Our training pace calculator can help you follow your running training plan to meet the demands of the different kinds of workouts you will tackle.

There are few greater feelings than working towards a specific goal, following a plan and achieving something special.

Running allows us to do all of these things, but the achievement will be hard to come by without effective Training. 

A training plan for almost any running distance will ask you to undertake a series of different types of run. These will include easy, steady, threshold and VO2 Max runs. You should mix these running sessions with low impact cardio and strength training to become a stronger runner and avoid running injuries.

To make the most of these efforts you can use our Training Pace Calculator to determine your target running pace for each type of run. A good training plan will offer a mix of these efforts to put you on the correct path to successfully completing your running challenge.

Put simply, running pace is the time it takes us to cover a distance. This will be expressed in time per mile or time per km, depending on your choice of units. 

Pace is not to be confused with speed. Speed will be expressed in km/h or mph, this is the speed you are running and not something particularly important to runners.

Pace is expressed in minutes /km or minutes /mile and this is the number we use to determine training pace and race pace goals. The training pace calculator provides a pace, not a speed required.

The Rated Perceived Exertion scale or RPE is a method of understanding how much effort you are putting into an activity based on how hard the effort feels.

For many runners this is how they measure the effort of a run without the need for heart rate zones. 

The following image details the different levels on the RPE scales and how you should be feeling for each different band on the scale. A running training plan will ask you to undertake different types of runs across the RPE scale to build strength and endurance. These running workouts are an easy run, steady run, threshold run and VO2 Max. The training pace calculator can give you approximate target levels for each of the types of run, based on known race times.

An easy run will be a workout at a conversational pace. This will be different for everyone and will depend on your current fitness and experience.

As a general rule, you should be able to hold a conversation with a running partner when working at this level, 2-3 on the RPE scale.

To many running coaches, 80% of your running should be at this pace to maximise the aerobic benefits of training at this level.

This is more intense than an easy run. You should use the first mile as a warm up to reach a pace you can maintain for the remainder on the run. 

On the RPE scale you should be working at 5-6. This means you should be able to talk to your running partner, but only in short sentences.

For most runners, threshold pace is a pace that they hold in a race for about an hour. For many average runners this will be their 10k pace. Depending on your current levels of fitness and running experience it well may be faster or slower than this.

On the RPE scale you should be looking for 7-9 for these types of runs. You should be able to speak a few words or very short sentences at a time. The runs should feel hard but comfortable. Not overly hard which takes you into VO2 Max levels.

A VO2 Max run is your hardest effort that you can maintain for only a short period. These will be at 9-10 on the RPE scale. It will be difficult to keep going and you should be unable to talk.

On your training plan, these will be where you undertake training runs which require a hard effort, followed by a recovery period such as fartleks, intervals and hills. The training pace calculator can help you understand the type of exertion level for each of these runs. They are most likely to occur on days when the plan asks for a harder workout and are important for building speed and endurance.

Fartleks are an unstructured type of interval training, where you decide on where to start the hard effort and when to recover. The concept is Swedish and fartlek means “speed play”.

For a fartlek run you may decide to put in a hard effort to a certain landmark, such as a tree or the end of a road, followed by an easy effort to recover. When you are ready you can then pick a new landmark and go again with a hard effort or a moderate effort. 

The idea is that you are in control of the running pace and you can mix it up as you please. These are a terrific way of interval training and you can mix the requirements of the training pace on the RPE scale. Some efforts can be based on the VO2 Max training pace and others maybe on the threshold training pace.

Interval running is a more structured version of a fartlek. This is where you run for a set amount of time at the maximum pace you can hold, followed by a period of jogging to recover. This may be for a set amount of intervals or for a training distance.

For example, the training plan may ask for 5 minute intervals with three minutes rest. You would run at the fastest pace you can hold for the 5 minutes, followed by jogging for recovery. 

If you are training for trails and ultras in particular, there is a very good chance that you will face substantial elevation gain in your event.

It is important that your training runs are on terrain as close to your race as possible, but hill repeats are a great way to build strength and endurance for any type of event.

Find a hill where you can sustain the uphill effort for the time asked on the plan. If it asks for 3 minute hill repeats, you want a hill that takes you that time to run up at an effort of 7-8 on the RPE scale. This would be a threshold run on the training pace calculator.

Use the time jogging back down the hill for recovery and repeat the process for as long as is in your training plan.