Threshold, Tempo, Cruise Intervals: A Runner’s Guide to Getting It Right
This post is for anyone who has ever nodded along in a running conversation and pretended to know the difference between “tempo” and “threshold” while secretly thinking, aren’t those literally the same thing?
Same. Been there. No shame. But—plot twist—they’re not the same! And today I’m here to make sure you never again have to just throw one into your Strava title and pray no one calls you out.
Threshold: This one’s a pace. Specifically, the pace where your body starts dumping lactate into your bloodstream faster than it can clear it. Translation: the point where running suddenly goes from “kinda hard but manageable” to “oh no, this is escalating quickly.” The official nerd term is Lactate Threshold, or LT, but “threshold” is fine unless you’re trying to win an argument on LetsRun.
Cruise Intervals: Basically threshold in rep form. Short chunks with short rests, like 5x2 minutes on/1 minute off. It’s not a different pace—it’s just breaking threshold into snackable pieces. Think of it as the “fun-size candy bar” version of suffering.
Tempo: A longer, continuous effort near or slightly under threshold. Could be 20 minutes at 10k pace, 30 minutes at half marathon pace, or an hour at marathon pace. Also known as: “where milers go to die” and “the workout that reveals if you’ve actually been doing your long runs.”
That’s it. That’s the cheat sheet. Next time someone asks what you ran yesterday, you don’t have to fake it. You can confidently respond, “I did a 4x5 minute tempo workout”—and then wait for the purists to roast you in the comments.
And if you’re reading this thinking, “You can use these interchangeably, nerd,” — I actually agree. It’s useful to know the differences, but nobody’s getting kicked out of the running community for calling a cruise rep a tempo run.
So what do they actually do for you? In short: they train your body to clear lactate more efficiently, which lets you run faster for longer. Threshold runs, cruise reps, and tempo runs all chase the same physiological benefit. The real difference is context — a marathoner will lean on longer tempos, while a 5k runner might favor shorter cruise reps. Same goal, different packaging, shaped by your distance and your experience.
At the end of the day, call it whatever you want. The point is to do the work.
