When it comes for a run, I never understood how can you evaluate the percentages at which you will track that one, in order to be comfortable, or to push hard. However, as you read, exercise, and especially know your body better, the percentages can make sense, “incarnated” as the way in which you feel your body’s rough effort. You need to be honest with you and you need to learn many lessons about what can you endure and where are the limits you should push to. Since this is a bit more philosophy, I’ll just concentrate in developing this text into facts.

Run “slower”, but longer

What is the difference between a tempo and a threshold run? Well, at a first glance, it is not hard to explain, but in practice, things can vary from one day to another. Roughly, running at threshold is basically running at your race pace or very close to it, while the tempo represents a slightly low pace comparing to your maximum current potential, but for a longer distance, just to build up some endurance at the fastest pace possible. For additional information about the difference, I would highly suggest this article from asics.com. The main catch from here, I would recommend, is to consider that usually a threshold pace should be slightly higher comparing your average time for a half marathon.

You can feel the difference

I was mentioning the importance of some circumstances for these type of trainings and usually one important component of a scheduled such session is the weather. It would be the best way to go either for a tempo or a threshold run when it is not too cold, too hot, windy or rainy, because this can heavily impact your performance. In any case, these type of runs are destined to increase you race results. Some might mention these two runs as the same type of training, but if you study and understand the details, you can make the difference. Especially when you try them out!