Pace Theory

Pace Theory Online running coaching for serious & recreational runners who are training hard but not improving. Evidence-based, individualised, no generic plans.

15/09/2026

I see too many runners smashing 6x1K on repeat as if that’s the answer to getting faster.

It works. Until it completely stops working.

Here’s why: if you’re capping your interval sessions at 6x1K at 5K pace, you’re getting sharper in the short term and maybe raising your speed ceiling slightly. But speed doesn’t take long to develop, and it doesn’t take long to cap out either. Most athletes see speed stagnate within 6-8 weeks of a training block.

That’s not a fitness problem. That’s a sequencing problem.

Earlier in a 5K build, instead of jumping straight into 6x1K at 5K pace, the progression looks more like this:

6x1K → 8x1K → 10x1K

The intensity stays controlled, around threshold/CV, while you progressively build the amount of quality running your body can handle. Then when racing gets closer, the volume drops and the pace becomes more 5K-specific.

Build the capacity first. Make it specific later.

Comment PROGRESSION below and I’ll send you the full breakdown of how we structure this across a 5K build.

02/09/2026

This is the part most runners never get right…

When you do 5 × 6 minutes at threshold (1 min rest) you can actually run slightly faster than you would in a 30-minute continuous threshold…

but it’s still the same threshold intensity.
Same metabolic cost.
Same controlled effort.
Just more time spent at the most effective end of the zone.

Breaking the session into reps gives you tiny resets — just enough to stop HR from drifting and stop lactate from creeping too high.
So you stay in the zone, but you can hold a sharper pace without tipping into VO2.

That’s why this structure gives you a better return for the same physiological effort.

▫️More quality
▫️More time near the top of threshold
▫️Better aerobic development
▫️Still 100 percent controlled

If you want the deeper breakdown (and how to use this in your own training), comment “plan” and I’ll send it through.

31/08/2026

⁉️ WHY 5 × 6 minutes instead of 30 minutes?

📌 Save this for later, because understanding why a session is broken into reps can completely change how you think about threshold training.

On paper, both sessions give you 30 minutes of running. But that doesn’t mean they give you exactly the same training stimulus.

If I prescribe 5 × 6 minutes with a short recovery, the recovery isn’t there so the athlete can suddenly run the next rep much harder. It’s there to give them just enough of a reset to maintain the effort we actually want for longer.

That can make it easier to control the pace, breathing and overall intensity across the session, rather than having the effort gradually creep up as fatigue builds during one continuous 30-minute run.

This becomes especially useful with threshold training, where running harder isn’t necessarily better.

If the purpose of the session is to accumulate controlled aerobic work around threshold, I care much more about keeping the athlete in the right intensity for the session than I do about making the workout feel as hard as possible.

As an athlete develops, we can then progress this in different ways. We might increase the total amount of work, extend the length of each rep, shorten the recovery, or eventually use longer continuous efforts when they make sense.

That’s why seeing “30 minutes of threshold” doesn’t tell you the whole story.

How that 30 minutes is broken up, how fast you run it, how much recovery you get and where it sits within the rest of your week all influence what you actually get from the session.

The goal isn’t just to complete 30 minutes of hard running.

It’s to understand why you’re doing those 30 minutes in the first place.

If you’re starting to take your running more seriously but you’re not really sure how all the different sessions should fit together, comment PLAN and I’ll send you something that can help you understand the bigger picture.

31/08/2026

⁉️ Why 5 × 6 minutes instead of 30 minutes?

📌 Save this for later, because understanding why a session is broken into reps can completely change how you think about threshold training.

On paper, both sessions give you 30 minutes of running. But that doesn’t mean they give you exactly the same training stimulus.

If I prescribe 5 × 6 minutes with a short recovery, the recovery isn’t there so the athlete can suddenly run the next rep much harder. It’s there to give them just enough of a reset to maintain the effort we actually want for longer.

That can make it easier to control the pace, breathing and overall intensity across the session, rather than having the effort gradually creep up as fatigue builds during one continuous 30-minute run.

This becomes especially useful with threshold training, where running harder isn’t necessarily better.

If the purpose of the session is to accumulate controlled aerobic work around threshold, I care much more about keeping the athlete in the right intensity for the session than I do about making the workout feel as hard as possible.

As an athlete develops, we can then progress this in different ways. We might increase the total amount of work, extend the length of each rep, shorten the recovery, or eventually use longer continuous efforts when they make sense.

That’s why seeing “30 minutes of threshold” doesn’t tell you the whole story.

How that 30 minutes is broken up, how fast you run it, how much recovery you get and where it sits within the rest of your week all influence what you actually get from the session.

The goal isn’t just to complete 30 minutes of hard running.

It’s to understand why you’re doing those 30 minutes in the first place.

If you’re starting to take your running more seriously but you’re not really sure how all the different sessions should fit together, comment PLAN and I’ll send you something that can help you understand the bigger picture.

31/08/2026

⁉️ Why your 1K reps might not be working.

📌 Save this for later, because 1K reps can be used for completely different purposes depending on how you structure them.

A lot of runners see something like 6 × 1K and immediately focus on the pace.

But the distance of the rep tells you very little about what the session is actually doing.

6 × 1K with short recovery at a controlled threshold effort is a completely different session to 6 × 1K around 5K pace with enough recovery to keep pushing hard.

Even though the rep length is exactly the same, we’re creating a completely different stimulus by changing the pace, recovery and overall intensity of the session.

And this is where copying sessions online can go wrong.

Before choosing the pace, you need to know what you’re actually trying to develop, where the session sits in your training, and how much fatigue you want it to create.

The 1K rep isn’t the problem.

Doing it without understanding its purpose is.

If you’re constantly finding sessions online but aren’t sure how they should actually fit together, comment PLAN and I’ll send you something that might help.

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