Run Pace Guidance
Know exactly what pace to aim for on each run
One of the quickest ways to improve your run performance is to structure your workouts, learning to run at different paces. Every session should have a purpose and focus. At our North Endurance run sessions and throughout our training plans, beyond target race paces, the specific run paces we generally refer to are EASY pace, MARATHON pace, TEMPO pace, THRESHOLD pace, and INTERVAL pace.
EASY:
The key pace for most runners and triathletes to train at, yet the pace we generally avoid or overcook. It's a comfortable, conversational pace and your HR should stay low in Z1-2. When running at this pace and level of effort, the heart muscle is strengthened, muscles receive increased blood supplies, increase their ability to process oxygen delivered through the cardiovascular system, and typically our body utilises fat as a fuel.
MARATHON PACE:
This ‘sweet spot’ pace is used to help prepare runners for the demands of a long hard marathon race. It's also a very useful pace for triathletes, especially training for a 70.3 triathlon.
THRESHOLD PACE:
Referred to as ‘T-pace’, this is the pace you can sustain at functional Threshold. This type of training taxes your ability to tolerate and clear lactic acid. When highly motivated, you may be able to sustain this pace for towards an hour. In training, it is usually used for longer reps of 5-20 minutes.
INTERVAL PACE:
This is your pace at VO2max - the pace that forces your muscles to absorb the maximum amount of oxygen they can per minute. We usually use it for reps of 1-4 minutes. Sessions at this pace should be short and infrequent due to the risk of injury and severe soreness greatly increasing above this pace.
Planning sessions around these specific paces, we aim to get the optimum result from the least possible training stress. Working beyond these paces won’t give you an advantage, but simply increase your fatigue and reduce your ability to complete your next session.
Run Pace Calculator
The calculator is driven by Jack's Daniels world-famous running formulas and allows you to quickly calculate the appropriate training paces for various workouts necessary to help you reach your goals. The calculator also provides equivalent race performances.
Instructions
Find your goal race pace - Select distance and input your goal time
Find out how fast you should train based on a recent performance
a. Select distance and input your time from a recent race
b. Click the “Training Paces” tab to learn how fast you should be running different workouts
c. Click on the workout types for an explanation