Most Runners Guess Threshold – It’s Why They’re Stuck (Threshold Masterclass)

[00:00:00] I went into a sports testing lab expecting good news. I got a wake up call instead. My zone two was elite. My VO two max was strong, but my threshold, it was surprisingly very narrow, a very small window. The tester said You got the engine, but you never taught it how to race. And I’ve been skipping the one zone that connects base training to race pace, and wondered why my best times stopped getting.

[00:00:22] Better. Here’s what we’re gonna cover in this masterclass toolkit of sorts. What threshold actually is a simple breakdown without the textbook overwhelm. Why zone two builds the engine, but threshold teaches you how to push it harder. The five common mistakes everyone makes with Temple Runs and threshold sessions.

[00:00:37] How to test yourself four different ways, including one that’s free and extremely accurate and a free. Eight week improve your threshold and training plan bundle to help you find and train your actual threshold. Yes, it’s all free. This is a masterclass toolkit, but think of it more like a Wikipedia for you.

[00:00:56] Jump to whatever sections you want by going to the timestamps. In the episode description or the show notes, if you’re listening on the podcast player app, I’m Daren D Lake certified run coach, and lifelong self experimenter. For the last almost 30 years, I’ve been testing learning from all the experts and researching and breaking down the science so that I can show a hundred thousand others self-coach runners just like you, how to stop guessing and start training threshold like a skill and not a feeling.

[00:01:21] And help you run your best time. Let’s get into the first part. What threshold actually is, what is lactate threshold? So you’ve heard it, everyone’s heard it. Lactate threshold is the point where your body starts producing more lactate than it can clear. Think of it like snow falling on a slightly warm ground.

[00:01:40] A few flakes that fall they melt ’cause the ground is kind of warm. Too many, too fast they start piling up. Threshold is that tipping point where effort is still sustainable, but is saying what up to the edge of all that effort. Now, here’s four run science facts about threshold and in particular lactate that I just found out in the last few years.

[00:02:00] Number one, lactate isn’t bad. It’s actually a fuel source for distance runners. Even when you’re sitting or walking, there’s some lactate circulating in your blood. The problem isn’t lactate itself. It’s what happens when you produce more than you can handle than your body can handle. Number two, the burn you feel when things get hard on a fast run or workout, and your heart rate is maxing out, isn’t lactate, it’s actually hydrogen ions.

[00:02:22] The byproduct of lactate when you have too much in your blood and you aren’t able to use the lactate for fuel. Number three, for decades, people called it lactic acid, but that’s old school. It’s called lactate. They’re the same thing. Interchangeable people mean the same thing. You might see literature, some people still say lactate acid, but the cool part about lactate is that we can train our bodies to tolerate more of it longer.

[00:02:44] Number four, this is more on me and kind of hilarious. Uh, silly, silly old Daren. Blood lactate has nothing to do with lactating mammal. Lactose milk. While there is a linguistic connection, since both terms come from the Latin word lac, LAC, meaning milk, blood, lactate and lactation slash milk are physiologically unrelated processes.

[00:03:02] I seriously thought back in the early two thousands when all my track friends were talking about lactate, that there was a milky product in your muscles. Some. Thing floating around and bones causing you to stop ’cause it hurts so much. I’m sure I can’t be the only one that thought about this. So now we know what threshold and lactate is and why it matters, but what’s actually happening in your body when you train in your threshold zone?

[00:03:23] What happens when you train at threshold? When you train right around your threshold, your body gets better at. Clearing lactate, processing fuel, a k, A, the food you’ve eaten into energy, running fast without falling apart, and a whole bunch of other things. But those are the three major things we’ll focus on today.

[00:03:39] You’re basically teaching your system to take out the trash faster so you can stay in that sweet spot longer. But here’s another wild part. No one tells you threshold. It isn’t a magic pace, it’s a skill, and just like any skill, it responds best to consistency and repeatable practice, which brings us to testing.

[00:03:57] How to train your threshold and first, how to find it. You don’t need a lab or a blood lactate meter. Those things are kind of expensive to find your threshold, and they’re also hard to do on your own. You need someone to help you with it. So to fix all that, I put together a free download, which is a sub threshold training plan, eight weeks bundle that helps you run a dead simple field test to estimate your threshold.

