Free running tool
Training pace calculator
Train from where you are. Enter a recent race and get your easy, marathon, threshold, interval and repetition paces, set from the fitness you have today rather than the time you hope to run.
Your paces will appear here: five training paces, how long to run them, and what your race says you could run at other distances.
Your training paces
- Based on
- Fitness score
Easy and long runs
62%–70% of your fitness score
Most of your week. Easy runs of 40–60 min, a long run of 90–150 min. Conversational.
Marathon pace
Predicted marathon from your race
Steady segments inside long runs, and marathon-pace reps.
Threshold
88% of your fitness score
Comfortably hard: a 20-minute tempo, or 5–15 minute cruise intervals with short jogs.
Interval
97.5% of your fitness score
Hard: 3–5 minute repeats with an equal or shorter jog.
Repetition
105% of your fitness score
Fast and relaxed: 200–400 m repeats with full recovery.
Run by the clock, not the odometer
Easy runs: 40–60 min easy. Long run: 90–150 min easy.
The minutes are the plan; the distance is only a suggestion. An easy day can be swapped for cross-training (bike, swim, elliptical) at the same easy effort.
Your goal marathon pace
- From current fitness
- Goal
What your race says about other distances
| Race | Time | Pace |
|---|
Equivalents assume you have trained for that distance.
The approach
Why current fitness, not goal time
Most plans set your paces from the time you want to run. If that goal is ahead of your fitness, every workout is a little too fast: the easy days stop being easy, the hard days become races, and the fatigue piles up until something gives.
Training from a recent race means each session asks for what your body can do now. You absorb the work, you get fitter, and the paces move when a new race says they should.
- Prescribed by time. Runs are set in minutes; mileage is only a suggestion. That keeps easy days easy on hills, in heat and on tired legs, and lets you swap one for cross-training without losing the point of the day.
- Goal pace has a place. Short intervals can touch goal marathon pace now, so the rhythm becomes familiar. Long intervals start at the pace your fitness supports and progress toward goal pace over the training block.
- Re-test, then update. A tune-up race or time trial every few weeks gives you new paces to train from.
Methodology
How the paces are worked out
The calculator uses the equations Jack Daniels and Jimmy Gilbert published in 1979. Your race distance and time give an average speed v (metres per minute) and a duration t (minutes). Two equations then estimate your aerobic fitness:
- Oxygen cost of the speed: VO2 = −4.60 + 0.182258·v + 0.000104·v²
- Share of VO2max you can hold for t: 0.8 + 0.1894393·e−0.012778·t + 0.2989558·e−0.1932605·t
- Your fitness score is the first divided by the second.
Each training pace is the speed whose oxygen cost is a set share of your fitness score. Marathon pace and the race equivalents are the times the same equations predict for your fitness score over each distance.
Source: Jack Daniels, Daniels' Running Formula (Human Kinetics), and Daniels and Gilbert,Oxygen Power (1979). Salitre Coaching is not affiliated with or endorsed by Jack Daniels or The Run SMART Project.
| Pace | Intensity |
|---|---|
| Easy and long runs | 62%–70% of your fitness score |
| Marathon pace | Predicted marathon from your race |
| Threshold | 88% of your fitness score |
| Interval | 97.5% of your fitness score |
| Repetition | 105% of your fitness score |
Estimates, not guarantees
These are starting points from one race. Heat, hills, sleep, stress and a course that was short or long all move the numbers. Run by effort when they disagree, and treat a prediction as what your fitness supports today, not a promise of a finish time.
Get a plan built from these paces
Book a free 20-minute consult. Bring your race and your goal, and we'll build the weeks between them around where you are now.
Get a plan built from these paces