How often should one test threshold ?

If an accurate determination of threshold is the best anchor point to determine training intensity from then surely testing threshold is of the utmost importance ?

Well yes and no.

How often do I get my athletes to do a threshold test ?
Very very rarely.

Now you might be thinking hang on you have just been saying threshold is the best anchor point for intensity so why dont you test ?

Let me explain

First up, threshold testing is hard, whether it’s an all-out 3 and 12 minutes run or a 10km or 5km race they are physically and mentally demanding runs.
The question to ask is whether your athlete is capable of doing test with no risk of injury ?

The next question is if an athlete is going to do a hard session like a threshold test , is it the best use of their training time? Ie is a threshold test an effective training session for the athlete at this point in their training ?

If it’s not then you need a good reason to sacrifice an effective high intensity session with a threshold test.

Surely determining an accurate threshold is a good reason I hear you say ?
If you dont have an accurately determined threshold what do you use ? How can you prescribe training ?

Let’s look at easy and long runs first up. These should be done at conversation pace . Simply ensuring your athlete can have a normal conversation whilst running ensures the appropriate intensity.

For harder sessions it’s not quite so easy. To understand how to approach intensity guidelines without an accurately determined intensity lets use a practical example.

You athlete has not done any intensity for a few months and you want to get them back into it. You know their easy run pace ( on the flat ) is around 6 min ks or 200Watts. If we assume that easy runs are done at around 80% of their threshold ( which is a good assumption if its truly conversational ) then it means their threshold is approximately 250W or 4:48 pace

Lets say the first session you give them is 10 x 90 seconds
You give them some guidance that you want them to start very conservative starting around 220W or 5:24 min k pace ( ie 90 % of their approx threshold ) and aim to get quicker throughout the session finishing feeling like they could do more.

When you review the data after the workout and get their feedback it gives you lots of clues as to how hard they were working and how they approach harder sessions in general .

If they started at 5:24 pace and gradually increased to 4:30 pace and felt like they could have done more then they pretty much nailed the session.
The next session you could advise starting at 5 min ks pace and increasing to 4:20 pace. AS the sessions go by you continue to refine the target paces until eventually they might do 10 x 90 on 4:15 min k pace +/- a few seconds
None of this guidance requires an accurately determined threshold – you are simply giving a ballpark starting point , offering guidance on how it should feel and refining the workout each week based on the feedback and the data.

What about if their first speed session looks more like this
5:00, 4:40, 4:30, 4:20, 4:10 , 4:20, 4:40 , 5:00, 5:10, 5:12

It’s clear they blew up and went too hard in the middle reps . The feedback was probably that it felt super easy to start with . This tells you that a) your athlete likes pushing hard and b) has a poor sense of pacing.
From this you could advise that next session they start at 4:40 pace and aim to keep all reps consistent , if they do that then based on what feedback you get you either stick to the same pace or increase it.

None of the above requires an accurate threshold determination , you are basing your advice on initially a ballpark estimation and subsequently on what the data and their feedback.

If you dont have power and are using pace then you can only do this on flatter terrain , but with power you can use same principle for hills as well. Eg Tell them to start at 220W for the first few hill reps and increase if feeling good. Review the data and feedback and give a more definitive prescription in the next session.

If you did have an accurate threshold determined how would it change your approach ?
Well using the same session of 10 x 90 seconds your goal might be to do these at 5km pace which is approximately 105% of threshold. Using 250W or 4:48min ks as the athletes threshold then target would be 10 x 90 seconds at 263W or 4:33 min ks
First speed session back you wouldn’t start with that though . The session guidance might be – start at 220W 5 minutes and increase by approximately 5W or 3 seconds per k each rep.

(Note you could still say that without an accurate threshold determination by assuming easy runs are at 80% . With an accurate threshold you can say it with more confidence rather than it being a ball park estimation .

The only thing we have gained with an accurate threshold is a more confidence in our starting point.

Does that mean an accurate threshold isn’t necessary ?
Well again yes and no ….
No , as long as you have a ballpark starting point and adjust the training prescription on the data and the athletes feedback.

Yes because what the athlete can do relative to their threshold gives you more information to plan their training.
For example using the same numbers as in our previous example if the athlete couldn’t hold 10 x 90 seconds at 263W / or 4:33 min ks then we know they have some work to do on their top end speed as they should be able to do that based on their threshold.

Yes because an accurate threshold is needed for race prediction unless you have race data on similar terrain. Ie if you are training for a 50km trail race then data from a 20km trail race is the best data to use to set race targets. The best predictor of performance is performance itself . If you dont have the data from a trail race then an accurate threshold is the next best thing.
If you havent done a threshold test then you can estimate it using the easy runs at 80% data point or looking at their speed sessions and making an educated guess. Eg if they had run a 5 x 8 minutes session then that power / pace /heart rate is likely to be very close to their threshold. The question is with what level of accuracy do you need to know your threshold .

The shorter the race is the more accurate your power/pace/heart rate guidance needs to be and the more important an accurate determination of threshold is.

5-10km races need an accurate threshold whereas 100km / 100 mile races just need a good estimate.

Why is less accuracy needed ?
Anyone who has run 5-10km races knows how it feels if they start of 5-10 seconds per k too fast.
In an ultra so many factors affect your end finish time that we just need to get an estimation of starting pace to ensure we dont blow up. A slow down is inevitable a blow up is 100% avoidable. ( see pacing an ultra video for more information on pacing )

For example if your optimal pace for running an ultra was starting at 6min ks and you started at 5:55 for a few ks it would have little to no impact on your race , obviously if you started at 5:30 min ks it would definitely have an impact but we dont need the accuracy to within a few seconds per k or 2-3 bpm or 2-5 Watts .

So your decision on do you need to test threshold comes down to
1) Is my athlete capable of the all out efforts required to test threshold without risking injury ?
2) Will an accurate threshold allow me to prescribe training and racing more effectively or is the data I have accurate enough ?

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