[00:04:17] Two. You can download it at the QR code right here. Below in the video description or the link in the show notes if you’re listening to this as audio podcast only, and as a bonus gift, it comes with my five minute weekly newsletter, so you can read it in five minutes or less. Smart Tips on VO two Max Long Run Strides Mental Fitness, and all the small stuff that makes the big difference.

[00:04:36] 1% better, 1% better. Okay, so Threshold is valuable and trainable. But how does it actually interact with all your other zones? Why threshold sits at the center of your training? Think of threshold, like a fulcrum in your training system, and if you don’t know what that is, that’s the balancing point that a lever pivots on.

[00:04:54] We’re going back to physics. Here’s a bit more physics and a fun analogy that I love. So zone two is like pushing a sled slow and heavy and build strength over time. And it’s relatively safe pushing us. VO two max is like pulling a resistance band. It’s high tension, snappy, risky, but powerful. Running at Threshold is the bridge between them.

[00:05:14] It holds your system together so you don’t snap or stall and you can do it for decent while. Alright, so you know what threshold is, how it works and why it matters, but how do you actually use all this information in your own training? Three ways to train threshold. So let’s talk about the three key ways to effectively use threshold training in your running.

[00:05:33] Number one, progressive long runs. Start your long runs easy, then gradually increase pace until you’re at threshold for the final 15 to 20 minutes. Again, this is a certain heart rate. You’ve done a test and you know where your lactate threshold is via heart rate or between your current marathon and half marathon fitness pace.

[00:05:50] Current, not goal. Remember that it’s where you’re at. This teaches your body to handle fatigue while maintaining form and run economy. So to get that exact pace, you can either use a VDOT calculator, which I did a episode on here, or you can use a previous test and plug that in, et cetera, or other workouts.

[00:06:05] I’ll, I’ll get to that in a second. Number two. Way to do it. Tempo intervals. This is my personal favorite because I’m not the biggest fan of tempo runs. Instead of one long threshold session that’s so hard to say, break it into, you can do about six to 12 minute segments with short recovery. I’d say don’t go any lower than five minutes because that’s more of like VO two max.

[00:06:24] But if you do six to 12 minutes, I like to do 30 to about 75 seconds and you’re still jogging. You’re still doing a very easy jog in between ’cause you don’t want your lactate to drop too much because the goal is to keep lactate high, which. Allows us to train in our threshold. You’re keeping your heart rate hot and this also lets you accumulate more quality time at threshold without burning out ’cause you’ve broken it up.

[00:06:45] Broken Temple Run is another way you can call this. I did a deep dive on Temple intervals. The episode up here, or in the video description, open up your podcast player show notes to watch that video and check that out. The third way to improve your threshold is race specific. Threshold work. If you’re training for marathon, do longer threshold segments, 20 to 25 minutes, even half marathon.

[00:07:06] You want to do longer. The goal is to be able to replicate, and I’m gonna say this twice, be able to replicate what you’re doing in training in the race and vice versa. So for 5K and 10 K, if you do the shorter races, uh, you can do shorter race, specific threshold work, but slightly faster. Threshold repeats.

[00:07:23] So again, I’d probably do six to eight minutes on that shorter range, but you want to be faster. The aim is to be between your current 5K and 10 K Fitness if you’re doing the faster ones, not your goal time. Again, the VDOT calculator and or a recent race should let you know where that range is. Do these on a flat road section with no lights.

[00:07:41] Uh, minimal hills, no hills if possible. And if you need to just go back and forth on a short, flat part, that’s fine. On pavement. You don’t wanna be on dirt or grass ’cause you could trip on something and or just go on a track For consistency, that’s best. The key is progression. You wanna progress week on week.

[00:07:57] So start with one method, one week mass, that after a couple weeks, then layer on. Others by doing a combination of more reps or longer reps or both. As you get more and more advanced weeks in 10, 12, 16 weeks in until you’re able to do most of your race again at the pace in the training session, a few weeks out from your race.

[00:08:16] That’s how you know you’re ready. Most runners try to do everything at once. Me in the beginning, 20 years ago and end up. Doing nothing. Well, remember, training threshold is high quality work, even if it feels quite easy when you’re doing it. This is because of the glycogen carb store’s demands that happens during and the one to three days after.

