The Simple Guide To Types of Runs

Updated: 23 January 2026

With so much information out there, figuring out what training you need to be doing is a challenge. There are SO many types of training styles and confusing jargon terms like tempo, threshold, and strides. While, it’s overwhelming, and lets face it, a little-bit backwards sometimes; including a variety of paces, distances, and surfaces, greatly improves your performance.

Before we get started, let’s go over a couple of terms that you might not know.

• RPE: Rating of Perceived Exertion; very simply, your rating of how hard your effort feels to you on a scale of 1 (easiest) to 10 (hardest).
• Heart Rate Zones: many watches and accessories will measure your heart rate (HR) and assign it to a Zone, usually based on percentages of your maximum heart rate or your threshold heart rate. Most often, this is a 5-Zone model, from 1 (easiest) to 5 (hardest).
• Aerobic: Easy or moderate intensity runs that mainly use oxygen to produce sustained energy.
• Anaerobic: Higher intensity work that needs more energy to be produced without oxygen.

PLEASE NOTE: any guidance on paces or effort levels is for example only; you should always adjust based on what feels safe for YOU. Let's get to demystifying… Now, what are the different types of runs and what are they for?

Easy runs are by far the most important types of runs. Low-key, relaxed, and fun, they help you avoid burnout and injury, and keep you in touch with the simple joy of doing what you love. Easy runs build your aerobic energy system. These are the sessions where you “run slow to run fast,” focusing on low effort and good form. At least 80% of your training (whether in miles or in hours) should be done here.

Recovery run

Purpose and feel: flushes out the legs, reduces soreness; very conversational, like you could go "all day;" RPE 1-2.

This is the easiest possible jog or walk/jog you can do before your form becomes unnatural; with ZERO stress about pace or distance. These runs are usually done the day after a hard session to flush out the legs, allowing the body to reset for the next session. A good way to judge if you’re running at an ideal pace, is the ability to hold a conversation without becoming out of breath. Once a week, we recommend leaving your watch at home (or flipping it inside out) and developing your ability to go on FEEL.

Maintenance run

Purpose and feel: maintain fitness; conversational, steady; RPE 2-4

These are just your routine runs. Done each week, they keep your consistent momentum going. You're building a base over years and decades, and maintenance runs are opportunities to enhance that base.

Shakeout run

Purpose and feel: stay loose, ease anxiety; quite relaxed; RPE 1-3

Done the day before a race, this is a short and very easy run just to move the circulation and help get rid of some nerves (ha, good luck!).

We start "sharpening up" here, practicing faster paces and "race paces" in manageable doses. Most runners, even very experienced ones, make the mistake of doing easy runs too moderate, and moderate runs too hard. Don't do that. Especially when you're in a team or group, competitiveness silently makes everyone go too hard. Have the discipline to do what feels right for you, for your goal with that run on that day. These sessions should Include warmups and cooldowns. About 10-15% of your training should be done here.

Tempo run

Purpose and feel: practice faster paces, improve aerobic ability and your threshold; steady, consistent, controlled; RPE 5-8

"Tempo" might be the most confusing word in all of running. It's used in different ways by everyone for a broad range of paces. In its truest sense, a tempo run holds a steady, comfortably hard pace for a big part of the run. This pace is easier than 5K or 10K "race pace" and it's held for a block of time or distance; i.e., 15-40 minutes or 3-8kms. You might break up a tempo session by doing a shorter block with a 60s recovery, then completing another block.

Many runners ask "How do I pace a tempo run?" Tempo runs should feel comfortably challenging. In general, you could hold tempo effort for about an hour if you had to - think roughly 40-75 seconds/km slower than 5K pace for newer runners, and 20-30 seconds/km for those more experienced. Speeding up your tempo runs beyond the recommended pace can lessen the benefit and increase your injury risk. Only increase your tempo pace when your race pace has become faster. One tempo run a week is plenty.

Threshold run

There are two thresholds: the easier "aerobic threshold" (Lactate Threshold 1, or LT1) and the harder "anaerobic threshold" LT2. At these efforts, cells anaerobically (without oxygen) produce more lactate - an important energy source, and not to be confused with lactic acid.

LT1 is where your blood lactate level gently starts to increase over your resting rate, and you can process it without that burning feeling. LT2 is where blood lactate level rapidly rises beyond your ability to clear it, quickly leading to burning fatigue. Think the upper limits of Heart Rate Zone 2 and 4 respectively.

