Training Paces Calculator

The five training paces, explained

In Daniels' system, every run has a purpose and every purpose has a pace. All five paces are derived from a single fitness score — your VDOT — which is why they rise and fall together as your fitness changes.

Easy pace

Easy pace is where most of your running should happen — the aerobic base everything else is built on. Daniels defines it as a range, 59–74% of VO2max, rather than a single number; the calculator above displays the 70% midpoint with the full range underneath. The feel test is simple: you should be able to hold a conversation in full sentences. Easy running develops the aerobic machinery that supports every faster pace, and because it's gentle, you can do a lot of it without digging a fatigue hole. Running easy days faster than this doesn't make you fitter sooner — it mostly makes Thursday's workout worse. When in doubt, the slower end of the range is still training.

Marathon pace

Marathon (M) pace is the steady, race-specific gear: the pace your current fitness predicts you could hold for a full marathon. It's simply the pace of the marathon finish time your VDOT implies — the same prediction our race time predictor shows. Marathoners use it for the obvious reason: long-run segments and steady midweek miles at M pace rehearse the exact demand of race day. If you're training for shorter races, it still earns a place as a strong-but-controlled steady run, sitting usefully between easy and threshold. It should feel like work you could sustain for a long time — because, by definition, you can.

Threshold pace

Threshold (T) pace is the cornerstone quality intensity: "comfortably hard," roughly the effort you could race for about an hour. It's the pace of classic tempo runs and cruise intervals — mile repeats with short rests — and its job is to raise the speed you can sustain before the effort starts escalating on you. The discipline is in the cap: T pace works because it's hard enough to stress the right system and controlled enough to recover from quickly. Run your tempo ten or fifteen seconds per mile too fast and you've done a different, more expensive workout. Comfortably hard means short phrases rather than full sentences — and the last rep should feel like the first.

Interval pace

Interval (I) pace targets your aerobic ceiling: repeats of roughly three to five minutes run near VO2max, with recovery jogs a little shorter than the work bouts. The duration matters — it takes a minute or two for oxygen uptake to climb, so much shorter reps at this pace barely reach the target zone, and much longer ones can't be held there. I pace should feel hard: breathing fully engaged, concentration required, but never a finishing kick. Running intervals faster than I pace doesn't build the ceiling any faster; it just converts an aerobic workout into extra fatigue. If you can't hold the prescribed pace through the final rep, start the next session a touch slower.

Repetition pace

Repetition (R) pace is the fastest gear in the system: short, quick reps — typically 200 to 600 meters — with full, unhurried recoveries between them. The target isn't your heart and lungs; it's your legs and your form. R work trains speed and running economy, teaching you to run fast while staying relaxed, which quietly lowers the cost of every slower pace. Because the goal is quality of movement, recovery is generous by design: walk, jog, stand around — whatever it takes to run the next rep as crisply as the last. If your form is breaking down or the pace is sliding, the workout is over, whatever the plan says.

Below all of these sits recovery pace — the slowest gear, for day-after jogs whose only job is to keep you moving while you absorb yesterday's work. There's no pace to hit on a recovery run, only a ceiling not to break; if it feels insultingly slow, it's doing exactly what it should.

Reference: paces at common VDOT scores

No JavaScript, no problem — here are the paces at common VDOT scores, computed with the same formulas the calculator uses. Easy is shown at the 70% midpoint of the easy range.

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