Do “threshold repeats” to build your endurance and mental toughness.
The Great thing about running is that it is infinitely scalable. Your race goals and times never reach a ceiling. You always have the chance to improve.
But, you might reach a plateau that stunts your record. Is this your full potential as a runner? Is to your current PR going to be your lifetime PR?
What if I told you’re there is a sure fire way to improve your pacing for speed and endurance.
I once had the pleasure of coaching a talented runner, names Megan. Megan did not know how to pace. Every race she would go out and hammer too hard in the beginning and hold on to dear life. Her fitness was there, but she did not know how to sustain a race effort.
Enter Threshold Repeats.
Threshold repeats are long in duration. Each rep is 7-20 minutes of a sustainable effort. Think about something that you can hold for an entire hour. The legendary coach, Jack Daniels, calls this pace “comfortably hard.” Threshold workouts will have a shorter rest period of 60-90 seconds.
Megan added in “threshold” to her weekly workouts. She learned how to dial in her pace to sustain a hard effort. She stuck to her training and was able to drop her 10-mile race pace from 6:51 pace to 6:36.
Threshold workouts will improve your endurance, created higher lactic tolerance, teach optimal pacing, and build mental toughness.
Longer intervals to build a strong heart.
Your heart rate is a direct indicator of your effort. On race day, you tax your heart much longer than you would during training.
Your heart elevates when you working muscles need more oxygen. When you run too fast for a sustained effort, your heart rate will reach a “peak”. Your heart will no longer meet your energy demands and you will slow down. Your fitness level will reflect your ability to hold a hard effort.
MAX HR is one of many theories of fatigue. Nearing your maximum working heart rate is unsustainable. The oxygen-carrying red blood cells will fail to reach the muscle in need. Your mind will then send signals to shut things down.
A threshold run will elevate your heart rate to a sustainable level. You will then progress to train your heart to become efficient at the high work rate. The quick rest in a threshold workout will give your heart a quick break to avoid the “peak” or max HR.
To improve muscle strength, you need overload, recovery, and new stimulus. The heart is no exception. Train your heart how you would like your biceps by adding new elements and applying rest.
You will adapt if you will not promote adaptation. Add in threshold work to keep your training fresh.
Improving aerobic capacity through threshold workouts
Threshold workouts can also know as “lactic threshold”. During an interval, you walk a tightrope between the aerobic and anaerobic systems. When you reach anaerobic you will release lactate in your blood.
What is Lactate?
Lactate is “last ditch” fuel source for the body. When you run a fast pace, Think 5k or mile, you will exhaust your “aerobic” ( with oxygen) energy system. Your body can function without oxygen, called anaerobic, but only for short periods. Roughly 60-90 seconds. Working at a high rate for a long duration causes your body to releases lactate. Lactate byproduct mixed with H+ atoms creates a nasty reaction and burns like the dickens!
That feeling of kicking it home with battery acid in your legs and arms. Ya, that’s the lactate response.
A threshold interval will push your redline. During the intervals, you should never reach the lactate response, but you will come close. You will increase your capacity to run a faster pace.
Build mental toughness by running comfortable/hard.
The threshold pace is not “breakneck” fast, but it will push you. They are longer in duration, so you will have a lot of time to spend in your head. Here is where your metal growth will happen.
You will be face to face with a hard effort for several minutes which will give you a choice to push forward or to pack it up. Take this time to practice positive affirmations or you running mantra.
How to do a threshold workout
Find your threshold pace.
Take your most recent race results and plug them into a pace calculator like runsmart.com. You will have suggested paces, which are pretty freakin’ accurate in my experience. These calculators can be reliable and very helpful to determine fitness.
Remeber to keep rest short! 1 – 2 minutes max!
How many?
You can handle more threshold reps based on your volume. A good rule of thumb is 10 -12% of your total weekly amount in threshold.
So, If you are running 30 miles per week, you can run 3 miles at threshold pace.
EX) 4 x 1200 mile @ threhold pace
1 minute recovery
How often?
Do threshold workouts in a progression during your training. One threshold session a week for 4 weeks is extremely effective.
Where to do threshold.
Sustainability is essential for threshold intervals. Chose a route that is long and runnable. The track comes to mind, but these intervals are long, and the track is BORING! Try to find a running trail that has few intersections with main roads.
When?
The race distance will affect when you should do threshold work. For an athlete training for general fitness, I like to add threshold intervals after a cycle of fast interval training.
If you are running a race from 10k-10 mile (something that will take about an hour), then threshold become race specific. Use race specificity training in the last 5-6 weeks leading to race day. You will want to be familiar with your race day pace, which is also your threshold pace.
Threshold workouts will build your endurance. They are hard and ut it will help your pacing, mental toughness, and race performance.
Do “threshold” workouts during your next training phases and see how you improve. Shoot me a message with any questions about how to implement threshold into your program.