LT1: Aerobic threshold

Purpose and feel: develop aerobic endurance; a light workout that's easy to recover from; RPE 5-6.

An old-school long-ish run at a moderate pace, between maintenance and tempo, also known as the midweek long run. It starts easy and develops a solid rhythm in the middle, before opening up the strides a little more towards the end.

For experienced runners, it can be 15% of your total weekly volume, with the last 30-40 minutes done at about 80% effort of (20% slower than) your current 5K race effort. If your long run is Sunday and intervals are Tuesday, we like this midweek long run on Wednesday. While this is a great session to add for those more experienced runners, newer runners should skip this and focus on just one long run a week.

LT2: Anaerobic threshold

Purpose and feel: increase your lactate processing and your capacity for "hard" work; challenging but repeatable; RPE 7-8

When we hear "threshold," we tend to think of LT2. That's the next step harder than tempo. Training at, or around, your LT2, improves your body’s ability to clear lactate, allowing you to sustain harder efforts for longer.

A classic threshold workout for experienced runners is 8-10 reps of 1000m (1K), with 60-90 seconds recovery. Less experienced runners should cut the number of reps in half. The key is to go hard in a way that's repeatable for all reps, not so hard on the first rep that you're cooked and can't complete the other reps.

Double

Purpose and feel: get more volume of work in a day, learn to run on tired legs; easy to challenging, but repeatable; RPE 1-6

A double is any day that you do a combo of two runs or cardio cross-training activities, usually one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

This can be an "easy double" (low intensity for one of the runs, or both), or it can be harder like "Norwegian double thresholds" (two threshold workouts on the same day). Even Norwegian doubles are done easier than you think, closer to LT1 (see above).

Long run

Purpose and feel: learn to be on your feet for a longer time; build stamina; RPE 1-8

Long runs are a “bread and butter” training session. Most long runs are done at a similar pace to your maintenance runs; easy, conversational, and relaxed. Some long runs call for mid-run pace variation, where you spend a portion of your run at a tempo pace, before settling back into your easy run pace. Others may increase their pace slightly in the second half of their run. Regardless, what remains true is that the nature of a long run is to spend an extended amount of time “on feet” to increase your endurance.

For experienced runners, your "weekend long run" might be 20-30% of your total weekly mileage. For less experienced runners, your long run focus can be moving on your feet for a few minutes longer, or maybe a mile longer each week, as you build patiently. If you're training for your first full marathon, your longest run doesn't have to be more than about 20 miles, give or take a mile or two. For a first half-marathon, about 9 or 10 miles. Enjoy!

Progression run

Purpose and feel: develop control, finish strong, improve resistance to fatigue; RPE 4-8

A progression is any run that starts easy and gets progressively a little faster (maybe even just 10-15 seconds per mile) each mile. A "negative split" is any run where the second half of the run's mileage takes less time than the first half, even if just by a few seconds. "Fast-finish" is just that: the final part (a mile or two at most) is done faster than the rest of the run.

Fartlek (speed play)

Purpose and feel: practice random bits of playful speed; unstructured segments of pace pickups sprinkled into an easier run; RPE 4-7

"Fartlek" meaning "speed play" to the Swedish, is all about improving speed and endurance by mixing bursts of speed with jogs. Think of them like schoolyard spontaneity: "let's low-key race to that tree" or "let's push a little for a minute on this hill." Start a fartlek run easy and mix easy recovery between faster segments of variable length, time, and pace. Have fun for 15 minutes or an hour - whatever your heart wants.

A classic Aussie example of a fartlek is the famous ‘Mona Fartlek’. Designed by coach Chris Wardlaw for Australian Olympian, and session namesake, Steve Moneghetti. The session itself consists of 2x90s, 4x60s, 4x30s, and 4x15s of hard running with a jog of equal time recovery between (i.e., 90s hard followed by 90s jog, repeated twice).

Hard sessions can be intimidating. They include races, race-like efforts or time trials, and moderate reps that add up to hard sessions. The good news is that you can break them into bite-size chunks and meet friends or a training group for support. Warmups and cooldowns, including drills and stretches, are non-negotiable for these sessions. These sessions can improve neuromuscular recruitment, power output, biomechanical efficiency, and mental toughness, but too much can increase injury risk. Truly HARD runs are done maybe once a week, contributing maybe 5-10% of your training volume.

