LEARNING CENTER: COACHES CORNER

An Aerobic Threshold Run is a longer, moderate effort run often neglected by many distance runners, but may be a key ingredient for future success.

To determine the distance and pace of an Aerobic Threshold Run, apply the following guidelines:

Run Distance: 15% of your average weekly mileage.
Run Pace: 80% of your current 5K pace.
Run the last 30-40 minutes of this run at the calculated pace.

For example, let's set the Aerobic Threshold Run pace for a 16:00 5K runner that runs 70 miles per week (MPW):

Run Distance: 70 MPW x .15 = 10.5 mile run
Run Pace: 77 seconds per 400m / .80 = 96.25 x 4 laps = 6:25 mile pace.

Result: complete a 10.5 mile run, starting out easy, with the last 30-40 minutes at approximately 6:25 pace.

Schedule the mid week long run either the day immediately before or immediately after the mid week interval day.

Sample Week:

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun
Easy to Moderate Run	Short Intervals	Aerobic Threshold Run/ Mid Week Long Run	Easy, Short Recovery Day	Longer Intervals or Anaerobic Threshold, Traditional Tempo run	Easy to Moderate Run	Long Run

Joe Rubio explains why you might want to add an Aerobic Threshold Run to your training:

The successful competitive runner tends to consistently train over a wide spectrum of speeds. Regularly running at a variety of paces, ranging from very easy to very fast, results in an athlete developing all areas of fitness. Thus, they generally race well, since no stone in their fitness range is left unturned.

However, an area that is often neglected by many runners (particularly by middle distance runners) is the range of paces that fall between a normal weekly maintenance run and a traditional tempo run. This gray area is called Aerobic Threshold and forms the backbone of a particularly strong aerobic foundation. An Aerobic Threshold effort is a longer run where you start easy, work into a rhythm and by the later stages are running at a strong, steady pace.

There are some serious benefits both physically and mentally to running a longer than normal length run with the last half at a solid effort. Every competitive distance runner is aware that as they gain the ability to hammer the latter stages of a longer run, they are getting fit and their confidence starts rising. Beyond the mental confidence, physiological benefits of a weekly Aerobic Threshold Run include:

• Increased number and size of mitochondria
• Increased aerobic enzyme activity
• Increased capillary network surrounding working muscles

In many respects an Aerobic Threshold Run is an old school, tough training run. Certainly not all out, but fast enough to get your attention without being so hard as to negatively affect your next scheduled workout.

What we started to do locally with our post-collegiate athletes was to include a regular Aerobic Threshold session within our training program by scheduling a longer than normal run with the final stages at a strong effort. We made the run slightly longer than normal to ensure the athletes didn't hammer the initial stages of the run. We called this a "mid week long run."

The mid week long run is longer than any other run of the week, outside of the traditional weekend long run, by 15-30 minutes and amounts to approximately 15% of an athlete's weekly volume. The midweek long run is shorter than the traditional weekend easy long run that usually makes up about 20-25% of our athlete's weekly volume. We ask that the last 30-40 minutes of the mid week long run be done at about 80% of the athlete's current 5k fitness. 80% is just hard enough that when you get done you feel like you did something solid, but not so hard that you can't come back in two days and be ready to run a solid workout.

Please be aware that as an athlete's fitness improves, the pace of the Aerobic Threshold would lower in similar fashion. If the athlete in the above example, improved from 16:00 to say 15:30 (5:00 pace), the Aerobic Threshold pace would drop to 93.75/400m or 6:15 pace.

We schedule the mid week long run either the day immediately before or immediately after our mid week interval day which is Wednesday. If you tend to do a long run on Sunday and intervals on Tuesday, I recommend scheduling the mid week long run on Wednesday.

The best time to start incorporating Aerobic Threshold runs would be to start portions of it (i.e. 10 minutes) in the later stages of the summer base building season and add in 5-10 minutes each month on through the end of cross country season until you reach 30-40 minutes total. These runs are great after cross country heading into the spring outdoor track season. These runs are also hugely important to athletes racing 10,000m up through the marathon, and should definitely be part of the program the last 8-12 weeks of event-specific preparation.

For someone in their first 1-3 years of running, like a high school runner with little background, it makes sense to only have a single longer effort each week. Scheduling an easy long run and an Aerobic Threshold session the same week is likely too much.

Still, you can certainly progress relatively inexperienced competitive runners in the Aerobic Threshold direction by starting the year with a single longer run and adding aspects of Aerobic Threshold as the athlete's fitness improves. Ideally, you would start the year just covering the distance, then as the season progressed, you would add a bit more Aerobic Threshold each month.

Locally, San Luis Obispo High School performs a weekly longer run of 75-90 minutes in the hills with the later 3-4 miles at a strong effort, effectively performing an Aerobic Threshold effort. Over the years, this has become one of the cornerstones of their very successful cross country program.

A longer Aerobic Threshold Run isn't a romantic or complex type of training. It's a very basic meat and potatoes type of training, the hard grunt work that defines competitive distance running. Weeks upon weeks of Aerobic Threshold runs will result in one very aerobically fit athlete and will greatly increase the odds of having a successful season.

Joe Rubio is an owner of Running Warehouse, long-time coach of the ASICS Aggies, a former 2:18 marathoner and 5,000m DII All American. He has a M.S. in Physical Education.