Kilian Jornet's threshold workout is two long uphill tempos, keeping your heart rate in zone 3 to zone 4 the whole way up, with an easy jog back down in between. Then you finish with a 10K tempo. I don't have a big enough climb in Nice, so I ran three shorter hill repeats up to Fort Alban, then the 10K. Unlike his VK 10K workout, this is one you can do every week.
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Quick facts from my run
- Where: hill repeats up to Fort Alban, at the top of Nice, then the 10K on the flat
- The climb: about 1.3 km with about 190 meters of climbing, roughly a 15% grade
- Hill repeats: 3 climbs, about 10, 11 and 11 and a half minutes, heart rate averaging 172 to 174 on every one
- The 10K: 10.3 km in 44:39, about 4:20 per km, average heart rate 171
- What went wrong: my phone died after the hills, so I went home to charge it before the 10K
The numbers come from my Strava: hill repeats and the 10K.
What is Kilian's threshold workout?
It's a little thing called Kilian's Tempos. The workout is:
- Two uphill tempos. Each one is 500 to 700 meters of climbing. Keep your heart rate in the 170s, high 170s, 180s for the whole climb. For me that's zone 3 to zone 4.
- Easy downhills. Jog back down to the start between climbs.
- A 10K tempo. After the hills, you run a 10K at tempo effort.
I don't have anything that big here in Nice, so I did my little hill repeats instead, three of them.
How I adapted it in Nice
My climb goes from the bottom up to Fort Alban. Strava has it at about 1.3 km and about 190 meters of climbing, so roughly a 15% grade. Instead of two big climbs, I ran up it three times and jogged down between each one.
I wore a heart rate strap so I could show you every effort. The goal on each climb was to stay in zone 3 to zone 4, and on all three my average heart rate sat between 172 and 174.
- Rep 1: about 10 minutes to the top
- Rep 2: about 11 minutes, and I was about to run out of breath
- Rep 3: about 11 and a half minutes
Walk the downhills if you need to
The downhills are just there to give yourself a rest. Let your heart rate come back down and get in some easy miles. Don't stress your legs on the way down. Walk if you have to. Kilian says we're allowed to walk, so walk down if you need the extra rest.
What matters is the uphills. Make sure you are pushing into that zone 3 to zone 4 heart rate range on every climb. Downhills don't matter, uphills do, in this workout specifically.
If you need help finding your zones, I wrote about setting heart rate zones and alerts on an Apple Watch.
The 10K tempo
Then came a cheeky little 10K. My phone died right after the third hill, so I ran home, charged it, and went back out. That meant a longer break between the hills and the 10K than the workout is supposed to have. I know it's not exactly how Kilian does it, but what are you gonna do?
For the 10K I tried to keep it steady, gradually work up to it, and sit right in the 170 range. Halfway through, three miles in, I was at 175 and my leg muscles were failing, so I pushed it home. Strava says 10.3 km in 44:39 at an average heart rate of 171.
Kilian's VK 10K workout vs. this one
This threshold workout is based on Kilian's VK 10K workout, which I also did, and it was brutal. You run a vertical kilometer, which is 1,000 meters of climbing in less than five kilometers, jog down, and then run a 10K at the bottom.
What Kilian says about the VK 10K is that you should only be doing it maybe once every six months. It's not a weekly workout. This threshold workout is the one you can do every week.
So thanks so much, Kilian, for these wonderful workouts that we all love so much, and that don't make us feel like we're gonna die.
How this fits a training plan
This is a zone 3 to 4 workout, so it's part of the hard 20% of your week, not the easy 80%. If you're still building your aerobic base, start with my 12 week aerobic base plan, which is also built on Kilian's training. If you want a full plan with workouts like this in it, find the one that fits you.