Training Pace Calculator
Enter a recent race result to get your personalised training zones: easy runs, tempo, threshold, intervals, and more.
Training zones are derived from your VDOT, a composite aerobic fitness score introduced by coach Jack Daniels in Daniels' Running Formula. VDOT is calculated from race performance using the Daniels-Gilbert oxygen cost equations, then zones are set as percentages of your velocity at VO₂max (vVO₂max): Easy 59–74%, Marathon 75–84%, Threshold 84–88%, Interval 95–100%, Repetition 105–115%.
Use a recent race run at full effort for the most accurate results. Training runs or time trials tend to underestimate fitness, shifting zones too easy.
VDOT compresses your whole physiology into one number, then sets every zone as a fixed percentage of velocity at VO₂ max — threshold at 88%, intervals at 95–100%, and so on. Those percentages are population averages. Your true threshold might sit at 83% or 92% of VO₂ max, which can move your tempo pace by 15–20 sec/km — the difference between a productive session and an overcooked one.
Lactate threshold and VO₂ max are separate adaptations that don’t improve in lockstep. Do a block of tempo work and your threshold climbs relative to VO₂ max, but a race-derived table can’t see it. And a fixed pace is a poor proxy for effort: the same pace is genuinely easy on fresh legs and threshold-hard when you’re tired, hot, or at altitude.
Vertical sets your zones from your actual heart-rate-to-pace response and recent threshold estimates, not a percentage table — and re-derives them as you get fitter. Each session’s target is adjusted for fatigue, heat, and terrain in real time, so “easy” stays easy.
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