Your VO2max session and your threshold session can be the exact same workout — 8×1K off short rest. What decides which one you actually get is how you run it.
Most committed marathoners are training one when they think they're training the other — and it shows up in the back half on race day.
Here's the dial, how to build it, and the one question that matters more than reps or pace: what's actually holding YOU back.
Leandro asked a great question: he's about 12 weeks from his marathon, running 8×1km off 60 seconds, and wants to know whether to add reps (10×1km) or make them longer (5×2km). The honest answer is that neither is the decision that matters — because the same session can be an easy run, a threshold session, or a VO2max session depending on nothing more than how hard you run the reps.
In this one I break down how to turn 8×1km into the session your marathon actually needs: how to progress it without running too fast (the #1 mistake I see in 2:30–3:30 marathoners), why your lactate threshold — your one-hour race pace — is the single best predictor of marathon success, how much VO2max a sub-3 marathon really takes (less than you'd think), and how to pace the race itself. The thread running through all of it: until you know your own limiter, every plan is guesswork.
⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 8×1km Intervals: More Reps or Longer?
0:54 Same Session, Two Workouts (VO2max or Threshold)
1:32 How to Progress the Session Without Running Too Fast
2:50 The #1 Predictor of Marathon Success: Lactate Threshold
3:16 Turn 8×1km Into a Threshold Session
3:53 What's the Purpose of This Session?
4:23 How Much VO2max You Really Need for Sub-3
4:58 Push Your Threshold Right (LT1 & LT2)
5:44 How to Pace a Sub-3 Marathon
6:33 It Depends on Your Limiter
7:26 Train Smart, Not Just Hard
🎯 WORK WITH ME
Chasing a sub-3 or sub-3:30 marathon this autumn — New York, Chicago, Berlin or anywhere else — and want the best possible result from the training time you've got? Book a Performance Strategy Call: https://coaching.allin.run/8x1k
📺 WATCH NEXT
Long Run Pacing Explained: Get It Right, Run Faster: https://youtu.be/KIpuHebfjY0
How to train for a sub-3 marathon: https://youtu.be/PUePgZBjRV4
#Marathon #MarathonTraining #Sub3Marathon
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