Is there value in doing 20-25x 400m w/ 20s rest at 'threshold effort' as a stand alone session?

Training Advice/Discussion

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I don't think this session looks too difficult if a runner knows their threshold pace well enough to not stray from it during the workout. 400m is so short that I could easily see a lot of runners putting themselves in a ditch early because they got a little too carried away with the pacing.

I just did 8 x 1600 @ 5:30 as a threshold workout. I should be able to do 20-25 x 400m @ 82-83 off of :20-30 rest. I would be tempted to run faster with the shorter repeats. I prefer the longer stuff for threshold running & would rather do 12-16 x 400 @ 5k off of 1:00 or 16-20 x 400 @ 10k off of 2:00ish cycles.

2 years ago 01/21/2022 10:09am EST

re: some variation in training please

do 20-25 at threshold but jog the 100m in between reps. High quality workout.

2 years ago 01/21/2022 5:33pm EST

re: KAV

KAV wrote:
Same for the number of reps.... 20-25x too many unless you run 64"s

This is a good point. Kenyans do this workout a lot too, however, in the timed Fartlek format. 20-25 x one minute on and one minute off is a very similar workout.

As others have said this an excellent workout to get high volume threshold. Along with improving economy at the faster 5k pace. More Americans need to drop the 20 minute threshold for workouts like this.

2 years ago 01/21/2022 7:48pm EST

re: Truth Speaker

none of this is new. Grete Waitz was doing 20x 300m (15sec recovery) back in the mid- 1970's. Didn't call it Threshold back then, but that is what is was really. extrapolate that out to 400 - 20sec recovery. But the point of it being threshold isn't the intensity per se, but the lactate level incurred. Breaking this into sets changes the value of the session. Nothing wrong with doing that, but it isn't the same thing.

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Is there value in doing 20-25x 400m w/ 20s rest at 'threshold effort' as a stand alone session?

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