for a runner with a 25-minute 5 km it is about 5:22 per kilometre, typically done in repeats of eight to twenty minutes.
Threshold pace by 5 km time
| Current fitness | Threshold pace |
|---|---|
| 5 km in 35:00 | 7:23/km |
| 5 km in 30:00 | 6:23/km |
| 5 km in 27:00 | 5:47/km |
| 5 km in 25:00 | 5:22/km |
| 5 km in 22:00 | 4:45/km |
| 5 km in 20:00 | 4:21/km |
| 5 km in 18:00 | 3:56/km |
How it is trained
Most threshold work comes in repeats with short recoveries — two or three blocks of eight to ten minutes, with two and a half minutes of easy jogging between. The recoveries let you accumulate more time at threshold than one continuous effort would, at a lower recovery cost.
The effort should feel comfortably hard: you could say a few words, not hold a conversation. Running threshold sessions faster than prescribed turns them into something closer to a race, which costs more recovery and builds less. As with easy runs, the discipline is in not running them too fast.
Threshold at altitude, and how it moves
At altitude, threshold pace slows with everything else — in Johannesburg the plan sets it roughly 8% slower than the same effort at the coast. Threshold heart rate does not change much, which is why heart rate is a useful check on the first sessions after travelling up.
Threshold improves faster than most other markers with consistent training. That is part of why the paces in a plan should be updated from a fresh time trial every six to eight weeks; running last season's threshold is running an easy session hard.
Common questions
Is threshold the same as tempo?
The terms overlap and are used loosely. In Race Shape, threshold means the hard-but-controlled hour pace; tempo is a notch easier.
How often should I do threshold runs?
Once a week in most phases, sometimes twice in a build for experienced runners.
What is threshold heart rate?
The heart rate at that effort — roughly your average over the last 20 minutes of a hard 30-minute solo run.
Sources
- Daniels, J. Daniels' Running Formula.