How to Calculate My Running Pace
Whether you are an experienced runner trying to hit a proscribed effort for your daily run, a new runner trying to get an idea of your current fitness or you simply want to be able to quantify your daily runs--you need to know how to calculate your running pace.
Whether you are an experienced runner trying to hit a proscribed effort for your daily run, a new runner trying to get an idea of your current fitness or you simply want to be able to quantify your daily runs--you need to know how to calculate your running pace. The formula for figuring out your running pace is easy and you only need to know your time and your distance.
Step 1
Measure your route. If you need to calculate your running pace, then you need to know how far your running route is. You can use various online mapping tools to map your route, estimate a road run length by driving the route in your car or run a local certified race course.
Step 2
Time your run. If you want an accurate pace for your run, you need to time yourself. You can use a standard wristwatch or set a timer at and leave it at your starting and finishing spot.
Step 3
Calculate your pace. Take the distance you ran divide it by your running time. For example, if you covered five miles in 40 minutes, divide 40 minutes by five miles and get your pace of eight minutes per mile.
Tip
You can avoid having to calculate your pace by hand with the use of a GPS watch or speed and distance monitor. These will also provide you with your current pace throughout your run.
If you want to know if you speed up or slow down throughout your run, you can measure your run in segments and calculate your pace at those points.
Online mapping tools provide the best way to measure your running route easily and accurately.
warning
Calculating your running pace based on your running time and distance provides you with your average pace for the entire run and does not tell you if you ran faster or slower at any portion in the run. If you calculate by hand and get a pace with a decimal value, you need to convert that to seconds. For example, 8.5 minutes per mile is eight minutes and 30 seconds. To convert to seconds, multiply by 60 and then divide by 100.