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The term Threshold comes from the world of exercise physiology. If you run at a pace above your Threshold Pace, your blood lactate levels and breathing rate increase at a much faster rate compared to a speed only slightly slower. And these increases correlate with a much more rapid onset of fatigue. The physiology terms are Lactate Threshold & Lactate Turnpoint and Ventilatory Threshold if you want to google it.

Running at your Threshold provides a significant training stimulus for your endurance development. While, at the same time, minimizing the mechanical stress on your body because you don’t need to run as fast as 5k-pace or Mile-pace to get the intended training effect.

Plus, you can hold threshold pace (or just below) for a long time to stretch your stamina. You practice becoming comfortable, even to crave, the discomforts of running for extended durations – a crucial characteristic of the success of any distance runner.

In this post, I present two types of Threshold workouts: Tempo Runs and Cruise Intervals.

The workout list below is NOT a training program. Check out the post on Five-Pace Training to learn how to integrate these Threshold pace workouts into a complete program. The Five-Pace Training model includes workouts at paces anchored to standard race distances spread over two- or three-week training cycles. The post on Choosing Workouts will also be helpful when selecting your training sessions.

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