Threshold Intervals, a form of Lactate Threshold, LT2, or Anaerobic Threshold is training at the point during exercise where the body produces lactate faster than it can remove it, indicating a shift towards anaerobic metabolism. Training near, at, or just above this threshold can improve endurance and aerobic capacity by pushing the body's ability to tolerate and clear lactate, delaying fatigue, and enhancing overall aerobic performance. For most people, this can be associated with the effort you could run for 60 minutes.
If I had to pick one session to do week after week, it would be some form of threshold training. While it's not always the most specific type of training, its roots in producing superior physiology cannot be discounted.
The truth is that if your relative speed at your threshold is high, you have the potential to run faster for anything from the mile to the marathon.
Threshold training gives you the ability to fight fatigue and sustain faster speeds. At every distance we distance runners face, it comes down to how aerobically proficient are we. Threshold training helps support this proficiency.
That sounds like a magic formula, right?
In some cases, it is.
I've always considered myself a "strength" based runner. What I mean by this is that I've benefited most by improving via mileage, traditional tempo runs, or threshold intervals. Speed is always a factor, but my biggest leaps in training have been from becoming an aerobic monster.
I'd argue that most runners benefit in the same manner, but certainly, some seem to be more receptive than others.
So, when I prescribe training, I'm always trying to push runners toward improving the strength side of the equation. Specific to our topic of threshold, I'm working on improving these threshold numbers all year long. This is the one range of effort that I never get out of touch with because of its importance.
Threshold training can be done in bulk. A proper session can accumulate of lot of volume, and yet, not require significant periods of recovery. Some athletes do two threshold sessions in a day, and some do upwards of 4 total sessions in a week!
The fact that the best runners in the world from a mile-marathon place such a huge emphasis on threshold should show you how critical it is to place this work within a given week.
The Purpose & Benefits
- Enhances cardiovascular endurance and aerobic capacity.
- Improves lactate tolerance and clearance.
- Increases the efficiency of energy production.
- Helps delay the onset of fatigue.
- Facilitates the transition between aerobic and anaerobic energy systems.
- Provides mental toughness and resilience training by pushing limits and enduring discomfort.
You see that the benefits are similar to some of our previous topics, but here we are more specifically targetting the range at which your body produces lactate and must work toward reabsorbing it and using it as energy versus flooding the system and eventually, being a contributing factor to being forced to slow down or stop running.
The better you can stay above water when running quickly, the better you will be able to sustain that pace.
How to Execute
Threshold training can be tough and it can be quite lengthy. A good session may have 20-60 minutes of running at Threshold effort (broken up). This doesn't count any warm-up, cool-down, or recovery periods.
However, while tough, it should rarely be a means for complete exhaustion.
Threshold is often referred to as sweet spot training. You feel like you're working hard, but it's never out of your control and you always feel as though you could crank out a rep or two more if you needed to. I like to tell people it's a 6-8/10 effort, This effort requires focus and respect but never comes to the point where it feels like you're fighting for it. A proper session should always be in your control early on, and if anything, get slightly squeezy toward the end.
A good reminder is that threshold is an effort (not always a pace) and there is a spectrum it lives on. This means that there can be varying degrees of pace and effort on any given day and both a lighter (slightly lower than threshold) and a stronger (at or slightly faster) threshold workout can be effective.
The point of threshold training is not to push as hard as you can, or even run the fastest pace, it's to train an integral part of your physiology that supports your aerobic development.
Suppose you consistently run your threshold work outside of the threshold range. In that case, you're running a completely different workout, and there's a very good chance that you are not encouraging your body to gain the proper adaptations initially intended.
You will also suffer by extending the necessary recovery time. Threshold training is mean't to allow you to stack a lot of work together. You should be able to repeat that session (or some form of threshold work) in 2 days and again in another 2 days if you had to. If you need many days to recover or you feel like you've been run over by a bus the day following a session, there's a high probability you did exactly what you weren't supposed to do.
The point of loading up on threshold work is to allow you to do as much work as possible, with the least amount of stress on your body. As a result, you can achieve a very high workload, and yet, recover like a beast and flip that training into fitness and performance.
Sometimes it's worthwhile to have a high demand/stress day, especially if it's specific to your event, but in my opinion, a higher frequency of "good" work is always going to trump one day of "great" work that requires you to take a full week to be ready to train effectively again.
Workout Examples
Context is everything, but to understand what a threshold workout may look like, here is a threshold workout (pace-based) based on a 3:30 marathoner with a threshold training zone of 7:20 to 7:40 minutes per mile.
15-20 x 1 minute at 7:20 pace w/ 45 seconds jog recovery - 15-20 min of total work at T
6-8 x 3 minutes at 7:25 pace w/ 60 seconds jog recovery - 18- 24 min of total work at T
4-6 x 5 minutes at 7:30 pace w/ 75 seconds jog recovery - 20 - 30 min of total work at T
3-5 x 8 minutes at 7:35 per mile w/ 90 seconds jog recovery - 24 - 40 min of total work at T
3-4 x 10 minutes at 7:40 per mile w/ 120 seconds jog recovery - 30 - 40 min of total work at T
These would be typical sessions I would assign for a 3:30 marathoner. I'd get a little fancier over the course of a long training block, but for our purposes here, this paints a good picture! As you see, the shorter reps are slightly quicker with shorter rest while the longer reps are slower with longer rest. These workouts represent a range of paces and bouts of work that will support and elevate one's threshold.
Conclusion
In conclusion, threshold training, centered around the lactate threshold, is a cornerstone for improving endurance and aerobic capacity in runners. By consistently training at or near this threshold, athletes can enhance their ability to tolerate and clear lactate, delay fatigue, and ultimately sustain faster speeds across various distances. Its importance is underscored by its ability to develop aerobic proficiency and resilience, making it a critical component in any training program.
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