---
title: "Training Pace Calculator · Runima"
description: "Find paces for easy runs, marathon training and faster workouts from one or two race results. Uses the Daniels-Gilbert formula."
canonical_url: "https://runima.fit/tools/training-pace-calculator"
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"og:description": "Find paces for easy runs, marathon training and faster workouts from one or two race results. Uses the Daniels-Gilbert formula."
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> Index of every page on this site: [llms.txt](https://runima.fit/llms.txt)
# Training Pace Calculator
Find workout paces from a recent race result. Add a shorter race result to refine the faster paces.
**Distance**
**Finish time**
:
:
**Refine with a second race result**
Recommended if your interval or repetition pace feels off — a shorter race sharpens speed zones without changing your easy/marathon/threshold paces.
**Aerobic Fitness Score **74.7
Daniels-Gilbert equivalent VO₂max for your performance
### Training pace zones
**Easy****60–70% max HR**
Conversational aerobic base building
3:42–4:05
min/km
**Marathon****75–84% max HR**
Goal marathon race pace
3:07–3:17
min/km
**Threshold****83–88% max HR**
Comfortably hard, lactate threshold
3:00–3:10
min/km
**Interval****97–100% max HR**
VO₂max development, \~5K race effort
2:45–2:55
min/km
**Repetition****101–105% VO₂max**
Speed and running economy
2:30–2:40
min/km
## How it works
### The Daniels-Gilbert Formula
The calculator converts a race result into a **VDOT score** using the Daniels-Gilbert formula — an estimate of effective aerobic capacity back-calculated from actual performance. Unlike a laboratory VO2max value, VDOT already encodes your running economy: two runners with identical lab scores can have different VDOTs if one is more mechanically efficient. Each of the [**five training zones**](https://runima.fit/blog/training-paces) is then derived as a fixed percentage of the velocity at VO2max implied by that score, producing paces matched to the specific adaptation each zone targets.
### The Five Training Zones Explained
**Easy (E)** — roughly 60% of vVO2max — is where the majority of running should happen: it builds capillaries, mitochondria, plasma volume, and cardiac stroke volume with minimal recovery cost. **Marathon (M)** pace targets the aerobic endurance specific to the marathon distance. **Threshold (T)** — near 88% of vVO2max, roughly the pace you could race for an hour — raises your [**lactate threshold**](https://runima.fit/blog/lactate-threshold), the single best predictor of sustainable long-distance race pace. **Interval (I)** at \~98% of vVO2max (roughly 5K race effort) develops peak aerobic capacity. **Repetition (R)** above 100% of vVO2max improves speed and running economy through short, fast efforts.
### Refining with a Second Race
A single race assumes your endurance and speed fitness scale together, which isn't always true — a runner with a strong half marathon but an easier-than-expected 5K (or the reverse) will get skewed zones from one result alone. Tick **"Refine with a second race result"** and enter a shorter race: the calculator computes a VDOT score from each result and splits them by role rather than averaging them — the longer race sets **Easy**, **Marathon**, and **Threshold** pace, while the shorter race sets **Interval** and **Repetition** pace, regardless of which field you entered which result in. The shorter race only ever makes the speed zones *faster*: if it implies lower fitness than the longer one — an easy parkrun rather than a raced 5K — the calculator falls back to the longer race for every zone, since an Interval pace slower than your Threshold pace isn't a session anyone can run. If you only have one recent result, the calculator still works fine on that alone — the second race sharpens accuracy, it isn't required.
### The 80/20 Rule
Research on elite endurance athletes consistently finds approximately 80% of weekly training volume at Easy pace and 20% at Threshold or above, with very little time in the middle zone between them. Running everything at medium effort — the common recreational mistake — is too slow to drive VO2max gains and too fast to allow full recovery, so it produces less adaptation per kilometre than the polarised approach. Use Easy pace for long runs and recovery days; reserve Threshold and above for structured workout sessions. See [**the full zone-by-zone breakdown**](https://runima.fit/blog/training-paces#the-8020-rule-how-to-distribute-training-across-zones) for volume guidance.
**Want these numbers from your own data?**
Import your watch data and Runima tracks your fitness, fatigue and race readiness for free.
[**Create free account **](https://runima.fit/signup)
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