Strides

Purpose and feel: improve your form, power, and efficiency; NOT all-out sprints, RPE 8-9.

"Strides" are typically 4-6 short reps of high-intensity efforts completed directly after an easy run, long run, or warm-up. They should last about 20-40 seconds each (60 seconds max), and followed by a walk-back recovery or full recovery (letting your heart rate come back down for two minutes). While strides are best done up a gentle slope (like 5% gradient or less, not a steep hill), a flat stretch is just as ok. Some strides are better than no strides.

For each rep, build in gradually over a few seconds before easing off at the end, avoiding harsh stops and starts. If you feel too tired to do strides with good form, then the best advice is to not do any more. After a few months of consistent strides, you should feel lighter, springier, and stronger. If you only do easy aerobic running plus a few sets of strides each week, you'll be in great shape.

Intervals

Purpose and feel: learn to relax at fast paces, improve anaerobic ability, develop a mid-race surge and closing kick; hard but repeatable, RPE 8-10.

Intervals are a fast way to build fitness and increase strength. They're bursts of speed with walking or jogging rests in between, done at a repeatable speed for a set distance. They're best done on the track (to know your exact distance and time), but can be done anywhere you've accurately measured the distances. Tailor your reps to your ability and goals. Short intervals (200-400m) with short recoveries are best for 5K and 10K training. Longer (800m to 1 mile) intervals with longer rests are best for half-marathon or marathon training. A short recovery could mean walking or jogging 1 minute or 100-200m, while a long recovery is jogging 2-3 minutes or a full 400m lap.

If you want to do these, we recommend a session only once a week, to allow good recovery. How quickly you run them depends on your fitness, experience, and goal race time. Don't overstride (stretching your hamstrings too far in front of you), and try to relax.

VO2 max

Purpose and feel: to estimate a number for your current fitness level; RPE 9-10.

This isn't really a common run, but VO2 max is a common term when measuring fitness, so we wanted to mention it here. Your VO2 max is a measure of the maximum amount of oxygen you can process.

It's measured in a lab on a treadmill that gets progressively harder, although many smartwatches have an option for a "VO2 max test run" for an estimate. Your "VO2 max effort" is the hardest endurance running effort you can sustain for about 10 minutes, between threshold and all-out sprinting. Be careful.

Most importantly, stay patient and pay attention to your body and what feels right for you. If a body part whispers to you, listen and back off before it screams. Hone your ability to go on feel or effort instead of watch pace. Stay hydrated and get plenty to eat throughout the day and the year.

We repeat: any guidance (what runs to do, paces, effort levels, and reps) is for example only; you should always adjust based on what feels safe for YOU. On flat ground, you can try for certain paces. On hilly ground, base it on effort instead of absolute pace. You've got this!

What are the main run types? How do I fit different run types into a week?

We recommend mainly focusing on easy runs, some strides, one long run, and one workout session (like tempo, or threshold, or intervals) per week. A classic formula is a few easy days, with a midweek faster workout, and a long run on the weekend (or when you have the most time). A more advanced plan keeps all that, but might add a midweek long run, or doubles, or a second workout.

Why do runners need different types of runs?

For variety and enjoyment, and to train both the aerobic and anaerobic energy pathways. Whether you're trying to get faster or just having fun, it helps keep you well-rounded and healthier if you play with different paces.

What shoes are best for easy runs and long runs? What shoes are best for tempo, threshold, track intervals, and racing?

We love max cushion daily trainers, premium daily trainers, and long run performance trainers for easy days and long runs. For tempo, threshold, and track intervals, we love energetic daily trainers, speed performance trainers, and super shoes. For racing, we're going super shoes too, but many runners choose their comfort over performance. For our go to guide, check out our picks for the best running shoes.

Is there a guide for how to set my pace targets?

Very roughly, you might take your 5K race time (in seconds) and divide by 12.5 to find the time per 400m. For example, a 27-minute 5K is 1,620 seconds, divided by 12.5 is 130 seconds per 400m lap.

For 400m rep intervals, target 20% faster than 5K pace. Make 800m rep pace 15% faster than 5K, 1600m as 10% faster than 5K, then 10K pace as 5% slower than 5K, half-marathon tempo as 10% slower than 5K, and full marathon pace as 15% slower than 5K pace.

These are TOUGH targets. It's critical that you adjust these realistically for yourself based on what feels right and safe for you. You've got this!