After every run, Stryd prompts you to tag your Run Type in the Post Run Report. This simple step is one of the most valuable things you can do to get the most out of Stryd. It helps fine-tune your Critical Power estimate, personalize your training recommendations, and unlock richer insights in the Analytics tab, including how your power and key metrics trend across specific run types over time.

Stryd organizes Run Types into 5 categories: Easy, Long, Workout, Test, and Race. Use the definitions below to identify which category best describes your run.

All intensity ranges are expressed as a percentage of your Critical Power (CP), the power output you can sustain for an extended period before fatigue accumulates rapidly. Your CP is the foundation of all training zones in Stryd, and it adjusts automatically as your fitness evolves.

A warm-up is the easy effort you complete before a hard workout or race, typically at 55–80% of your CP. The goal is to gradually elevate your heart rate, loosen your muscles, and prepare your body for the harder effort ahead, reducing injury risk and setting you up to perform at your best when the main set begins.

A cooldown is the easy effort that follows a hard session, also at 55–80% of your CP. Running gently after hard work helps flush blood through your muscles and kick-starts the recovery process without adding any additional training stress.

Recovery and Easy runs are relaxed, conversational efforts at 55–80% of your CP. These runs build and maintain your aerobic base, support recovery between harder sessions, and develop your body’s efficiency at using fat as a fuel source. The goal is to feel refreshed, or better, when you finish than when you started.

Strides are brief, controlled accelerations of roughly 15–20 seconds at 100–110%+ CP, each followed by full recovery. They do not create meaningful fatigue, but they wake up fast-twitch muscle fibers, reinforce efficient running form, and sharpen your neuromuscular readiness before hard work. Strides are commonly added after easy runs or used as part of a pre-race or pre-workout warm-up.

Run-walk sessions alternate between running and walking to manage effort and limit cumulative fatigue. They provide a similar aerobic training stimulus to Easy and Recovery runs, and are especially useful for building mileage safely, returning from injury, or completing very long efforts where preserving energy matters.

Walking and Hiking can be a great way to get moving. Stryd does not support formal plans around walking and/or hiking, but delineating these activities from running is important for analysis.

The long run is the cornerstone of aerobic development and typically your longest effort of the week. The intensity is controlled, but the cumulative effect of sustained time on your feet makes this one of your most important training sessions. Long runs build aerobic strength and stamina, train your body to run efficiently on fatigued legs, and develop the endurance foundation needed for longer race distances. Some long runs in the Workout Library may also target threshold zones or incorporate a few strides to challenge and improve your muscular strength and endurance.

A progression run starts at a comfortable aerobic effort and builds steadily toward a threshold pace by the end. Some Progression runs in the Workout Library may even take you above your CP for a few minutes towards the end. This format trains your body to manage fatigue in the later stages of a run, sharpens pacing discipline, and delivers a meaningful threshold training effect, all in a single session.

Fartlek is Swedish for “speed play,” and that is exactly what it is.

Fartlek sessions mix semi-structured effort changes across a wide range of intensities. You might go from aerobic running below your CP straight into running significantly above your CP. The variety mimics the unpredictable demands of real race conditions and builds your ability to shift gears fluidly, while keeping the session engaging and enjoyable.

A tempo run is a sustained effort at about 80–95% of your CP. Often described as “comfortably hard.” You should be running with real focus, able to speak in short phrases but not hold a full conversation. Tempo runs develop your aerobic endurance and raise the power output you can sustain over time, making them one of the most effective tools for improving performance across all race distances. Tempo and Aerobic are often used interchangeably in Stryd's descriptions to mean this sub-threshold sustained effort.

A threshold run targets the intensity right around your Critical Power. Approximately 95–105% CP. This is the zone where your body produces and clears lactate at nearly the same rate, making it one of the most race-relevant training intensities available. Threshold runs are typically shorter than tempo runs but deliver a more concentrated training stimulus. Consistently training at threshold is one of the most effective strategies for improving your personal best across endurance events. In Stryd's terminology, Lactate Threshold is used interchangeably with Threshold.

