Location
- Carriage Dr E, London SW11 4NJ
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Phone
020 3959 0058 -
We meet near the Millennium Track, at the corner near the path to the bandstand.
Thursday Threshold @ Battersea Park
(Lactate) Threshold training for Spring marathon runners – Thursdays @ Battersea Park
What is Threshold running? A threshold run is completed at an intensity just below the point where lactate builds up in the bloodstream causing your running to slow down. The point at which this occurs is known as our lactate threshold and is dependent on an individual’s current fitness level. This pace should feel hard but still comfortable over long periods of time. This helps your body to improve efficiency at clearing lactate.
Expected effort: comfortably hard. Run just below the threshold level. RPE = 7-8
Conversational pace? Only during the warm-ups and cool-downs. During the threshold effort – only one-word answers should be possible.
Benefits. Improves the body’s efficiency at clearing lactate and builds endurance.
Meeting Location. The meeting location is just outside the Millennium Arena (Battersea Track), by the park’s map. The Google Maps location is available here.
Facilities. Lockers and showers are available at the Millenium Arena for a fee of £4.60 at reception. There is no need to pre-book this; just come to their reception and pay with a card as you go. The lockers are operated via a token which can be purchased in reception (£0.50) and reused. The bike lockers are available in front of the Millennium Arena.
Health & Safety tips. The Battersea Park can be busy (even in the dark evenings) with cyclists, dog walkers, joggers and other park users. We recommend all attendees wear reflective running gear and choose bright colours to increase their visibility during the training. We ask all participants to be extremely cautious on the corners of the park as there might be limited visibility there. We ask all participants to give the way to other park users rather than expect them to do the same.
Layout of the session. We ask all members to click the I’m In!! button above to indicate their planned attendance. It helps the Lead Team with the planning of the session and the managing of the numbers. For the warm-up, we will use the 400m path from the Millennium Arena to the Bandstand and we will jog it at a social pace. We will then use the remaining 400m (from the Bandstand to the other side of the park) for the dynamic stretches, drills and strides. We ask that the participants with any injury inform the member of the Lead Team before the session by speaking to them face-to-face or emailing us beforehand at technical@serpentine.org.uk Due to the nature of the Threshold sessions, we strongly recommend that all runners participate in the warm-up, drills and strides to ensure that the body is ready for the high effort session. To get the most out of the group session, we recommend that each session is followed by a cool-down jog and light stretches in the groups afterwards.
| Date | Session | Notes |
| 6 Feb 2025 | 5 x 1 mile/1600m at LT pace; 2 min jog recovery | Do fewer reps/less time if less fit |
| 13 Feb | 2 x 15 mins at LT pace; 5 min jog between reps | |
| 20 Feb | 4 x 2 km at LT pace; 3 min jog between reps | |
| 27 Feb | Tempo run: 20 mins at 10km race pace | Cut-back week |
| 6 Mar | 6 x 1 mile/1600 m at LT pace; 2min jog | |
| 13 Mar | 2x 20 mins at LT pace; 5 mins jog | Lanzarote week |
| 20 Mar | 5 x 2 km at LT pace; 3 min jog | |
| 27 Mar | Tempo run: 25 mins at 10km race pace | Cut-back week |
| 3 April | 6 x 1 mile at LT pace with last 200-300 m surge; 2 min jog between | Spiced sessions: add a surge at 5km or 10km pace of 30-60 seconds every 5 mins from this week onwards |
| 10 April | 2 x 20 mins @ LT pace with 4 surges in each set at 5’ interval; 5 mins jog between | Brighton, Paris and Rotterdam marathons week |
| 17 April | 5 x 2 km at LT pace with surges at 5’ intervals; 3’ jog between | |
| 24 April | Tempo run: 25 mins at 10km race pace with surges every 5 mins | London marathon week/cut-back week |
| 1 May | 6 x 1 mile at LT pace with last 200-300 m surge; 90 second jog between | |
| 8 May | 2 x 20 mins @ LT pace with 4 surges in each set at 5’ interval; 4 mins jog between | Copenhagen marathon week |
| 15 May | 5 x 2 km at LT pace with surges at 5’ intervals; 2’ jog between | |
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What are the season's goals
Session objectives: (1) To build endurance and ability to run faster for longer to improve performance at races from about 10km to marathons, depending on your current pace and fitness; (2) To improve wellbeing, mental health, sense of self-efficacy and social connections. Your lactate threshold pace is the which, when you cross it to speed up, your muscles are inundated with acidic waste (hydrogen ions) and fatigue increases dramatically – sensation of running through treacle. The aim of LT training is to push up the pace you can achieve before that starts to happen, so you can run faster for longer before you feel that burn. Training your LT pace needs to be one part of a marathon training programme. The Long runs are the most important part. But this is second in importance. Recovery is important too, and LT training is hard. You should notice an improvement in your LT after a few weeks: it is highly trainable. Your current LT pace can be gauged as: 1) The pace you could sustain in a race lasting about an hour (whether that is 10km or 10 miles); 2) ‘Comfortably hard’ or about 8.5 on the Rate of Perceived Exertion scale of 1-10. 3) You could utter about 5 words/half a sentence if necessary, but not chat or sing. 4) If already reasonably well-trained, it occurs somewhere between 80-90% of your Max HR (rough indication of max is 220-Age or 208-0.7*Age – I find the latter more accurate for well-trained individuals). This programme is progressive up to the date of the Edinburgh marathon (May 25th). If your marathon is before that, follow this programme up until 2 weeks before your event. At marathon – 2 weeks, do two-thirds of the session; the week before the marathon do half or less of the session. It allows for a cut-back week every fourth week to allow you to recover and rebuild ready for the next block of training.
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