Warmup
- 10 minutes easy jogging
- 4 x 100m strides at half-marathon effort, walk back recovery
- Dynamic drills: A-skips, B-skips, lateral shuffles
Main Set
4 x 2000m at threshold effort with 60 seconds easy jog between reps.
- Threshold effort means comfortably hard. You can speak a short sentence but wouldn’t want to hold a conversation. Think half-marathon race pace for most runners, or roughly 25 to 30 seconds per mile slower than 5K pace.
- Lap splits should be even or slightly negative (second half of each rep the same speed or a touch faster than the first half).
- 60 seconds recovery between reps — short enough that you don’t fully recover, which is the point.
Cooldown
- 10 to 15 minutes easy jogging
- Static stretching as needed
Coach’s Notes
Threshold work is about teaching your body to clear lactate at a steady pace. The key is consistency, not heroics. If rep 1 is dramatically faster than rep 4, you started too hot.
Use the watch for feedback but run by feel first. Threshold should feel like a pace you could hold for 40 to 60 minutes in a race. On the track it feels controlled because you know a break is coming.
Stay relaxed in the shoulders. When you feel tension creeping up, drop your arms and shake them out for a few strides.
Scaling
Newer runners: Run 4 x 1000m at the same effort with 90 seconds recovery. The pace will feel the same — you just accumulate less volume while you build fitness.
Advanced runners: Extend to 5 x 2000m or shift to 3 x 3000m at the same effort. Keep the recovery at 60 seconds either way.