To improve your running, it is not enough to run more often or faster. Above all, you need to run at the right intensity for the purpose of each workout.
An easy run done too fast creates unnecessary fatigue. A threshold session performed at the wrong intensity loses some of its effectiveness. An overly ambitious race pace can also lead you to start too fast and blow up before the finish line.
Knowing and respecting your training paces helps you target each workout more effectively, recover better and make more consistent progress.
But these paces should not simply be calculated correctly. They also need to evolve as your fitness improves.
Contents
Different training paces for every type of workout
Every workout has a specific purpose.
Easy aerobic running develops cardiovascular fitness and allows you to gradually increase your training volume. vVO2max workouts and interval training develop aerobic power and speed. Threshold training improves your ability to sustain a hard effort.
Specific training paces for the 10K, half marathon and marathon prepare your body for the intensity you will need to sustain on race day.
There is no single right pace. Instead, there are several paces tailored to the different goals of your training.
What happens when you do not respect your training paces?
Following a pace is not simply about obeying the number on your watch. It helps ensure that the workout actually delivers the adaptations you are aiming for.
Running easy runs too fast
This is the most common mistake.
When you feel good, it is tempting to gradually speed up. The easy aerobic run you had planned then turns into a moderately hard outing. This intensity is often too high to support proper recovery, yet not high enough to replace a true quality workout.
Repeated often, this type of run can lead to several problems:
- a gradual buildup of fatigue;
- heavy legs during key workouts;
- insufficient recovery between training sessions;
- difficulty increasing your training volume;
- plateauing despite consistent training;
- a higher risk of pain or injury.
Easy runs must genuinely stay easy. That is what allows you to absorb hard workouts and string together consistent training weeks.
Doing fast workouts at too high an intensity
An interval workout should not become a race. Starting too fast can force you to slow down dramatically as the reps go on, compromise your running form or prevent you from completing the session.
You end up creating a lot of fatigue without necessarily gaining any extra benefit. A good workout is not the one where you ran as fast as possible. It is the one where you hit the planned intensity and maintained consistent execution.
Running too slowly during quality workouts
Conversely, a threshold or specific-pace session performed too slowly will not sufficiently target the desired physiological qualities or heart rate zone. The goal is not to always slow down or always speed up, but to run at the right training paces at the right time.
Using paces that no longer match your fitness level
A pace that is calculated correctly today may become unsuitable a few months later. If you improve significantly, your old paces may become too conservative. If you return after an injury, illness or training break, they may instead become too demanding. In both cases, the quality of your training declines.
How do you calculate your training paces?
Several methods can be used.
Perceived effort
How you feel allows you to adjust your effort to fatigue, heat or terrain. During an easy run, you should generally be able to speak in full sentences and keep your breathing under control.
However, this approach requires good self-awareness and can lack precision, especially for beginner runners.
Heart rate
Heart rate provides an indication of the internal intensity of your effort. It can be useful during easy runs and long runs.
However, it varies according to many factors: heat, fatigue, stress, sleep, hydration, elevation gain or sensor accuracy. It should therefore remain one indicator among others.
vVO2max
Maximal aerobic speed, or vVO2max, can be used to build certain workouts, particularly short and intense efforts.
However, two runners with the same vVO2max can achieve very different performances in the half marathon or marathon. Their ability to sustain a high proportion of that speed over time, known as their Endurance Index, can vary greatly.
vVO2max alone is therefore not enough to fully represent a runner’s profile.
Race results
A recent performance over 5K, 10K, half marathon or marathon provides plenty of information about your fitness level. It can estimate your different training paces as well as your potential over other distances.
Course profile, weather, fatigue, poor pacing or digestive issues can all affect a result. Your most recent race may also be too old to reflect your current fitness.
The RunMotion Coach scientific model
For several years, RunMotion Coach has used a model based on scientific research conducted by Guillaume Adam at MIT and CNRS.
Unlike calculators that apply the same formula to every runner, this model estimates two essential characteristics:
- your vVO2max, which represents your aerobic power;
- your Endurance Index, which measures your ability to sustain a high proportion of that speed as the distance increases.
This distinction better accounts for different runner profiles. Some runners excel in short efforts but lose more speed over the half marathon or marathon. Others have a slightly lower vVO2max but excellent endurance.
The RunMotion Coach model therefore delivers more personalised predictions and training paces than a simple conversion chart.
The limits of a model based only on races
Our first model was particularly accurate for estimating vVO2max, Endurance Index and performance equivalencies between different distances. However, it still depended on race performances.
When a runner improved quickly between two races, their actual fitness could change without that progress being immediately reflected in their recommendations.
For example, a time recorded six months earlier could continue to influence training paces, even when recent workouts clearly showed that the runner had reached a new level. Conversely, a disappointing race in difficult conditions could have too much influence on subsequent estimates.
To make the model more dynamic, we have integrated a new source of information: training performances.
A new model that combines races and training
The RunMotion Coach model no longer relies solely on your race results. It also takes into account meaningful performances achieved during your training, particularly in certain workouts at:
- vVO2max;
- threshold pace;
- 10K pace;
- half marathon pace;
- marathon pace.