[00:08:34] So your body needs all of that carb and glycogen, and it depletes it during these runs, but it doesn’t feel like it. So you need adequate recovery between the sessions. Make sure you’re fueling up. Make sure you’re sleeping, make sure you’re doing easy stuff between these threshold sessions, which I say 48 hours minimum, but if you get older, if you’re not used to the 72 hours, ’cause it depends on experience and recovery level.

[00:08:55] I need 72 hours between threshold runs. Some fun visual metaphors to help make this a bit more memorable and sticky. Threshold is the icing on the cake, but if the cake tastes horrendous, icing won’t save it. It’s a bad cake. If your mileage is inconsistent, your sleep is trash, and your easy runs aren’t really easy.

[00:09:11] Threshold work just becomes an extra stress. Another metaphor I like is the aerobic base backpack analogy. Every time you build aerobic capacity, so aerobic base, it’s like making your backpack stronger Threshold. Running is a very specific, small but super heavy and awkward tool to put in your backpack.

[00:09:28] You pull it out when you need it for certain times in the race Threshold training teaches you how to carry that tool more effectively because when your aerobic base is empty, all that threshold work is just fancy cardio. So now you know what threshold is, why it matters and how it works in your body, but knowing what it is and training it correctly, two completely different things.

[00:09:48] And most runners, they mess it up in five predictable ways. The five dumbest threshold mistakes. Let’s start with mistake number one. Running it too fast. If your tempo run or threshold run feels like a race, it’s not threshold. You slipped into VO two max territory, and now you’re just burning fuel. Hope so.

[00:10:08] Personal example. I’m always gonna keep it real and be vulnerable. Back years ago when I was new to fast distance running, I used to do temple runs at my 5K pace. And then I wondered why I was wrecked for three days, sometimes four days after, because I was basically racing myself like every Tuesday for years.

[00:10:24] Temple Tuesday, getting nowhere fast. It took research and talking to a a few coaches to realize I was making this fundamental mistake. The fix, super easy, dial it back until you can talk in short phases. But really don’t want to. So, B’Av, B’Av, B’Av, B’Av. You could still do a little bit, a little bit of basic math.

[00:10:43] Your brain is fully there. That’s the sweet spot. Mistake number two, skipping the aerobic base phase threshold. It only works if your aerobic engine is already built. It needs a foundation. Can’t build a skyscraper on swamp muddy land. You gotta have a nice steel. Concrete foundation for that whole building to go up.

[00:11:02] No base threshold becomes just another stressor and not the good kind of stress. So there’s a video on base training that I did above or in the show notes or video description below. Go check that out. Quick example. So I know a runner who jumped. Right in the threshold. After three weeks of running, her legs felt fine, but her body had zero foundation to absorb the work.

[00:11:22] So two, three weeks in, she’s like, I’m fine. I can keep building. I’m, I’m good. Six weeks later, shin splints and pure frustration, the fix builds zone two first. Your threshold sits on top of that. Otherwise, it’s just pretty and sweet icing on a really, really gross mud cake mistake. Number three. Doing it while you are fried, if you sleep deprived, under fueled, or you’re just mentally wiped out, threshold will take what little you got.

[00:11:49] And turn it into Dustin Ash example. A runner that I coach insisted on hitting his threshold session after DJing late. I think he got home at like 3:00 AM 4:00 AM and he was like, yeah, I only got four hours of sleep because it was a bunch of noise outside at 7:00 AM and he is like, gotta get the workout in.

[00:12:06] So what do you think happened? His pace was absolute trash. His form collapsed. He reinforced bad movement patterns. He kept doing this actually week on week until I came in, was like, buddy, buddy, what are we doing here? We need to move your threshold day away from when you want to DJ so that you can get a bit more sleep and have a bit more recovery.

[00:12:24] This wasn’t training, it was just suffering the two different things. Remember, training equals rest, plus work, not work. Plus work the fix run threshold when you’re fresh. Enough, not perfect. You don’t have to have 10 hours of sleep for three days straight and feel amazing. You just can’t be falling apart and have four hours of sleep every single time you wanna do a threshold.

