Terminology

Very easy running. Warm-ups, cool-downs and recovery runs. You can hold a full conversation.

Aerobic base. Steady runs and long efforts. Slightly demanding, but under control the whole way.

Threshold. Comfortably hard — the pace you could hold for about an hour in a race. In interval form it builds a lot of quality work without wrecking you.

VO2 max and speed. Hard, short work bouts that push your oxygen uptake and top-end running.

Relaxed and conversational. The pace most of your weekly volume should be run at.

A touch quicker than easy. Purposeful, but still comfortable.

The pace you could hold for a marathon. Controlled and rhythmic.

Around your one-hour race pace. Comfortably hard, breathing deep but steady.

Your current 10K race pace. Hard, but repeatable over longer intervals.

Your current 5K race pace. Classic VO2 max intensity.

Faster than 5K pace. Short, sharp reps with full focus on form.

Near-maximal speed over very short distances. Full recovery between reps.

Short accelerations of roughly 60–100 m at fast but relaxed speed. They sharpen form and running economy — never run them to exhaustion.

Threshold blocks with very short recoveries, so heart rate stays high and you collect a large amount of quality work.

An easy jog between reps keeps blood flowing and heart rate up, which suits aerobic work. Standing rest is used when the next rep needs to be genuinely fast.

A rep is one work bout. A set is a group of reps with a longer break before the next group.

Sessions steered by heart rate zones rather than the clock.

Sessions built around target paces from your race times.

Sessions measured in meters and kilometers, typically on a track or a measured stretch.

Shorter, gentler sessions — a friendly way into interval running.

The full library in one list.