Terminology · Running
The words runners use
Running has an unusually large private vocabulary for a sport with no equipment and no rules, and most of it is learned by overhearing. This is the list, with what each word actually refers to and, where it matters, where the word is used loosely enough to be worth distrusting.
Terminology
- Easyalso: conversational pace, aerobic
- An effort you could hold a conversation through. The majority of most runners’ weekly mileage, and the pace most beginners never actually run at.
- Thresholdalso: tempo, steady state
- An effort at the edge of what can be held steadily for a long period — hard, sustained, but not a sprint. The word is borrowed from physiology and is used loosely in everyday running talk, so its exact meaning varies by who is speaking.
- Tempo run
- A sustained effort at or near threshold, usually of twenty minutes or more. Used almost interchangeably with "threshold run", though some coaches distinguish them.
- Intervalsalso: reps, repetitions
- Repeated hard efforts separated by recovery periods. The structure is defined by four numbers: how many, how long, how hard, and how much recovery.
- Fartlek
- Swedish for "speed play". Unstructured variation of pace within a single continuous run — faster to that tree, easy to the next junction. The distinction from intervals is that nothing is measured.
- Strides
- Short accelerations, typically under 30 seconds, run relaxed and fast rather than flat out. Usually added after an easy run.
- Long run
- The longest run of the week, run easy. What counts as long is relative to the runner, not to a fixed distance.
- Recovery run
- A short, easy run done deliberately soon after a hard one. Distinguished from an easy run only by intent and by being slower still.
- Mileagealso: volume
- Total distance run in a week, used as shorthand for training volume even by runners who measure in kilometres.
- Taper
- A planned reduction in training in the final weeks before a race, intended to arrive rested without losing fitness.
- Negative split
- Running the second half of a run or race faster than the first. Widely regarded as the sign of a well-judged effort, and the opposite of what most people do.
- Even split
- Covering both halves in the same time. Harder than it sounds, because fatigue means holding the same pace requires increasing effort.
- PBalso: PR, personal best, personal record
- Personal best — your own fastest time at a distance. "PR", for personal record, is the same thing and is the more common form in North America.
- DNF
- Did not finish. Recorded against a runner who started and stopped.
- DNS
- Did not start. Recorded against an entrant who did not turn up.
- Chip time and gun time
- Chip time runs from when you cross the start line; gun time from when the race starts. In a large field these differ by minutes, and which one counts is set by the event.
- Wave
- A group started at a set time after the previous one, used to thin out a large field.
- Cut-off
- A time by which you must reach a point or finish. Common on long and off-road events, and the thing to check before entering one.
- Cadencealso: step rate
- Steps per minute, counting both feet. Reported by most watches. It varies with pace, height and terrain, and the widely repeated figure of 180 is a reference point rather than a target.
- Pace
- Time per unit distance — minutes per kilometre or minutes per mile. The inverse of speed, and the unit runners actually think in.
- Elevation gainalso: ascent, vert
- Total climbing over a route, summed over every ascent. Two routes with the same start and end height can differ enormously in this.
- Certified course
- A course measured to a governing body’s standard so that times on it can be recognised. Uncertified courses are not necessarily inaccurate, but a time set on one is not comparable in the same way.
Questions this guide answers
Listed so you can tell at a glance whether this is the page you wanted. HobbyHQ keeps one guide per question family rather than a page per phrasing.
- what does tempo run mean
- what is a fartlek
- what is a negative split in running
- what does DNF mean in running
- running terminology explained
- what does threshold mean in running
- what is a PB in running
- what does cadence mean in running
Part of Running. Last reviewed 2026-08-30.