How to work out your running race pace

You have a race coming up and you do not know what pace to go for on race day? It can be really hard to know what pace we should go at. 

A lot of us may full sprint it out of the start line and if the race is anything more than 5km, this is not always the best option as we will quickly find out we cannot maintain this pace and have to slow down dramatically or even stop. But on the other hand, we do not want to start off too slow either.

 

How to calculate this your race pace

If you have a specific time you want to run in then your pace will be predetermined by you and you will need to train towards that pace. Use Polar’s race pace calculator to calculate the pace you need to go at for a specific distance to achieve your specific goal time. 

Looking at a recent race you have done, Omnicalculator can predict a race pace for your next race. Or you can use Runner’s World race pace predictor. 

Many runners would not keep the same pace throughout the entire race. Some runners, like Justin Ross, Psy.D and Cory Smith (2021) like to go faster the first half of the race and then gradually slower their split in the second half which they call a controlled fade strategy or positive splits. Others prefer to start slower and start chasing down their goal in the second half of their race, also known as negative splits (FlipBelt, 2022; Smith, 2021). Why not try them both in shorter races coming up or in two of your tempo runs to see which one suits you best?

Even though nowadays we have a wide range of technology to choose from to track our paces and different stats, it is really important to know your race pace by feel too (FlipBelt, 2022). Sometimes you meet unexpected conditions during a race, for example, a heat wave or strong winds and you will have to adjust your race pace accordingly. 

How to get used to race pace before race day

Your race pace may feel a bit daunting when starting your training. However, this is why you have a training plan. You have a strategy that will enable you to achieve this pace by the time race day comes along. Included in training plans, like Coopah, you will be running quite a bit at your race pace so by the time the big day comes along you will feel confident running at this pace. 

If you are creating your own plan, why not try running once a week at your race pace. Start off trying to run your goal race pace for 1km. Each 250m, check your pace and adjust if you need to. Each week, run a little further at your goal pace until you’re running one-third to one-half of the race distance (Galloway, 2009). Another way of incorporating your race pace into your training is to do an interval session at race pace (Kempson, 2022). 

Will this pace change during your training?

This really depends on how ambitious you were at the start of your training plan. Did you set a goal of running at a pace which would have been a big challenge for you to reach but you trained really hard with a great programme and it is going well, therefore that pace is the right pace for you. Were you very ambitious and due to injury or sickness had to miss a few weeks training and therefore this pace may be a bit too ambitious for the deadline? Then you pace may need to increase a little bit or you can push that deadline further back if that is an option for you. 

You may have done really well in training, better than you thought you were capable of and therefore you can probably run at a faster pace than what you set out to do at the beginning. 

Garmin Race Predictor, how accurate are these times? 

Those of us with a Garmin watch will have found out that Garmin gives you race predictions for your 5k, 10k, Half Marathon and Marathon. And very often these times are slightly hard to believe. For many, the predictions can be a little bit too ambitious but others mention the more you use it, the more accurate these predictions become (Garmin, 2017; The Secret of Running, 2020). 

According to The Mother Runners (2022) to make these times more accurate, do the following:

• Log your personal information including age, gender, weight, and height
• Wear your watch for all workouts
• Try not to pause your watch a lot
• Wear a chest-based heart rate monitor  

And remember that these times are just predictions and do not factor in all the variables that come with running such as the terrain, course, or weather (Garmin, 2022).

Another way of finding a rough race prediction is looking at your VO2 MAX on your Garmin and look up your VO2 max in a table which gives you a race prediction time, for example the chart found in What is wrong with the Garmin Race Predictor?.

Coopah

Running with Coopah means the app will do the calculating for you. You can insert what time you would like to achieve and by when you would like to achieve it, and Coopah will instantly come up with a training plan specific to you and your goal. You can also book a 1:1 chat with one of our coaches to go through your goals and the training required for this. 

And if you are doing much better than what is set out on your training plan then Coopah will adjust your training plan to do better and achieve an even better time than you thought you could achieve. 

Download Coopah today to start training for your next race!

The Coopah app is supported on both Android and iOS devices.

You can download the Coopah app for Android devices from the Google Play Store. Users of iOS devices can find it in the App Store.

References

FlipBelt, 2022., Setting the Perfect Pace for your next Race. FlipBelt [online]. Available at: https://flipbelt.com/blogs/flipbelt/running-pace-strategies#:~:text=The%20key%20to%20finishing%20your,strategy%20among%20elite%20distance%20runners. [Accessed 10th June 2022]

 

Galloway, J., 2009., 4 Steps to your Perfect Pace. Active [online]. Available at: https://www.active.com/running/articles/4-steps-to-your-perfect-pace#:~:text=Get%20Used%20To%20It&text=Here’s%20how%20to%20practice%3A%20Once,half%20of%20the%20race%20distance. [Accessed 10th June 2022]

 

Garmin, 2022., How Does the Race Predictor Feature Work on My Watch? Garmin [online]. Available at: https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=HUB4yrzJkg1BbgmozWkBm7 [Accessed 9th June 2022]

 

Garmin, 2017., How accurate is the race predictor? Garmin [online]. Available at: https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/forerunner-230-235/128474/how-accurate-is-the-race-predictor [Accessed 9th June 2022]

 

Kempson, L., 2022. Half Marathon training with Lloyd Kempson. [Podcast] Runner’s World Podcast. 31st May 2022. Available at: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/half-marathon-training-with-lloyd-kempson/id1373165672?i=1000564728241 [Accessed 9th June 2022]

 

Smith, C., 2021. You Don’t Need to Negative Split Every Race. Runner’s World. [online] Available at: https://www.runnersworld.com/advanced/a38070581/why-you-shouldnt-negative-split/ [Accessed 10th June 2022]

 

The Mother Runners, 2017., Garmin VO2 Max Explained & Metrics Reviewed The Mother Runners [online]. Available at: https://www.themotherrunners.com/garmin-vo2-max-explained-metrics-reviewed/#:~:text=Garmin’s%20race%20predictor%20usually%20overestimates,and%20underestimates%20your%20heart%20rate.  [Accessed 9th June 2022]

The Secret of Running, 2020. What is wrong with the Garmin Race Predictor? The Secret of Running. [online] Available at: https://hetgeheimvanhardlopen.nl/en/what-is-wrong-with-the-garmin-race-predictor/ [Accessed 9th June 2022]