This Pace Calculator Page will help you find the best estimation for Pace for many activities, whether running, walking, biking, or another form of long-distance activity.
You can use the calculator here to find your pace for various distances and a converter to figure out the pace in other units.
Should I Train With Pace And Heart Rate?
The two variables of heart rate and pace will always have a positive correlation, as when one increases, so will the other.
Your pace and your heart rate are going to be representative of how hard someone is working.
The pace is how fast you are going, measured in how fast you are completing a specific distance measurement. For example, 4:00 / mile will represent a pace of 4 minutes for a mile.
Heart rate measures the number of times a person’s heart contracts over one minute, measured in beats per minute, BPM.
Since these two both have a positive correlation, they will increase or decrease as the other one does.
This makes sense; when you run faster, you work harder and need a higher heart rate.
It can be a good idea to have your heart rate checked when you are running at a specific pace so that you can then track that heart rate and know a general idea of your pace.
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How Can I Use A Running Pace Calculator To Train?
This will depend entirely on your race distance and training plan. But we are going to discuss typical training used in track training programs.
If you have an ideal race pace calculated with the proper finish time you aim for, you must know how to train that.
Training will usually involve breaking down your training pace into segments which you will run at your ideal race pace or even a tad faster.
From there, you will run these segments at the race pace while resting between the segments, as it should be a pace that you do not quite run yet for the full race time.
Let’s put this into practice for a simple example.
If you had the idea to run a mile in just 6 minutes, we would start by breaking this up into four segments.
From here, you would need to run this quarter of a mile at the 6:00 minute per mile pace, which would be 1:30 for the quarter-mile.
And you will do this for the full mile, in four segments, with some rest between these four segments.
Over time you will reduce the rest and then the segments, perhaps cutting this into two half miles running at the ideal race pace you have set.
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So, training would always involve you running these tempo runs for the ideal race pace and cutting down these segments until you can run this race pace for the entire time of the event.
Then to progress, you would train with this same logic for the next race and choose a new max pace.
This training mentality can be used for just about any form of aerobic training.
How Does Aerobic Exercise Compare To Anaerobic Exercise?
Aerobic exercise is when there is enough oxygen to supply energy to a person’s muscles. In contrast, anaerobic exercise will not be sustained long since the muscles cannot supply enough energy.
Aerobic exercise is the type of exercise that is found in longer-distance events, like a marathon.
If you are training for an aerobic event, you will want to train these energy systems to be primed and ready.
Anaerobic exercise will be shorter distance events, like sprinting, where it is impossible to sustain the oxygen-using energy systems.
This training style will use an anaerobic threshold pace, which is the point at which glycogen is the main energy source. There will be a lactate build-up when doing these running speeds, also called the lactate threshold.
If you are training for an anaerobic event or sport, then you will want the training to happen with the same form of activity.
How Should We Measure Heart Rate and Heart Rate Training Zones?
Heart rate is measured in many different ways, with the easiest way being with a monitor on a machine or a device you wear.
You can also use your fingers to manually assess your pulse for ten seconds and then multiply that number to reach one minute. This is an easy way to estimate heart rate.
It can be a good idea to shoot for an ideal heart rate training zone, which can be compared with the race pace you calculated before.
The training zones are calculated using the maximum heart rate formula. This is MHR = 220 – age, and from there.
With this maximum heart rate, we can find some optimal training zones for categories like VO2 max, Anaerobic, Aerobic, Weight Control, and Moderate Activity. Here are the training zones based on the max heart rate formula.
- VO2 max training zones are 100 – 90% of the maximum heart rate for this.
- Anaerobic Training, which is a hardcore training style, is found to be between 80 – 90% of the maximum heart rate.
- Aerobic Training, a more traditional endurance training, is achieved from 70 – 80% of max heart rate.
- Weight control, which is found to be the optimal fat-burning zone, is from 60 – 70% of the max heart rate.
- Moderate activity, a warm-up and maintenance zone, is found to be 50 – 60% of the max heart rate.
These training zones can be utilized to easily train for whichever style of event you are looking to excel in.
We hope that this page has helped you in your training and health.
Make sure to check out our other calculators on PtPioneer.
Tyler Read
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