Enter one recent race and get your VDOT score, your five training paces, and your equivalent times at every distance. It is the same starting point I use with every new athlete.
| Zone | Per mile | Per km | What it's for |
|---|
What this fitness predicts at other distances, if you're trained for them. A 5K time predicts marathon fitness, not marathon readiness: the mileage still has to be there.
| Race | Predicted time | Pace per mile |
|---|
The easy range is the pace most runners get wrong, almost always by running it too fast. Live in it for about 80% of your weekly time. The threshold pace is your once-a-week "comfortably hard." And recalculate after every race: the number should move, that's the point. If a pace feels wrong on a given day, the day is right and the chart is wrong.
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A calculator gives everyone the same math. I read your training history, your recovery, and your week, then write and tune the plan by hand. It starts with a free 20-minute call, no pressure.
Book a free intro callVDOT is a fitness score developed by coach Jack Daniels. It converts a recent race result into a single number that reflects your current running fitness, then derives your training paces from it: easy, marathon, threshold, interval and repetition. One honest race time gives you a full set of paces. The full explainer covers how a coach actually uses it.
The training paces are reliable if the race you enter was a genuine, recent, all-out effort. The equivalent race times assume you are trained for that distance: a 5K time predicts marathon fitness, not marathon readiness. You still need the mileage and the long runs before the marathon number is real.
After every race, or roughly every 4 to 6 weeks in a training block. Fitness moves, and paces should move with it. If your easy runs feel labored at the calculated pace, trust your body and back off: the number is a guardrail, not an order.