[00:12:44] Alright? If you wanna improve your threshold right now, like today or tomorrow, go grab the free eight week training plan to dial in your actual lactate threshold. It’s a bundle that has four ways to test your threshold. Quick wins and more. Get it at the QR code here or link below. Before we jump into the next section, comment below and tell me what race you’re actually using threshold training for.

[00:13:05] Is it a 5K, 10 K, half marathon, marathon, ultra? Let me know. I want to hear it and let’s get back into the masterclass. Mistake number four, calling everything threshold just because it’s hard doesn’t make it threshold. Four by five minutes at 5K pace. That’s not threshold. That’s field two, max 20 minute death March.

[00:13:24] Probably not either. Just a really fast temple run, possibly time trial, possibly a race. Here is my own personal confession. I was guilty of this for years. Like I’d get all creative, creative by mixing up different tempo paces, fast tempo, medium tempo, slow tempo. But I was mixing it all up because. I actually suck at threshold running.

[00:13:44] So I’m there doing all these broken sessions, 400 meter repeats at one mile and going like, yeah, good job. That’s threshold work. Then I’d be all confused, wondering why my 5K and half marathon times weren’t budging. But now looking back at my heart rate data, it was hilarious. It looked like the Rocky Mountains when it should have been more gentle rolling hills.

[00:14:02] That’s the heart rate data. I had no clue. I wasn’t doing threshold training at all. I was just torturing myself for no reason. And this went on for quite long until I did my own research again, talked to coaches, and was like, okay, this is what I need to be doing. And I finally, finally understood it. All the fix threshold is controlled, repeatable, sustainably hard.

[00:14:21] And you should know it by testing it using calculators or both. Think three by 10 minutes, not one by Sufferfest. And the last one, mistake number five. Doing it every week forever threshold is a super powerful tool, but if you hit it every Tuesday for 52 weeks straight, you either stop adapting or just burn out.

[00:14:40] Here’s an example of the last run that we have that I see on Instagram. She discovered threshold runs make her feel like a real runner. Kids run fast. So now it’s. Tempo Tuesday on Strava forever. Same workout, same route, same pace. 52 weeks a year. Her results improved for like three months, right? You hit that 12.

[00:14:57] 12 week bump, then a flatline. Now she’s just really good at being mediocre and wondering why her motivation is in the gutter. Bonus pro-science. Fact, fun fact, some elite athletes do double thresholds. That’s true. The Norwegians love this stuff. Jaka ina brison. But for most of us, mere mortal amateurs, myself included, overuse, leads to monotony, stagnation or over training.

[00:15:20] It’s also quite complex to get it right. So the fix for all of this. Periodization rotate your focus threshold has a season, so does VO two max. So does rest. Use it strategically like a special knife in your kitchen for certain dishes, not religiously on every single meal. AKA run on a Tuesday. And another thing that really doesn’t have its own place.

[00:15:43] Try to do your threshold sessions either on flat terrain or. The same type of route if you can, because hills and off-road can really mess with pacing and effort, and your heart rate can shoot up quite a bit, which isn’t the end of the world if they’re gentle rolling hills. But you don’t want to be five to 10 BPMs higher on your threshold.

[00:16:07] Or lower, because that actually negates the work that we’re doing. We wanna be as specific as possible. So that’s kind of like a A 5.5 in a way. Okay. So those are the five mistakes that turn threshold training into wasted miles and kilometers. But here’s what most runners still don’t understand.

[00:16:22] Threshold doesn’t work alone. It only works when zone two and VO two max, which is zone four, are dialed in also. Let’s get into that part. The difference between zone two threshold and VO two max. Let’s start with definitions ’cause we have to. So, you know, we’re all talking the same language. Here’s the big zoomed out picture.

[00:16:40] Zone two threshold and VO two max are all three core. Let’s call them gears in your training system. Most runners, I’d say use them wrong when they start, or just don’t understand why they’re doing this sort of training session at this time of the year. Et cetera, et cetera, before the race. And then they wonder why their race pace feels like a grind.

