Endurance Training Terminology & The Importance of Training By Effort

If you’re less familiar with running terminology or you’re confused by the difference between tempo & threshold or the different run training zones - we recently came across an awesome graphic from Fluid Athletics that we had to share!

There are numerous frameworks out there for defining what systems you're targeting the most with different efforts and paces of running (or other endurance activities). When you talk to different runners it can seem like everyone is individually more accustomed to a different model - which can get confusing! 

While there are still some terms and models that are not included in this chart (how could you leave out defining a Steady State effort?? 😉), it is a helpful place to start. 

I do feel like it is helpful to point out that more recent research suggests that you’re always training all systems, but the closer you are to a certain effort, the more likely you are to be working on that system. The range in the blood lactate for each pace is a good example of this.

I’ve heard Steve Magness refer to it previously as lifting a rope. You pinch & lift up on one part of a rope that is lying on the ground. The location that you are pinching lifts the highest, but on either side of where you pinch also lifts as well, although not quite as high as the location you lifted it from. Along the rope are the different training zones/paces/efforts. You lift the rope at zone 3, but zone 2 and 4 are also lifting up relatively significantly. 

I really like this analogy, as we so commonly find runners obsess over whether or not they are training in zone 3 or zone 4, rather than trusting that you're training both systems and that the main way to improve is spending more time in or close to training in that system. 

You’re likely improving your threshold more by being able to do twice as much total time at a slightly slower effort, rather than doing half the time (because of more fatigue) pushing yourself hard enough to make sure you're truly in the threshold zone. This is where terms like “sub-threshold” and “sub-max” efforts are starting to become more common among run coaching - and from an injury prevention standpoint I love it. 

The number 1 way to improve performance in anything is consistency. In running, by far the most common barrier to consistency is developing an injury. 

80% of running-related-injuries are due to training errors - doing too much too soon for the body’s current recovery state. At Steady State we strongly believe that if you learn to be adaptable with your training based on your recovery state, combined with taking a slightly conservative approach to building up your run volume as well as “going to the well” less often in workouts by staying slightly conservative in your workout efforts (the majority of the time), you’ll be significantly less likely to develop an overuse injury that causes you to be less consistent with your training & therefore more likely to continue to improve your performances. 

While you can use running calculators like Jack Daniels VDot Calculator to estimate your pace for certain types of training, this assumes you start your workout with an optimal recovery status. It also assumes your workout is happening on flat terrain, with no wind or other variables that may significantly impact your pace (tight turns, etc). 

This is why we recommend that people become used to training at certain efforts. Even better/worse fitness can cause your effort at a pace that not long ago you would have been able to consider your threshold pace, but now because you’ve run less the last couple of months this same pace is now significantly more effort. If you’re not used to gauging your running based on being in tune with your body’s effort, you may be significantly overtraining, leading to more fatigue and potential overuse injury. 

Not familiar with gauging by effort? I suggest practicing using the Basic Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being absolute max effort and 1 being minimal effort, how much effort are you putting into this rep in this workout? What about for the entirety of the run?

I also like people to be familiar with the approximate time to failure for each type of running and learn to correlate this with RPE:

The purple, blue, and green in the chart represent varying levels of easy running, all of which, in theory, you could sustain all day (if your legs don’t fatigue on you). 

The yellow represents tempo/marathon pace/steady state/zone 3 running, which you could sustain for ~ 2-3 hours. The challenge of describing this as “marathon pace” is that this is very dependent on your speed. If you can run a marathon in 2-3 hours, then this would be applicable to you. If you're much slower than that (like most people!) then your actual marathon pace is going to be something closer to the green. This doesn’t mean don’t do zone 3 training, just when you see people refer to “marathon pace effort” it may be very different depending on the person’s ability level.

The orange represents tempo/threshold/zone 4 running, which is an effort that you could sustain for about an hour long race. The length of the race obviously varies significantly - for elites this will be close to their half marathon pace but for many this will be closer to their 15k or 10k pace. For workouts, this is typically a sustained 20-40 minute effort, or longer intervals with relatively short rest - something like sets of 5-15 minutes on, with 1-2 minutes off. 

The lower end of the red represents VO2 max/interval/zone 5 running, which is an effort that you can sustain for 7-12 minutes. For elites this is in the 2 mile-almost 5k race range. For others this is more in the 1-2 mile race range. For workouts, the recovery in between intervals is typically 50-100% of the “on time” of the interval, with the intervals typically being between 2-5 minutes in length. 

The higher end of the red represents shorter intervals, as Daniels refers to as “reps”. These are typically used more for improving running economy, with the length of time of each rep being less than 2 minutes at the most with full recovery in between reps. 

I hope this visual and reasoning for learning to go by effort is helpful! Let us know if the training model you are most familiar with is missing in this chart - and perhaps we will add to this chart in the future! 

- Kelton

Dr. Kelton Cullenberg, PT, DPT

Co-Founder & Owner at Steady State Health