What is the difference between threshold and tempo?

Thanks

Excellent question op.

The variety of answers indicate that most people do not really know what these terms mean and that they are used indiscriminately.

Ask "What do you mean by that?"

I could be wrong, but my interpretation is...

Tempo: A heart rate range (a zone if you prefer)

Threshold: The very upper end of the tempo range

Threshold is short for "Lactate threshold" which is a physiological concept that refers to a level of cardiac intensity (lactate turning point), in the ballpark of 88-90% vo2 max. You can be at "lactate threshold" for any form of exercise but "tempo" is pretty specific to running

"tempo" is a training term. A "tempo run" is a steady paced run at a harder effort than typical training pace. It is usually done at faster than marathon pace and slower than 10k race pace, which makes it pretty close to lactate threshold level of intensity

Ive had many 16:45 kids who can run 6 min pace for 10 miles (1hr). Its actually pretty rare in my experience that a 16:45 5k HS athlete CANT do 10 miles in an hour.

Threshold: Maximum steady state effort your body can handle without rapid elevation of blood lactate (LT2). For most athletes, 3-4 mmol blood lactate. Most can hold this pace when well rested and in race conditions for 45 minutes to around 70 minutes. Typical running workouts include 8x1k with 1-1.5 minute rest or 20x400s with 40 to 45 seconds rest.

Tempo: An Arbitrary term. In the triathlon world, this is usually considered to be the pace you can run an open marathon or a half marathon at the end of a triathlon, assuming you are an experienced endurance athlete. It is just above LT1, so usually with lactate levels of 2 to 2.5 mmols. Typical workouts include 30-50 minutes steady, or 4x3k with 2-3 minutes rest. For me, this means running about 15-25 seconds slower then my threshold pace.

The only important thing to know is that "threshold" hurts more than "Tempo"...

I'd say tempo is a more broad term, threshold (assuming lactic threshold) is a specific pace within the tempo umbrella.

Good discussion in this thread, but y’all are missing a key difference: tempo is a get-out-of-jail-free card. Threshold, not so much.

Had a bad race but don’t want to admit it? Call it a tempo. Something like “yeah I wasn’t feeling great this morning so I just decided to make it a tempo run.” Everyone around you will nod and agree that makes sense (and maybe roll their eyes a little after you turn around, if you’ve become known as the tempo racer of the group). Never in my life have I heard someone whip out “threshold” to explain away a bad race.

If one was to do 6*1600m on the track would tempo or threshold be more favorable?

Like wise for pickups at the end of a long run?

Hatman, what are you training for and what is your fitness level?

6x 1 mile at threshold is likely too much for a high school runner. I would do 3-4x1 mile at threshold.

6x1 mile at threshold is a very manageable workout for a collegiate level runner, with elite collegiates likely able to handle up to 8 or 9 miles of broken up threshold work.

6-8x1 mile tempo with short rests is a good workout for marathoners or half marathoners early in a build, but should be done as a steady run or 10-20 minute intervals with medium rests thereafter. The stimulus with tempo training really comes through high volumes of work resulting in fatigue towards the very end. I recently did 4x20 minutes of tempo work on the bike and it only felt kind of hard at the very end of the last rep.

I was pretty confused about this for a while. They're really the same thing.

But to dig into the weeds a bit... From reading Pfitzinger, it sounds like tempo is a type of threshold run.

The way he explains it is that you could do intervals (5 to 10 minutes repeats) at threshold pace or a tempo run, where you just sustain threshold pace all in one go, from 20 to 40 minutes.

This, though I think most cyclists can't hold threshold for an hour and will crack 45-55min in.

I'm puzzled. Do you recommand a lactate meter? What model exactly and what calibrating procedure, please? Should we measure from the ear, or from a biopsy taken from the muscle to be more precise? Also at what point should we take samples? At the end of the last interval? After each interval? Is there a limitation for short intervals or a correction we should apply to the value due if it's not fully stabilized? Or is it too complicated and we should only ballpark the HR (same questions though regarding when in the session we should read the HR and potential corrections needed to be applied to it)?

Also how do you assess the athlete's specific lactate threshold? What is the exact protocole? Or do you just decide 4 or 5.5 is a good enough value?

Last question: What is the sensibility of the training effect to the precision of the respect of the target lactate value/HR/resulting pace?Is it like we reached 3.9 so the training is a failure?

If you don't have precise answers to all these questions, maybe you should realize you are embracing the pseudo-scientific approach and shouldn't disrespect other training philosophies, some of them having actually had results in the past and not being disqualified by actual science (as in real scientific papers written by people with a phd or md).

the main difference is a $400 lactate meter.

My running coach (who was also a former New Zealand marathon champ) always defined a tempo run as approx 90% race pace. Maybe that was an over simplified definition so as not to overcomplicate training but it certainly worked well for him and the runners he coached. Threshold was used interchangeably as the same thing.

Most are using 20min test to guide it, this you are right.. just like in running popular workout is 20min tempo,but they really are going at threshold