Mark Threlfall: Right then, here's a question for you. Do you accurately know what pace or
what heart rate you should be in for Zone 1, Zone 2, Zone 3, and so on? Do you know
what pace you should be going up for a half marathon? Do you know
what your threshold pace or heart rate is? Well, these are all really important
questions, but I'd hazard a guess, most of you here don't accurately know the answers
to these which, unfortunately, means that you could either be training ineffectively
or not getting the most out of yourself. Now, there is a simple answer to this. Well,
I say simple, it does require a bit of effort, it is the threshold run test. Today, I'm going to be
explaining how to do one and why. [music]
Okay then, let's start by discussing what your threshold actually is and why it's so important
to us. Our anaerobic threshold is the point at which we start to produce lactate at such a rate
that our bodies can't keep up with processing it and removing it and therefore resulting in
a performance plateau or decline which I'm sure many of you have felt before. That feeling when
legs just turn to mush when you've gone a little bit too hard. This is typically regarded as the
best pace you can sustain for an hour. The higher your threshold, theoretically,
the faster and the harder you can go before you experience this effect. This threshold kind
of forms the basis for your training zones, race paces, and so on. Ignoring this or guessing them
could mean that you're completely missing the objective of a session. In most cases, it probably
means actually going too hard and therefore not actually reaping the rewards that you should be
from a workout. Let's look at how you find out your threshold for running.
[music] Probably the most
obvious method for measuring this would be to do a 60-minute all-out effort because after all,
it is the best pace you can sustain for an hour. Let's be honest, if that was the only test, we'd
very rarely do it. It's extremely difficult, very mentally taxing, and it's not exactly something
you're going to want to repeat periodically. Fortunately, they are a number of alternative
tests that have been created over the years. There's the 20-minute test, the 30-minute test,
the critical velocity test, the 3-minute critical velocity test, the ramp test, it goes on.
Obviously, the most accurate tests have to be those that are performed
in a lab where they can accurately measure your lactate levels, your oxygen consumption,
and so on and so forth. Today, I'm going to be targeting the kind of test that you can
do wherever and whenever. Anyone can do these. I find, that from experience, it's is the 30-minute
test that tends to be the most accurate. It's not to say that the others don't work and they're
inaccurate, but I think it depends very much on the type of athlete that's doing the test.
I've found in the past, that the shorter tests can throw up some very varied and inaccurate results.
That's mostly down to the type of athlete doing it. For instance, if you're an endurance athlete,
you're used to running 5Ks, 10Ks, half-marathons, and so on and so forth, then you're probably more
suited to a test that is going to be over a more sustained period of time and more in
tune with the paces that you're used to. The protocol for this 30-minute test is
quite simple. It's a 30-minute all-out effort. You should aim to keep a constant pace throughout.
Ideally, performed on a flat terrain and with a good surface. It must be performed solo
which might sound odd, but it's actually quite important. I'll get on to that in just a moment.
[music] Once you've completed this, you should then take
your average pace and heart rate from the final 20 minutes. I know, why remove the first 10 minutes?
Typically, our heart rate and our pace settle after the first 10 minutes. You should still make
sure it's an all-out effort for the 30 minutes, but that's why we only focus on the final 20.
Why should it be performed solo? Simply because we're trying to find the best
pace that you can sustain for an hour. Typically, we all find an extra gear
when we're racing or being pushed by others. If you were to do a 30-minute all-out effort
with others around you, you're going to get the best pace you can sustain probably for
30 minutes rather than for the 60 minutes. Does that make sense? I hope so. Just run it solo.
Now, with that, that then produces what many people refer to as their functional threshold
pace or their functional threshold heart rate. This is where the fun starts. We can then start
calculating our zones. On-screen right now, we'll pop up the zones
with their paces and their heart rates. I'm going to talk through the paces as an
example. Zone 1 should be slower than 78% of your functional threshold pace. Zone 2, between 78 to
88% of your functional threshold pace. Zone 3, between 88 to 94% of this pace. Zone 4, 95 to
100% of your FTP. Zone 5a, 100 to 103% of your FTP. Zone 5b, 104 to 111% of your FTP. Finally,
Zone 5c should be faster than 111% of your FTP. Then also for threshold and tempo workouts, you
now actually know your accurate threshold pace. The idea on these workouts is to stay as close
to this threshold pace as possible. Stray too far either side and it kind of negates the objective
of the workout altogether. Then there is one big final benefit and that is around racing. You can
use this threshold pace to predict what time you should go over a 5K, 10K, half-marathon, and so
on and so forth. Now, of course, you get very geeky here and try and calculate it yourself or
as most people do, just go online and use one of the very good online calculators.
Plug in your threshold pace and it should be able to predict what time you should go over these
distances and the paces to go with that. Well, I hope you have enjoyed today's video. If so,
please give a Like, give it a thumbs up. Don't forget to give us a follow over on social media
and subscribe to us just down below and let us know how you get on with your threshold
run test just down below. [00:06:12] [END OF AUDIO]