[00:16:57] Everything’s so hard and they blow up in the race and they don’t get their best time. So let’s talk about zone two. The foundation. Zone two is your aerobic base builder. It’s easy, slow at times, and crucial. Arguably, I’m gonna say the most important, you’re burning mostly fat for fuel building mitochondria and expanding your capacity, which means that your blood is just getting more efficient at delivering oxygen to your muscles so that you can run.

[00:17:22] Faster, easier at a lower heart rate. So a good analogy I like to use, think of it like a backpack. You’re building the backpack, build it right and strong, and you can carry whatever tools you want in it to run faster than your aerobic base. So let’s say. VO two max is a knife. That’s one tool that goes into your backpack.

[00:17:40] Threshold is a screwdriver, another tool, and sprints and strides are a hammer of sorts. You can add whatever other tools you want. Okay, A bit of run science here. Threshold is the intensity where your body is at a metabolic tipping point. This is where lactate starts building up. FAFSA than you system can clear it.

[00:17:57] You can sustain this effort for roughly 45 to 60 minutes at maximum. And in terms of racing. Threshold pace typically corresponds to half marathon to one hour long race efforts. So, uh, the really fast half marathon people probably above threshold, the slower ones might be below faster than marathon. Pace usually is where your threshold is, and usually slower than 5K or 10 k.

[00:18:18] Race pace. Me personally, my threshold is between my 10 k and my half marathon pace. That’s right between 45 and 60 minutes. If you’re struggling to find out what your threshold. Is I’ll sort you out. Just wait until the middle, I promise I’ll get you there. Threshold training teaches your body to handle more lactate buildup, like upgrading your body’s waste removal system so you can run faster for longer.

[00:18:39] Analogy I like your muscles are a pot of water on a stove threshold is just before the water boils over, so it’s obviously on a flame and you’re running. The flame gets hotter and hotter. Hotter, the water gets hotter, your muscles are, the water and it boils over. Makes a big mess. And puts the fire out.

[00:18:55] So you have to stop running. But the goal is to keep the water rumbling and just moving a bit, little bit of bubbles so that you can sustain and not have it boil over, not have the water evaporate for as long as possible. Defining VO two max, so I call this the peak VO two max is your top end aerobic power.

[00:19:13] Uh, it’s short, sharp intervals, 80 to 90% of full gas. This is not all out sprinting. You could really only all out sprint for 20 to 30 seconds if you’re well trained. I’m talking about like. Properly sprinting Usain Bolt style, you’re training your body instead to use more oxygen per minute, so you’re running quite fast.

[00:19:29] Uh, 5K pace is usually around VO two max. An analogy I like, it’s like taking the governor off of a race car. You’ll go faster, but only in burst because it’s not sustainable for very long. So since we’re defining things, here’s another quick run science nerd break. You’ve probably heard of terms like aerobic.

[00:19:45] With oxygen and anaerobic without oxygen. People think aerobic equals easy. Jogging and anaerobic is all out sprinting while they are mostly right. Here’s the twist VO two. Max training is actually still aerobic, so is threshold training, so is zone three. That’s actually still aerobic. It’s just at the very upper limit of your aerobic system where you’re burning through carbs, glycogen, super fast instead of fat.

[00:20:08] So actually most distance running is aerobic. 5K is actually aerobic. It’s about. 80, 80 to 75 to 85% aerobic depending on genetics and how well trained you are. The marathon is 99% aerobic. So when you sprint for 20 seconds and go all out, that’s pretty much the only time you’re like mostly anaerobic and even still a hundred meter.

[00:20:27] You’re still a. 10 to 20% aerobic. You still need that aerobic. Uh, with VO two max, it’s just at the very upper limit of your aerobic system where you’re burning through carbs again, glycogen, super fast instead of fat. So how do you know where your zones are? Well, most runners, including myself, used the formula and I mainly used monotone.

[00:20:44] The monotone method, MAF 180 minus my age, and I used it for years. And it was great in the beginning, but I always had this gut feeling it might’ve been slightly wrong, like off like five to 10 BPMs. So I got tested, I got my lactate threshold tested, and my VO two max and what I found out kind of destroyed that whole formula.

