Understanding Training Paces

There are so many different ways to approach running, training for a race, getting faster, being more efficient in how you run. And the more I’ve learned about these things, the more I realize running has its own language that needs to be understood before any specific workout can be applied and executed well.

By knowing how to use different paces, you can make sure that each workout has a purpose. It does no good to run really hard and run really far just for the sake of it. This will leave you feeling constantly tired and disappointed on race day when you don’t perform as well as expected.

Let’s break down some paces.

Easy Pace

This is your base pace. Think about it as a 3/10 in terms of effort. You should be able to hold a comfortable conversation with someone without being out of breath. Use this effort during short base runs, long steady runs, or as recovery between intervals during a workout. Pace can be anywhere from 2-4 minutes slower than your 5k PR pace. A large portion (70-80%) of time spent running should be done at this effort. It helps build a degree of resistance to injury by allowing your body to adapt to stress at low loads. Your actual pace for this effort can vary +/- 15 seconds on any given day depending on factors such as outside temperature, sleep duration/quality the night before, pre run hydration, and training status. When it comes to footwear, use your daily trainers here. Don’t break out the carbon plated super shoe if you’ll be doing an easy run. Save those shoes exclusively for race type workouts and race day. 

Marathon Pace

Simply put - your marathon pace. This is going to be a 5/10 effort and 1-2 minutes faster than your easy pace. It can be incorporated during long runs or tempo workouts. You get the physiological benefit of experiencing what marathon pace will feel like and can practice drinking water/taking in nutrition via gels or gummies. There is also the psychological benefit giving you confidence in your ability to hold marathon pace for an upcoming race. 

Threshold

Comfortably hard - a pace you could manage well for 20-30 minutes at a time during a workout and is your 60 minute race pace (somewhere between 10k and half marathon pace). This is your 6-7/10 effort. Using this pace improves your body’s ability to clear blood lactate and teaches you how to deal with a more demanding pace. It is the most bang-for-your-buck effort when used correctly because of its versatility and effect on the body. There are two main ways to incorporate it into training: tempo runs and cruise intervals. Tempo run - steady run at threshold pace lasting about 20 minutes with warmup miles before and easy miles after. Cruise Intervals - series of runs 5-15 min at threshold pace with 1-3 min recovery jog between. It’s not “hard” yet, but you’ll be relieved when you're finished with a set during a workout. 

Interval

Definitions can vary on how to explain intervals. Technically an interval is anything where you go faster for a certain amount of time with rest periods or easy efforts in between. But when talking about it for the sake of utilizing another type of effort, think of it as your 8/10 effort or 5k race pace. It maximizes aerobic power and results in you being at or close to your VO2 max. It takes about a minute and a half to 3 minutes to build up to VO2 max from complete recovery. In a workout, intervals can be 3-5 minutes with recovery periods lasting about the same amount of time. For example, if you are doing 800m repeats at 3 minutes each (~6:00/mi), you would then jog for about 3 minutes before going into the next set. This is great for sustaining near top end speeds for a few minutes. Make sure to focus on quick foot turnover and good form. Don’t get sloppy and compromise your form. If you do, this will carry over into racing and could result in injury, losing a few seconds on your finishing time, or both. 

Repetition

Again, kind of a vague sounding term, but it’s important to have some terminology when talking about this pace. It is used to enhance anaerobic power, boost speed, and improve running efficiency. Your effort will be HIGH around 1 mile PR pace or faster. This is your 9/10 effort - you will be running very close to your max speed, but not an all out sprint. Recovery between hard efforts is extremely important. Without proper rest periods, running form and economy will be negatively impacted. The goal is not to prove you can keep up the pace while in a state of exhaustion. If you try to do that, your performance will get worse with each subsequent repetition. Working sets will last 30 seconds to no more than 2 minutes with recovery periods 2-3 times as long (time, not distance). So, if you do 400 meters in 1:15 (~5:00/mi), you should rest 2-3 minutes before starting the next round. 

How do you know when to use these paces in training? It depends on, well, a lot of things. What distance race do you have coming up? Where are you at in your training cycle? What’s your experience with training at these efforts? Are you dealing with any injuries at the moment? Do you have access to a track, treadmill, or flat road route? This is where coaching can come in. A good coach will be able to talk to you about all those questions and create a program that strategically implements each of these paces as needed to get you ready for any race. Don’t just train harder, train smarter. 

Example Workouts

Marathon

• 15 min warmup + 45 min MP + 15 min CD

• 2 mile warmup +3x (1 mile MP, 0.5 mile easy) + 2 mile CD

Threshold

• 15 min warmup + 20 min TP + 15 min CD

• 2 mile warmup +5x (1k TP, 200m recovery jog) +2 mile CD

Interval

• 20 min warmup +4x (3 min IP, 3 min recovery jog) + 20 min CD

• 2 mile warmup +6x (800m IP, 400 m recovery jog) + 2 mile CD

Repetition

• 20 min warmup +8x (1 min RP, 3 min recovery jog) +15 min CD

• 2 mile warmup +6x (400m RP, 400m recovery jog) + 2 mile CD