What is threshold pace, and how do you find yours?
Threshold pace is roughly the fastest pace you could race for an hour — comfortably hard, controlled, and the anchor for tempo and cruise-interval sessions.
Threshold pace corresponds to LT2, the intensity where lactate accumulation accelerates. In practice it lands close to the pace you could hold in a one-hour race, which for most runners falls between 10 km and half-marathon pace. It should feel comfortably hard: you can speak a short sentence, not a paragraph, and you finish a correctly-run tempo believing you could have gone a little further.
The most reliable way to find it is from a recent race. A 10 km time, or a half-marathon time, pins threshold pace far more accurately than heart-rate zones or perceived effort, both of which drift with heat, fatigue and caffeine. Race-equivalence models such as Riegel convert between distances so a single recent result gives you the whole pace table.
The classic error is running threshold work too fast. Threshold pace is not race pace for 5 km, and turning a tempo into a time trial buys extra fatigue without extra adaptation — the point of the session is to accumulate volume at a specific lactate concentration, and overshooting the pace ends the session early.
How much to do: total threshold work of roughly 20–40 minutes per session is the standard window, either as one continuous block or broken into cruise intervals with short jogs.
Key numbers
| Effort | ~1-hour race pace | comfortably hard |
|---|---|---|
| Session volume | 20–40 min | of threshold work |
| Heart rate | ~80–88% HRR | LT2 band |
Work it out for yourself
Workout generator — Generate a threshold session scaled to your own race times.
Frequently asked questions
Is threshold pace the same as tempo pace?
In most modern usage, yes. Older literature sometimes uses "tempo" for marathon-pace running, which is why the terms get muddled. When a session says tempo here, it means threshold.
How often should I run threshold sessions?
Once a week is standard through a marathon build, occasionally twice in a heavy build phase for experienced runners. More than that usually crowds out the easy volume that makes threshold work possible in the first place.
Sources
- Daniels (2014). Daniels' Running Formula, 3rd edition.
- Seiler (2010). What is best practice for training intensity and duration distribution in endurance athletes? International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance.
Related explainers
Glossary: LT2 (Lactate Threshold 2)