[00:21:04] Alright, real talk. If you made it this far and you’re serious about nailing a threshold, I built something for you. It’s a free eight week sub-threshold training plan that walks you through how to find and train your actual threshold. Without guessing. You can get four testing methods, the exact workouts and a cheat sheet.

[00:21:19] Grab it at the QR code here or the link below and quick drop a comment. If you can. I’d appreciate it like and subscribe if you can too. Have you ever tested your threshold or are you just winging it? I want to know. Now. Let’s keep the masterclass rolling. My VO two max and lactate threshold test results.

[00:21:36] So here’s what came back VO two max slightly lower than seven years ago. But still in the superior range. And I think if I go too up or down, according to Peter att, Dr. Peter Attia, who’s all about VO two max and how it helps you age and you kind of like a life predictor, quality of life predictor. So by zone two actually started at about 140 BPMs, even though it says 152.

[00:21:58] Um, that, that is slightly wrong based on if you go into the actual data. So 140 to 162 BPMs and my anaerobic threshold. So that’s. LT two lactate threshold number two started at 166 ppms. That means my race pace zone doesn’t really even start until I hit like 168 ppms. So race pace As far as like, like for this a 10 K or the end of a half marathon, I really need to have my heart rate quite high.

[00:22:24] Let that sink in because. Mait Tune was saying 152, and now I have this test confirming the gut feeling that my zone two was higher. It’s actually 162. I thought it was like 1 58, 1 59, 1 62. So I’ve spent the last few years going deep into aerobic efficiency, low heart rate training. Being fat adapted, long, slow runs, and it worked and I became really good at cruising.

[00:22:49] But it came with a cost because I do wanna race fast. I stopped pushing into threshold territory altogether, and when I did, I wasn’t really at my true threshold. I basically built a high efficient diesel engine that never gets tested at speed on the highway, just cruising around town and all the back streets.

[00:23:06] Never really letting that thing get loose. Cool. So that’s my data, but here’s why it matters for you. If you’re using Mafi tone or just guesstimating your zones, you might be massively off from your real training intensities. You could be under training, you could be overreaching over training, or you could be like me super fit, but accidentally avoiding the exact work that would move the needle so I can race my best and race my fastest note to the people that.

[00:23:32] Don’t race that, don’t like pushing themselves, that like running and enjoying themselves and having a low heart rate, that’s absolutely fine to do. You can be very, very healthy doing that. You won’t get very fit. So I believe, and from the data in Dr. Peter Atia and a lot of people, you need to do a combination of like 80% zone two.

[00:23:49] You can even do 90% zone two and sprinkle in 10 to 20%. Of zone three and zone four running, that’s more of that VO two max and threshold running. I personally want to run my best time, so I will sacrifice a bit of health, but everyone doesn’t wanna do that, and that’s absolutely fine. If you’re watching this, you probably wanna race faster, so I’m gonna actually just focus on the people that want to race faster.

[00:24:11] Your real threshold, it isn’t a guess, it’s personal, it’s physiological, it’s trainable, and once you know it, you stop wasting. I’d say some to most of your time, trending in that gray zone of kind of hard, kind of useless, the middle zone. I did an episode on Gray Zone up here. If you want to learn more about that and open up the show notes and your podcast player app, if you’re listening to hit that link on Gray Zone.

[00:24:32] But the middle zone, that gray zone is actually what I call sub-threshold, and it’s actually a way for you to improve your threshold without burning out, but you have to use sub-threshold cautiously. So now that I know my zones, here’s what I’m adjusting. Adding weekly threshold or sub-threshold sessions, cruise intervals, broken tempos, et cetera.

[00:24:51] Reducing the always easy bias in my training when I’m ramping up into race mode. Periodizing it all. So keeping seasons zone two gets, you know, four to eight weeks. VO two max gets a focus of about four to six weeks. Threshold gets a focus of about four to six weeks before races, and then. Some down weeks recovery, rinse and repeat, et cetera.

[00:25:11] Using objective and control data, like my power meter on a treadmill, a track or a familiar flat-ish run route to confirm effort, not replace my intuition. So I want to use all different data points, and then it’s like, cool, I know that I’m within threshold because I’m not gonna finger prick myself every single time I do a run.