Cruise Intervals are different from standard Intervals. The key difference comes down to intensity range and purpose.

Cruise Intervals are specifically locked to threshold pace (94–100% CP). Every rep stays in that narrow band, and the short recoveries are just enough to let you keep coming back to threshold without digging deeper. The goal is singularly focused: accumulate more time at threshold than you could in one continuous tempo effort. Think of it as a tempo run broken into manageable chunks.

Intervals are a broader category that spans a wider intensity range (94–120% CP). While they can include threshold work, they also extend well above it into efforts targeting your aerobic power ceiling. The recovery periods may be longer to support those higher intensities, and the training goal shifts depending on where in that range you're working. Sometimes it's speed endurance, sometimes it's pushing your VO2max.

Intervals are structured sessions of repeated hard efforts separated by recovery periods. The intensity varies depending on the session’s goal. Intervals can be anywhere from near-threshold efforts (~94–100% CP) targeting speed endurance to higher-intensity repeats (~101–120% CP) targeting your aerobic power ceiling. By breaking hard work into segments with recovery, intervals let you accumulate more quality time at high intensities than you could sustain in a single continuous effort.

Hill repeats use the grade of an incline to naturally elevate your power output. Working against gravity means generating more watts even at a similar perceived effort. Repeated uphill efforts build muscular strength, improve force application, and train your body to produce high power outputs. The recovery on the way back down (typically a walk or easy jog) gives you enough time to perform quality efforts rep after rep.

A pace run is a controlled effort where you aim to hold a specific target power for the duration of the run. This format is ideal for practicing race-day pacing, testing your fitness at a goal effort level, or building confidence and consistency at a specific power output.

A brick workout combines two or more disciplines back to back, most commonly a bike ride followed immediately by a run. The name refers to the heavy, fatigued sensation in your legs during the run portion. These sessions are essential for triathletes and multi-sport athletes training to adapt to running efficiently under fatigue from a prior discipline.

A Moderate workout will be slightly easier than Tempo with CP between 80-90%. Moderate Workout would be defined as a steady intensity. Not necessarily easy, but not hard. An effort that would be sustainable for 45-90+ minutes.

A marathon simulation workout is a structured run designed to closely replicate the physiological, mechanical, and execution demands of race day by incorporating extended, sustained running at target marathon power (typically 89–92% of Critical Power).

It serves as a race rehearsal, helping athletes refine pacing strategy, practice fueling and hydration, and build confidence in their ability to execute over long durations. These efforts are continuous or minimally interrupted, emphasizing the ability to maintain steady power as fatigue builds.

Sprints are any efforts that are anaerobic. Typically, sprint workouts have sustained power above 120% of your CP for short periods of time.

Critical Power Tests are used to accurately determine your Critical Power. Athletes need to complete two Critical Power tests in close succession for Stryd to calculate an accurate Critical Power. These tests need to be done at maximal effort or very close to maximal effort.

Typically, a time trial is run at your race pace or very close to race pace. The purpose is to simulate race effort.

Any event that you compete in that is a Race! These runs should be completed at your maximum effort for that distance.

When the Stryd team uses this term, the workout is categorized as a Threshold Workout. Aerobic Power workouts target the zone just above your Critical Power, approximately 103–109% CP, through short, repeatable intervals. These efforts stimulate your aerobic engine and train your body to recover quickly between hard bouts, improving your running economy and building the capacity to sustain efforts slightly above threshold.

When the Stryd team uses this term, the workout is generally categorized as an Interval Workout. VO2 Max workouts push to 104–110%+ of your CP for short, hard efforts, typically 15 seconds to 3 minutes. VO2 Max is the maximum rate at which your body can consume oxygen: the ceiling of your aerobic capacity. Training at this intensity forces your body to work repeatedly at that upper limit, expanding your aerobic capacity and building fatigue resistance at the highest end of your effort range.