VDOT running pace calculator
One race result is enough to set five training paces. VDOT comes from Jack Daniels' running formula: the oxygen an effort demands divided by the share of your capacity it used. This page returns that number, the easy, marathon, threshold, interval and repetition paces that follow from it in min/km and min/mi, and the race times it predicts at every standard distance.
Nothing was entered, so this is a worked example: a 5 km in 25:00. Replace it with your own race result.
Your VDOT
38.3
From 5 km in 25:00.
Heart rate column based on a maximum of 180 bpm.
Training paces
| Intensity | min/km | min/mi | What it trains |
|---|---|---|---|
| E — easy | 7:14 – 6:03 |
11:38 – 9:44 | Most of your week. Builds the base and lets you recover between hard days. |
| M — marathon | 5:38 |
9:04 | Marathon-specific work, or a steadier long run. |
| T — threshold | 5:16 |
8:29 | Comfortably hard, 20 to 40 minutes of work in total: the strongest lever on endurance. |
| I — interval | 4:53 |
7:51 | Three to five minute repeats with equal jog recovery, for aerobic power. |
| R — repetition | 4:36 |
7:24 | Short fast reps with full recovery, for speed and economy. |
Easy pace is a range: keep most weeks at the slow end and let the fast end show up on its own. The other four are single targets.
Equivalent race times
| Distance | Time |
|---|---|
| 1500 m | 6:51 |
| 1 mile | 7:24 |
| 5 km | 25:00 |
| 10 km | 51:53 |
| Half marathon | 1:55:04 |
| Marathon | 3:57:55 |
A time trial converts best over shorter distances. Use a result from the last few weeks for paces you intend to train at.
What the five intensities are for
- E
- Aerobic base and recovery. Roughly three quarters of the week, including warm-ups and cool-downs. Running these faster than the fast end crowds out the next hard session.
- M
- The pace of a marathon at this fitness, which is why the calculator solves it rather than reading a percentage. It is a rehearsal pace, not a daily one.
- T
- Comfortably hard: 20 to 40 minutes of work in a session, either as one run or as cruise intervals with a minute or two of recovery.
- I
- Three to five minute repeats with jog recovery of a similar duration. This is the pace that moves VO2max; it is not a race.
- R
- Short and fast with full recovery, around mile race pace. It improves speed and running economy without adding much aerobic load.
A serviceable weekly split is about three quarters easy, a tenth to a sixth at threshold and marathon pace, and the rest at interval and repetition intensity. The count that matters more than any single pace is how much of the week you spent slow enough to recover from.
Paces and heart rate zones are two views of the same effort
Threshold pace sits close to your lactate threshold heart rate; easy pace sits in the top half of zone 2. If the pace from this page lands in a heart rate zone you cannot reach, the zone table is the thing to fix, not the pace: Garmin's default zones are anchored on an estimated maximum. Convert these efforts into Garmin zones
Questions that come up
Which race should I use?
A hard effort between 1500 m and a half marathon from the last few weeks, on a flat course and in weather you would race in again. A marathon from six months ago describes the runner you were six months ago.
The paces feel too fast or too slow.
One result is one data point. If the easy pace does not match the pace at which you can hold a conversation, trust the conversation, and check whether the race was a time trial rather than a race, or run in heat and hills.
Does VDOT change on its own, like the watch's VO2max does?
No. It only moves when you give it a new race result, which is deliberate: a number that drifts with every heartbeat tells you less than one that changes when you actually race.
Where these numbers come from
Paces follow Jack Daniels and Jimmy Gilbert's equations: the oxygen cost of running at a given speed, and the fraction of VO2max a runner can hold for a given time. Marathon and repetition paces are solved as race equivalents of the same model, so the printed VDOT tables and this page agree to about a second per kilometre. Individual response to a given pace varies; this is training arithmetic, not medical advice.