[00:25:30] That’s a pain. The pros do that. Wish I had that. But I don’t. So there’s other ways around that. So zone two builds the engine. VO two max adds that power and threshold. It teaches you how to hold race pace without burning out. Cool. But how do you actually find your threshold without spending $250 in a lab?

[00:25:47] Here are the four most common ways that runners estimate the threshold. I’ll be ranking these from worse to best and using two different scores. One score is accuracy for how close you can get it to your threshold, and the next score is practicality for how easy it is to do as you most likely aren’t pro and you can’t do some of these sort of threshold tests.

[00:26:05] Alright, coming in at number four of four, again, we’re going backwards. Zone two MAF, gut guessing AKA, the Imma individual maximum aerobic threshold formula. IMAT. You are gut based on random easy run data. This is a classic starting point for all runners. I started here too. Your run slow. You breathe through your nose, you keep your form clean, your heart rate low.

[00:26:28] You start now or you know, you go for uh, a hard run. You don’t know what really hard runs are ’cause you just started and you’re breathing hard, et cetera, and you’re like, oh, that’s my race base. Uh, you can also use the IMAP method, which was made popular by Mike Trees, who I’ve had co-host episodes with me.

[00:26:44] You can check some of those out if you go back into the back catalog. The idea with all the zone two MoFA, toin, Imma kind of easy running formulas and frameworks. They keep things easy and clean, and your body builds a strong aerobic base. So that’s like 80% easy, 20% hard. It’s great for beginners again, or people rebuilding, but.

[00:27:03] Here’s a little bit of truth. Took me a while to get it. Doesn’t tell you your threshold. It tells you how chill your easy runs are. It’s a different problem, different solution. Pros to using the easy running framework. It’s intuitive, it’s easy to implement, build body awareness. Obviously you also build aerobic base, which you need to run faster, and the cons.

[00:27:21] It’s probably 10 to 20 BPMs off of your true threshold and most people outgrow it fast me, uh, when you want to get really specific and not blow up your next race and not mess up your next race, because usually sometimes at the end of a race you might be like, oh, I had so much more in the tank. I should have gone faster earlier.

[00:27:36] It’s ’cause you really didn’t know exactly how to race it and pace it ’cause you didn’t know your threshold. So I’d score this. At accuracy of four out of 10, practicality, nine outta 10, number three online calculators and or using race time trial or workout data into the online calculators. So this feels lab science-y with algorithms, but realistically has more bro science vibes happening.

[00:28:00] And it’s because it feels like it’s, it’s accurate. So to do it, you just plug your half marathon time into a website, feed out calculator is what I use. And I did a whole episode on this. Up here or link below in the video description on show notes and boom, threshold pace, heart rate zones, race, pacing, et cetera.

[00:28:17] It feels and seems smart, but here’s what’s hiding under the hood. These calculators assume your race was perfectly paced on a flat course. In ideal weather, which it probably wasn’t. Also, these only give you external metrics. So external are the ones that outta control pace, uh, heart rate’s, external and not internal effort.

[00:28:36] And that’s a problem if you’re a self-coach runner who trains solo or doesn’t race often ’cause you don’t know what’s going on. Uh, the pros to this, it’s fast, it’s free. And it’s frictionless and the cons. It’s built on assumptions. It can be way off if your race data is messy and wrong. Let’s say you went too hot and heavy.

[00:28:53] Let’s say GPS was off, then that data that you’re putting in is not clean, and then it’s gonna give you a whole bunch of frameworks and times and paces that can be way off. I’m gonna score this with an accuracy of 6.5 outta 10. A practicality of eight, outta 10 coming in. Number two, field testing, 20 minute time trial ish.

[00:29:11] It’s more like 30 to 40. This is what I use and what I recommend to most runners. You warm up, you run hard for about 20 ish minutes, and you record your average heart rate based on, uh. Percentage of those minutes and you multiply that by 0.95 and that’s your threshold. Feels very mathy. But actually it’s not.

[00:29:27] It’s pretty easy. It’s, it’s not perfect, but it’s surprisingly very accurate. I’ve been doing it for years and I’ve been hearing and seeing from running exercise scientists how accurate this field test actually is compared to lab test and most importantly. You can repeat it over and over again. That’s consistency.

