Running training zones
Pace zones, heart rate zones, and a target for each race distance, from your best 5 km of the last 90 days.
Use a 5 km race or a hard 5 km test from the last 90 days, and the average heart rate from that same run. The 5 km pace is the threshold pace. The average heart rate is the threshold heart rate.
How the zones are set
Threshold pace
The 5 km time divided by five. Pace zones use the same intensity steps as cycling power, applied to that speed. The first zone is slower than the pace shown. The top zone is faster than the pace shown.
Threshold heart rate
The average heart rate from that 5 km, with no subtraction. Heart rate zones are the seven Coggan bands on that figure.
Race distances
Each event is a band around threshold. A 5 km sits at the top of it. A marathon sits lower. The heart rate band uses the same percentages as the pace band.
How to use the ranges
Train the zone that matches the session. Easy running is zone 2. Threshold work is zone 4. The event table is a target for race day, not a pace to hold in every long run.
A flat 5 km is a good time to use. If the race was hilly, use the normalised graded pace instead of the finish time.
Normalised graded pace is the flat pace that matches the effort. Uphill, the same speed costs more, so that stretch counts as a faster pace. Downhill, it costs less, so it counts as a slower one. The figure is what the hilly race was worth on level ground. Multiply it by five and enter that 5 km time. A 4:00 normalised graded pace is a 20:00 5 km.
A 5 km taken from the middle of a longer run will still sit the zones too slow. Update the time when a faster 5 km is clearly there. There is a separate event pace calculator if you want a single distance without the zones.
The calculators are a starting point. Coaching is where the zones turn into the week.
More from the library: Cycling zones · Event run pace · Training articles