This improvement is based on the analysis of 1.6 million training sessions.
Your races remain central data points because they show what you have actually achieved in competition. Your workouts now make it possible to better detect your progress between races.
By combining both, the model becomes more accurate, more personalised, more responsive to your progress and less dependent on one old or unrepresentative race.
Why link your completed workout to your planned workout?
For a training performance to be interpreted correctly, RunMotion Coach needs to understand what you were trying to achieve. A pace of 4:30 per kilometre does not mean the same thing whether you ran it during an easy run, a threshold session or a series of 10K-pace intervals.
This is why the workout recorded by your watch must be linked to the planned workout in your RunMotion Coach plan.
This link allows the model to identify:
- the planned workout type;
- the target intensity;
- the duration or distance of the repetitions;
- the recovery periods;
- the paces you actually ran.
The model can then distinguish a genuine training performance from a run that was simply completed faster than planned. This step is essential to prevent an easy run done too fast or a wrongly identified workout from artificially changing the estimate of your fitness level.
See the data used in your prediction
Your performance prediction is displayed as a graph. You can view how your fitness evolves and identify the data included in the calculation:
- your race performances;
- your meaningful training sessions;
- the relevant distances or intensities;
- how your predictions evolve over time.
This helps you understand why your estimate improves, remains stable or changes after a new performance. The model becomes more transparent: you do not just see a prediction, you also see the races and workouts that contributed to calculating it.
Predictions across multiple distances
Based on your current profile, RunMotion Coach estimates the times you can target over several distances: 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon. These predictions help you better understand your fitness level and check whether your next goal is realistic.
They are not a promise of a result. Your performance also depends on your specific preparation, the course, weather, strategy and race management.
They do, however, provide a reliable foundation for choosing a realistic goal and setting the corresponding training paces.
What about trail running?
The model can also take your trail race results into account by using grade-adjusted pace, allowing your performance to be compared more accurately with an effort on flat terrain.
This estimate works best for runnable or moderately technical trails. On highly technical courses, trail conditions, descents, altitude and weather have a major influence on speed.
For training, the recommended paces remain reliable guidelines primarily on flat terrain. During uphill workouts, speed becomes less relevant. Follow your heart rate and perceived effort instead to maintain the planned intensity.
Training paces that evolve with your progress
Your training paces are never set in stone. When your races or workouts show sufficiently reliable progress, the model can update your fitness level and recommendations. This prevents you from continuing to train according to an old race time that has become too conservative.
Conversely, the model should not increase your training paces after just one unusually fast workout. It analyses the consistency of your performances so that it does not mistake a good day for lasting progress.
The goal is to provide training paces adapted to what you are capable of today, not what you could do several months ago.
Can you manually adjust your training paces?
The model provides the recommendation that appears most consistent based on your races and training. However, experienced runners may want to retain more control.
You can therefore request a manual adjustment to all of your paces, for example:
- +2.5% to make them slightly faster;
- –2.5% to make them slightly more conservative;
- or another adjustment available in the app.
This option can be useful if you know your profile very well, feel that your recent sensations are not yet fully reflected in the model, or deliberately want to test slightly more ambitious paces. It is primarily intended for expert runners.
Increasing your training paces simply because a workout feels too easy is not always appropriate. An easy pace is sometimes deliberately easy to promote recovery and prepare you for the sessions ahead. For most runners, it is still best to follow the model’s recommendations and let paces evolve based on sufficiently reliable performances.
Paces remain guidelines
Even the most accurate model cannot predict every circumstance you will face in a workout. Elevation gain, heat, wind, fatigue and a return from injury must always be taken into account.
On a climb, trying to maintain exactly the same speed as on flat ground would greatly increase your intensity. In high heat, a pace that usually feels comfortable can also become too demanding.
You should therefore combine pace recommendations with several indicators:
- your perceived effort;
- your breathing;
- your heart rate when relevant;
- the terrain;
- weather conditions;
- your fatigue level on the day.
The model guides you, but you remain in control.
How do you know whether your paces are right?
Your paces are probably well set when:
- your easy runs remain comfortable;
- you can finish your interval workouts with consistent repetitions;
- your threshold sessions are demanding but controlled;
- you recover properly between workouts;
- you can string together training weeks without excessive fatigue building up.
They may be too fast if you regularly finish easy runs exhausted, miss the final repetitions of your intervals or need several days to recover from a routine workout.
Run at the right pace for lasting progress
Knowing your training paces gives every workout a clear purpose.
Easy runs stay genuinely easy. Quality workouts target the right intensities. Specific paces prepare you effectively for the demands of racing. Your race goals become more consistent with your current fitness level.
The new RunMotion Coach model now combines:
- a scientific model based on Guillaume Adam’s research at MIT and CNRS;
- your vVO2max and endurance profile;
- your race performances;
- your meaningful training sessions;
- analysis of 1.6 million training sessions.
You can view the races and workouts used in your estimate on a graph, track your progress and discover the times your current fitness level allows you to target.
And for experienced runners who want to go further, recommendations can be manually adjusted, for example by +2.5% or –2.5%.
Because progress is not about running faster in every workout.
It is about running at the right pace, at the right time, with recommendations that truly evolve with you.