[00:29:45] That’s what we need, so you can retest every month or two and actually track your progress, but the key is you are using your body and not just a formula to get the answer. Pros, it’s pretty accurate if you use a high quality heart rate monitor, so get the arm strap or chest strap. Do not use your optical watch base heart rate as those are very, very inaccurate.

[00:30:03] And again, another pro is that it’s consistent and it’s empowering because you actually are running at race pace a con takes effort and pacing practice. It’s not fun. It’s not fun, like it’s, it’s quite. Mm, you’ll just like, eh, it’s a bit of that, like suffering, but mentally will get tougher from it. I’ll score that with accuracy of eight out of 10 and a practicality of nine outta 10, and number one lactate plus VO two max.

[00:30:31] So if you can get the VO two max test done, if. When you do lactate, that is a bonus, but just do a lactate test because most places don’t do it. So this is how it works. You’ll go over the protocol, get briefed by the scientist, the guy running the the test. You get pricked with sharp needles and you bleed a bit.

[00:30:47] You’re running a treadmill with the incline ramped up while a stranger. You yells faster every few minutes. You got this. Go, go, go. And you pay 150 to 250 USD. To suffer, uh, more obviously if it’s Australian or other currencies, it’s legit. You get data on your LT one, so that’s lactate threshold one, which is your aerobic threshold, AKA high zone two.

[00:31:09] So you actually can go, oh, is my mofi tone or whatever, my zone two that I’ve been working on accurate with my LT one from the blood test, from the lab test. Uh, and you also get your LT two lactate. Threshold number two, which is anaerobic threshold, which is usually where you should be racing for about that 45 minutes to an hour.

[00:31:26] Uh, you also, if you want to do the VO two MAC test at the same time like I did, you get your VO two max. You will, in the lactate threshold test, get some numbers around where your zone three, zone four and zone five are, so you can actually incorporate those for VO two MAC training. But if you can do the mask at the same time as getting the finger pricked, it’s way more accurate data.

[00:31:44] You’ll also get training suggestions from the expert running the test. And if you’re prepping for a serious race or you just wanna validate what you already know with proper heart rate zones, boom, you got that from the lactate threshold test. I think it’s perfection. But for most runners, including myself, it’s overkill.

[00:32:00] You don’t need 97% accuracy if you’re not training at 80% consistency. Yes. Think about that. ’cause being consistent in your training is way better in the long run than having this test. The pro’s super precise, uh, best full zone map of everything. The cons, it’s expensive, it’s hard to access at times, and it’s not repeatable easy.

[00:32:21] You have to go to the lab, you have to pay the money, you have to do the test, you have to be rested up, et cetera, et cetera. I’m gonna score this at accuracy, 9.5 outta 10, and the practicality at four, outta 10. So it’s best used to confirm not to begin. So, yeah, the lab test nailed it. But what if you already had the answer without knowing it when I tried all of them.

[00:32:39] So I tested every single method, lab test, field test, race data, online calculators, and my gut. And you know what surprised me? They all landed within a few BPMs and beats of each other. This the heart rate, I know years of self experimenting, racing, and tracking all my data had calibrated my gut to the point where the lab just confirmed what I already knew.

[00:32:57] That doesn’t happen overnight, but if you’re trained consistently, use good tools and check your ego. You can build the accuracy without ever stepping into a lab. Alright, thanks again for watching this whole toolkit, masterclass, everything you need, uh, protocols, et cetera. Lemme know if I missed anything in the comments.

[00:33:12] Seriously, I read them and I try to answer as many as I can. If you gotten this far, I want to improve your threshold. Remember to grab that, improve your threshold guide. Free and you also get signed up for my five minutes or less weekly newsletter to help you stop guessing with this whole running thing and start being injury free so that you can run your best times and do all that fun stuff.

[00:33:30] Get it at the QR code here, the link below or in the show notes. Now that you understand threshold though, you should. Also check out my deep dive on VO two max. ’cause I talk a lot about that threshold in VO two max. They’re like cousins, both help you race smarter, stronger, run easier, faster, et cetera. You can get that at the video below.

[00:33:47] If you’re on YouTube or you’re on Spotify or all the other podcast players, there’s a link in the episode or show notes description piece.