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Running: threshold pace, zones and load

In cycling, FTP is the reference for almost everything. In running, threshold pace takes that role: the pace you can hold for roughly one hour.

Updated: October 6, 2026 · 6 min read

What threshold pace is

Threshold pace is the fastest pace you can hold evenly for roughly one hour. It is the basis for your running zones and for the load of every run. As with FTP: set it too fast and runs look too easy; set it too slow and you underestimate load.

How ZonePit estimates it

ZonePit looks through your runs of the last weeks for your fastest continuous 20 minutes and takes 95 % of that speed as a suggestion, on the same principle as the FTP suggestion for cycling. Only runs with continuous pace recording count. The suggestion is only as good as your fastest run in that period. If you only run easy, it will be too slow. You decide whether to accept it.

A test is more precise: after warming up, run alone as fast and evenly as possible for 30 minutes. Your average pace over the last 20 minutes is your threshold pace, the average heart rate over those 20 minutes your running threshold heart rate.

The pace zones

The zones refer to threshold pace, based on Joe Friel. Internally ZonePit calculates with speed rather than minutes per kilometre, because speeds can be averaged cleanly. The zone names match cycling (Recovery, Endurance, Tempo, Threshold, VO2max, Anaerobic, Neuromuscular) so you can compare both sports.

• Endurance: clearly slower than threshold. Most of your running volume belongs here.
• Tempo: brisk but still controlled.
• Threshold: around threshold pace, typical intervals of 8 to 20 minutes.
• Above: short, hard intervals.

How a run becomes load

ZonePit uses the same scale as for cycling: one hour exactly at threshold equals 100 points. In running the number is called rTSS. Without pace data, for example on a treadmill without a sensor, ZonePit can use heart rate relative to your threshold heart rate. That only happens if you have turned on heart rate load under More › Thresholds & Zones; it is then marked as HR. Running power in watts does not currently feed into load, even if you can store a threshold power for it. Every load shows what it is based on: pace or heart rate.

Keep reading

Sources

• Joe Friel, TrainingPeaks: Joe Friel's Quick Guide to Setting Training Zones (running zones by threshold pace).
• Stephen McGregor (2008), TrainingPeaks: Running Training Stress Score (rTSS), building on Andrew Coggan's TSS.

ZonePit is a training and wellness app, not a medical device.